In This Article
In This Article
Throughout the 1940s and 1960s, Dr. Thomas J. Hicks illegally sold over 200 babies from his clinic in McCaysville, Georgia. For decades, the truth had been hidden by false records, resulting in lasting repercussions for the families and staff involved.
In this article, we’ll go on a deep dive into this tragedy and its repercussions.
The Hicks babies were newborn babies sold by Dr. Thomas J. Hicks to different families, both locally and out-of-state, from 1945 to 1965. Each baby was sold for about $1,000, worth about $11,000 today.
Some of the birth mothers were aware that their babies were being put up for adoption. But some didn’t even know their babies were alive, as they were made to believe that they had died in childbirth.
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Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks was a well-respected doctor in the small town of McCaysville, Georgia. He ran the Hicks Community Clinic and provided healthcare to poor copper mining families.
He also offered adoption services, prenatal care, and care for women who wanted to terminate their pregnancy. It is estimated that Dr. Hicks sold around 200 babies from the 1940s to 1960s.
About 50 of the Hicks babies have been identified and located as of 2023. Once they became adults, many of the Hicks babies came forward after their adoptive families told them that they had come from the same clinic run by Dr. Hicks.
Hicks sold the babies to families from McCaysville, GA, and surrounding areas without any vetting process. He sold them to anyone as long as they could pay for the illegal adoption.
To avoid suspicion, Dr. Hicks would sometimes ask the adoptive mothers to pretend they had just given birth. He’d tell them to wear a medical gown and to lie down on the table before placing a baby in their arms.
Some of the adoptive parents drove up to Dr. Hicks’ clinic and were discreetly handed babies through the door or the window. The babies even came with a fake birth certificate that listed their adoptive families as the biological parents.
While he was eventually arrested by the town sheriff in 1964 for illegal abortions, this didn’t stop Hicks’ black market adoptions. Shortly after giving up his medical license to prevent prosecution, he was able to sell at least one more baby.
Dr. Hicks obtained babies by convincing biological mothers to put them up for adoption or by lying to birth parents and telling them their babies died and then selling those babies later.
Abortion was illegal in Georgia at the time. However, he advertised it in the local community and in nearby areas, along with his other services.
Additionally, pregnant and often unmarried women who wanted to terminate their pregnancy would approach him for an abortion. However, he convinced others to give up their babies instead,
Whenever Dr. Hicks delivered healthy babies from mothers who never considered an abortion, he would tell the mothers their babies died of childbirth so he could sell them.
People didn’t learn of his other shady operations until 1997, years after Jane Blasio helped uncover his illegal adoption services. She was one of the 200 babies Hicks sold.
Shortly after her adoptive mother died, Blasio traveled to McCaysville in 1988 to look for her birth mother. She was 23 years old at the time.
Her initial search was unsuccessful, so she contacted a Georgia probate attorney. With the judge’s help, she learned that Hicks sold babies when his clinic was still open.
Records showed an unusual number of women visiting Dr. Hicks’ clinic, including many who traveled from faraway places. County birth records confirmed that Jane Blasio may have been one of the hundreds of babies sold between 1950 and 1965.
About 15 of the over 200 babies have been reunited with their biological parents. Many are still trying to find them.
Jane Blasio herself was unable to find her biological mother. Dr. Hicks didn’t keep records of the babies’ birth mothers, making it difficult to track them.
This tragic experience has led Blasio to help dozens of Hicks babies find their birth parents and other possible relatives. She even worked with TLC’s Long Lost Family, a TV show that reconnects people to their biological families, to help some of the Hicks babies uncover their birth stories.
Blasio continues to assist Hicks babies from her home in Akron, OH. She created a confidential registry to help them reconnect with their birth families.
Hicks adoptees, their adoptive parents, and birth parents who gave up their babies or were told that they died may call to provide information on the child’s birthdate and gender.
Whenever there’s a match between parties, the registry can arrange a meeting if everyone agrees to it. Dr. Hicks’ babies can reach out to Jane Blasio or opt for DNA testing.
In 2014, genealogy site Ancestry.com and ABC News helped around thirty suspected Hicks babies travel to Tennessee so they could take DNA tests.
DNA testing was also done on people from McCaysville. Today, Hicks babies can take at-home DNA tests to find potential close relatives.
Seven biological mothers have already come forward, and at least one Hicks baby submitted his DNA to Ancestry and found a half-sister. However, there are still no positive DNA matches between babies and parents on Ancestry’s database.
Dr. Hicks lived a fairly normal life and died of leukemia in 1972 at the age of 83. Since he died years before people knew about the Hicks babies, he couldn’t be held accountable for his past crimes.
He also couldn’t provide information that may help babies find their parents or the other way around. People who knew about Dr. Hicks’ black market adoptions, the babies, and their birth parents may have already died as well.
These include the nurses, his lawyer, the secretary who signed the false documents, and the sheriff who investigated his illegal abortion clinic. The only hope Hicks babies have of finding their biological relatives is through DNA testing and Jane Blasio’s private registry.
For decades, affected individuals lived with falsified histories. Today, DNA testing finally offers clarity.
Autosomal DNA tests are your first choice because they trace both maternal and paternal relatives, typically back four to six generations. Additionally, popular kits like the AncestryDNA kit connect you to millions of potential relatives.
In some cases, Y-chromosome (paternal line) and mitochondrial DNA (maternal line) tests can be valuable, especially when trying to pinpoint specific lineages.
After testing, upload your raw DNA data to multiple databases like GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA to increase your odds of finding a match.
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