DNA Project – Beteseb Felega Ethiopian Adoption Connection

Please read this page for important information about our Databases.

Our Project at FTDNA   Donate to our DNA Project

Many adoptees were abandoned without any information about their families. DNA will be the only way to definitively prove relationships for these cases. Instead of doing individual testing on a case by case basis, we have initiated our own DNA Project. Through the generosity of FTDNA, we are able to provide adoptees with discounted Family Finder, or Autosomal, kits. Testing for Ethiopian family initiated searches is free for them and subsidized by Beteseb Felega – Ethiopian Adoption Connection. If you would like to donate to this effort, please visit this link.

Fees

A fee of $300 will be assessed to recoup our costs when a match is made**. To ensure the Ethiopian family gets an update, we also ask you to provide a short letter with some photos which we can deliver to them. This fee partially covers the following: the kit cost, our social worker time finding and vetting mothers who abandoned, getting the sample, time traveling to meet and interview the family member to get their full story after a match is made, the costs of transporting the kits, our time working with FTDNA, posting the cases, and keeping track of all the information, the infrastructure which allows us to do this (website, social workers with families for whom this is their job, legal and legalization fees, office rent, taxes, internet, computers, phones, etc), the hours and money our Exec Director donates every week for the last 10 years, and so on. This is a costly project. The processing of our first 43 completed kits from Ethiopian families represents $2,000, just for the kits, not counting the time, travel, social worker salaries, and so on. We had hoped to be able to support this project through voluntary donations. Unfortunately, we have not received enough donations to continue the project without charging to recoup some of the cost.

**Members of our recurring donor group are exempt from this fee as they are supporting the project in an ongoing manner. If you would like to participate in helping us test more possible family members, you can find the group here.

Because DNA only works when the “other side” is tested, we surge everyone who signs up for this project to pay it forward by at least donating the funds for one Ethiopian family to be tested ($52 ($49 + 3 for shipping)).

Instructions for Adoptees and Adoptive Parents:

If you have already tested at FTDNA, send an email to DNA @ EthiopianAdoptionConnection.org requesting an invitation to the group. Include this information with your request: adoptee’s real name (first name is fine if minor), Ethiopian name of adoptee (full name if you have it), adoptive parent’s name if applicable, status as adoptee or adoptive parent of minor child, adoptive country, and the location you believe you/your child was from in Ethiopia: Region and Zone. This is only for Beteseb Felega and will not be associated with your kit number.

If you have a kit from another service, you can transfer to FTDNA and receive matches for a fee of $19 to FTDNA. To do this, go to FTDNA and click on Upload DNA Data in the menu at the top. Then email DNA @ EthiopianAdoptionConnection.org for an invitation to the group. Include this information: adoptee’s real name (first name is fine if minor), Ethiopian name of adoptee (full name if you have it), adoptive parent’s name if applicable, status as adoptee or adoptive parent of minor child, adoptive country, and the location you believe you/your child was from in Ethiopia: Region and Zone. This is only for Beteseb Felega and will not be associated with your kit number at FTDNA.

If you do not have a kit to transfer from another company, follow the instructions below. This information is used solely to determine who meets the requirements of the project; it will not be associated with your actual DNA kit or account. Once you provide the information requested, we will send you a coupon code for a discounted kit along with the link to join. Emails will be responded to in bulk so please be patient.

        1. Send an email to DNA @ EthiopianAdoptionConnection.org.
        2. Include adoptee’s real name (first name is fine if minor), Ethiopian name of adoptee (full name if you have it), adoptive parent’s name if applicable, status as adoptee or adoptive parent of minor child, adoptive country, and the location you believe you/your child was from in Ethiopia: Region and Zone. This is only for Beteseb Felega and will not be associated with your kit number.
        3. You will be sent a coupon code for a discounted kit along with the link to join.
        4. Purchase your kit with the code at FTDNA.

Finally – to have access to all possible matches in all databases, you should enter your DNA into all of them. We will send a FAQ about this when you join our project.

This is the Activity Feed of the group. If you can see this when logged in, you are in.

Please read this page for important information about how our Databases work.

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