“She was a needle in a haystack—an availing effort to know and find her. A selfless woman I would only know in my mind, or so I thought, all in thanks to the DNAngels,” shares a DNAngels client in her stirring story of navigating lifelong questions and her journey to finding her birth mother.
It’s that special time of year, gathering together with family, friends and loved ones to celebrate the holidays. Nostalgia. Connection. Roots. Belonging. A warm embrace from a parent, child or sibling. For some, this is how we know the holidays. For many others, the holidays can generate a lingering sense of longing for all of the above.
This holiday season, as a company that celebrates facilitating meaningful connections, we’re honored to share how our customer, DNAngels, touches the lives of thousands of people seeking identity, resolution and in many cases, reunification with family unknown.
A DNA Surprise, Transforming Lives
When Laura Olmsted discovered that the father who raised her was not her biological father, it altered the course of her life forever. As an adult, she began to study genealogy out of sheer curiosity and fascination with her family lineage.
“I experienced a DNA surprise in my own family in 2017. I was my family historian and had been into genealogy for 15 years prior.” Working on a family history for her grandchildren for Christmas, Laura decided to take a DNA test, “just to see what extra stuff I could find out there.” Not until taking her own DNA test did she learn that she had an entirely different paternal biological family than she expected.
Laura Olmsted is the founder of DNAngels, a life-changing organization with a mission to “support, guide and assist adults searching to accurately identify their biological family, by analyzing DNA results” in an effort to promote family connections. Laura’s personal experience along with her extensive background as a renown genetic genealogist gives her first-hand insight into the specific needs of DNAngels’ clients.
Seeking True Identity
For individuals who have experienced “Not Parent Expected” (NPE) events, donor conception or adoption, connecting with their biological roots can answer many questions asked for years or even decades.
“One of the most unsettling things about learning that one (or both) of your birth certificate parents is not genetically related to you is losing your identity,” Dr. Nicole Pierce, a DNAngels client shares.
Many adoptees, NPE’s and donor-conceived individuals call this journey bittersweet, one of both grief and gratitude. While many express gratitude for their upbringing, the mystery of their biological family and heritage can be haunting. Discovering their DNA story can help induce a sense of completion. Every individual DNA discovery experience is different and not all DNA discoveries result in biological family reunification. But the sense of knowing “who I am” can bring immense comfort and satisfaction for those in search of their biological roots.
Turning Pain Into Purpose
Laura’s own experience echoes these sentiments. “I felt like such an oddball in the family I grew up in. Why am I so different? I was almost relieved to finally have an understanding that I’m not so different from so many characteristics common to my biological family.”
“In many cases, we felt it all of our life that we didn’t fit in, something was off, something was different. And you will find that when a person discovers that their dad isn’t their dad for instance, and they are reunited with their biological family, it’s like a coming home experience,” Laura shares. While not always an immediately smooth adjustment, “for so many of our clients, you get around that biological family that you didn’t know that you had, and it’s like the walls just fall away and you’re with your people.”
With her own DNA discovery and dedication to genealogy, Laura has turned places of “pain into purpose” and champions that “everyone deserves to know where they come from and to find peace in their true identity.”
Piecing Together Puzzles of the Past
DNAngels became a registered 501(c)3 in 2019 after Laura and a few friends had volunteered as “search angels” (individuals skilled in genetic genealogy) for a Facebook group focused specifically on “DNA surprises.”
“We decided to branch out to include late discovery adoptees, donor conceived individuals and others. So we started our own little thing on Facebook and invited our first 100 clients that we had already solved, and it grew from there into this nonprofit.” Since its inception, DNAngels has expanded to include nearly one hundred volunteers.
“Many of our volunteers have been personally impacted by a DNA surprise, NPE or adoption journey. They bring an unparalleled level of empathy, understanding and personal connection to their work as search angels,” Laura elaborates. Volunteers must go through in-house training, and many contribute extensive amounts of time to help others investigate their genetic genealogy and biological families. “It’s incredible that many volunteers show up every single day, every single week to help look for the biological parents of other people experiencing a DNA surprise.”
An Affordable and Rapid Resolution for Countless Clients
DNAngels serve between 25-75 cases a week, solving an average of about 30 cases a week. Since their inception in 2019, DNAngels has solved over 6500 cases. In 2024 alone, they have already solved over 1444 cases. Many cases are solved within 24 hours, while most cases are solved within one week.
Occasionally, outlying cases may face a delay if “there’s simply not enough DNA matches to solve the case,” Laura explains. “But we never give up. We had one client whose case took 3.5 years to solve. It was the first case I ever took, I solved many other cases while his case stayed on the sidelines until we got the right match with the correct family information to find his dad.”
The generosity of donors and supporters enables DNAngels to make a pivotal impact for thousands of people, while saving these individuals thousands of dollars. Laura estimates that the “cost to hire a genetic genealogist can run about $5,000 with a wait time of about six months for results, if going through a consumer genetic site like Ancestry.com.” DNAngels services are free of charge for those searching for their biological parents, with some services available for a nominal fee (such as searching for additional relatives like grandparents, etc.)
How Does DNAngels Work?
Clients must first take a DNA test through Ancestry.com before requesting the assistance of a DNAngel. Why Ancestry? According to Laura, Ancestry.com is “always the company that you should go to first, because if you’re going to fish in all ponds, Ancestry has the largest pool of people, over 25 million who have taken an Ancestry DNA test, in addition to the millions of people utilizing their DNA tree service.” If for some reason Ancestry doesn’t yield results, search angels may encourage the client to upload their DNA profile to another consumer DNA site.
Staff and volunteers aim for a same-day intake, then clients receive a search angel assigned within 24 hours, and most cases resolve within 24 hours to a week. To find a family member, search angels invoke the miraculous with a host of tools, subscriptions and resources to efficiently and exhaustively investigate DNA networks.
DNAngels also now offers assistance internationally, with search angels serving the U.S., U.K., Puerto Rico, Australia and “basically anywhere in the world where there is enough genetic information available to solve a case,” Laura says.
The Client Decides How to Proceed
It is ultimately the client’s decision to contact the biological family, as well as how and when to initiate communication. DNAngels provides a wealth of resources to equip clients including extensive coaching when a DNA match is found, as well as for situations in which a biological parent may not wish to be contacted.
“We coach clients on what to say when they reach out, either via email, social media or phone. Our angels guide them along the way, providing a sample script of what to say, because they’re going to be nervous and they may absolutely freeze,” Laura says.
Uncomfortable Reaching Out? No Problem
In some cases, a client may feel uncomfortable contacting their biological relatives and in that case DNAngels offers liaison services for a small fee. If the liaison discovers that the biological family does not want contact, it is still the client’s decision on how they wish to proceed.
“Our liaisons act as mediators, trying to buffer the situation, also because some birth mothers or fathers experience trauma surrounding the relinquishment of a baby, depending on the situation surrounding their pregnancy. This is usually more on the mother’s side than the father’s side.”
Many times the father “never knew the mother was pregnant, and so this is a brand new situation for him. He needs time to absorb before he can say, ‘Hey, come on into my family.’”
With coaching included in DNAngels services, most clients feel well-equipped to proceed independently and only about 10% of clients request liaison services.
Searching With Safety in Mind
What about risky or compromising situations? DNAngels is vigilant about client safety and tries to offer enough context to enable clients to proceed appropriately with the information they uncover.
“We do more than just solve a case,” Laura explains, “We give them a full background report with contact information so that they know how to reach out.” Much of DNAngels donor support goes toward the cost of various tools and higher-access level subscriptions like “BeenVerified, SkipGenie and more” which search angels use in covering all aspects of a case.
These platforms help “to triangulate and cross-check reports from different sources to gather the best, most accurate and current information and contact details.” The report includes any social media discovered, and is included for clients at no charge.
The report also runs a criminal history check. “There are some times that we see a really bad history, and we have to say, ‘caution, caution, caution. Please look at this part of the report.’ We don’t want to send anyone into an unsafe situation,” Laura reiterates.
DNAngels’ private Facebook “NPE/MPE DC Search & Support” page acts as a starting point for those just beginning their search as well as a safe place for clients and community members to share experiences, insights and encouragement with each other.
A Common Thread
DNA surprises and misattributed paternal events (MPE’s) impact millions of people per year, likely affecting at least one person we may know personally. Estimates show that approximately 16.6 million Americans could have MPE’s and 1 in 20 people are likely to experience an MPE.
MPE’s have become so common that “approximately 17-20% of those who have taken an at-home consumer DNA test, experience a DNA surprise in the first generation,” Laura explains. (She’s currently submitting this data for a peer-reviewed publication coming soon.) In other words, 17-20% of persons taking a DNA test will learn that a parent is not their parent, or that they are adopted or donor conceived. According to the BBC, tens of millions of people have sent their DNA for testing worldwide. With millions of people testing their DNA, the rising numbers of MPE’s are staggering.
“Coming Home” for the Holidays
“The holidays are a deeply emotional time for many people seeking family connections, so it’s an important season for us to reach as many people as possible,” Laura shares.
In their extraordinary efforts to help adults find their biological families, DNAngels has released its first commercial this holiday season. The commercial will air across a 19,000 square mile area reaching Southern Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and other locales across the region. (And for those of us outside of those areas, we’ve also included it here!)
Calling All Search Angels
Admittedly, Laura encourages clients to use the contact form and email on the DNAngels site. She acknowledges that many people feel more comfortable using the phone, so DNAngels strives to accommodate. DNAngels uses an easy-to-remember custom phone number, 559-TALK-DNA, to enable those who prefer the phone to call and connect with their organization.
“It took me five years to decide to get a business phone number dedicated to DNAngels, we didn’t have a phone number until recently because it’s a big commitment to answer the phone in general, and especially under sensitive circumstances,” Laura explains. DNAngels utilizes NumberBarn’s “phone tree” (also known as auto attendant menus, which are included in most of NumberBarn’s no-contract plans) to accept, screen and direct calls to the correct staff member so a DNAngel can best prepare mentally and emotionally for a potential case.
Search angels are passionately invested in what they do, so “we spread out the call forwarding so that phone calls don’t land on one single staff member or volunteer, and we all have time to process a call because we absorb the story that a caller shares.”
More Than a Client, a Community
Step into solidarity with the DNAngels community. Take a walk and immerse yourself into the compelling and complex stories of DNAngel’s clients with their weekly podcast episodes.
“Our first show was a solid hour of nothing but tears. They’re all great stories, but one client in particular, Athena, her father initially rejected her after she contacted him. While he wasn’t ready to meet her, members of his own family secretly embraced her until the day they finally met. When she and her father finally met after two years, they cried, yelled, hugged forever, laughed, they did everything together and spent a whole week together. Athena extended her vacation another week to prolong the visit, and now they have an incredible relationship. She has fully integrated into his family. She regularly posts on Facebook about her relationship with her dad and her new brothers. She’s young so she has a lifetime of memories to make.”
For Laura, ultimately “the most exciting part of what I do is seeing lives transformed and helping people piece together their identities. Bringing families together is an incredible privilege. Each case is a chance to make a difference in someone’s life, and that’s deeply meaningful to me.”
