FULTON COUNTY, GA - BIOS  - Leonard and Goss Families

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: redoubt5@phenixcable.net Michael F. Hathcock


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/fulton.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm

Horizons Too Far
Michael F. Hathcock


I am the son of an adoptee. That is, my mother was adopted
when she was about age 3 or 4 from an orphanage in Rome,
Georgia. Since 1998, I have been researching her birth
family, my grandparents, from bits and pieces of scattered
data spread from North Alabama to Georgia. Her parents were
poor, probably illiterate and lived in a time when life was
a hard and unforgiving contract. For their efforts, they
gained very little and died in utter anonymity, totally
forgotten to the world until I began this research. Our own
concept of life is based on our time and environment. There
is value to life, for those around us as well as ourselves,
even granting the severest criminal the dignity of this
recognition. But it has not always been so and to conceive
of a time and place where people came and went in near
invisibility causes us to shudder and realize that, there
but for the grace of God, go I. And there, but for God’s
grace, went two people that in the grandest of life’s
schemes could do little more than assure the survival of
only one of their own. But survive she did and thus
guaranteed that one day, this reading from the book of life
would occur. 


John B. Leonard was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1891.
Like many in the South of that time, he didn’t get much of
an education other than from the school of life. In his
world, streets were unpaved, there was no indoor plumbing or
bathroom, no running hot and cold water, no radio, no TV, no
manicured parks and playgrounds. There was no central air
conditioning to cool sweating bodies from the hot Alabama
summer and only a fireplace to warm a drafty and non-
insulated homestead on cold winter mornings. Passing through
this place, one would immediately notice the smell of horses
and their excrement with a sooted train station that was the
center of transportation for any location further than the
edge of town. His days began early and ended late, doing
chores most of us have long since relegated to some
automated mechanism or just forgotten altogether. But for
some reason, John B. didn’t meld to this regiment and was
probably a rebellious and troubled youth. Whether he just
chose to pave his own path or maybe because he fell in with
some unwholesome element, is not known, but what is known is
that he found himself in trouble early in his young life. 

Researching John B’s part of the story was not the first
stop on the journey but it was the first to bare fruit. That
is to say, it was he that first stepped out of the shadows
of conjecture and became a real person. Prior to obtaining a
death certificate for one of his children, John B. and Ola
Leonard were more myth than fact. But all of a sudden, I had
an official document that proved they were real and had
drawn earthly air! I would be remiss to neglect to mention
that documents related to my Mother’s adoption named both of
them on a number of occasions but I had, and still do have,
a healthy distrust of official adoption records. Having
these records sealed and kept hidden breeds a sort of “us
vs. them” mentality on the parts of both the adopted and the
record keeper. Fudging certain info to keep the truth
obscured is not at all unusual. But the death record for Ola
(infant) Leonard provided a solid foundation for further
digging and offered a renewal of spirit during a time when
things were dragging. So, John B. was real and so was his
wife. And with the official adoption decree obtained from
Savannah and the death certificate, 1998 ended on a high
note and is what I now consider to be the benchmark for the
beginning of the end of the mystery. But, where to now? 

Oral family history tells the story of John and Ola like
this: In June (actual day varies) of 1923, they had a baby
girl they named Cora Lee. Sometime after that, another
pregnancy ended tragically when Ola died in childbirth. Cora
Lee was sent to live with the Maternal Grandmother, a Mrs.
Goss, who subsequently became either infirm or actually
herself died. John B. couldn’t care for his daughter alone
so he placed her for adoption, at The Open Door Orphanage in
Rome, Georgia. An unmarried woman from Savannah, Georgia
named Georgia Word soon adopted little Cora. She renamed her
Carolyn Leonard Word and Carolyn, my Mother, has survived
and is still alive today. John B. was reported to have
returned to Alabama, where records say he was born, and was
last known to be in the Anniston area, circa 1930. End of
story.

The year 1999 was a long one; when my efforts were
distracted by the breakup of my marriage of 14 years. The
first six months left me with little interest in following
the trail and each day was an exercise in emotional
survival. By June, I had resolved most of the issues, had
moved out of the family home and by doing so, allowed myself
a chance… and the time to heal. By December, I was ready to
begin again and I reviewed all my notes and records. I had a
solved one problem, that being the fate of the second child
that was born when Ola supposedly died. Little Ola (infant)
Leonard, Feb 4, 1925 - June 15, 1925 is buried in an Atlanta
cemetery. But now I had a new problem because there should
be a death record for the mother, if the story was accurate.
But no matter how hard I looked, in both Alabama and
Georgia, there was nothing reporting the death of Ola
Leonard, the mother of both Cora and baby Ola and adult wife
of John B. She was a big zero that was totally empty. After
beating myself over the head for months with stacks of phone
numbers, websites and various contacts, I surrendered the
search for Ola, at least for the time, and turned my focus
to John B. 

In early 2000, my mother filed a written request for any
records pertaining to her adoption from the Georgia Adoption
Reunion Registry, the official dungeon for all adoption
related records from the state. Initially, this was another
washout as they never replied or even acknowledged receipt
of the request. Midyear, I contacted this office by phone
and was told that while they couldn’t share what they had,
they would tell me my mother’s actual date of birth; that
being June 20, 1923. During this conversation, the
representative told me that they had her record before them,
at that moment! Talk about being taken to the edge only to
be pulled back! It seemed that I would have to be satisfied
with this tidbit and walk away without the prize. It was
disheartening. My search for John B. was not fairing much
better. My gut told me that he probably remained in Alabama
after loosing his entire family in Georgia. But state
records were not as easy to get as they were in Georgia and
the system for procuring them, while more efficient, was
also run in the standard obtuse fashion as most of the other
of this state’s affairs. 2000 ended with a number of dead
ends and loose strings. 2001 came and went with a yawn.
While I continued to search out new leads, my efforts began
waning as those leads dried up. Contacts with the adoption
folks in Georgia were still being routinely ignored and I
was working with some unrelated searches, helping others
locate their own missing truths. The search for John B. and
Ola Leonard was in limbo, pending some miracle.


Now, before I get into 2002, it must be noted that searching
for something and finding something are two different
things. Investigations into historical periods and those
that populated them is like trying to prove the existence of
ghosts. You may feel them, you may hear something whispering
in the wind but trying to pin down something tangible is
often impossible. Or put another way, there must be
something to find before one can find it. That being said,
when I began to restart my search in 2002, I was no longer
convinced that there was anything left to locate. The effort
began by reviewing, again, every scrap of data I already had
and see if I had neglected something. I had lost a lot of
the digital records when my old computer died. So began the
process of rescanning, filing and rewriting. I renewed
contacts with those that had helped in the past, began again
the effort to get those folks in Atlanta to do something and
with new contacts, began searching Alabama records in
earnest. I had also learned that the state law, in Georgia,
that mandates the sealing of adoption records does not apply
to those occurring prior to 1941. It was therefore
senseless, if not illegal, to withhold my mother’s records.
I called the Georgia Adoption Reunion Registry once again
and told them that they should be aware of this law and that
they should also now find no reason to delay releasing her
records. And it was then when I found out that being right
is not as important as being in charge. They went on to
inform me that they could not find any record of her
adoption. I told them that if they couldn’t maybe the
governor could and with that, they began calling me nearly
every other day, asking all the right questions someone
would ask if seriously searching for the files. I don’t
think for one minute they are being sincere, just trying to
keep me from tying up their phone each day.  Back to John B.
Through the good offices of Bamadopt, I met a very nice
researcher who had access to the Alabama death index; a very
elusive and important body of information that is needed to
establish the validity of a person before paying the state
the money to tell you that they have no records of that
person. In mid 2002, I got e-mail from this researcher
telling me she had gotten a hit on a John B. Leonard, in
Alabama with date of death in 1936. So, armed with a date of
death, place of death and full name, I attempted to obtain
the death certificate. The first round went to the state of
Alabama, totally rejecting my application for the record. So
before the bell sounded for round two, I called the vital
stats offices in Montgomery and lo, I was assured that yes,
the file did exist and was even given the number. Resolute,
I applied again and never gave them the chance to say no.
Thirty minutes later, I had John B’s death certificate and
with it, the ghost became a man and walked out of the mist.
============================================================

Brief overview of research into the lives of John B. and Ola
(Goss) Leonard


September, 1998 Records pertaining to the adoption of Cora
Lee Leonard obtained from Savannah, Chatham County Georgia.
These documents are only related to the legal issues
surrounding the adoption.

December, 1998 Death Certificate for Ola (infant) Leonard
located and obtained from Vital Statistics, Georgia. This
document was originally thought to be of the mother but
proved otherwise. No record of Mother’s death can be
located.

Early 2000 An official request is submitted to Georgia
Adoption Reunion Registry for records of events surrounding
the adoption of Cora Lee Leonard. No official response had
been received by end of year. Telephone contacts reveal the
existence of files but are being withheld by the agency.
GARR did however release Cora Lee’s correct date of birth.

June, 2002 Death certificate located for John B. Leonard in
Alabama.

July, 2002 to Present Death certificate obtained for John B.
Leonard.

Contacts established with city of Birmingham to further
research John B.’s death.

Census records for the year 1920 place John B. Leonard in
Fulton County, Georgia.

Possible death record for Ola (Goss) Leonard located in
Georgia.

Possible death record for Mrs. Goss (Ola’s Mother) located
in Georgia.

Exact location of Ola (infant) Leonard located, Magnolia
Cemetery, Atlanta.

Contact reestablished with GARR to locate and release files
surrounding the adoption of Cora Lee Leonard.

Synopses:

The effort to identify John B. and Ola (Goss) Leonard may be
considered successful if the death certificates prove to be
the correct ones. Further research into the family tree will
follow with inquiries into the Leonard/Goss lineage.
Research surrounding John B. Leonard’s other known spouse,
one Stella Leonard, will proceed upon completion of the
above studies. Attempts to contact any living relatives may
be initiated if and when they are positively identified and
located. Historical account of the lives of John B. and Ola
(Goss) Leonard as well as the efforts to obtain
records/information of their lives is an ongoing work and
will be distributed to various agencies as
warranted/requested.