Real Names: Ada Neil, others unknown
Case: Lost Family, Savior
Location: New York City, New York
Date: December 24, 1932
Case[]
Details: Alexandra (Paraskevas) Stantzos of Northridge, California, is searching both for her birth family and for the young girl who found her abandoned on Christmas Eve, 1932. Alexandra grew up in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1930s. Although she had no brothers or sisters, she was surrounded by a large, loving Greek family, overflowing with aunts, uncles, and cousins. When Alexandra was twenty-one, she became engaged to a man named John Stantzos, and her parents planned a full-scale Greek Orthodox wedding for the following June.
Just a month before the wedding, Alexandra’s mother delivered shocking news: Alexandra had been adopted. Her mother told her that they “picked” her out. Her mother said they saw her, liked her, and thought she looked like them, so they took her home. When Alexandra was told this, she felt hurt and angry. She felt betrayed because her parents had taught her to tell the truth. And if she did not tell the truth, there were always consequences. The fact that her parents had lied to her upset her more than anything else.
Alexandra was also afraid that John would not want to marry her since he would not know her background. She says it was a great fear, but she did not want to start her marriage with a lie. So she decided to take a chance and tell him the whole story. When she told him, he smiled and said, “I love you for who you are, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.”
Alexandra and John were married on June 5, 1955. Eventually, they became the parents of three sons: James, Bill, and Nick. Only after Alexandra’s first grandchild was born and both of her parents had passed away did she begin to search for her roots. She says that when she looked down at her grandchild, she could not believe they were “part of her.” At that moment, she decided that she had to do something to try and find out who she was and where she came from. She wanted to do it, if nothing else, for her children and grandchildren.
Alexandra spent three long years combing through New York City birth records. Finally, with help from the Children’s Aid Society, she discovered the poignant truth about her past. It was December 1932, the height of the Great Depression. In New York City, thousands stood in line at government soup kitchens. Tragically, many were unable to care for their own children. Some parents were so poor that they felt forced to leave their children on the doorsteps of strangers, hoping to give them a better life.
On Christmas Eve, 1932, thirteen-year-old Ada Neil was returning home from church. On the doorstep of her building on East 27th Street, she was amazed to find a baby girl. It was Alexandra. Ada was just a child herself and hardly knew what to do. In vain, she scanned the street for signs of Alexandra’s parents. Finally, she went inside to show Alexandra to her father, Charles Neil, who was the superintendent of the apartment building.
Charles notified the authorities. For several hours, while they waited for the police, the Neil family cared for Alexandra. At one point, Ada asked her parents if they could keep Alexandra. However, her parents told her that they could not do that because it was against the law and Alexandra did not belong to them.
A police officer finally arrived around midnight, just as Christmas Day began. The Neil family explained how Ada had found Alexandra. The police officer then took Alexandra to the New York City Foundling Hospital. Adoption records from the hospital show that somebody along the way named the baby “Helen Anderson.” But who that person was or where the name came from remains a mystery.
Nearly fifty years later, Alexandra returned to the neighborhood where she had been found. She contacted every church in the area, hoping baptismal records might list a baby named Helen Anderson. Sadly, they did not. Alexandra was left with only one clue about her past: the name of the girl who rescued her.
Alexandra wants to find Ada. She says it is important for her to find Ada. She thinks that Ada might know something; she might have known the people who left Alexandra or had an idea of who they were. Alexandra wants to speak to Ada and thank her for finding her and caring for her.
Alexandra wants to give her sons and grandchildren their roots. She wants them to know where she came from. She says it is important that they know. She loves them very much, and they mean everything to her. She says it would be a “closed chapter” if she could find out where she came from.
Alexandra has little information about Ada. She knows that Ada lived at 156 East 27th Street in Manhattan and was born around 1919. Ada’s father’s name was Charles, and he was the apartment building superintendent. Alexandra has no information about her birth family.
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the December 23, 1992 episode.
- It was excluded from the FilmRise release of the Robert Stack episodes.
- The Children’s Aid Society was also mentioned in the cases of Margaret Murphy and Sylvia Wemhoff.
Results: Unsolved - Sadly, Alexandra passed away on September 25, 1994, at the age of sixty-one. It is not known if she found her birth family or Ada before her death.
Links: