Ruby’s search

*All names have been changed.

Search goal: Identify Ruby’s biological parents

Ruby reached out for help identifying her biological parents. She only had her adoption order papers, had done a 23andMe DNA test, and knew the approximate age of her biological mother. Ruby was waiting to receive the rest of her adoption information, and planned to do an AncestryDNA test too. In the meantime, I offered to take a look at her 23andMe results to see if I could find anything while we waited for her info and AncestryDNA results.

Ruby’s adoption order had her birth name (Megan T) but nothing else. I figured her birth last name likely started with a T, so her bio mom’s last name likely started with a T as well. Ruby mentioned having a lot of matches on one parent’s side, including some close ones, that she figured was likely her paternal side, but noted that there was not many matches on the other parent’s side.

We got things set up so I could take a look at her 23andMe matches. On a spreadsheet I made a list of all the matches on the first two pages of her results. Next, I looked at them to see who matched who and sorted the matches into three groups.

Ruby had one close family type match that she figured was likely a paternal uncle, as well as some cousins. Their last name was Barham, so I agreed with her that this was likely going to be the paternal side. Her uncle had three brothers, two that were older than him, and one that would have been only a child, at the time Ruby was born, so we reasoned Ruby’s biological father was going to be either John or Greg Barham.

With that side mostly sorted out I looked at the largest maternal side match group. I could easily see that they were going to be connected by the last name Creighton and the family was from the same area of the province that the Barhams were from. I started to tree surf the Creighton family and see if I could find any that married a family with the last name that started with T. The closest useable match in the Creighton match group was about 150cm and was likely going to be around a second cousin once removed type relative to Ruby.

I also took a look at the smaller maternal match group, and their common last name connecting them was Sinclair, from a specific county not too far away from where the Creightons and Barhams were from.

After about half an hour of tree surfing Creighton family trees on Ancestry, I found something that caught my eye. A lady from the Creighton family had married a man with the last name Thayer, and that man had a grandmother with the last name Sinclair from the specific county Ruby’s Sinclair matches had ancestors from. The Creighton/Thayer couple had three daughters, and one was roughly the age Ruby’s biological mother was thought to be when Ruby was born. She had died in the 1970s, but there was a strong resemblance to Ruby.

I found Jane Thayer, the only living daughter of the Creighton/Thayer couple, and sent her contact information to Ruby.

Ruby reached out to Jane, and within an hour, Jane had replied and confirmed that she was Ruby’s biological aunt. She confirmed which of her sisters was Ruby’s biological mother and even had the adoption paperwork from her sister who had tried to find Ruby before she had passed away. Jane was also able to confirm that Greg Barham was Ruby’s biological father, and he was still alive.

Ruby is amazed at how quick the search was, especially with such little information known, as it only took less than 24 hours from start to finish. She looks forward to getting to know her new bio family members.