I wonder, are any of you also adopted?

[derAlte]

I was not adopted, but as a step-child for most of my growing up years, not feeling like I really belonged inspired my decades-long passion for genealogy. I wanted to know how I personally fit into the history of the world and, after four decades of working on it, I now know. I also know how my children and grandchildren do as well. It’s a story almost too wild to be true. I never knew my relatives would have roots in Mexico, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Native America, as well as Northern and Southern Europe. We just need an Australian Aborigine and someone from the Indian subcontinent and we’ll have the whole world covered. I’ll have to have a word with my grandkids when they get a little older!

Several years ago I discovered another useful tool in my research…DNA testing. I’ve had my whole family done and this has led to another fun hobby. The company I tested with provides you with those in their database who have matching DNA. Several matches have turned out to be adoptees who are looking for their birth parents.

Twice now, I have been able to help two 4th cousins track down their birth parents just by triangulating how our mutual matches connect. It’s fun for me, but very bittersweet for the adoptees. One must be very sensitive to their feelings, as well as those of still-living parents who for various reasons gave their children up for adoption.

The DNA thing can reveal all sorts of surprises and one must be open to whatever the truth is because DNA doesn’t lie.

I had a great-great-great grandmother who suddenly appears in the records of 1850s Oregon. We know nothing else about her. I realized one day that one of my mother’s first cousins carried this woman’s mitochondrial DNA. I speculated that perhaps my mysterious ancestor was Native American and her mitochondrial DNA would confirm my suspicion. My mother’s cousin was (and still is) a game old gal and enthusiastically agreed to submit a DNA test at my expense.

We ultimately discovered that the mysterious ancestor was of European ancestry. But to my shock and dismay, we also discovered the man who had raised her and loved her as his own was not her biological father. I felt like dog meat having to tell her this. It came out that she had suspected it for years as she didn’t physically resemble her siblings. I felt duty-bound to give my dear relative some answers. To make a long story short, I was able to triangulate between her DNA matches and we were able to narrow down her father to one of three long-dead brothers. We contacted two complete strangers who were their elderly children. Both graciously agreed to DNA test, and one of them turned out to be her half-sister. Now in her eighth decade, my mother’s cousin has an answer to a question that has nagged her all her life.

I tell you all this to encourage adoptees to try DNA testing if you want some answers. I just about guarantee you’ll get some. I recommend 23andMe as a DNA testing company because they provide you with more information than others. If you are male, knowing your Y-DNA haplogroup as well has your mitochondrial haplogroup is really useful information when trying to track down lost parents. 23andMe provides this. If you want to know more, PM me.