Amanda’s search

*All names have been changed.

Search goal: Find Amanda’s biological parents

Amanda is an adoptee that reached out for help finding her biological parents. She had some non-identifying information about both of them, and knew her biological mother’s last name. So as I always do, I took a look at her AncestryDNA matches and got to work.

Her matches split into an even four groups representing all four of her grandparents, and I quickly found the common last name for all the groups. Her top match looked to be a first cousin from Amanda’s maternal grandfather’s side, so I built out the tree and found the couple that was Amanda’s maternal grandparents. With help from another searcher Sarah, we found a few relatives on Facebook including an uncle, but were unable to find a profile for Amanda’s biological mother.

I switched tracks and looked at the paternal groups, and also quickly found the couple I figured were Amanda’s paternal grandparents. They had two daughters and only one son, making it very easy to figure out. Amanda then shared with me the non-identifying information she had, which aligned perfectly with this family. Similarly, I was not able to find her biological father on Facebook, but found his wife as well as other relatives. Sarah noticed that Amanda’s biological father’s wife was friends with Amanda’s maternal uncle.

A few hours later, Amanda surprised me by sharing she had been in touch with both her biological parents, who in fact had gone on to get married and were still together! (The reason we did not figure this out was because of uncertainty about Amanda’s biological mother’s first name). Amanda was very happy and pleased at such quick results.