Using DNA for Adoption & Unknown Parentage Work

Adoption and unknown (or misattributed) parentage events—whether recent or in the past—can challenge genealogists. DNA can be a powerful tool for finding birth families. We’ll cover techniques and resources for this work. 

Outline:

1. Review of laws affecting adoptees’ access to their birth information
2. Steps for using DNA for adoption work
3. Predicting matches’ relationships based on amount of shared DNA
4. Finding related matches: shared matches/in-common-with matches
5. Reviewing matches’ trees—finding common ancestors
6. Building trees back and forward in time
7. Developing and testing hypotheses for the unknown parent(s)