Bair Adoption Case

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Jones,

This appeal is from an order dismissing the petition of Andrew and Patricia Maytea for the adoption of Gerald Bair, the son of George Wilson Bair and his wife, Carol Jean Bair. The petitioners are a childless couple in whose custody Gerald was placed on November 17, 1953, when he was not quite a year old, and with whom he has ever since lived at their home in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

The Mayteas instituted the adoption proceeding on December 20, 1954. They alleged in their petition that Gerald had been abandoned by his natural parents and that the abandonment…