Adopted at 4½ months in Bronx, New York, Jean Moss decided in 2009, to search for her birth family to obtain her medical history. Knowing that both families were Jewish, she joined San Diego Jewish Genealogical Society to begin her search.

She is currently past president of SDJGS, and is now serving in the capacity of program and hospitality chairs. She is a member of Jewish Genealogical Society New York and multiple societies in San Diego.

She presented at international, national, regional and local genealogical conferences. She developed research skills from each society that helped her find her family.

My Adoption Search: Follow My Journey in Solving the Puzzle, Piece by Piece (Weds-129), 9:00 – 10:15 A.M.

Adoption is a subject rarely presented at genealogical conferences. Most adoptees have no idea where or how to begin looking for their birth family. It is very important for an adoptee to learn where they came from and their medical history. With this presentation, one will learn about methods to uncover adoptions from a real life case study.

For some, genealogy is taking bits and pieces from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins – trying to create a path that leads you back to an earlier place in your family history. Moss, an adoptee searching for her birth family, started with small clues, ran into roadblocks, and circumvented them in her successful search to locate family members.

At 57, she went from an only child to being part of a wonderful birth family she did not know even existed. All this in less than a year! What an amazing genealogical journey!

Category: Beginning genealogists 

Topics: Ashkenazic research, Cemetery research, DNA research and genetics, Immigration and migration over the ages, Jewish surname adoption and naming patterns, Repositories