James Hackett

Estherville Lincoln Central High School

Class of 1965

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James Hackett - Class of 1965 - Estherville Lincoln Central High School

First Name	James
Last Name	Hackett
Graduation Year	Class of 1965
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	WI
Country	United States
Occupation	Orthopaedic Surgeon (retired)
Married	Yes
Favorite School Memory	My Fair Lady delayed when I had a laboratory accident
About Me	practicing medicine/surgery; lots of grand-kids. Astronomy expeditions - eclipses and transits abroad. Studied family lineages in Iowa Michigan and Netherlands: A BRIEF PERSONAL STORY or HOW I BECAME DUTCH I am now 70 years old. I was adopted as a newborn in a small town of northwestern Iowa, Estherville. My adoptive parents were either very secretive or basically ignorant of my origins, so though I knew of my adoption, I did not know of my biological parents. Even as my parents became progressively aged and ill, they would not divulge anything of my origin or birth, other than I was born in Holy Family Hospital, and immediately adopted. My origins were not on my mind as I was growing up, going to college, and eventually becoming an orthopaedic surgeon. Life was too busy to sit and reflect on this matter. Besides, due to the complexity of searching birth records, it would be difficult to find facts. I never considered adoption as being a negative life experience, and I was content to continue to plod along without that knowledge. I married a wonderful woman with Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and had three natural-born children and adopted a 10 year old from Korea. Our family always had a hope that we could give another person the benefits I received in my adoption. All turned out well with my children disciplining themselves in getting education and following their heart’s desires for occupations: A spine surgeon, a professor in evolutionary genetics, a pharmacist in a major healthcare institution, and an independent-practice nurse. They also provided 11 grandchildren along the way. My son, Jeremiah, who is an academic in evolutionary genetics at U Az in Tucson, decided to demonstrate analysis of his genome for his students by subscribing to 23andMe. He knew I was adopted, so there was a background of interest in genetic analysis. I had always told him we were Irish, and celebrated that probability. Somewhere in my childhood lore, I was considered an offspring of one of my hometown’s physicians who was Irish, but nothing was suggested who my mother was. That was somewhat far from reality. When the result of his DNA analysis was published, he found a rather shocking result: another individual in the 23andMe was his FIRST COUSIN! That meant they had common grandparents. He subsequently did some research in Ancestry, and was able to trace the family lineage cleanly including another participant who was a 3rd or 4th cousin. He thought he had found my parents. My DNA was also analyzed which confirmed she was my niece. Subsequently, I was able to locate one surviving document which my adoptive parents had sequestered in their lock-box. It was a court document which finalized my adoption. I was only known as “Baby Boy Evers”. That name was the same as my determined mother’s maiden name. No other information was available, though my Iowa Birth Certificate had my adoptive parents names as my “parents”, and it said that my mother was not married. This finding suggested I was born to an unwed mother. I was able to reconstruct the history of my parent’s families and relationship through various newspaper documents from Pella, Iowa. That Dutch community maintained free access to the newspapers dating back nearly 150 years. I was born when my parents were teenagers. Fortunately, my biological parents were later married and had two daughters. Therefore, it was time to make contact with my son’s first cousin, or my niece. This was done and she was very accepting of our findings, and was able to convince her mother to also take the 23andMe analysis. For sure, she was my sister! It turns out that both my parents are alive, in their late eighties, with minor health issues associated with age, but both were ready and willing to meet me and accept the benefits of an expanded family. Four months from the initial time of this discovery, I was able to physically contact my parents and siblings. All were very cordial and seemed pleased with the findings (especially my mother). The great unknown of my origin was revealed – both sides of my biological family had strong Dutch heritage going back 7 generations, as far as the documents with Ancestry.com and multiple sources in the Netherlands would allow. On my father’s side, his ancestors owned and operated a windmill – the Doesburgermolen – in Ede, NL. That mill still is functional to this day. There is an interesting side-line to my story, in that my mother is a descendent of Hendrik Jan Esselinkpas, one of the few survivors of the Phoenix disaster in Lake Michigan offshore from Sheboygan, WI in 1847, Had he not survived, I would not be in existence today. How did I get this far? It was pure chance that my son and a close relative subscribed to the same genetic analysis program. Now that I am retired, the importance of these findings has taken center stage, with all the details being held close to my heart. My new family has accepted me as I am with joy. Digging deeper into my genetic past, I find astounding people and events to meditate on and a sense of peace with all that has ...(read more)