The social worker said no. The judge said no. The local phone books were useless. <\/p>\n
For decades, no one and nothing could help Sue Warthen find the people who gave birth to her in the mid-1960s. <\/p>\n
Then her adoptive mother encouraged Mrs. Warthens new husband, Rob, a computer whiz, to see what he could do. <\/p>\n
He built a computer program that permitted him to build out family trees, and he asked his wife to swab her cheek and send her DNA to a genealogy company. <\/p>\n
Mr. Warthen put her results into his program, worked with a search angel named Karin Corbeil, and found a trail that led to Mrs. Warthens birth mother. <\/p>\n
Additional investigative work may now have led to her birth father too. <\/p>\n
Ive always wanted to know where I actually came from that I wasnt simply dropped off, said Mrs. Warthen, who was adopted in Maryland when she was a few months old and has been looking for her birth family since the early 1980s, when she turned 18. <\/p>\n
Today, hundreds, if not thousands, of adoptees have used DNA genealogy companies like Family Tree DNA, 23andMe and Ancestry.com to jump over bureaucratic barriers and find members of their genetic families. <\/p>\n
People sometimes say we cant do it unless theres close DNA matches, but thats not true we can do it with distant ones too, said CeCe Moore, a professional genetic genealogist who has appeared on Finding Your Roots with Henry L. Gates Jr. on PBS. <\/p>\n
Even foundlings can find their birth relatives, Ms. Moore said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Visit link: The social worker said no. The judge said no Continue reading
\nDNA genealogy companies help adoptees find their roots<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"