volunteer genealogists

While our organization's volunteers primarily started by assisting adoptees, we have evolved far beyond requests that revolve around adoption alone. We help many foreign and domestic people with their search and circumstances that can lead them toward knowledge of their biological roots.

First and foremost, this page is for reaching out to those special people willing to volunteer their time and effort in our community service to help people search for their birth families. We feel that our best volunteer opportunities fit people who have a knack for genealogy and a few hours every other week to devote to this cause.

Search Angels is a nonprofit organization where a single volunteer can have a lasting effect on hundreds, if not thousands, of people. We believe everyone deserves to know where they came from, so we spend a great deal of time trying to find volunteers who can meet this challenge. We are not just a local community service but also an international one, serving every person who seeks our assistance across the United States and beyond.

Our Search Angels work from home and volunteer their time in various research and professions. They have many different skills and backgrounds that complement their style in each case. Many of our research volunteers bring a unique perspective to their volunteer positions, and volunteer projects evolve over years of complimentary life experiences in their chosen fields.

When it comes to knowledge of the past, a volunteer with a diverse background in complex puzzle-solving and abstract thinking can choose paths others may have overlooked in their rush to conclusions. While other organizations are just trying to find places to fill a volunteer worker void, we aim to find the right people to align with suitable cases.

If you were separated from your birth family in the past, chances are a large part of your family history has remained a mystery all of your life. At one point or another, we all want to know what exactly makes us who we are. We may have been raised in a loving family that gave us the nurturing needed to thrive. Yet, some of us can still feel our missing nature and need to be resolved in our biological family roots.

It is at these times, driven by a need to know about our medical background, the nature of our birth family, or some other deeply seeded necessity, that we must seek out and find our biological family roots and learn as much as possible.

Whether we can find a volunteer local to their place of birth or one who fits the type of circumstances or field of research that might complement each search, we do our best to set the stage for a successful outcome. Our nonprofit volunteers have discovered over the experiences of hundreds of other cases that these searches are not just a search for biological family, as they become a search for the individual identity, which often is a blend of both the family they grew up with, but also their potentially unknown birth family roots.

Some people put their trust in places looking for volunteers who want to help others. While this is certainly a noble idea, the people our clients need will not just be places to volunteer at or a volunteer in my community kind of group, but those best suited to fulfill these roles and skill sets, individuals with a strong background in research and genetic genealogy.

Finding one’s birth family is not always easy. While the miracle of DNA testing might help us locate cousins amongst the masses, using genetic genealogy, traditional search, or other search methodologies still requires dedicated volunteers willing to persevere past all these challenges with patience and sensitivity.

It takes a special kind of volunteer to advocate for tasks that our clients may be initially challenged with without the assistance of our nonprofit. While Search Angels was started as a solo effort, it has undoubtedly become a much larger service that now affords dedication and long hours assisting individuals with their search for biological families across the globe.

Thousands of people in every state and country could be called Search Angels. Be they professional genealogists, genetic genealogists, cousins, or simply... friends and other family members who volunteer their days to uncover the truth. We do not claim to be the first or only Search Angels, but we have evolved into one of the top volunteer organizations in the nonprofit sector committed to our specific mission and goal. Our community service ideas have become a well-balanced advocacy dedicated to giving people the peace, support, and hope necessary to take on this journey and succeed where others have fallen short.

background checks

Every volunteer must pass a background check before we allow them to work on the cases our clientele requires of us.

Our background service is called Sterling Volunteers. Using their nonprofit background screening program, we screen all our qualified candidates to ensure they can be trusted with the sensitive information shared throughout a search. None of our volunteers must pay for their background checks, although they can contribute to the cost.

NOTE TO NEW POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS - 02/15/2023
We have received hundreds of submissions this year for new potential volunteers. Understand that the process for evaluating these candidates and then offering a possible route to becoming a new search angel in our organization has slowed and will require your patience as we sift through all the talented people. We appreciate your patience!

Our volunteer genealogists - search angels

Adrienne Abiodun is a professional genealogist located outside of Tampa, Florida. Combined, her personal and professional genealogical pursuits span nearly two decades, fourteen years of which have been in the exploration of genetic genealogy. Adrienne earned a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University in 2019 and continues to seek a variety of genealogy related learning experiences. She is a member of the Florida Genealogical Society, and a handful of lineage societies which include: Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) and Daughters of the American Revolution. Her niche areas include African American genealogy, Deep South U.S., lineage societies and genetic genealogy. Adrienne strives to make genealogy down-to-earth, fun and attainable by anyone interested in their family history. By mixing past professional experience in experiential marketing with genealogy, Adrienne has successfully been able to secure grant funding on four occasions. This allowed her to organize youth genealogy events in addition to a community genealogical reconnection event on behalf of the SDUSMP which took place in 2019 at the Bentonia Blues Festival in Yazoo County, Mississippi. 

When Adrienne isn’t researching or giving presentations, she enjoys exercising, playing capoeira, reading, travel and spending time with her two favorite DNA matches - her two children.

Ann Ru - is originally from New York City.  She has three grown children, two grown stepchildren and a partner who all bring her continuous delight!  

Her professional career began as a New York City Police Officer. After eleven years in that career she graduated from college and became a grief counselor.

About five years ago she joined a local family-owned funeral home.  She loves animals (especially dogs!), reading, history and gardening. She has been doing genealogy for over two decades and genetic genealogy for almost five years. She is very adept at using AncestryDNA and GEDmatch.  Ann is most grateful for the opportunity to help people connect with their families. 

Brittney Madrigal - was born and raised in South Texas. She graduated summa cum laude from Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in history and with minors in English and political science. She works full time as a legal assistant until she begins her first semester of law school in Fall 2020.

She has always been interested in her family’s history and prides herself on the countless hours of work she put into identifying her biological grandfather. Her hobbies include reading, traveling, filling in the gaps of her family tree, and purchasing old photos at antique stores in order to reunite the subject(s) of those photos with their living relatives.

Carrie Brown - is a Michigan girl living in a Florida world. She is currently working on her degree in business through Western Governors University. Genealogy has been her passion since she was a child. She has over two decades of research experience in traditional genealogy research, and knowledge of genetic genealogy. She enjoys blogging about her own genealogical history at Dusty Roots and Forgotten Treasures and loves helping others discover their roots.

Over the years she has witnessed the confusion that not knowing personal history can have on children of adoption. It ignited a passion to help all people connect to their family history. She loves helping adoptees unravel their mysteries and seeing their joy at discovering their unknown family.

Her skill set includes extensive experience using AncestryDNA, GEDmatch, and DNA Painter and experience with My Heritage and FTDNA. When she is not studying or researching she is spending her time enjoying her other passion, her family.

Cerrie Norris - is a Carolina Girl through and through who loves the outdoors, dog rescue, gardening, and researching her roots. She is also a full time Engineering Manager, a wife of 23 years, and a mom to both humans and dogs!

Cerrie's passion for DNA discovery started with an adopted cousin that wanted to locate her birth mother. It took many hours and lots of DNA research, but she was able to reunite the mother and daughter and learn a lot along the way! The joy of discovery was addictive and she has since been able to help others as well.

Cerrie specializes in Ancestry Research & DNA, MyHeritage, GEDMatch, local archives, and all types of social media. She is currently learning DNA Painter and FamilyTreeDNA."

Cindy Burke - is from Ferndale, Michigan.  She is married and has four children and six grandchildren.  She has been working with Ancestry for about fifteen years. She started working with DNA about two years ago and has had a passion for searching for biological family through DNA and Ancestry records, as well as, looks forward to challenges these cases pose.  She is also experienced using FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage and Gedmatch.

David Neal  - Answers to the questions of family and origin is one of the most essential human desires. David has found that helping an adoptee search for their birth family is a unique opportunity to have a profound impact on another person's life. Assisting with the search is an endeavor to which he brings compassion and dedication. And he takes great pride, satisfaction, and pleasure in a successful result.

David is a software engineer by vocation and a genetic genealogist by avocation. For an adoptee search he combines genealogical problem solving skills and computer expertise together with a perseverance to solve a mystery. He has significant experience with online family tree generation and in using AncestryDNA to guide in the locating of birth relatives. He is also very knowledgable of FamilyTreeDNA and Gedmatch.

Dawn - Lives just outside Atlanta, GA and is a US Compliance Manager for a world wide consulting firm. She has been researching her family on and off for many years. After giving a DNA kit to her father, she discovered some first cousins that were unknown to the family. This combined with a great grandmother who was a mystery to the family led her on a year long path to discover that she was an orphan train rider born in Lithuania. This journey of conquering brick walls, solving puzzles and helping people, gave her the genealogy bug. When she is not working or researching, she can be found on a tennis court.

Desiree Hendrickson - A true New Yorker who's family arrived in New Amsterdam in the early 1600's, she now lives primarily in Miami, Florida. She has over two decades of traditional genealogy research experience under her belt and her latest passion is the study of genetic and forensic genealogy.

She first became fascinated with genealogy when her great-uncle Bob delivered a family tree to her parents. She was intrigued by the history of her family and the stories of those who came before her. As her interest grew, she then spent much of her free time conducting genealogical research for family and friends.

With a professional background in design and technology, Desiree recently decided to focus her energy on genealogical research and enter the field professionally. While pursuing formal education, she was approached by a good friend who asked her to help locate his birth mother. This was quite a challenge and sparked a special interest in helping adoptees find their biological families.

Don Braffitt - is originally from Georgia, and now lives in Blacksburg, Virginia. He is married with one grown daughter and is a retired computer programmer and university instructor.

He started working on his family history in the 1970s picking up on research his dad started during WWII. Since 2007, he has incorporated DNA testing into his efforts to confirm his family history research and to extend that research to other family members and friends. He also volunteers with Find A Grave creating and maintaining memorials, and photographing and geotagging burial locations.

Don likes genealogy challenges and helping people make connections through old pictures, family stories, newspaper articles, obituaries, and DNA test results.

Dwight Brooks -  is President of his own product design firm, Brooks Technical Solutions, Inc. Part of creating new products involves hours of internet research to solve technical challenges.  This problem solving skill is much like the techniques he uses to solve complex family searches.  
 
He has enjoyed doing genealogy for the last ten years and using DNA to aid his research the last four years.  After years of researching his own family, he sought out new challenges involving genealogy and DNA which led him to helping adoptees find their birth family on sites like SearchAngels.org.  He has become adept at researching on genealogy sites like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org; using all the DNA matching sites including gedmatch, FTDNA, and 23andMe; and finding scanned vital records from both domestic and international sites.  He has found that helping adoptees is some of the most rewarding volunteer work he has ever done and enjoys hearing about reunions from his clients.

Elissa Arnold - Originally from Houston, she lives in Dallas with her husband, twin boys, and their two Labradors. She is a mom by day and a violinist in a band by night. She graduated from Baylor University with a degree in violin performance.

Her passion for genetic genealogy was sparked when she learned that DNA testing could be the key to finally learning about her adopted father's biological family. She dove into educating herself about analyzing DNA relationships and building her family tree to find answers, with help from a search angel. Finding her family and building relationships was one of the most fulfilling experiences of her life. In the process, she stumbled onto a DNA relative who happened to be an unknown adopted 2nd cousin. She jumped at the opportunity to help him find his father in her family, too, and hopefully have the same happy ending that she did, but at least find some answers. When she'd solved his mystery, she was addicted and eager to help more people with their journeys as a search angel.

Erik Grow - Originally from the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, he moved to the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC after finishing his MS in 1997.

At 42 countries and counting, he loves to travel the world with his wife and for work too while their two cats Mojo and Gypsy wait patiently at home.

In his career he uses statistics to help clients combat online fraud and investigate cases efficiently. Those skills were put to use when he was able to help determine the birth parents of a friend and then an adopted cousin using genetic genealogy. He loves to solve mysteries and would love to help solve yours. He is very experienced with 23andme, and also very familiar with using AncestryDNA, GEDMatch, and DNA Painter. 

Evan Wilson - is a professional genealogist who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, but has lived all over the US, including now Oakland, California since 2012. He first caught the genealogy bug from his grandmother, a dedicated local historian in Panola County, Mississippi. Genetic genealogy has helped him answer questions that she spent years working on with documentary research in the pre-Internet era. He loves the process of using DNA to open up our family stories, whether those took place in 1970 or 1770. Nothing feels quite as good as being able to tell someone that you know who their long-lost father, grandfather, or great-great-great grandmother is.

Evan’s interest in family (hi)stories is undoubtedly connected to his background in the academic study of medieval European literature and history (he has a PhD). He also has a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University.

Francis Rios – Originally from New Jersey. She works as a project manager by day and indulges her inner genealogist at night (and on weekends)!

Francis has been working on her family tree since 2007. During her college years, genealogy fell to the wayside but upon graduation, she was back to researching again! Once DNA testing became popular, Francis tested herself and other family members in a quest to delve deeper into her known roots (and solve a mystery as well).

Using DNA and the paper trail, Francis has been able to tie 60+ DNA cousins to her family tree and is actively involved in several searches to help other DNA cousins find their biological families. Francis can interpret autosomal DNA results and frequently uses websites such as AncestryDNA, GEDmatch, and DNA Painter. A bilingual speaker of Spanish and English, Francis has done research in both languages and looks forward to being able to use her language and genealogy skills to help people find those they seek.

Greg McCammon - has had a passion in genealogy dating to his early childhood. Over the years, he has turned that passion into a true desire to help individuals locate biological family members from whom they have become separated. He has an excellent understanding of DNA testing results and genealogy. He finds some of his greatest joy in life helping others find their long lost family members.

He loves a good challenge and is very detail driven, leaving no stone unturned.  He has found that paying attention to small details sometimes is the key to discovering the identities of those long lost family members. He has extensive first hand experience in DNA results and Ancestry.com.

Heather Warren - is a a mom of three awesome boys and has been married for twelve plus years.  She volunteers on the board of parks and recreations in her home State and the tree commission in their little town.  When she is not creating for my at home business, she is researching and helping friends build their family trees.  The past eight years she has located missing family members of acquaintances and helping several people who were put up for adoption and search for their biological mothers and fathers with great success.  She knows that filling in those missing pieces is so gratifying not only for the people she has searched for but also for herself.  She also grew up without knowing where her biological mother was. At nineteen she found her birth mother through self-taught researching on her own for countless hours.  She is so thankful she had the ability to complete that search. Her forte is mostly in using AncestryDNA and Gedmatch.

Holly Corley - has had a keen interest in genealogy and family history for many years with the unique ability to solve seemingly impossible cases. Holly has been conducting genealogical research for herself as well as others for many years using both genetic and traditional research. Client experience with adoptees and others with unknown parentage in their search to find their birth families.

Holly is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and holds a Family History Consultant calling. She is a Certified Family History Guide Trainer and teaches a Genealogy 101 Workshop in her local town weekly.

Holly is currently attending BYU-Idaho for her Associates in Family History Research and Bachelors in Professional Studies.  

Jarrett Ross - also known as the GeneaVlogger, began researching his own family history in 2009 while finishing his undergraduate degree. Since then he has built his own personal tree with over 7000 people, successfully connected with thousands of relatives all over the World, and has helped build hundreds of trees for people of varying ancestral backgrounds. Jarrett has found a specialty in Sephardic Jewish genealogy with an emphasis on the Dutch Sephardim as well as an expertise in Jewish Agricultural Societies of Southern New Jersey. Jarrett writes a blog called "Sephardic Genealogy", which focuses on his Sephardic genealogy research. He also has a youtube channel called GeneaVlogger where Jarrett talks about his research, gives genealogy tips, interviews other genealogists, and shows different aspects of working in genealogy. Jarrett is a volunteer curator on Geni.com and also currently serves as the Vice President of the Triangle Jewish Genealogical Society.

Joel Chambers - founder of searchangels.com (.org & .net), I do my best to assist others on their genealogy efforts online. Use our contact page to reach out to us here. Note that our efforts are focused on the theme of this website; searching for adoptees' biological related family members. We are well acquainted in using Ancestry.com to perform online tree building substantiated with good documentation.

I personally have extensive experience working with DNA results from AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA. I am also familiar with using Gedmatch.com. I am an adoptee who found all his biological family over the course of a year using many resources and am always on the lookout for more talented people to join our ranks.

Jonathan Gunnell - is originally from Pittsburgh where he began his career as a professional musician and recording engineer while attending college and eventually working towards a doctoral degree in Instructional Technology and Leadership.

He now lives in Erie, Pennsylvania and works for a large university. His passion for genealogical challenges and family research began with solving the mystery surrounding his own grandfather’s adoption. Since then, Jonathan has assisted several friends and family in finding their biological families.

Kat Venegas - As a child, I was told that all my Jewish family had perished in the Holocaust.

My first genealogy research was in the 1990s. I also became fascinated with the Human Genome Project, the internet, and social media.

I love finding lost relatives and can do traditional paper trail genealogy and autosomal DNA genetic genealogy. I also can translate and transcribe in multiple languages and am comfortable researching through online repositories in the following countries/regions, including: Canada, Colombia, Germany, Poland, Prussia and the United States.

Using online sources and autosomal DNA, I have been able to locate family around the world. Our Jewish Jacobus family traces its roots back to 1770 West Prussia (present-day Germany-Poland).

In the early to mid 1800s, some branches of the family emigrated and immigrated to England, Canada, and the US. During World War II, many family branches fled to South American countries including Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Katie Crossman - has been a Search Angel volunteer since summer 2019. She was an early adopter of genetic genealogy who became interested in genealogy after testing with 23andme in 2010 and realizing that consumer DNA could help her solve a family mystery. She has now solved over 40 cases. She is most familiar with Canadian, US, UK and Irish records and also knows Spanish and some Russian. Katie has a PhD in education and lives in Calgary where she works as a researcher in her day job.

Kay Rudolph - never paid attention to her own family history until she discovered that a cousin had been a sperm-donor in the 1980s. When his donor-conceived children reached out to him to learn more about their roots, she realized how important knowing who you are really is. Her commitment to help people searching for their biological roots got personal when she discovered an older half-brother had died of a heart-attack in his early 50s, just a few months before Kay had received her own coronary stent implant. Knowing her father's history of heart-attacks saved her life.

Ken Black - was born and raised in in a small town in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to Lake Worth Florida in 2015. He is a father and stepfather to seven children and three grandchildren and has been doing genealogy for 30 years. He has completed genealogy courses through Boston University and the American Genealogical Studies through the National Genealogical Society. In 2019 he enrolled into the University of Strathclyde and is pursuing his master’s degree in Genealogical, Paleographic & Heraldic Studies. 

Ken found out he was adopted when he was 21 years old and only briefly met his biological father before he passed away. Unfortunately, he was never able to connect with family members from his paternal side of his family and only knew brief bits of information about them. He had a few names and possible locations going back to the early 1970s and met a half-brother briefly for one time before his biological father passed. When DNA became more readily available to the masses, he was able to track down several first cousins and help another adoptee cousin figure out her biological father and connection to his family.

In thinking back about his own life, he always wondered how things might have turned out if he had these connections decades ago. He is fascinated in the process of helping others make that connection, so they do not miss out on those moments. The more he thought about this over the last few years the more he knew he needed to be part of something like Search Angels. Ken wants to help others fill in those holes before it is too late.

Kimberly - holds both a BS and an MBA from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks California.  She worked in the Aerospace and Defense industry for over 30-years in multiple capacities but primarily focused on finance and systems anomalies and development before entering management.  Kimberly retired due to disability in 2017 and now focuses her spare time on her two favorite hobbies of traveling and ancestry.

In 2014, Kimberly was able to assist a friend by locating his four children without the use of DNA.  All five were reunited prior to his death last year; two who didn't know they were adopted were introduced to siblings and family they never knew after the passing of both adopted parents.

In 2018, Kimberly was able to solve her own DNA riddle by locating her paternal family relying solely upon one 2nd and many 3rd-4th cousin matches in several online services - it was a time consuming effort ultimately growing her tree to over 4,000 people as she triangulated but her identification was confirmed by her newly discovered half-brother (formerly an only child) when he tested. Helping several of her own DNA matches who report as adopted fit into her family tree is ongoing and has been very rewarding.

Personally knowing the unanswered questions that are out there for the people who seek out a "Search Angel" helps to create the motivation and desire to try and help our clients find those answers.

Kimberly Calhoun - grew up in Michigan and currently resides in South Carolina. She is married with 3 children, 2 who are students at the University of South Carolina and one who is in middle school. Kimberly earned a Sociology degree from Grand Valley State University and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina. She has worked in both school and public libraries. Her favorite position is working in the genealogy and history room of her local library assisting patrons with their research and family mysteries. She has been an amateur genealogist for over 20 years and has a particular interest in genetic genealogy. She recently earned a Certificate in Genealogy from Boston University. Kimberly and her husband operate a small non-profit to help celebrate the birthdays of children whose families and caregivers are facing financial.

Kristen B. - was born and raised in Central Illinois and have enjoyed the less-than-hectic lifestyle that surrounds living in the Midwest.

Her curiosity about her own family history started at an early age. As a child, she spent many hours listening to her grandmother share all of her discoveries about members of her family and she was always intrigued. You could say that she came by her researching skills genetically!

Finding her father's biological parents was the first case she took on. Once she started researching, the pieces fell into place. She, "caught the bug." As a child of an adoptee, she can empathize with the anticipation and excitement for someone searching for their family members. Since discovering her own family, she decided that she had the ability to help others searching for theirs. She is proud to say that she has been successful in researching and reuniting families and can't wait to share her ability and passion with others.

Kristin Skarupski - lives in Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and will soon be certified to teach music K-12. 

Her love for genealogy started when she was 14 years old and discovered her great-aunt’s family tree book. She spent about a decade doing classic genealogical research through record-searching before discovering the wonder of genetic genealogy. After taking an Ancestry DNA test and finding a half-sister, she began to learn everything she could about genetic genealogy. 

In an attempt to break down a brick wall on her own family tree, she discovered a distant cousin who couldn’t identify his father and for the first time became a search angel. The joy it brought him to find his grandparents and father inspired Kristin to continue learning about genetic genealogy and doing what she can to help others discover themselves and their families.

Larry Sims – lives near Portland, Oregon, and is a retired military (USMC) officer. He has been married for 52 years and has three sons. He began his genealogy work in 1979, when stationed in Washington, DC where he had access to the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the library for the Daughters of the American Revolution. He has been researching family histories for the past 40 years. Larry is an Information Technology professional with 40+ years of experience. He has developed numerous family trees and has been involved in using DNA to find unknown parents for the past three years. He has been able to link numerous people up with their birth parents. He is very skillful in using Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com.

Laurie - resides in California. Early on in her career she practiced as a Social Worker then, years later, became an Attorney. Laurie devotes her spare time to genealogy for which she has a passion - often spending her day on the computer doing genealogical research.

Laurie has loved family history since she was a little girl and remembers chasing her grandmothers around with lists of questions. When she was a teen, Laurie’s paternal grandmother entrusted her with original family documents. She must have known Laurie would be the one to become the family historian!

In college, Laurie completed a family history project and to this day, still safeguards the hand- written letters she received in return. Currently, she is focusing her research on her paternal Italian roots and has been to both villages from which her great-grandparents emigrated.

In 2018, Laurie’s mother asked her to assist with a family mystery, and that is when Laurie discovered Ancestry. With the help of a Canadian mentor, she learned not only to build her family tree, but also how to work DNA matches.

Laurie loves helping people learn to work their DNA matches and assists/coaches in-person and via Zoom. Finding it so satisfying to have found her own daughter’s paternal grandmother, and most recently to have helped a friend and cousin find their biological fathers, Laurie relishes in helping others solve their family mysteries! Laurie has had the good fortune to meet many distant cousins while building her family tree and working with DNA matches. Her passion and skill with genealogy has been so exhilarating that she is now a Search Angel assisting others on their genealogical journeys.

Libby Jenkins - started her genealogy research in 1979 after a late night discussion with her grandmother and mother on the family's history. She was intrigued by the gypsies, tramps, thieves, kings and queens that family stories said filled the tree. She fell in love with this treasure hunt and has been hooked on genealogy ever since.

She has managed to find her maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather. Her paternal grandfather always thought he was an only child, but after much researching, she found out he was one of 16 children by five wives and she has connected with the many, many cousins she never knew existed. She now wants to help others find lost family. She currently lives in St. Louis with her husband, mother-in-law and two rescue cats.

Lisa Connelly Freeman - is a married stay-at-home mother, of 2 children. She became interested in DNA and genealogy, about 5 years ago, after her middle son passed away, at age 5. She has lived in New York, Florida, and currently, the DC metro area. She enjoys spending her time working on family trees, archiving cemeteries, traveling the world, and playing with the culinary arts. Lisa has a bachelors and masters degree in Special Education, with an emphasis on autism and mathematics. She has taught secondary mathematics for 8 years. Lisa loves looking for patterns and mathematical connections, when working on DNA, and family trees. Lisa has the most experience with Ancestry.com, but also has some experience with FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA, and GEDMatch.

Mary Henderson - lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has been involved in traditional, document based genealogy research for over forty-five years, and has augmented traditional genealogy research with genetic genealogy for over six years. She enjoys taking a break from her own family tree brick walls to help others in their search for their roots. Mary is experienced with utilizing Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage and Gedmatch.com in ferreting out genetic ancestors.

Nancy Landini -  Born and raised in New England, Nancy is an adult adoptee who has found her biological parents, siblings and extended family through DNA searching.  She is currently helping her adult daughter with her own search for family in her native South Korea.  As an adoptee and an adoptive parent, she understands the drive and desire to know ones’ genetic history.

An Information Security Professional, Nancy has 3 children and 3 step children.  Genealogy has been a lifelong passion and she enjoys helping others in their journey to find unknown or long-lost family.  Nancy has extensive experience with Ancestry.com, as well as experience with FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA, and GEDMatch.

Rachel Eskridge - was born and raised a Delawarean who is currently living in New England. A fascination with the past led her to pursue a bachelor's degree in history and religion, and then, subsequently, a master's degree in history and museum studies. She considers herself lucky to be able to conduct research and analyze data in both her professional life, where she works in the curatorial department at a museum, as well as in her personal life, where she conducts extensive research into her own family history.

Rachel became interested in helping others solve genetic mysteries when she encountered adoptions and non-paternity events in her own family tree. Search Angels helped her solve some of these mysteries, and she is excited to be able to pay that favor forward.

Randy Harris - has had a lifetime of interest in Family History which led him on a long quest, including on-site visits, working with professional researchers and his own countless hours of online searches. He has considerable experience searching most all available sources and have successfully taken obscure clues from various sources to ultimately link individuals to their family pedigrees.

Randy has solved many long-standing mysteries in his own extended family lines, including back to England in the 16th century. He was recently contacted by a new cousin, a World War II baby, who was fathered by his uncle and not known to their family. He helped solidify his DNA search questions and firmly established the link to this uncle; and facilitated integration of this new family connection. Based on the satisfaction this brought him, he looks forward to helping others in their search for a connection.

Rhonda Hoffman - Genealogy is Rhonda’s life. In the daytime she is a genealogy librarian and in the evening she chips away at her own brick walls. She is the editor and an author for a local genealogical society publication.  Rhonda believes strongly in the right to know one’s own background and heritage.

As a librarian she assists many adoptees, but is limited in the amount of assistance that she can provide to any one person.  She joined Search Angels so that she can help see adoptees through to their birth identity and family reunification.

Rhonda Kevorkian - got her start in genetic genealogy with her own DNA results. There was a close match she couldn’t place. Excitedly she began learning and researching until she solved her own mystery. Meeting her new family was an experience she will never forget. When others approached her looking for family, she was eager to help. Using her skills to give them the answers they were looking for became a priority in her life. She wanted them to have an amazing journey of their own.

Having solved several cases and seeing the rewards led her to volunteer for Search Angels. When Rhonda is not working cases, she enjoys sewing, painting and time with her family and friends at her home in Texas.

Sarah Hancock - is married with 2 adult step-children. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest and is an EMT and volunteer first-responder. She is passionate about EMS, Search & Rescue, dog rescue, and genealogy. Sarah became interested in genealogy after locating her mother's birth father 20 years ago. Since then she has built extensive family trees and solved numerous family mysteries for her friends and family. Having been a paralegal in her past, Sarah has perfected her researching and people-locating abilities. She primarily uses AncestryDNA, 23&Me, FamilyTree DNA, Family Search, social media, Newspapers.com, and state and county resources in her research. She is also a member of DAR and several genealogical societies.

Stacy Schmidt - lives in Minnesota and has been interested in genealogy for over fifteen years. More recently, she educated herself about genetic genealogy in order to identify her grandmother's birth father. This resulted in connecting with previously unknown relatives and learning about the interesting lives and stories of her great-grandfather and his other descendants.

Stacy has become fascinated with genetic genealogy and the mysteries it can solve, and is now using her experience to help adoptees find their biological families.

Sue Ellen - was raised by her grandparents in Maryland. She has always loved learning about family history. It has been a passion of hers for over twenty years. She is all about paying it forward by helping others with her research skills. She freelance writes for a business that keeps her busy during most days. The rest of her time is spent enjoying the outdoors with her husband and three four-legged kids.

Suzanne Hall - has helped individuals who were not raised by their biological parents, locate them through DNA testing and genealogy. She is a happily married mother of two boys. She spends a lot of her time lately helping others find their first families.

Tragically, she lost her own father at a young age and knows full well the pain of growing up with a missing parent. She is very comfortable in research and enjoys getting involved in very detailed work, like looking for patterns and clues. Research work is her forte and she loves a good challenge, especially when it involves helping others!

Tammy - grew up in and around the Boston area. She has four grown children.  She spent eighteen years working for the USPS in Massachusetts and New York. And the last sixteen years working for the FAA in Iowa, Maine and New Hampshire. She likes to travel when she has time. Love cruises. She spends her spare time researching her family trees trying to break down brick walls through genetic genealogy combined with records research. She has helped people at work and others grow their family trees and discover connections and history they never knew they had. And She likes doing that. She is very adept at working with 23andMe,  AncestryDNA and connecting it all into accurate trees. She found those two to be the best to work with although she has worked with Family Tree DNA. GEDmatch and Family Search. Weeding out relationships. She has helped herself by finding her own birth father. Recently she has met and started forming relationships with four half siblings she previous had no knowledge of before. 

William Cox - enjoys genealogical challenges and has a passion for helping people find living relatives or ancestors. He is a contract specialist and certified paralegal who devotes much of his free time conducting genealogical research and writing family histories. During the past 10 years he has located birth family members for people living in several U.S. States by interpreting results from AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe, and Gedmatch, as well as using written evidence and social media. He carefully documents genealogical research supported by the Genealogical Proof Standard. William is a proud native Kansan who has lived in Texas most of his adult life.

Behind the scenes - volunteer search angels