Whichever service you decide to use, I would recommend that you test on both and monitor the websites on a regular basis for new connections. It is important to remember that your connections will change daily as more and more people test. So, while you might have only 3rd and 4th cousins initially, you might log on one day and find that a first cousin or half sibling etc. tested, their results just posted and you now have a much closer connection. In addition, both companies will assist with interpreting your results. Their customer service departments are most helpful.
Birth Search Resources
Table of Contents
Adopted.com
Adopted.com is the world’s largest adoption reunion registry. They offer a simple method to find loved ones separated by adoption, instantly.
Ancestry DNA
Why would I take the AncestryDNA test?
AncestryDNA is a cutting-edge DNA testing service that utilizes some of the latest autosomal testing technology to revolutionize the way you discover your family history. This service combines advanced DNA science with the world’s largest online family history resource to predict your genetic ethnicity and help you find new family connections. It maps ethnicity going back multiple generations and provides insight into such possibilities as: what region of Europe are my ancestors from, or am I likely to have East Asian heritage? AncestryDNA can also help identify relationships with unknown relatives through a dynamic list of DNA matches.
Security & Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. We use industry standard security practices to store your DNA sample, your DNA test results, and other personal data you provide to us. In addition, we store your DNA test results and DNA sample without your name or other common identifying information. You own your DNA data. At any time, you can choose to download raw DNA data, have us delete your DNA test results as described in the AncestryDNA Privacy Statement, or have us destroy your physical DNA saliva sample. We do not share with third parties your name or other common identifying information linked to your genetic data, except as legally required or with your explicit consent.
How do I take the test?
AncestryDNA is a simple saliva test you can do in the comfort of your own home. Once you order, you will receive the AncestryDNA kit in the mail in a matter of days. Your AncestryDNA kit includes full instructions, a saliva collection tube, and a pre-paid return mailer (so you don’t have additional costs to return your DNA.) After returning your sample by just dropping it in the mail, your DNA is processed at the lab. You then receive an email notifying you that your results are ready to explore on the AncestryDNA website.
What will my results tell me?
Your AncestryDNA results include information about your geographic origins across 500 regions and identifies potential relatives through DNA matching to others who have taken the AncestryDNA test. Your results are a great starting point for more family history research, and it can also be a way to dig even deeper into the research you’ve already done.
23 and Me DNA Genetic Testing & Analysis
https://www.23andme.com/?myg02=true
Experience your ancestry in a new way! Get a breakdown of your global ancestry by percentages, connect with DNA relatives and more.
How it Works
It’s just saliva. No blood. No needles.
Our home-based saliva collection kit is all you need to send your DNA to the lab. We have made the process as simple as possible.
Privacy is in our DNA
Everyone deserves a secure, private place to explore and understand their genetics. At 23andMe, we put you in control of deciding what information you want to learn and what information you want to share.
What can your DNA say about your health?
Learn more about your health, traits and ancestry, with a package of 125+ reports that only the 23andMe service offers.
Our lab. CLIA-certified.
Your DNA analysis is performed in US laboratories that are certified to meet CLIA standards—the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988.
A CLIA-certified lab must meet certain quality standards, including qualifications for individuals who perform the test and other standards that ensure the accuracy and reliability of results.
We use leading technology to genotype your DNA—a custom version of the lllumina Global Screening Array.
All from home. No blood. No needles. Just a small saliva sample.
1. Order
Choose from our Health + Ancestry or Ancestry services. Your saliva collection kit is the same for both services and typically arrives within 3 to 5 days. Express shipping is available.
2. Spit
Follow kit instructions to spit in the tube provided — all from home. Register your saliva collection tube using the barcode so we know it belongs to you, and mail it back to our lab in the pre-paid package.
3. Discover
In approximately 3-5 weeks, we will send you an email to let you know your reports are ready in your online account. Log in and start discovering what your DNA says about you.
Additional Resources
Origins Canada in Toronto
https://www.originscanada.org/
Origins Canada is a 100% volunteer-run non-profit organization serving people across Canada who have been separated from family members by adoption.
Origins Aims and Objectives
SUPPORT: To provide confidential support and resources to those separated from their families by adoption in safe and secure environments.
EDUCATION: To provide resources and education to those separated by adoption or for any mother considering an adoption plan. To provide resources to, and to advise, governments, mental health professionals, and others with respect to adoption policies, practices, and adoption trauma.
REUNION: To assist in the reunion of family members separated by adoption.
REDRESS: To seek acknowledgement, validation, accountability and redress for illegal and unethical adoption practices.
RESEARCH: To undertake and promote research into adoption policies and practices past and present.
REFORM: To encourage and promote legislative, social, and administrative reforms that honor and respect the mother-child bond, support the preservation of natural families, meet the needs of those separated by adoption, and abolish reproductive exploitation.
Parent Finders in Ottawa
https://parentfindersottawa.
Parent Finders Ottawa is an Ottawa-based, nonprofit adoption support group. We are managed entirely by volunteers and are the longest running adoption support group in Canada having been founded in 1976.
Our target population is made up of adult adoptees, birth parents and other birth relatives including siblings, as well as fostered adults and adoptive parents. For many years, most of our clients were adoptees. But in the last 10 years, the number of birth parents has increased, particularly birth fathers who have not often been involved in adoption searches in the past.
The adoption community comes from all walks of life and is representative of the population at large. Although we are based in Ottawa, we draw from all over the country and around the world.
Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
http://torontoccas.ca/
Adoption Disclosure
Has your life been touched by adoption? Are you searching for your birth family or adopted child? Many people touched by adoption come to a point in their lives when they want to reconnect with their birth child or birth parents. This is a normal and healthy desire.
If your adoption was finalized in Ontario before September 2008:
- Adopted adults and birth parents can apply for identifying information from birth and adoption records
- If you are an adoptee, this may include identifying information such as your name at birth and the name of one or both of your birth parents
- If you are a birth parent, you may learn the name your child was given at the time of adoption.
- Adopted adults and birth parents can file a disclosure veto if they do not want their identifying information released.
- Adopted adults and birth parents can file a no contact notice if they are not interested in filing a disclosure veto but prefer not to be contacted once their identifying information has been released
- Adopted adults and birth parents interested in contact can file a contact preference specifying how they wish to be contacted once their identifying information has been released
If your adoption was finalized after September 2008, the same provisions apply as noted above with the exception of the disclosure veto. Disclosure vetoes do not apply to adoptions which were finalized as of September 1, 2008.
Other situations:
- If you are a former adoptive parent (you adopted a child who later became a Crown Ward), you can file a disclosure veto, a no contact notice or a contact preference. You may also be eligible for other services.
- If you are an adoptee and have been adopted by more than one family, you will be eligible to receive identifying information about your birth parents as well as your former adoptive parents, unless your adoption was finalized prior to September 2008 and a disclosure veto has been filed.
Adults, birth parents, adoptive parents and birth relatives can also apply for other types of adoption information and services, which include:
- Non-Identifying Information
- Severe Medical Searches
- Placing a Name on the Adoption Disclosure Register
- Copies of Adoption Orders
CCAS, and three other partner agencies deliver the following adoption disclosure services:
CCAS
www.torontoccas.org
416-395-1520
- Prepares non-identifying information on behalf of adult adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and eligible birth relatives. Interpretive counseling offered
- Assists Custodian in confirming eligibility for services such as the Adoption Disclosure Register
- Provides clients with support in applying for the various services available
- Provides support as requested by applicants who have been matched on the Register
- Ensures that information about the current adoption information disclosure legislation is given to prospective adoptive parents as well as birth parents who are considering adoption for their child
SERVICE ONTARIO
www.serviceontario.ca
416-325-8305 | 1-800-461-2156 Gateway to all application forms for services available to adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, and eligible adult birth relatives, including siblings and grandparents:
- Disclosure Vetoes
- Adoption Disclosure Registry
- Update Information or Remove Name from the Adoption Disclosure Register
- Contact Notices
- No-Contact Notices
- Requests for Non-Identifying Information
- Requests for Post Adoption Identifying Information
- Confirmation concerning which CAS was involved in an adoption
CUSTODIAN OF ADOPTION INFO
- Processes applications to the Adoption Disclosure Register
- Liaises with CASs to confirm eligibility of requests to the Register
- Conducts severe medical searches
- Provides copies of redacted Adoption Orders at the request of adoptive parents or adopted adults
- Provides non-identifying information for adoptions that were handled privately
OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL
- Maintains Notice of Contact Preferences
- Maintains No Contact Notices
- Maintains Disclosure Vetoes
- Discloses identifying information accordingly
If you know that the adoption was conducted by CCAS and wish to receive non-identifying background information, please write to us with the following information:
- Your full adopted name
- Birth date
- Your adoptive parents’ full names
- Any birth information that you may have is also helpful, e.g., birth surname
- Birth relatives must provide full name of the birth parent(s), your relationship to the adopted person, adoptee’s birth name and date of birth, if known
- Two pieces of identification, such as a birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, health card, social insurance card, as proof of identity
Please mail your written request and photocopy of two pieces of identification to:
Attn: Adoption Disclosure Services
Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
1880 Birchmount Road, Toronto, ON M1P 2J7
Telephone: 416-395-1520
Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
http://www.torontocas.ca/
Finding your Roots
The Children’s Aid Society of Toronto will provide non-identifying information from our records to adult adopted persons, adoptive parents, birth parents, birth grandparents, birth siblings, birth aunts/uncles and to former Crown Wards.
Adopted people and their birth relatives, click here for an application form for non-identifying information.
Former crown wards, click here for an application form for non-identifying information.
Please be advised that there is a lengthy waiting list for these services.
For more information, please call 416-924-4646 ext. 2590 or email your_roots@TorontoCAS.ca
A reunion support group meets at the agency once a month and is open to anyone involved in a reunion. For more information, please call 416-924-4646 ext. 2590 or email your_roots@TorontoCAS.ca.
Adult adopted persons wishing to obtain a copy of their original birth registration and/or their final adoption order, and birth parents wishing to obtain access to information from their child’s birth records and adoption orders can contact the Ministry of Community and Social Services at Service Ontario or call Service Ontario at 416-325-8305 or toll free at 1-800-461-2156.
Free Canada Adoption/Family Search and Reunion
https://www.facebook.com/
This group is for all Canadian adoptees and their birth families. No Paid Search Agents Allowed! No selling or business of any kind permitted!
G’S Adoption Registry – for US and Canada
http://www.gsadoptionregistry.
For adoptees desiring a reunion with their birth family, or to learn about their medical history and birth family genealogy.
For birth mothers & birth fathers & birth siblings & birth family members desiring a reunion with the adoptee that was given up for adoption. Or to give the adoptee their medical history or birth family genealogy.
Ontario’s Open Records Campaign
In 2009 Ontario became the fourth province in Canada to approve open records. Against much opposition by open records groups, this legislation was later amended to include veto provisions after a legal challenge by three adoptees and one biological father.
Adoption records opened for adoptees and natural parents in Ontario on June 1st, 2009
An adopted person can obtain his or her original Certificate of Live Birth/Birth Registration, with original name and the name and address of natural mother at the time of birth (Note: father’s names rarely appear as “unwed mothers” were routinely told to “leave it blank”).
Natural mothers can obtain a copy of the birth registration and adoption court order showing the adoptive name of the adoptee.
The following records are available for request in Ontario:
1. Vital Statistics Adoption File which includes:
a) Original Certificate of Live Birth/Birth Registration
This will include the name of the natural mother, her address at the time of birth, the name given to the adoptee at birth.
b) Adoption Order
This is the actual adoption order which will show the child’s adopted name, and in some cases the name of the natural mother. The names of Adopters are not released to natural families and may be redacted.
2. Children’s Aid Society Records
Adoptees can obtain non-identifying information about the adoption. This would include social history including ages, physical features, employment. Since social history narratives are created by Social Workers based on the information in the file, they vary from case to case.
To obtain non-identifying information, apply to the Children’s Aid Society which facilitated the adoption.
Adoption File: Mothers can apply to the Children’s Aid Society that processed the adoption. Send a registered letter requesting the contents of your file:
SAMPLE LETTER
Your Address Here
BY REGISTERED MAIL
Date:
Childrens Aid Society of Toronto (Send to the Children’s Aid Society that handled the adoption)
33 Isabella Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1N1
Re: Adoption Records
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am the mother of a child adopted in (Year). Please accept this letter as my formal request for the entire contents of my file related to that adoption. This is not a request for non-identifying information. Following are the particulars:
Date of Birth:
City of Birth:
Hospital:
Name of Mother:
Name given to child at birth:
Adopted Name of child (if known):
Name of Adopted Parents: (if known)
I am requesting the entire contents of the CAS file pertaining to this adoption including but not limited to the following:
1. All legal and other documents including any third party documents
2. All clinical notes of Social worker and any other CAS workers
3. All medical reports and documentation
4. All correspondence
5. All court related documents
6. Entire contents of file
I will look forward to receiving these documents at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours,
3. Hospital Records
Mothers can call the Medical Records department of the hospital in which the birth took place to obtain your hospital chart with respect to prenatal care, labour and delivery, birth, hospital stay, etc. Persons adopted can also obtain their hospital chart with respect to their birth and post natal newborn care.Request Your Records from the Salvation Army Grace Hospital in Toronto
4. Maternity Home Records
Mothers who resided in Maternity Homes may apply to directly to the Home (if still operating) or the religious organization which ran the home for any records which may have survived:
For the Salvation Army Homes contact:
Salvation Army Archives, 26 Howden Road, Scarborough, ON M1R 3E4
Phone: (416) 285-4344
United Church of Canada
3250 Bloor Street West, Ste. 300 Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4
Phone: (416) 231-7680
5. Records Prior to Adoption Act 1921
See Guardianship and Adoption Records – Ontario Archives
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/access/documents/research_guide_223_guardianship_and_adoption.pdf
Once you have obtained the names of your natural parents or the child you lost to adoption, some useful tools for your search include:
- Searching for names using Google or Facebook
- Looking in online phone directories including www.canada411.ca
- Your original birth record indicates where your natural mother and father were born. You can use the phone directory for that city to contact them or other family members to find out where they might currently be living.
- Henderson Directories (“City Directories”) for the city you were born in, or in which your natural parent was born, and for occupations. They can also provide relevant older information on names, addresses, and occupations dating back to 1905. Many cities across Canada had these directories in addition to phone-books. Check local libraries and online sources (e.g., University of Alberta) for copies.
- Check adoption notices in the newspaper after date of completion of adoption. Also check birth notices that do not mention the time of birth or doctors involved, these are sometimes disguised adoption notices.
- Check birthday wishes in the paper
- Peruse highschool and yearbooks for appropriate years
Check Obituaries
Ontario’s Open Records Campaign
In 2009 Ontario became the fourth province in Canada to approve open records. Against much opposition by open records groups, this legislation was later amended to include veto provisions after a legal challenge by three adoptees and one biological father.