After reading Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours, a moving story based on the tragic real-life Tennessee Children’s Home Society adoption scheme headed by Georgia Tann, I was very interested in reading more about the adoptees. Before and After is a nonfiction account of some of the victims of Tann’s greed and corruption. It was interesting to read their stories and thoughts about their lives and how they were affected by the adoptions. Many of them were able to connect with siblings and other members of their birth families with varying results.

The book is well written and kept my interest throughout. It’s a fitting and touching follow-up to Wingate’s story.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Incredible. Real life. These two descriptors will grab the reader from the cover to the last page. Readers often think, which part is really true; which is fictionalized by the author?For readers of historical fiction this NONFICTION sequel is a “dream come true!” The phenomenal novel, Before We Were Yours,written by Lisa Wingate, is a fictional account of a family torn apart by Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, ( TCHS). Documents show that the TCHS was in operation in Memphis, from 1924-1950. Many factors, such as the Great Depression, WWll & the Holocaust, contributed to a very turbulent time in the lives of American families. Poverty stricken or unwed mothers in desperation; even hard working parents who couldn’t afford to care for their children, added to the many years of disturbing statistics while the TCHS was in operation. In the last two years, the success and popularity of Before We Were Yours garnered the attention of many friends and family of the real-life adoptees and their families. As word of the fictional novel spread, the adoptees/survivors, now in the final years of their lives, began to emerge; to share and reveal their heart wrenching memories and true stories.

In Before and After Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate have compiled the memories and stories revealed in letters, phone interviews, face to face meetings, even FaceTime. The anguish and heart ache revealed is certainly hard to read and digest; that such cruelty existed for so long. As a reunion of adoptees and families comes to fruition, the real heroes are the courageous survivors that braced themselves and their families to face the past. Many found siblings and cousins, along with love and redemption, at the end of a life-long search.

“Where are you? Do you look like me? Are you like me in any way? ” Letter from a TCHS adoptee to her unknown birth family.

I read Before We Were Yours and loved it so of course I had to read Before and After.. i definitely will give it 5 stars ! Such a great book with a poignant story. I would highly recommend this book.

A deeper dive into the lives and background of the adoptees, now adults, associated with the Tennessee Children's Home Society and victims of Georgia Tann during hte 1920's-1950's. If you read and enjoyed Before We Were Yours or love stories about adoptees finding their birth family, this would be a perfect book to pick up. Not all of the stories have a happy ending and I felt like reading this made me feel even stronger that Georgia Tann is an evil woman who should have been prosecuted for the lies she told, crimes, she committed, and abuse she inflicted on these poor children and their families. While many of the people in the book did get adopted into wonderful, loving families, what she did was wrong. None of them were background checked and were made to pay exorbitant prices to make their dreams of parenthood come true. Most of the time they would not have been approved by traditional adoption agencies that were used during this time because of their age, status of their marriage, or other reasons. This is a nonfiction book and would be a great pick if you are participating in a nonfiction November challenge or if you were fascinated by the fictional story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for the free copy of Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate in exchange for my honest review. This book is available now!

What a fantastic follow-up to Lisa Wingate's "Before We Were Yours". This book shares the real life stories of children who were part of the Memphis Tennessee Children's Home scandal. How they discovered their roots, found family and learned who they really were. Some had lives that were very different from where they were born, and where they were raised. Lisa and Judy have brought these children together twice now to allow them a place to understand.

I recommended Before We Were Yours as one of the best books to read in 2017. It's not often that a book stays with me long after I close the book-- but this was an exception. Thankfully, I wasn't alone. Lisa Wingate's novel, a fictional account of little lives affected by the Tennessee Children's Home Society not only drew attention from those who'd never heard of the terrible deeds committed by Georgia Tann-- many of the children whose lives were irrevocably changed by the woman saw themselves in Wingate's story. The adoptees and their children began reaching out to the author, and soon a reunion was in the works. Journalist Judy Christine joined the project to capture the stories of the survivors.

Contained in the pages of this book are the true stories of people affected by Georgia Tann. The men and women who were taken from their birth families-- often by trickery and deceit. Their adopted families paid exorbitant amounts of money-- far beyond the legal amount prescribed for adoption in those days. And siblings were separated. Their stories are a complex web of abandonment, missing siblings, great opportunities and wealth with their adopted families, and emotional reunions with blood relatives.

If you loved Before We Were Yours, Before and After is a must-read.

I have not had a chance to read Before We Were Yours and I thought this book did an amazing job outlining the reality of what happened and the actual impact to many of the survivors in the history of the children's home. It is unfathomable what occurred with all of the people that Tann networked with. There was a story of how children were taken from uneducated teenagers and told that their child had passed away that really hit me hard. I am now going to have to go back and read the book that this piece originated from soon. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

I picked this up in anticipation, as my heart was wrenched throughout Lisa Wingate’s novel Before We Were Yours, and this follow-up nonfiction compilation of stories shared even brought the atrocities of the Georgia Tann Children’s Home to reality.

Georgia Tann’s unscrupulous tactics to locate adoptive children for those fortunate enough to have wealth to throw in her face are frustrating, and insightful into a bygone time period, when so many leaders in power literally had the power to stop her, and chose not to do so.

Listening to the aftermath of many of Tann’s child placements- spreading families of children across the country, lying to “sell” children easier, watching parents and families lie about their adoptions, even to the face of a child. It was a lot to read, and I highly recommend this set of stories- the true children of Georgia Tann’s Children’s Home. Their stories deserve to be heard, and I am thankful that doors continued to be opened and stories continued to pour out to both Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate, moreso, I am thankful they chose to listen to the stories and not ignore them in the face of a busy life!

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading the true story behind a historical fiction novel.

A nice follow up to Before We Were Yours. I found all the reunion planning kind of boring but the individual stories were first date. After reading this I truly wish the best for all these adopters and families, and hope they find what they are looking for. Would love to see updates on these stories in the future.

I found this book very powerful and moving which is why I am giving this book five stars a major flaw in the book. The flaw was I did not read Lisa Wingate's novel, Before We Were Yours, and I knew nothing of the scandal that the surrounded Georgia Tann and The Tennessee Children's Home(It may be that the scandal is not as familiar to people from the Northeast of the United States as from the South. FYI, my mother was a social worker who for many years worked in legal adoption in Massachusetts and she was not aware of George Tann scandal). The book would have been much better if the book had an introduction about the history of The Tennessee Children's Home rather than having to find out about it piecemeal in the book.

However, once I got into the book and the story of the adult children who were sold by Georgia Tann, I felt very moved. Georgia Tann bought and stole children from poor people and single mothers and sold them to wealthy parents many of whom would not be eligible to adopt children through the conventional methods.

The true stories of the children who were adopted from Georgia Tann seem to get sadder as the book progresses. Many of the initial stories reminded me of conventional some stories of children who were adopted by more conventional means in that the children feel different from their adoptive family and feel there have been family secrets.

Many of the children that were adopted by through Tamm were adopted by parents who by the standards of the time were too old to have children. Many of these children suffered from having older parents who died when they were young.

Since George Tamm bought/stole children from the poor and sold them to the rich, many of these children appear to have benefitted economically from the adoption. Perhaps that the children "benefited" financially is what enabled Tamm to continue her practices for about twenty years. Some pictures of the adopted children were included in the book and many of them are very cute(some people felt that Tamm went after good looking children).

The stories of the children who were adopted through Tamm seem to get grimmer as the book progresses. Some remembered their previous families and one was given improper medical care from The Tennessee Children's Home run by Georgia Tamm and may have been died if her adoptive parents did not find her in the home and want to adopt her.

The book is very powerful and moving but it can be hard to get into if one does not have a background in the subject matter.

I was given a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I know this book will be popular in our system. It reads like fiction and is the type of book that makes me want to learn more about its subject. Can’t wait to share it with all of my fellow readers!

Before and After is heartbreaking and emotional but the true stories needed to be told. This is a part of our history that is painful to read about, but I am glad I read it.

I loved Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours and I was so intrigued about a part of history I knew nothing about. I was so happy to receive this ARC and learn a little about some real life stories from Georgia Tann's orphanage.

I loved reading all the stories and how their adoption was handled, as well as what happened in their search for their birth parents. There were so many different stories and I appreciated that. Some people never found siblings they had been looking for and some people's birth parents were already dead by the time the adoptees found them. It was interesting to see that there were some adoptees who didn't think of Georgia Tann as a villain because their lives might have been a lot worse, had she not stepped in. But Georgia Tann treated these children like things to be sold. There were excerpts from letters she had written, encouraging prospective parents to "try the child for a week." Adoptive homes weren't investigated, so children often went from home to home or they went into homes that didn't offer the life that they had deserved. I thought this was such an incredible book and the stories brought me to tears more than once. I am s glad these authors decided to bring life to these stories.

Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate

Georgia Tann ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. She was a very greedy woman, who got babies anyway that she could. She falsified records, had young mothers sign there babies away without knowing what they were signing, snatched young children from their yards. Later when these children grew up many wanted answers to what happened to their families. Some of the children, now adults have gotten together for a reunion. Their stories have been written down so they will always be remembered. Stories were shared, which helped them so much because they realized they weren’t the only one. Judy and Lisa did a wonderful job by helping some of the victims of Georgia Tann. They helped them come together and tell their stories. Some for the first time. A difference was made in their lives and they have been given some hope for their families and future generations.

Thanks to Randon House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book evolved after the printing of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, which chronicled children taken by Georgia Tann into the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in the 1920’s through 1950. Mrs. Tann had plenty of political support which enabled her to sell children from poor families and desperate unwed mothers who did not fully understand the papers they were signing. Before and After tells the stories of some of the adoptees, their childhoods and their adult lives, and the emotional reunion spearheaded by one of the adoptees and held in Memphis, the place where the adoptees’ new lives began.

I read Before We Were Yours, and was horrified by the fact that this woman was able to steal and sell children so easily. Although not all the adoptees featured had happy stories to tell, their desire to get their stories out ensures they will not be forgotten. This is a powerful book, told in alternating voices between the authors and the adoptees, and it is one I will not soon forget.

This book was heartbreaking to read, as so many children suffered at the hands of Georgia Tann and her black-market baby business. Many of these children were stolen from poor families or single women that were in a desperate situation. There were even cases where women were told that their child had died at birth, when in fact it was sold to another family. I cannot imagine the pain these children and parents felt and the repercussions that are still felt today.

" How does someone choose to prey on the most vulnerable? Go against all the instincts we have to protect children and market them like products? How does a community turn a blind eye?"

What happens when you find out that your name was not always your name? That you might have been snatched from a front yard, bought and sold, taken from a young poor mother who could not afford to battle a corrupt woman (Georgia Tann) who ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society. A black-market adoption agency that operated for 30 years using bribes, corrupt officials, and sold children to those wanting to adopt with a policy that allowed new parents to return a child if "it" was not the right fit for them. Many parents were duped, coerced and bullied into giving up their children. Other women were told their newborn died after birth, only to have it whisked away and sold. Others had their children disappear from their front lawns. Many infants and toddlers died while in the care of the Tennessee Children's Home Society while awaiting to be "adopted” If you have read Before We Were Yours you will be familiar with Tann and her illegal "adoption" agency. That work of fiction brought made many people aware of the horrors that Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society brought.

While reading that book, many who were affected sought out the Author to share their personal stories of how they learned they were adopted, how this affected them, their search for the truth and their reunions with siblings they never knew they had. Wingate met with many of the adoptees and teamed up with Christie in order to tell their stories about their lives, how learning they were adopted affected them and their relationships with their adoptive parents. Fearing and yearning to know about their own personal history, who their biological parents were, if they had other siblings, and the circumstances surrounding how Tann obtained them.

One woman who was adopted was told by her adoptive father when she was an adult that "Clearly you were beautiful, but you were the saddest baby I had ever seen." Another woman received a letter in the mail revealing that she had been adopted and shared, "When I got the letter, it was such a shock. I had lived a lie. I wasn't who I thought I was." These 15 individual stories are just a glimpse into the lives of the children who were affected. Their search for answers and their reunion with relatives is moving.

"We never lose those whose stories remain with us."

This was a wonderful follow up book to Before We Were Yours. The 15 stories are the heart and soul of this book. Their individual paths, their search for truth and the affect it had on their lives once they learned more about their own adoptions. I'll let their individual stories talk for themselves.


If you enjoyed Before We Were Yours, I highly recommend this book. I think it is beneficial to read that book first (but not necessary). You can also learn about the Tennessee Children’s Home Society and Tann online.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate for the opportunity to read and review this nonfiction follow-up to Before We Were Yours, which was a fictionalized account of Georgia Tann's Tennessee Children's Home Society. Tann ran a child-trafficking operation under the guises of an adoption agency/orphanage from the 1920s-1950s.

After the popularity of that book, people started contacting the author, Wingate, at book readings and by email to tell her their true stories. One victim was driven to create a reunion of other victims in Memphis when Wingate was scheduled to appear at a book event. With little time to prepare, Wingate brought in her friend and journalist, Judy Christie, to help her document the stories and pictures. Little by little, things came together in extraordinary ways and gave these victims an opportunity to open up, some for the first time, and share their stories as well as ways to track down missing biological family members.

This book contains 15 different family stories - all heartbreaking but in the end filled with gratitude and blessings for the life that was theirs. I also loved the author's thoughts that make the reader think about ways to move forward in our lives with more compassion and thoughtfulness. A must read!

I had read Before We Were Yours late last year and was looking forward to reading Before and After. I knew it would be hard to read the stories about the "real people" as it was hard to read the fictionalized account in BWWY. I didn't know what to expect and I knew it wouldn't be an easy read, and I was right. To think that these things actually happened and people were allowed to get away with it is shameful. I feel so much sorrow for all the people involved, even the ones that found relatives again. This never should have happened much less have happened to the hundreds of children and their parents.

I think both authors did a good job with the book. It was a little slow in places and definitely hard to read in other places. While I enjoyed the book and the stories, I think because it was true it wasn't a book that one wants to read for pleasure.

Anyone who reads this book would benefit greatly by reading Before We Were Yours first as I think it gives backstory to the real stories.

I loved Before They Were Yours by Lisa Wingate and looked forward to reading these ‘Before and After’ stories of real victims touched by the Georgia Tann black-market adoption scandal. Unfortunately, I only made it halfway through the book. Too much superfluous writing about the authors, their efforts to put together a victims’ reunion and repeatedly plug Before They Were Yours with less focus on the victims. I felt like I was left hanging at the end of each spotlighted victim’s narrative.