Adoptions and DNA

Even when records are sealed, and birth parents don't reveal a thing, adoptees have one good way to track down their biological origins. So far, this generally means narrowing down the field of possibilities so that distant cousins can be identified through autosomal DNA matching. For one man, it meant actually locating his sister and mother. Both he, an adoptee with no information, and his sister, who had remained with her birth mother, had no idea that each had a sibling. But both had chosen, quite independently, of course, to sign up for autosomal DNA testing through 23andme. He wanted to locate family, and she had an interest in genealogy. She could tell by the degree of matching that she had a sibling, and contacted him. Their mother confirmed that she had given a son up for adoption. The story has just been reported by CTV News of Canada at http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110819/sibling-reunited-110819/.
As more and more people sign up for autosomal testing, adoptees will have better and better chances to uncover their biological families, something that was never forseen at the time that adoptions were designated sealed.