This list is being created for adoptees and birth parents who adoptions were handled through Attorney Helen Tanos Hope.

Helen Tanos Hope was a lawyer that handled many of the private adoptions in FL, from the 60's to early 90's. Most of these children were born in South Florida from the Keys to the West Palm Beach area (though there have been adoptions reported through-out the state.) Many (not all) of these children were placed with Jewish families in the NY/NJ area. Some of the adoptions were finalized in Mexico, in an effort to hasten things or to protect the privacy of the adoptive families.

Helen Hope is now deceased, dying of cancer under an assumed name in Gainesville, FL. Her adoption records, which were found in a dumpster after her death, were placed in the possession of another attorney:

Linda McIntyre-98 SE 6th Ave., Delray Beach, FL. However, the records have now been turned over to the Florida Department of Children & Families.

Though there is much talk of Helen Tanos Hope being involved in "black market" adoptions, it seems this may be highly exaggerated. I have yet to hear one incidence where those accusations were confirmed. While some of the adoptions she was involved in were in fact what most would consider shady, in most instances they fell just inside the law. The "Hope" birth mother's and adoptees that I know all had accurate information. NONE of the DOB's had been changed.

In all the cases that have come through FloridaSearchAngels (as well as across my desk)it appears Helen Tanos Hope kept records of non-id, and filed the appropriate papers with the courts. Even when it would have profited her the most to operate outside of the law (i.e. her daughter's adoption), non-id and a paper trail was available, and her daughter has since been reunited.