[euram]

My grandmother was born in 1889 and adopted later that same year. We never had any idea who her biological parents were, and neither did she. I had my 96-year-old mother take the ancestry DNA test in August. Within 3 weeks of receiving her results, I had identified both of my grandmother’s biological parents, thanks to several 2nd and 3rd cousin matches.

So, if you have a similar family mystery, DNA testing is the way to go. It is also good for verifying your paper genealogical research.

You can take your ancestrydna raw results, and upload them to myheritage, familytreedna, and gedmatch, and get more matches. Gedmatch is the database that the cops have been using to help crack cold cases. They can’t access ancestry without a warrant, I’m not sure about myheritage and familytreedna.

[Verginius Rufus]

I have a distant cousin in Australia who was adopted at birth--she showed up as a match on two different companies. She knew only the name of the village where her mother was born and a nickname used by the family (not the actual surname). She didn't even find out that she was adopted until she was 21. Both of her adoptive parents are dead. Working together with a couple of her other DNA matches we were able to help her find her birth mother about a year ago and they had a very happy reunion. So I was happy to be able to help in making that happen.

The daughter is about 61 and a grandmother--for 40 years she had wondered who her birth mother was and was afraid she would never find her. Her mother not only got to meet the baby she had been pressured into giving up (the conception was because of a rape) but also grandchildren and great-grandchildren she had not known about.