A search for self: Scientific advances make it easier than ever to find long-lost family, learn history

Feb. 23--DNA is the unique string of genetic building blocks that lives in each of us. It can prove guilt or innocence in a courtroom, help identify the remains of a loved one, and daytime TV talk show hosts use it to shock audiences with paternity results.

DNA is also what Kasandra Rose hopes will help her solve a mystery that has pestered her since she was a girl.

Rose of Southfield was given up for adoption at birth. She knows that she was born March 23, 1955, at what was then Wyandotte General Hospital on the Detroit riverfront. Her mother was 28 years old and had a 2-year-old son. Although he denied paternity, the man she said was Rose's father had two other children with his wife.

Rose doesn't know their names or where they lived. She has no idea whether her birth mother, father or any of her half-siblings are still alive.

She may never know, but she won't give up trying to find them.

The 58-year-old biologist has turned to the one thing no one can deny, her DNA, to unravel the truth about her birth family. She and a growing number of adoptees and others with questions about their lineage are using DNA testing to fill in the blanks on their family trees.

There's now unprecedented access to DNA through tests priced as low as $99 available on such genealogy websites as Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com as well as Family Tree DNA, among others. The sites are continually adding new features and details to their growing databases, widening the field of potential matches every time someone new submits a saliva sample.

"As new people get tested ... it's constantly growing," says Stephen Baloglu, director of marketing for AncestryDNA through Ancestry.com. "It's kind of like fishing, and you never know when you're going to get a new hit, or how big that hit is going to be.

"On average, customers receive about 40 fourth cousins or closer. So, it is common for an adoptee to get a DNA match that is close enough to help find family. Finding parents/siblings is more rare, but certainly possible. As more people take the test, new matches appear all the time, which represents new chances of finding a close relative."

Each day, Rose checks for messages on the websites where her DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, has been tested, hoping for a surprise from a cousin or another relative. Each day, she continues to try to build forward a family tree started by DNA matches.

"Time is slipping by," she says.

Closed adoptions

Rose was born during a roughly 35-year stretch of time --1945-80 -- when Michigan adoptions were closed. Birth parents were given anonymity, and the promise that their identities would remain secret until their death. What could be released to their children is called non-identifying information. It's little details, such as their parents' eye color, height and, in some cases, religious affiliation and nationality. But rarely do those small details lead an adoptee to birth parents, and sometimes, that information can be wrong or misleading.

For many adoptees like Rose, the lure of DNA testing is in discovering their ethnic and cultural heritage and the hope of finding relatives.

"We definitely see a very high level of interest from individuals within the adoption community -- adoptees who want to explore more about their ancestry and where they come from and then also a number of adoptive parents who want to get a little bit more about the children that they have and helping their adopted children stay connected to their cultures," says Catherine Afarian</person>, a spokeswoman for 23andMe.com.

"We have a number of customer stories from people who say, 'People would always ask me, what are you? Are you Puerto Rican? Are you Italian? Are you Latino? I never really knew.' And so, that's where we can certainly answer for people -- what are the regions of the world that are reflected in their DNA?"

Scientific advances and how much can be learned from a person's DNA are improving every day.

"DNA testing has been historically very expensive," says Ancestry.com's Baloglu. "It used to be that the test was limited and looked at specific portions of your DNA. ... The new test looks across your entire genome and measures just over 700,000 DNA markers. Think about a television with 40 pixels versus a television with 700,000 pixels. The picture is much more clear.

"Since it involves your whole genome, it allows you to make a connection across all parts of your tree. The ethnicity results are not limited to those small lines. You get a more vivid picture of your tree, and of who you really are."

AncestryDNA.com's Baloglu says he has heard some people say they're concerned that if they're tested, their DNA might be used for cloning or other scientific experiments; others have said they worry about putting themselves at risk for losing health insurance coverage if testing reveals genetic medical conditions.

Those fears are unfounded, he says.

"If we could clone people, we would probably charge more than $99," Baloglu says. "And what's important to remember is that there are laws protecting people's genetic information; an act was passed in the late 2000s that prohibits any health care insurance providers from using your DNA to charge you more or deny you coverage or anything like that."

Digging for information

Finding family health information is what pushed Kalynn Oleson, of Gualala, Calif., to try genetic testing. Along the way, she found ties to a huge Finnish family in Michigan and northern Europe.

Born in Tacoma, Wash., on Feb. 27, 1946, Oleson says her adoption records were sealed until she petitioned to have them released by the courts last year. That's when she learned her birth mother died in 2003.

"Since she was already dead, it was no problem," says Oleson. Her birth mother was Martha Sophia Simonson, who grew up in Felch, in the Upper Peninsula, and raised a family in Escanaba.

Oleson had been adopted as an infant and says, "I never had the desire or the need to find who my birth mother was. It was never an issue. But later in life, it may be an issue because I want to know about her and her health, which may have some bearing on me, especially when the doctor says, 'Oh, you inherited that trait.' "

So she began to dig, and learned that her birth mother was single and in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps during the second World War, serving at a hospital in Tacoma.

"I'm old enough to realize where she was at that time and what she had to do," Oleson says. "It was probably the biggest decision, and the most wrenching decision any woman had to make, but at that time and place, that is what had to be done."

With more digging and the help of genetic testing through 23andMe.com, Oleson learned that both her parents are northern European, and that she has two half brothers and a cadre of cousins, aunts and uncles not only in the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, but also in Finland.

"With 23andMe, when you get the results, you also get this list of family and friends," she says. "The first three are very, very close as far as relation. We share a great aunt. The others are second to third cousins. I'm just realizing that there's this whole other family out there that may be several generations back, and we do fit together.

"I kind of like the path it's put me on."

Several of Oleson's cousins have tracked her grandfather and great-grandfather and helped her locate the family's parish in Finland and learn about her grandfather's siblings.

"He was the only one of seven children to come to the United States. He was John (or Johannes) Simonson. ... It just keeps going and going." she says. "It's amazing what you see, that all these people could really be linked to you. Your family is just all of a sudden much, much larger. I find, via talking to these people, that I need to know more."

She found her birth mother's obituary, and says she bears a resemblance to her.

"I have a feeling if I walked through Felch or Escanaba where she lived, a couple of people might take a double take. ... I'd like to go to both Escanaba and Felch to do a little bit more digging," Oleson says.

She tried to reach out to a half-sibling last year, but learned after she sent a letter that he had died. Since then, Oleson has written to another half-brother, but has yet to hear back.

"How do you tell that to somebody gently? ... 'Hi! I don't know you, but I'm your half-sister.' "

Finding the roots

Rose says she has long wondered about her roots, trying to figure out how she fit into the genetic landscape of the world. About eight years ago -- after both of her adoptive parents died -- she began hunting for clues, and took DNA tests -- first with National Geographic, then FTDNA and later with 23andMe.com and Ancestry.com.

"It turns out that I am French-Canadian, English, Irish and some kind of Germanic," Rose says.

Using her DNA results and with help from Ancestry.com's massive family tree database, Rose says: "I have 70 or so family trees started. None of them are officially mine, but some day, somehow, I will find all the connections. That's how I've found my great-grandparents. I'm absolutely certain now that I am the grandchild or great-grandchild or great-great-grandchild of Frederick Bangert out of the St. Louis area. I kept getting all these matches that were around the St. Louis area."

She has talked with some cousins on the Bangert side, but has yet to identify exactly how she fits in.

"These are things that everyone else can know, and I can't know," says Rose, who also works as a teacher and a writer. "And that's the place where I start feeling like a second-class citizen. I don't know where I come from. I don't know what my potential was. My adoptive parents were great, but neither of them had any college at all. I'm a Mensan," she says of the society for people with high IQs.

"What really is inherited, and what's nature versus nurture? That part is just fascinating."

Rose found some third and fourth cousins, and every day feels as if she's inching closer to finding more immediate family.

"It's really important to know where you come from. ... It's really important, as a scientist, I think, to know what kind of forces formed the people that I came from," Rose says.

"There's a whole lot of people who could really be helped by DNA testing and sharing of information. For me, it would be really great if people got tested. But it's only going to help us if you're willing to share. Think about it: You're not sharing something that's yours, it's something that's all of ours."

"I just need to know who we have in common. Who do we share? How did we get here? Am I a descendant of a Mayflower family? Was my family among the first people to come to Quebec? ... What are the achievements of my historical people?"

So Rose keeps on searching, keeps on looking, excited, but afraid, too, of what she might find.

-- Kristen Jordan Shamus

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