If you were separated from your young child...

[PeanutButterMom]

I'd know my daughter by the laugh twinkle in her eye that she gets from me and by the fact that every other part of her looks exactly like my beautiful wife. I'd know her by the way her lip quivers when she cries; it did it the first time I saw her a second after she was born and it hasn't changed one iota since that day. I'd know my son because it is like looking in a mirror, and because the way he wiggles his bottom, ever since birth, is so unique it could be a fingerprint. I'd know him because he has a heart-shaped birthmark on his neck that we call his angle kiss, since every doctor told us he wouldn't survive birth, yet he thrives today.

Holy Cow :crying:

 

[luvmyfam444]

Gosh y'all have made me doubt myself. I would think I would recognize them without a doubt, but if I couldn't talk with them, I'm not sure I would. If their hair had been died, cut differently, I just don't know. I'm really bad @ seeing things like that - I used to not even recognize people if they were wearing their sunglasses! I've seen a couple pics of friends that dramatically changed their hair color - brunette to blonde - & I don't now if I would know them if I bummed into them or not.

As far as beauty marks, I believe all 3 of mine have the exact same mark as I do on their arm. But would I remember to ck that?

I lk @ pics now & my kids look just like their baby pics - so in 8 months I'd say definitely I'd recognize them. I may not know there names though my memory is getting really bad!

 

[SC Minnie]

I would recognize DD. One of her ears is shaped like mine and one is shaped like DH's. Her feet are shaped just like DH's. She has a small scar on her lip from her first surgery at 18 months. Those are only the obvious things that someone could see.

 

[ckay87]

Hey, everyone pretty much agreed with what I thought as well. Can I expand on the question and ask.... because I think this one is a little trickier....would your child recognize YOU?

It was discovered, almost a century later, that the boy was was not Bobby. So I wonder why little Bobby did not, at any point, recognize the woman who WAS his mom? At all? I wonder if he did say something and that's just been kept out of the story. Maybe a little boy would be less capable of being so certain when reunited with his mom, but with so many strangers surrounding him, wouldn't he be able to point out one familiar face?

I think this alone almost proves that it came down to money and status. I just think at some point the boy must have said who he recognized, OR...he wasn't even asked.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

But at that point the little one had been living with his new family for a while, and hadn't seen his mom for more than a year.

I don't think Julia Anderson was allowed to get close enough to examine things like feet and small scars. She had that opportunity later and did say she knew it was him, but not at the initial ID where she wasn't sure.

 

[Sultana]

It happened a long time ago, and I think the setting in which it happened also contributed into the real mom not being sure.

We have all seen line-ups on TV. We know more or less what the process is, etc.
But I guess that poor woman had no idea what was going to happen, and that combined with her grief from having lost her boy must have made her stressed out. A lot of stress, probably no pictures, 8 months, ... She is not sure.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Hey, everyone pretty much agreed with what I thought as well. Can I expand on the question and ask.... because I think this one is a little trickier....would your child recognize YOU?

It was discovered, almost a century later, that the boy was was not Bobby. So I wonder why little Bobby did not, at any point, recognize the woman who WAS his mom? At all? I wonder if he did say something and that's just been kept out of the story. Maybe a little boy would be less capable of being so certain when reunited with his mom, but with so many strangers surrounding him, wouldn't he be able to point out one familiar face?

I think this alone almost proves that it came down to money and status. I just think at some point the boy must have said who he recognized, OR...he wasn't even asked.

He had also been living with this handyman for over a year. Chances are he was very confused.

As an adult he told the media that there was a 2nd boy with him on the wagon with the handyman. The boy fell out of the wagon and was killed and supposedly the handyman buried him. That was the only time he ever mentioned this other boy and there was never any evidence of it.

I would think his childhood was very messed up and his memories were confused.


____________________________________

In 1932 when Bobby Dunbar was 24, he was asked to look back on his kidnapping. The Lindbergh baby had been stolen, and some reporters came around for a word with the famous kidnapped child of yesteryear.

"A lot of people still believe I was eaten by an alligator", Bobby said in the interview. "I can assure you I was not." He went on to recount a memory of being with William Walters on the wagon on the road before the arrest before he was recovered by the Dunbars. In the memory, there was another boy with him who fell off the wagon and died and was buried.

There was a theory put forth by the prosecution at the trial that William Walters might have been traveling with two boys, Bobby Dunbar and Bruce Anderson. This would explain why two boys had been lost but only one was found. It would answer the question what happened to Bruce.

19 years later in 1932, Bobby had taken that theory and made it into a memory, a memory which might have served another purpose altogether. If Bobby Dunbar is to fully become Bobby Dunbar, then Bruce Anderson needs to be dead. Maybe it was by settling on this memory, the other boy on the wagon, that he created the legend he needed to begin his new life, his own legend of Bobby Dunbar.

 

[fairestoneofall]

i would know my child.

i did read that he left his mother when he was three and was gone from her for 13 months. i can see how a three-year-old might be confused after that long of a time.

how sad. it would be devastating to know that it was your child and that he was being taken from you.

 

[Myothername]

Wasn't there an Angelina Jolie movie not too long ago with this same premise? I never saw it (not a big Jolie fan) but I remember the trailers.

I saw that movie. It was a similar story also based on a true story. The movie was about a serial killer of children in California.

 

[horseshowmom]

I hate to sound like I see monsters behind every rock, but there are parts of the story that concern me, and I wonder whether the boy was ultimately "rescued" by the Dunbars even though it was eventually proven that he wasn't really Bobby Dunbar.

The wikipedia story states that the mother gave the man permission to take him on was supposed to be a two day trip to visit relatives and that was all. Apparently, he didn't do that. The Anderson boy was taken in Feb 1912 and the Anderson woman didn't see him again for 13 months.

I can't help but wonder whether there was more to the story in why he wanted him. I fully admit that I read nothing that stated that. It just seems very odd to me.

 

[mrsklamc]

Here are pictures; they didn't even look alike, really:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2...case-solomon-bobby-dunbar-and-kidnapping-haun

 

[NotUrsula]

If you knew the community, the outcome wouldn't be all that unbelievable. I do know the community, and the outcome never did surprise me.

St. Landry Parish was a major stop for the Orphan Train in those days. There were a lot of adopted kids in the area who had come off the train. (I knew some of them when I was a kid, though they were quite old by then.) At the time, locals were very strongly indoctrinated in the idea that taking in unwanted and/or disadvantaged children was what a good Catholic should do. The Dunbars were then and still are a prosperous and fairly prominant family, and it is believed locally that if Lessie indeed knew that the boy was not Bobby, she was probably motivated by both grief and by charity. Bruce Anderson's backstory as she knew it was that his mother had given him away to a peddler; he appeared to be an unwanted illegitimate child. He looked enough like Bobby that it was possible to pass him off, and he could replace the child she had lost. The child had been living for the past year and a half with with someone who was essentially homeless; the Dunbar's home must have seemed like a palace to him. I believe that the general consensus there at the time, were it openly known that he was not actually Bobby, would have been that it didn't really matter, because if so the child was in much better circumstances that those into which he was born.

The branch of the Dunbar family who are descended from the man who was supposedly Bobby doesn't really look like the rest of them. Many people who were familiar with the story took that to mean that he was a different child, and that the real Bobby had died at the camp. (What the stories that have come down don't tend to talk much about was the wholesale alligator slaughter that took place when Bobby disappeared. For weeks every gator hunter in the area took the opportunity to go onto others' private land to hunt on the excuse that he was searching for Bobby Dunbar. Even if a hunter had found the remains in a gator he probably would not have admitted it; it was far more lucrative to keep "searching" and harvesting more hides.)

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

If you knew the community, the outcome wouldn't be all that unbelievable. I do know the community, and the outcome never did surprise me.

St. Landry Parish was a major stop for the Orphan Train in those days. There were a lot of adopted kids in the area who had come off the train. (I knew some of them when I was a kid, though they were quite old by then.) At the time, locals were very strongly indoctrinated in the idea that taking in unwanted and/or disadvantaged children was what a good Catholic should do. The Dunbars were then and still are a prosperous and fairly prominant family, and it is believed locally that if Lessie indeed knew that the boy was not Bobby, she was probably motivated by both grief and by charity. Bruce Anderson's backstory as she knew it was that his mother had given him away to a peddler; he appeared to be an unwanted illegitimate child. He looked enough like Bobby that it was possible to pass him off, and he could replace the child she had lost. The child had been living for the past year and a half with with someone who was essentially homeless; the Dunbar's home must have seemed like a palace to him. I believe that the general consensus there at the time, were it openly known that he was not actually Bobby, would have been that it didn't really matter, because if so the child was in much better circumstances that those into which he was born.

The branch of the Dunbar family who are descended from the man who was supposedly Bobby doesn't really look like the rest of them. Many people who were familiar with the story took that to mean that he was a different child, and that the real Bobby had died at the camp. (What the stories that have come down don't tend to talk much about was the wholesale alligator slaughter that took place when Bobby disappeared. For weeks every gator hunter in the area took the opportunity to go onto others' private land to hunt on the excuse that he was searching for Bobby Dunbar. Even if a hunter had found the remains in a gator he probably would not have admitted it; it was far more lucrative to keep "searching" and harvesting more hides.)

Would the community have held the belief that putting an innocent man in jail for kidnapping was justified?

 

[CdnCarrie]

Would the community have held the belief that putting an innocent man in jail for kidnapping was justified?

Well he did kidnap the boy if what Julia Anderson says is correct. She only allowed the man to take the boy for couple days and he kept him for over a year. He was just convicted of kidnapping Bobby not Bruce.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Well he did kidnap the boy if what Julia Anderson says is correct. She only allowed the man to take the boy for couple days and he kept him for over a year. He was just convicted of kidnapping Bobby not Bruce.

She testified in his defense at his trial. Whatever went on between them, it doesn't seem like she understood it to be kidnapping. In the end, after 2 years in jail, it seems that the court agreed with her on this.

 

[horseshowmom]

She testified in his defense at his trial. Whatever went on between them, it doesn't seem like she understood it to be kidnapping. In the end, after 2 years in jail, it seems that the court agreed with her on this.

I know that she testified that the child he had was not Bobby Dunbar but was her son Bruce Anderson - which would, of course, be in his defense since he was actually accused of kidnapping Bobby Dunbar. Essentially, he was NOT guilty of kidnapping Bobby Dunbar, and the court apparently agreed on that. He wasn't charged with kidnapping Bruce Anderson which is what he apparently did per her statement that she had given permission for him to take him for two days while the child was never returned to her.

 

[smitch425]

Wow! Those pictures look nothing alike. The hairline is completely different. A lot of things can change, but your hairline generally remains the same. This is all so very sad.

As to the additional question asked by the OP, I fully believe that my son would know me. He notices when I have a new freckle. We are besties, and half the time he knows what I'm about to say before I even start saying it.

 

[Becky2005]

Gosh y'all have made me doubt myself. I would think I would recognize them without a doubt, but if I couldn't talk with them, I'm not sure I would. If their hair had been died, cut differently, I just don't know. I'm really bad @ seeing things like that - I used to not even recognize people if they were wearing their sunglasses! I've seen a couple pics of friends that dramatically changed their hair color - brunette to blonde - & I don't now if I would know them if I bummed into them or not.

As far as beauty marks, I believe all 3 of mine have the exact same mark as I do on their arm. But would I remember to ck that?

I lk @ pics now & my kids look just like their baby pics - so in 8 months I'd say definitely I'd recognize them. I may not know there names though my memory is getting really bad!

Don't feel bad...this would be me. Even when my kids were infants...except for my 3rd because he had a big head (literally!)...without checking the ID numbers, it would have been possible to have a switched at birth concept with me. My 3rd I always knew it was the correct baby when they brought him in but he was also almost 10 pounds, so he wasn't in the typical tiny infant t-shirts plus he is one that has a birthmark on his hand.

 

[NotUrsula]

Would the community have held the belief that putting an innocent man in jail for kidnapping was justified?

No, I doubt that, but once upon a time it was one of the most corrupt parishes in the state. If the powers that be decided that he needed to be in jail for whatever reason, then in jail he would remain. (I don't believe that the Dunbar family influenced that particular aspect, but there were folks in power at the time who wouldn't have batted an eye at putting the guy in jail just because they didn't like the look of him.)

 

[runsandjumps]

Maybe if they lost a lot of weight and shaved off their hair I guess that might make some parents question themselves. I even see resemblance in my cousins kids so I doubt I would not see the connection.