Our client Sarah came to us as an adoptee looking for her biological parents. She came ready with her DNA results, and her Non-ID information provided by the Children’s Home Society of California. Included in this set of documents was a connection the possible father's last name of “Johnson” and the listing of two children born in that county with the father’s last name Johnson and the mother’s last name Denver.
What she knew – was her beginnings. She was born to a 23-year-old mother, a 24-year-old father in Los Angeles in October of 1969 as “Baby Girl Denver”. She knew that she had two full blooded siblings born before her, and that her parent’s relationship did not last. When her mother discovered she was pregnant with Sarah, she placed her for adoption.
Sarah spent decades preparing herself for her search emotionally. She reached out to BirthParentFinder in late 2020, hoping to find some sort of closure for herself and her children. This case proved difficult because her top match himself was adopted and knew nothing of his family, and her matches on that side of the family were rife with non-parental events.
There was a bright side though, Sarah had a few great maternal matches, which led to the surname Denver. After analyzing these matches and trying to get in touch with them to no avail, we decided to reach out to the sister of one of the matches and see if she could shed some light on what was going on. She was an extremely helpful woman, and informed us of her older sister with the last name Denver who lived in the Los Angeles area. She then went on to tell us about her sister’s two children – something that matched the Non-ID perfectly.
It also matched the Johnson family perfectly – it turned out the information provided about the Johnson father and Denver mother with two small children – was correct. Something that was overlooked originally before our DNA analysis began.
With this knowledge of who the birth mother could be, we got to work using our databases to find contact information for the daughters. We decided calling an elderly mother with this information may not be the best route – and it was a wise choice – because her sibling was extremely helpful.
Sarah’s siblings did not know about her – they were too young when Sarah was born. So after carefully laying the evidence out for them, letting them read the Non-ID paperwork, showing them pictures of Sarah, one sister said “A DNA test isn’t necessary”.
The three siblings are being very patient with each other right now while they take the next steps in processing their relationship. An important step in reunification. Time will tell whether they will meet, but for now Sarah has the closure and answers she’s been seeking for all these years.