Hey, my name is Darrell Francis
Harvey. I was born Darrell Francis
Freels on June 9th, 1961. The day before
Thanksgiving (2002) I found out that I was adopted. Since then I've
met some of my birth family including my birth father Charles
Vaden Freels, brothers, Roger Craig, Mike, and Clay and my sisters
Lou (Amanda Lou) and Sissy (Amelia Faye). I've also met my Uncle Tony and
Bernard (on my birth mother's side of the family). My birth mom had breast
cancer while she was carrying me and passed away just 9 days after
giving birth to me. I was adopted by Verschel and Loma Harvey (a distant
cousin of the Freels) and grew up in Taylor Mich. (a suburb of Detroit). Stewart Kendall
Freels was also adopted out and now goes by the name John Kendall Butler. I'd really like to find him
if I could. He found out he was adopted in 82' when Guy Freels was killed in a traffic
accident. From what I've heard he didn't take it very well and moved to
to Tennessee. I married in 87' to Florence Reyes. She
has 3 kids from a previous marriage (Gail, Adam and Leah). Gail has 3 sons, Michael, Samuel and Gabriel and
Adam has one girl, Sarah. So that makes 4 Grandkids total. If you like you can
add these names to your family tree. Feel free to e-mail me if you like for any info I may have left out.
Thanks for having such a good web sight. Talk to ya' later. Darrell
----Original Message-----
From: jseymou2@columbus.rr.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 11:05 PM
To: Darrell Harvey dfharvey@citlink.net
Subject: Howdy.
Hello Cousin. Welcome back to the
family. I'm glad you found us. I know the story way to well about the missing
Freels kids. I'm glad my web site helped you see how many of us there are in
the family. I have wondered for years where the Freels kids disappeared to. Your
brother Roger, who we call Craig, I got to know well at the last reunion. Did
you see the old photo's of your family before your Mother died posted on the web
site? If you have any questions, I'm sure I can point you to the right person if
I don't know. I would love some recent photos of you and your family. I have
neglected the web site for about a year now, but emails like this just get me
going again. Sorry to see you met Uncle Tony and Bernard (Barnyard), they are
the wildest old timers in the family, but I'm sure they made you feel welcome. I
hope Uncle Tony didn't tell you any wild tales. They all seem that way after a
while. He's the best and my Favorite Uncle. Again welcome to the family and I
look forward to the day we can meet. John
-----Original Message-----
From: Darrell Harvey dfharvey@citlink.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 9:35 PM
To: jseymou2@columbus.rr.com
Subject: Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
So ya' want to know the story on how I found out I'm 'dopted. Well, here goes noting. My adopted dad
(the only dad I've ever known) passed away on Feb. 18th, 2001 after a year long bought with cancer. About a
month later mom (my adopted mom, that is) was having chest pains so my wife and I took here to the emergency room.
We set up a time to have a scan done of here heart and found out her arteries were blocked big time.
She went in for by-pass surgery the last part of March and then on April 2nd, while still in the hospital, she had
a massive stroke. I was raised an only child, never knew I had brothers or sisters out there somewhere and
for some strange reason mom and dad never did keep me informed about THEIR business. After all of this happened
I didn't know where the deed to the house was, wills, insurance policies, nothing. So,
my wife and I went looking one night. A few months earlier we
found my foot print card from when I was born and the name had been
written over. I took some rubbing alcohol and took off the top name best I
could and saw the name Freels. Growing up in Detroit we'd come down every
summer to visit mom's father (Grandpa Brown) in Sunbright and I knew of
some Freels from around Sunbright so I thought maybe the hospital made a
mistake or something, I didn't give it much thought. Then, the day
before Thanksgiving 2002 we went looking for paperwork again. I came
across adoption papers then I found a paper with my birth fathers name on
it. I was shocked to say the least. My whole life had been a lie,
man, what else didn't I know. Anyway, I got on the net and did some
looking and found a Freels family Genealogy web site and put a post on it. In
a day or two I got an answer from a Virgil Freels from Calif.
and he had a family tree and all e-mailed to me. We did some more digging
and I found out my birth mom (Francis Malenovsky) had died 9 days after I
was born and that I had 6 brothers and 2 sisters and some of them were
still living in Harriman. I took the phone numbers that Virgil had sent
me and got up the nerve to call. Randy's number was disconnected,
the number I had for Sissy was the wrong number. I then came to my last
number, it was for a Roger Craig Freels. I picked up the phone and
called. He answered the phone and I ask him if he was Roger Craig, he
said "Yes", I then told him that I had reason to believe that I was his
brother, Darrell Francis, and did he know who I was. He told me that
all of the family had known about me but papa didn't want them to
call me or have contact with me because he didn't want any of them to mess
up my life. If I found out and wanted to see them it would be ok but
not to mess with my life. Anyway, long story short, we made a time to
meet and Lou, Sissy, Craig and Mike came by and we sat and talked for
about 3 hours. We seemed to get along right off, like we'd known
each other all of our life. I guess genetics have something to do with it.
I later met more of the family, including crazy Uncle Tony and
Bernard, those guys are really cool, can't wait to go fishing with them. We
all just seemed to bond right off. Funny thing is I never really
felt that I fit in with my adopted mom's family but I do fit in with the
Freels/Malenovsky bunch. Strange how that works, isn't it. Anyway,
that's the Readers Digest version of my story. I plan on going to the
Freels family reunion in the spring if I can and I'd like to go to the
Malenovsky reunion too if I get the chance. I'd also like to find Steward
Kendall, he was adopted out same as I was and he found out in '82
when Guy was killed in the car wreck. Guess from what I've been told he
didn't take it too well, I'd hope he'd be over it by now. I'd like to see
what he looks like because from the pictures I've seen I look a lot like
Guy did so with only one year apart Kenny and I should look a lot
alike as well. His adopted name is John Kendall Butler from what I've
found out and he was in Ohio but someone said he might be back in the E.
Tennessee area now. Anyway, enough jawin' for now. I'd like to save
some for when we meet in person. Talk to ya' later, your Cuz, Darrell
-----Original Message-----
From: jseymou2@columbus.rr.com
Sent:Thursday, January 23, 2003
To: Darrell Harvey dfharvey@citlink.net
Subject: FW: Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Wow. If I wasn't related or didn't know anyone you were talking about, I would
think this was some kind of early morning talk show story. What an amazing
story. I'm glad and sad all at the same time. Glad you found us and sad how you
found out. What happened after the stroke your adopted Mother? Did she pass
away? If she is still with us, did you confront her? Did you confront your
adopted Mother's family? I'm sure they knew, didn't they? Were you angry? I keep
picturing how I would have felt, but I guess that, unless you lived it, you
would only guess as to how one would handle it. My mom and I were talking about
it last night, Julia (Malenovsky) Aunt Julia Seymour to you. And she said when
your brother Guy died, John Kendall Butler was at his funeral because it was a
small town and everyone knew everybody, and I guess someone told John, "don't
you know who that is?" and they said, "Guy was your brother" I guess that is how
John found out. Or Stewart. What are we calling him anyways? John or Stewart? I
found this on an internet Forum in Tennessee dated 20 Aug. 2002.
“Searching for
the birth parents of "John Kendall Butler.” My
father was born around 1960 in Kingsport Tennessee. I was told his
mother died shortly after having him. He was one of several children. He was
then adopted by a family by the last name of Butler. He goes by the name of John
Kendall Butler. I was thinking that maybe Kendall was his real birth surname but
not sure. Any help will be appreciated. Rose Gross"
Who is Rose? I
sent her an email trying to find out who she is. Maybe you know.
Darrell, I
would like to post your story on the Malenovsky web.
www.malenovsky.com If that's ok with you. I won't do anything until I hear
back from you. I'm not sure what you know about me, seeing as I posted a lot of it on the web site, but I
have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Sometimes I wish I were adopted. I see I haven’t
finished the web site as far as pages that are posted. I stopped at page 4 on
the Malenovsky book. I think there are many more to go. I’ll see what I can do
as far as finishing that mess. Do you think you could send me some photo’s of
you and your wife? Her birth date and your date of marriage. I’ll make mention
of the rest of your immediate family under your name too. For now, take care.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Darrell Harvey dfharvey@citlink.net
Sent:Thursday, January 23, 2003 11:35 AM
To: jseymou2@columbus.rr.com
Subject: Re: FW: Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Howdy John. I wasn't angry when I found out but it did
confuse me a bit. All my life I grew up thinking I was an only
child and that my Aunts and Uncles were my blood kin. I talked to my Aunt Sarah and Uncle Norman (one
of moms younger brothers) they both knew that I had been adopted. It's
a strange feeling to know now that people who I thought were blood
relatives aren't and that my "mom" and "dad" aren't really my blood mother
and father. I don't have any regrets though because I have had a good
live. From what Craig has told me they grew up poor with barley enough
food to eat. I've always had plenty of food and a good, warm
house to sleep in so I'm not angry at anyone, I think I got a pretty good
deal out of being adopted. I do wish my mom and dad would have sit me
down when I was 18 or even 21 and talked to me about it. That would
have given me that many more years to get to know my blood relations but
I guess like they say "All in Gods good time." I
quite my job and have been taking care of mom since her stroke. Sometimes it
really gets to ya' but you just do what you have to do. She can't
speak, read or write and she is paralyzed on her right side so she can't get
up and move around. Because of the stroke she gets "sundowners
syndrome" were she will cry for no reason. You
can print my story if you'd like to, I think it might be interesting
to others who have been adopted to read how I found out and how my birth
family embraced me upon my return to the family. It might give hope to
someone who has just found out and needs an extra push to contact their
birth family. As for
Rose Gross, the name doesn't ring any bells. She got the part about
his mom dying after giving birth to him wrong because she was still alive
to have me about a year later. It could be that John had a child out of
wedlock with a woman who's last name was Gross. I also would have
guess that John would have been born in Harriman same as the rest of us.
As far as the way he found out he was adopted, that would be a hard way,
at a funeral and all. As
for photos of me and the wife, give me some time to get some "good" ones
made up. I will send you some pictures so you can put them on the web
site if you want too. I'm planning on getting a Lexmark Print Trio so
I could scan some into the 'puter and e-mail em' to you. I'll be sure
to keep the file size on the small size so it won't take a day and two
nights to open the e-mail. I also see you are into the IT end of things
where you work. I graduated from DeVry Phoenix in '83 with an
Electronic Tech. Cert. and last year I took the A+ Cert. course at the local
Tech. School here in Crossville so I'm kind of "up" on computers.
In fact the A+ course helped me decide to get a new iMac instead of
building my own PC. I really love my Mac, it works all the time, not
like the PC I used to own. Plus it takes up a lot less desk space. Now if
I could just beat the Chess game that came with it. Anyway, guess
I've talked your ear off again. This will be a lot easier when we can
just sit down and talk, I won't have to type or use "spell check" so
darn much, LOL. Talk at ya' later. Darrell