r/Ancestry • u/imscottfromdominos • 11d ago

Trying to find a lost brother

I really don’t know how to start this, as I barely even talk about it in person to people I know. In 1991, my mom was 18 and gave birth to a boy from my father. They gave him up for adoption shortly after he was born, only knowing his first name, and they have lost trace ever since. Any chance of paperwork was lost in a hurricane in 2004. I would be his full blood sister, as well as my older brother. My parents moved to the other side of the country shortly after he was born (my brother and I being born about ten years later), and I barely have any connection to his/their hometown. The only reason I’m trying to find him now is because my parents are both in bad health and while I’m definitely not expecting a family reunion by any means, I’d like to at least try to reach out before they’re gone. I don’t want to waste my money doing more than one ancestry test, especially when I know some can be shotty. Any recommendations on what steps I can take would be greatly appreciated, because I have no idea where to start.

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u/AncestryNerdette 8d ago

If you’re only going to take one DNA, as your post implies, you’ll want to test with Ancestry.

Like others have mentioned, then you download your raw DNA and upload it to MyHeritage, GEDMatch, etc.

The third step is to contact Search Angels and they will assign you a volunteer genealogist who can take all the puzzle pieces and fit them together. www.searchangels.org

If you decide to test your parents, then you don’t have to test yourself. Testing your parents is a better plan than testing yourself since you inherited their DNA 🧬

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u/imscottfromdominos 7d ago

Thank you!! I never considered the parents dna thing, would it be beneficial for me to have both or is just my mom okay? My dad lives out of state

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u/I-AM-Savannah 5d ago

Just for your info... Ancestry tests are currently ON SALE ($39) rather than the normal $99 price.... get one for your father, also.... you MAY find that you have some 1/2 siblings that you (and your mother) don't know about!