Below is an email I sent back in September 2012 to the adoption lists I have belonged to with thanks to all the people who were involved in my search going back some 30 years.
To all my friends:
I can tell you the exact date of when I started my search for my
birth family....it was July 26, 1982, 4 days after my 37th birthday.
I still have a copy of my letter and my application to ALMA. That
file has grown quite a bit since then. Thirty years later on
June 16, 2012 I posted the discovery of my birth mother.
Since that time, the ride to complete confirmation, has had it's ups
and downs and few twists and turns.
On Friday, August 31, 2012 after 10 weeks of tortuous waiting - the
results of my DNA test from FTDNA with my brother and a 1st cousin
were posted. I got a double whammy - my brother, Robert, and I are
FULL siblings! Actually, my brother's initial response to my request
to test was somewhat of a rousing "No", but he came around (must be
my charming ways! ).
We always "thought" Robert Shumsky was my father and even had some
DNA evidence linking this family to me....but we were never quite
sure. (God Bless FTDNA!).
I've blogged all the events of the last few months at Finding
Foleys, an adoptee's journey of discovery (including a very
touching conversation with my brother on my last entry "Where
were you?" ). Please feel free to add your email address there
for updates as I plan to add much more, especially a "How To...."
section. I want to share how WE did it and the resources available
for anyone seeking lost family members. I've used the skills I've learned over the years to help others find that lost high school buddy or their old BFF, but all along I have also been helping adoptees reunite with their unknown families even while looking for my own. A new breed of search angel is now established - a DNA search angel. And
I'm proud to say I have had several "finds" just in the past few months through
a combination of DNA matching and good old fashioned sleuthing.
After several years of adding people to my private working family
tree at Ancestry.com based on my DNA results - it went PUBLIC
yesterday! I can't wait until I get a
message from someone saying "Barbara Foley didn't have a
daughter....who are you?"
The "WE" in the previous paragraph? (Now I know I'm going to leave
someone out....but you know who you are!) Priscilla, Patty, Cece,
Gaye, Rob, Richard (Hill and Slaughter), Gabriele, Diane, Marie
Anderson of ALMA, everybody on the DNAadoption group, and even
Bennett Greenspan and Max Blankfeld of FTDNA who I understand from
Max has followed my journey - you all had a hand in this, some
huge, others just because you were there and followed this all
along. With the help of some awesome search angels we found my mother on June 14 in a matter of 2 hours when
that updated non-id arrived. FTDNA gets all the credit for PROVING
both my mother and my father.
The words "Thank you" seem so inadequate. I am indebted to you all.
I had my 67th birthday in July and never in a million years did I
think I would locate my family....but it can be done. There is
hope for anybody still searching....lots of it!
Love to you all,
Karin Corbeil
-- born Carol Lee Foley 7/22/1945 Brooklyn, NY
mother found 6/14/2012 Barbara June Foley (1929-1961)
father confirmed 8/31/2012 Robert J. Shumsky (1928-1985)
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