Rebecca Daniels was adopted by loving parents and had little interest in searching for her biological family until much later in life. When she did begin her search, she used DNA testing and some of the various genealogical sites such as Ancestry.com to make connections with distant relatives and begin her search for the truth.
I found this to be a very interesting story of a quest to find biological connections and most especially the stories behind them. While DNA is incredibly helpful in finding lost family, it does not always provide all the answers, and investigation has to be done. Daniels provides a thorough history of her investigation, what she learned, and the connections she made along the way.
The story is not as full of emotion as I personally may have wanted. It is more analytical and detailed in nature. The author explains the reason for that and her somewhat emotionally detached personality, and it is perfectly understandable. Since I am a very emotional person and thrive on emotional connections, it wasn’t quite as fulfilling for me as it might be for others. But for those who love a good puzzle and want to learn more about genealogical research, this will be an informative and enjoyable read.
I appreciated the section in the back of the book that provides information about available genealogical sites and the many options they offer.
I downloaded this book on Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can read it for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Daniels (MFA, PhD) Rebecca Daniels taught performance, writing, and speaking in liberal arts universities for over 25 years, including St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, from 1992-2015. She was the founding producing director of Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR, and directed with many professional Portland theatre companies in the 1980s. She is the author of the groundbreaking Women Stage Directors Speak (McFarland, 1996) and has been published in multiple professional theatre journals. In 2015, she retired from teaching and moved to the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts where, in 2018, she completed the manuscript for Keeping the Lights on for Ike, a book based on her father’s letter home from Europe during WWII, which was published in 2019 by Sunbury Press. In 2019, she also served as literary manager and co-producer for Silverthorne Theater Company in Greenfield, MA. Lately, she has been working on two full-length plays and recently completed a memoir called Finding Sisters (published by Sunbury Press in 2021) that explores how DNA testing helped her find her genetic parents and other relatives in spite of being given up for a closed adoption at birth.
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