Including More Than 450 Adoptee-Recommended Titles!

Books about DNA Testing/Genetic Genealogy

  • A Family Apart: Sleuthing the Mysteries of Abandonment, Adoption and DNA

    A Family Apart: Sleuthing the Mysteries of Abandonment, Adoption and DNA

    by Craig A. Steffen

    A Family Apart: Sleuthing the Mysteries of Abandonment, Adoption and DNA is a fascinating ride into the methodical quest of an orphan to uncover the truth about his origins. Even more, this book delves into the questions that come from being uncertain about the realities…

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  • A Twenty Year Journey: An Adoptee’s Search for Answers

    A Twenty Year Journey: An Adoptee’s Search for Answers

    by Cathryn B. Stanley

    Secrets, sacrifice, lies, love, abandonment, acceptance, grief, joy, regret, jubilation, and fortitude are nestled within the pages of A Twenty-Year Journey. Join me as I share the twists and turns of my pilgrimage with you. Incredibly my circle of existence is quite small, yet the…

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  • Accidental Sisters: The Story of My 52-Year Wait to Meet My Biological Sibling

    Accidental Sisters: The Story of My 52-Year Wait to Meet My Biological Sibling

    by Katherine Linn Caire

    Relinquished at birth to Catholic Charities in 1959, Kathe Linn Caire adores her adoptive family and has never considered searching for her birth parents. At age fifty-two, though, a sudden pull to learn more about her medical history sends her on an unexpected journey. Kathe…

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  • Almost Home: A Memoir

    Almost Home: A Memoir

    by Hilary Harper

    While snooping in a closet as an adolescent, Hilary Harper discovers a secret: her parents are not her parents. Documents reveal her mother to be a vague, distant relative who died in a car crash. Her father is “unknown.” Vividly depicting the suburban Detroit neighborhood…

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  • Daughter Reassembled: An Adoption Search and Reunion Memoir

    Daughter Reassembled: An Adoption Search and Reunion Memoir

    by Pam Cates

    Pam Cates had led a charmed life. As a mother, wife, daughter, sister, and artist, she had everything she’d always dreamed of–a big house in the country, a wonderful husband, lovely daughter, her parents living next door, and time to paint and garden. She always…

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  • Decoding Our Origins: The Lived Experiences of Colombian Adoptees

    Decoding Our Origins: The Lived Experiences of Colombian Adoptees

    Edited by Abby Forero-Hilty

    Decoding Our Origins: The Lived Experiences of Colombian Adoptees is written by seventeen authors who were born in Colombia and adopted internationally. Their individual stories illustrate different aspects of the transracial adoption experience. The traumatic loss of their mothers, culture and identities; racism; and severe…

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  • Faith, Hope & Perseverance: An Adoptee’s Journey To Finding Biological Family

    Faith, Hope & Perseverance: An Adoptee’s Journey To Finding Biological Family

    by Diane Gray

    It is our human right to know who we are. After her adoptive parents passed away, Diane decided to take the DNA plunge to find her biological family. Learn how she found her biological family after years of wondering who she was and why she…

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  • Family Found: The DNA Journey

    Family Found: The DNA Journey

    by Douglas M. Dubrish

    I am grateful being adopted as a toddler and having an early life of mostly fond memories. My adoptive mother had passed, and my adoptive father remarried. I had a good career and a family of my own. But, being adopted nagged at me. I…

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  • Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

    Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

    by Richard Hill

    Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA is the highly suspenseful account of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records. This fascinating quest, including the author’s landmark use of DNA testing, takes readers on an…

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  • Found: Adopted Friends Search for their Birth Families

    Found: Adopted Friends Search for their Birth Families

    by Trish Diggins and Sherri Craig-Evans

    Lifelong friends–both adoptees–decided they would take a chance and search for their birth parents using online DNA kits and social media. It turns out, that was the easy part. What happened over the next five years was much more difficult–trying to forge relationships with a…

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  • Guide to DNA Testing: How to Identify Ancestors, Confirm Relationships, and Measure Ethnic Ancestry through DNA Testing

    Guide to DNA Testing: How to Identify Ancestors, Confirm Relationships, and Measure Ethnic Ancestry through DNA Testing

    by Richard Hill

    The price of some powerful new genetic genealogy tests has dropped below $100. Genealogists and adoptees are using them and other DNA tests to identify ancestors, confirm relationships, and measure their ethnicity. Unfortunately, there are many similar sounding tests and some of them have different…

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  • Living in the Know: The Adoptee’s Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing

    Living in the Know: The Adoptee’s Quick-Start Guide to Finding Family with DNA Testing

    by Geraldine Berger

    Part memoir, part quick-start guide, Geraldine Berger, “The Genetic Genealogy Coach,” shares her own journey to living in the know. The search for her birth parents spanned a cumulative thirty-four years, due to sealed records, aliases and other erroneous information. Berger tells you which DNA tests…

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  • Memoirs of an Adoptee: One Person’s DNA Discoveries, Reflections and Insights

    Memoirs of an Adoptee: One Person’s DNA Discoveries, Reflections and Insights

    by Craig Harris

    A middle-aged man’s search for his biological family. Having lived his whole life thinking about where he came from, while yearning to understand the missing answers to his self-actualization, DNA matches opened the door for him to get answers from genealogical research. With each discovery,…

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  • My Secret

    My Secret

    by Joanne E. Sayre

    What if you found out that you were adopted and everything you thought you knew about your family, your security, was shattered? My Secret is about my 40 year quest for truth about who I am. But, more than that, this story is about overcoming…

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  • No Returns Without Original Receipt

    No Returns Without Original Receipt

    by Diane McConnell

    Renewed courage after learning the final piece of my true heritage has overcome my life-long fear of telling my story. Every adoptee has the right, and many the need, to discover her or his true history, ancestry and identity. Knowledge gives power and confidence. With…

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  • Out of the Birdcage: Memoirs of an Adoptee

    Out of the Birdcage: Memoirs of an Adoptee

    by JH Dunn

    Based on a true story of an adoptee’s search for identity and purpose. Never quite feeling like she fit in, struggling in relationships, and getting in trouble, until she learns about a group that helps adoptees and birth families search for each other. Searching for…

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  • Paper and Spit: Family Found—How DNA and Genealogy Revealed My First Parents’ Identity

    Paper and Spit: Family Found—How DNA and Genealogy Revealed My First Parents’ Identity

    by Don Anderson

    Like many adoptees, Don Anderson wanted to know where he came from. But would he be setting himself up for disappointment by searching? Would he discover parents who were not alive—or worse, parents who didn’t want to know him? Would he be able to find…

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  • Rooted in Adoption: A Collection of Adoptee Reflections

    Rooted in Adoption: A Collection of Adoptee Reflections

    by Veronica Breaux and Shelby Kilgore

    Rooted in Adoption: A Collection of Adoptee Reflections is a collection of short narratives from those who have been adopted. Adoptees of various ages, backgrounds, and experiences were asked discuss the joys of adoption and the struggles of living a life of secrecy and lost…

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  • Searching For Me: An Adoptee’s Journey of Faith, Family, and Belonging

    Searching For Me: An Adoptee’s Journey of Faith, Family, and Belonging

    by Scott Sullivan

    Being given away for adoption just days after being born left a mystery around Scott Sullivan’s life that tugged at his analytical mind, fueling a sense of self-doubt throughout his introverted life that affected his friendships, his faith, and amplified his insecurities. Hoping to uncover…

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  • Surrounding Sparky: A Gift of Life

    Surrounding Sparky: A Gift of Life

    by Brad Livingood

    The story of one man’s journey to unearth his roots while navigating the complexities of a 1950s adoption, told through the backdrop of American history, raising a young family, and the advent of social media and modern DNA testing. Serendipitous twists and turns are all…

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  • Swabbed & Found: An Adopted Man’s DNA Journey to Discover his Family Tree

    Swabbed & Found: An Adopted Man’s DNA Journey to Discover his Family Tree

    by Frank Billingsley

    As Houston’s beloved KPRC weatherman for more than 20 years, Frank Billingsley seems like a relative to many people. His optimistic presence comes into their homes and reassures that even the gloomiest of rain clouds probably has a silver lining. He has such a way…

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  • Tell No One

    Tell No One

    by Brendan Watkins

    A stunning memoir of one man’s search for his birth parents, which uncovered an astonishing global scandal at the heart of the Catholic Church.Brendan Watkins was eight years old when his parents told him he was adopted. When he was in his late twenties, he…

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  • Thank God I Was Adopted ‘Cause DNA Is No Joke!

    Thank God I Was Adopted ‘Cause DNA Is No Joke!

    by Pekitta Tynes with Janice Young

    Abandoned in a shot house and left without a birth certificate, I was an UNKNOWN. I lived in foster care and later adopted into a wonderful family. After 35-years of searching, I found my biological family through DNA testing. This book is an inspirational journey…

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  • The DNA Guide for Adoptees: How to Use Genealogy and Genetics to Uncover Your Roots, Connect with Your Biological Family, and Better Understand Your Medical History

    The DNA Guide for Adoptees: How to Use Genealogy and Genetics to Uncover Your Roots, Connect with Your Biological Family, and Better Understand Your Medical History

    by Brianne Kirkpatrick and Shannon Combs-Bennett

    This book is for you if you have hope that DNA testing might open up the search for information about yourself, your origins, and your future. We’ve worked hard to compile the resources in this book and explain in plain English how DNA and genealogical…

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  • The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

    The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

    by Blaine T. Bettinger

    Discover the answers to your family history mysteries using the most-cutting edge tool available to genealogists. This plain-English guide, newly revised and expanded, is a one-stop resource on genetic genealogy for family historians. Inside, you’ll learn what DNA tests are available, with up-to-date pros and…

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  • The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me

    The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me

    by Paul Joseph Fronczak and Alex Tresniowski

    The Foundling tells the incredible and inspiring true story of Paul Fronczak, a man who recently discovered via a DNA test that he was not who he thought he was—and set out to solve two fifty-year-old mysteries at once. Along the way he upturned the genealogy…

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  • The Lies That Bind: An Adoptee’s Journey Through Rejection, Redirection, DNA, and Discovery

    The Lies That Bind: An Adoptee’s Journey Through Rejection, Redirection, DNA, and Discovery

    by Laureen Pittman

    Born in a California women’s prison in 1963, Laureen Pittman was relinquished for adoption. As a child, Laureen was conditioned to believe that being adopted didn’t matter. So, it didn’t . . . until it did. Through scraps of information, Laureen stitched together her history –…

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  • Together At Last: Stories of Adoption and Reunion in the Age of DNA

    Together At Last: Stories of Adoption and Reunion in the Age of DNA

    Edited by Paul Lee Cannon, Nancy Lee Blackman, Cerrissa Kim, Katherine Kim, and Linda Papi Rounds

    Together At Last is a collection of first-person stories that explores the intersection of multiple histories: the Korean War, military camptowns, immigration, and transnational adoption. Taken together, they challenge us to rethink the legacies of the un-ended Korean War and re-evaluate the foundational role that…

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