Specialist Research & Adoptees
Specialist Research & Adoptees
A structured, evidence-first workflow for adoptees, donor-conceived people, NPE discoveries and anyone searching for an unknown parent, grandparent or biological branch. Test widely, cluster your matches, model the odds, and confirm your conclusion.
What are you trying to solve?
Specialist research is not one workflow — it is several. Choose the search that matches your situation and jump straight to the methodology you need.
How unknown parentage is actually solved
Every successful case follows the same four stages. Skipping a stage — especially clustering — is the most common reason searches stall.
A DNA match is a hypothesis, not a conclusion. Never contact a biological relative, publish a name, or announce a finding to family until you can demonstrate the link with clustered matches, consistent shared segments and at least one independent line of evidence. Specialist research carries real emotional consequences for people who never consented to being found — accuracy and restraint are part of the method, not optional extras.
🟣 Specialist Research & Adoptees
Searching for unknown biological parents, grandparents or resolving adoption and donor-conception cases requires specialised methodologies. These workflows are designed to help you systematically solve unknown parentage — from your first kit order to a defensible, documented conclusion.
DNA Testing for Adoptees: Complete Guide
Learn which DNA kits to purchase first, how the free-upload database transfer strategy works, and how to protect your privacy from day one.
Read Guide →DNA Detective Work
Step-by-step methodologies using match clustering, shared matches, and pedigree modelling to isolate biological family branches.
Read Guide →🔗 Supporting skills from the Academy
Successful specialist searches depend on techniques taught in other tracks. If any step of your investigation feels shaky, revisit the foundations below before pushing the case further.
How DNA Matching Works
Understand shared DNA, how matches are identified, and how centimorgans (cM) are used to predict cousin relationships.
Read Guide →Understanding AutoCluster Reports
A visual tutorial explaining how automated clustering algorithms group your matches into distinct family branches.
Read Guide →Guide to DNA Triangulation
Learn how to verify overlapping segments on specific chromosomes among multiple matches to investigate a common ancestor.
Read Guide →🛠️ Tools for Specialist Searches
Private, secure, client-side applications and worksheets built for unknown-parentage work — cluster your matches, model your hypotheses, and map the segments that prove the link.
🎓 Specialist Search Roadmap
Follow these six stages in order. Each one depends on the evidence produced by the stage before it.
Test Strategically
Read DNA Testing for Adoptees and order your first kit.
Upload Everywhere
Transfer your raw data to widen your match pool — see the upload section in the Adoptee Guide.
Cluster Your Matches
Sort unknowns into groups with AutoCluster Reports.
Build Hypotheses
Apply the casework methods in DNA Detective Work.
Weigh the Odds
Check cousin ranges with our Relationship Calculator.
Confirm & Document
Verify with Traditional Research Methods.
Everyone has a biological story. Yours can be documented.
Work the workflow, respect the people you find, and back every conclusion with evidence you could defend in front of another researcher.