Today we’d like to introduce you to Janet Rinardo Travis and Lynette Caton Bryan.
Lynette and Janet have been co-workers and friends since 2007. They both have been known as their family historians because they love tracing their families’ history and keeping records for future generations. They now call themselves Genetic Genealogists. Several years ago, they each took an Ancestry DNA test for fun and wanted to find out about their ethnicity. Janet was contacted by an unknown 4th cousin DNA match that had been adopted at birth in hopes that she could help her find a connection to her birth parents. Without knowing the journey they were all about to take, Janet volunteered for Lynette’s help and they agreed to assist Janet’s new found cousin, Susan! Wow! They all learned a lot!
Within 6 months, the identity of Susan’s birth mother was found through DNA matches and record searching. Unfortunately, she had passed away many years before. Susan was still able to reach out to aunts, uncles, cousins and even a living grandmother! Shortly after, Susan’s birth father was also confirmed through a DNA match but unfortunately, they found out he was also deceased – only TWO WEEKS before she found him! Time can be of the essence – don’t wait, never give up! Susan has siblings – a half-brother and a half-sister! She and her half-sister have met, they stay in touch and interact through Facebook. Not the perfect results as she would have loved to have met her birth parents but at least she knows who they are, what they looked like and she has some closure and some questions answered. That is all well with her, than to have always wondered. Janet not only gained new cousins, Lynette and Janet have gained a forever friend. They have since solved approximately 30 additional cases and have a waiting list of many more.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have encountered many challenges and are continuously learning new techniques, research methods, and resources. The biggest challenge has been the emotional toll this takes on the searchers, us and each of our families. This has not deterred us, however. We have a motto to never give up and if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about DNANOW.LIFE – what should we know?
Our goal is simply to find a searchers DNA matches. Our specialty is mirror trees and helping folks to find their biological families; some are adoptees and some are searching for an absent parent or sibling. We match them to other people on their list of matches. We find their common ancestors and figure out how they connect to each other. We build ancestral family trees as far back as we can and as wide as we can, with the ultimate goal of finding the searchers place in that family. It is hard work, detailed and tedious – but it can be done! We have done it many, many times with success and it brings us tremendous joy when we provide the searcher with their missing link and hear of the families connecting! We are proud to be official Search Angels with Search Squad.
Pricing:
- It is important to first take the Ancestry.com DNA test which averages less than $100 when on sale
Contact Info:
- Website: dnanow.life
- Email: dnanow.life@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Janet Travis, Jess Chinchar, Louis Washington
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