Beatrice’s search

Search goal: Find Beatrice’s biological parents.

*All names have been changed.

Beatrice is an adoptee born in BC who reached out last week for help with her search. While I was on vacation, I offered to help her out as she had a few high matches. She also said she knew her birth father’s last name was White, and the province he was from, so I kept that in mind as I started the search.

Her matches split into several groups easily and I was able to put together a research tree quite quickly. As I narrowed down her presumed paternal side, I became a bit stuck. A man named Theodore White, who I figured Beatrice was a grandchild of, seemingly had no sons. Likewise, on the presumed maternal side of the tree, I narrowed one of Beatrice’s parents down to four brothers who did not have any sisters. I wondered if things were in fact switched around and the Whites were actually Beatrice’s maternal side.

A week went by and I felt like I had hit a dead end. Then I got a message on Ancestry from a man named John who said that I had his wife’s biological parents in Beatrice’s research tree. He wanted to know what information I had on Theodore White. I eagerly messaged John back, telling him what I knew, including my theories that Beatrice’s birthmother was likely a child of Theodore White. John replied the next day with some astonishing information- his wife was Beatrice’s full aunt! Theodore White was Beatrice’s aunt and mother’s biological father. After a phone call, I learned that Beatrice’s mother and aunt were placed for adoption when they were born, and reunited many years ago- Beatrice’s aunt knew that her sister had had Beatrice. They also knew who Beatrice’s biological father was, and it was indeed one of the four brothers I had narrowed it down to. I had been correct in thinking that the sides were switched.

Later that day, John and his wife spoke to Beatrice, and then helped Beatrice get in contact with her biological mother. Beatrice now has many new half and three-quarter siblings, and will now be able to get more health information that she was looking for. A big thanks to John and his wife for helping out with this one- it is always SO great when a relative finds a tree of someone I am helping.