Can there be anything more life changing than being reunited with your birth family? For the millions of people who were adopted as infants in the decades after WWII and have longed to know more about their heritage, the field of DNA testing offers great promise. Many people are finally getting the answers they've longed for all their lives. Geraldine Berger is a professional genetic genealogist who specializes in helping adult adoptees identify and locate their birth parents and other family members using DNA evidence. An adoptee herself, Gerri has cracked hundreds of cases, including her own. She is the author of the book “Living in the Know: The Adoptee's Quick Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing.”

Topics include:

• Helping adoptive parents understand that “no one can love you out of your need to know who you are and where you come from.”
• The “Baby Scoop” era from the ‘40’s to the ‘70’s when many infants born to unwed mothers were surrendered for adoption.
• Only 10 states give adoptees the right to their birth records with complete information.
• The first step: registering with a mutual consent registry.
• Taking the DNA test and uploading results
• The unexpected things we inherit from our birth parents
• Gerri’s cautious approach to newly discovered birth parents
• Solving the mystery of the baby abandoned in a hotel room in 1944—and what remains unknown.

Resources:

Gerri’s website: The Genetic Genealogy Coach

Living in the Know: The Adoptees Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing by Geraldine Berger

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