Birth Parent Search
Being fully welcomed in a loving family is a wonderful thing, but sometimes an adoptee—or his or her biological family—wants to learn what has become of the long-lost relations.
You are Not Alone
What do singer Faith Hill, actor Jack Nicholson and diver Greg Louganis have in common? They were all adopted. Being fully welcomed in a loving family is a wonderful thing, but sometimes an adoptee—or his or her biological family—wants to learn what has become of the long-lost relations.
Finding a lost family member is not an easy task. But fortunately, once a connection is made with someone, DNA tests offer a simple and effective way to confirm suspected kin. This is especially valuable if the adoption records have been sealed, as was common in the 1960s.
Why Adoptees Get DNA Tests
In recent years, interest in genetic testing among adoptees has surged for a number of reasons:
* To find or confirm the identity of birth parents
* To discover unknown sibling DNA test or cousins
* To learn the countries or continents of their ancestry
In some cases, the testing is done for more pragmatic reasons: to learn of any genetic predispositions to illness or disease. And in yet other cases, the adoptee is simply looking to fill an emptiness he or she may feel inside.
At Health Street, I have met countless adoptees who were born to loving families and had no interest or desire to find out who their biological parents are. And yet, in some instances, adoptees from equally loving families, with great relationships with their adoptive parents, are burdened with a lifelong quest to figure out from whence they came. It's hard to predict who among adoptees will feel the burning desire to search out their long lost birth parents.
How Adoptees Can Get DNA Tests
Curious individuals can easily set up appointments for DNA tests, and these can be between the adoptee and his or her long lost siblings, aunts, uncles, and, of course, mothers or fathers.
Taking a DNA test is very simple: the two people don't have to go to the same clinic, as most of the time, the two people are already living in separate parts of the country. Furthermore, it's just a cheek swab test. In most cases, you can even do an at-home test and send it back to us for processing.
By the way, Faith Hill has built a good relationship with her birth mother and birth brother later in life. Jack Nicholson was raised by his grandparents, believing that his real birth mother was actually his sister. And Greg Louganis was given up at birth by his teenage parents; during his adulthood, a man claimed to be his biological father, but whether the claim was ever substantiated is unknown.
If you are among the people that have a deep need to know who your biological relatives are, and you've already done the hard work of finding a possible close relative, then you don't have continue to guess. A DNA test is a powerful yet incredibly simple step you can take to solve the mystery of your birth.
