Finding Biological Family

[goofytinkerbell]

I'm not sure this is the correct place for this, but maybe if it's not someone can help me move the thread.

Long story short, my Dad doesn't know who his biological father is. We had a bit of information, but some of that has been called into question. The information we think we have is:
His name
Possibly his country of birth (it's almost certainly one of two)
We think he was born AFTER a specific year
A province he probably lived in
Another province he probably lived in around a certain year. This was on the border, so it could have been one of two towns (so in one country or the other) and he may have just been passing through or there for a short period of time.

Does anyone have ANY idea of how I might be able to start looking for him? Resources, anything? Free is better, as resources are VERY limited.

It's likely he's no longer alive, and he probably died without knowing he had a son here. We don't want anything from his family, just want to see if we have more relatives out there. Dad's not even sure he wants to contact anyone if we do find them, but I think he needs to know.

 

[MamaLema]

I’m of no help but good luck on your journey. I’m in a similar situation with a lot less information than you have.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

I’m of no help but good luck on your journey. I’m in a similar situation with a lot less information than you have.

Thanks! I'm not expecting to get far. Up until now we had much less info and some of that was wrong. We're hoping that at least this is accurate, but the only member who could tell us is dead (and she'd previously lied anyway).

 

[Jangles]

I signed up to 23&me which is cheap and often has offers and sales. A DNA match came up for a gentleman who was predicted to be a son of one of my paternal Grandmother’s brothers. Like your Father this gentleman just wanted to know who he was and nothing more. He is 89 now and had been searching for many years. With the help of the DNA match, various cousins and the information we could share he was able to identify his Father with some certainty and I shared some old family photographs with him , which gave him some comfort.
Just a thought. Some ancestry sites are more popular in certain countries, so you may wish to look into that before signing up to one.
Good luck with your search.

 

[Hopeful8]

Good morning! I am a genealogy researcher and my advice is to do a DNA test. Since you are limited in funds, that would probably be your least expensive avenue and would get you the farthest along in terms of finding biological family. Once the DNA test results are in, if you use a company like Ancestry, you will find many biological matches and the DNA tells you how close a match you are, first cousin/second cousin etc. Anyone that is 3rd cousin or closer is a very reliable/easier match to find the father. Many of these cousins will have family trees linked to their profile. If you peruse their trees, keep in mind that many amateur genealogists do not always do their trees properly. You should see proof of their evidence/work in their trees (records, etc).
I have done this for my mother in law and had great success in finding out her biological father.
If you get stuck again, you can reach out to me and I can do my best to guide you in the right direction.

 

[bankr63]

I agree with the DNA test. My wife was adopted and had no information on her parentage. She took the test primarily to find out about ancestry (she thought she was Irish, and there was a bit there, but not the predominant ethnicity).

The site (in this case Ancestry) linked her through matching to a cousin who she discretely reached out to. It did make a link back to her mother, although we think that it did also cause some upset at that end, and we never heard back after a small bit of information was exchanged. Be prepared for surprises and upset and be prepared to back away; your grandfather's side may not want to engage.

 

[goofytinkerbell]

I signed up to 23&me which is cheap and often has offers and sales. A DNA match came up for a gentleman who was predicted to be a son of one of my paternal Grandmother’s brothers. Like your Father this gentleman just wanted to know who he was and nothing more. He is 89 now and had been searching for many years. With the help of the DNA match, various cousins and the information we could share he was able to identify his Father with some certainty and I shared some old family photographs with him , which gave him some comfort.
Just a thought. Some ancestry sites are more popular in certain countries, so you may wish to look into that before signing up to one.
Good luck with your search.

Good morning! I am a genealogy researcher and my advice is to do a DNA test. Since you are limited in funds, that would probably be your least expensive avenue and would get you the farthest along in terms of finding biological family. Once the DNA test results are in, if you use a company like Ancestry, you will find many biological matches and the DNA tells you how close a match you are, first cousin/second cousin etc. Anyone that is 3rd cousin or closer is a very reliable/easier match to find the father. Many of these cousins will have family trees linked to their profile. If you peruse their trees, keep in mind that many amateur genealogists do not always do their trees properly. You should see proof of their evidence/work in their trees (records, etc).
I have done this for my mother in law and had great success in finding out her biological father.
If you get stuck again, you can reach out to me and I can do my best to guide you in the right direction.

I agree with the DNA test. My wife was adopted and had no information on her parentage. She took the test primarily to find out about ancestry (she thought she was Irish, and there was a bit there, but not the predominant ethnicity).

The site (in this case Ancestry) linked her through matching to a cousin who she discretely reached out to. It did make a link back to her mother, although we think that it did also cause some upset at that end, and we never heard back after a small bit of information was exchanged. Be prepared for surprises and upset and be prepared to back away; your grandfather's side may not want to engage.

Though I appreciate the DNA test suggestion, it's probably going to be a last resort. There's not enough regulations around what companies can do with that information fore me to feel comfortable with. I'm not entirely opposed, but I would feel better if there were clear cut regulations in place. If I can't find anything, I'll make the suggestion to Dad again. I'd mentioned it a few years back and he ruled it out based on cost alone

I'd had a trial membership to one of those family tree sites (I think it was Ancestry) and quicky discovered that most of the information about my family was wildly incorrect and gave up on that pretty quickly. It's been a few years though, so I may try it again. I just need work to slack off a bit so I'm not working stupid hours.

When I was talking to my mother earlier I meant to ask if they had any paperwork at all (even if they've never looked at it), but the latest disaster distracted us. I'd like to try and at least confirm any of the info we do have.

 

[2Lunds]

Though I appreciate the DNA test suggestion, it's probably going to be a last resort. There's not enough regulations around what companies can do with that information fore me to feel comfortable with. I'm not entirely opposed, but I would feel better if there were clear cut regulations in place. If I can't find anything, I'll make the suggestion to Dad again. I'd mentioned it a few years back and he ruled it out based on cost alone

I'd had a trial membership to one of those family tree sites (I think it was Ancestry) and quicky discovered that most of the information about my family was wildly incorrect and gave up on that pretty quickly. It's been a few years though, so I may try it again. I just need work to slack off a bit so I'm not working stupid hours.

When I was talking to my mother earlier I meant to ask if they had any paperwork at all (even if they've never looked at it), but the latest disaster distracted us. I'd like to try and at least confirm any of the info we do have.

Try taking a look at the census section on Ancestry for the town(s) you suspect his father may be from (rather than the client-built family trees). The most recent census available is 1926 - depending on his age you might find the father as a child on one of them - or at the very least members with the same family name - maybe you'll get lucky and he was a junior, making it easy to find HIS father...

 

[goofytinkerbell]

Try taking a look at the census section on Ancestry for the town(s) you suspect his father may be from (rather than the client-built family trees). The most recent census available is 1926 - depending on his age you might find the father as a child on one of them - or at the very least members with the same family name - maybe you'll get lucky and he was a junior, making it easy to find HIS father...

That's a great suggestion that I hadn't considered, thanks! I'm not sure where he was born, but I can start with places that we're pretty sure he's been