I wanted to give a shout-out to GeneTree -- one of the Sorenson Genomics companies -- for their generosity. Let me explain . . .
I was talking with a young woman I met while traveling recently, and it came out in the course of conversation that she had never met her father. She had apparently been searching for him for years with no luck. I quizzed her a bit and learned that she knew some tidbits of information which she was willing to share. Long story short -- I tracked him down in my hotel room that evening.
Fortunately, she was brave enough to pick up the phone -- especially fortunate because it turned out that her father sadly has a brain tumor and is in failing health. Imagine the regrets if she had waited. But what do you know?! She now has six brothers! Better yet, she's been welcomed into the family.
But there was still just a little doubt, so DNA testing naturally came to mind. Because of her father's ill health, though, there was reluctance to do conventional paternity testing. So what were the options?
Well, most folks don't know it, but there are several alternatives when it comes to "close kin" situations like this -- including, for instance, half-siblingship testing. (Incidentally, I know from speaking around the country that lots of families have situations that can benefit from this kind of testing -- there are always a couple in the audience who approach me at the end of my talks with such scenarios.)
GeneTree offers all these tests (e.g., siblingship, cousinship, grandparentage, etc.), so I called an aquaintance associated with the company -- and in spite of the fact that he was in Italy when I reached him -- DNA testing had been arranged within an hour. Amazing!
The tests have come back -- they finally opted for paternity testing (more accurate when you can do it) -- and YES! She's definitely found her father! Just the other day, she emailed me photos of her dad, and it's clear that the apple didn't fall far from the tree! Pretty cool, huh?
Thanks again to the generous folks at GeneTree who didn't hesitate in contributing to this wonderful reunion! You gave one family a very special Thanksgiving!