How did I end up going to Florida?

I am going to the US for the first time in my life. I was invited to visit the family of Cindy and Andy Sorenson, the people I have never met and who I have known for less than five months. The journey started in August 2016 when I offered my help to Cindy who was searching for her husband’s biological parents and posted her request in the Facebook group called Finnish Genealogy.

Hi All. Hoping someone here can provide suggestions or direction. My husband and I have been searching for his birth parents. We have very little information, but I’ll share what we know.

He was born May 3, 1962. Both of his birth parents were residents of Finland. According to his adoption records, his birth mom was approximately 18 years old, and his father was 19. The birth mom had family in the United States and she was sent to the US to live with relatives until he was born. His birth mother returned to Finland after his birth.

We tested through Ancestry DNA and uploaded his results to Gedmatch and FTDNA. The most common surnames among his matches are Nieminen, Hiltunen and Johansson. His closest matches on Ancestry are 4th cousins and the vast majority have either no family tree, or their trees are private. Anyone have any advice on where we should go from here? Thanks so much!!

I have been into traditional genealogy for over a decade but could still describe myself merely a novice genealogist and a total beginner in the genetic genealogy. I thought I couldn’t be of much help in those areas but could perhaps offer my professional expertise, PR and communications. I suggested Cindy that I could try to get Finnish media interested in Andy’s case. I was hoping that by publicity we might reach Andy’s birth parents or other relatives and they could reach back to him.

Cindy was quite sceptical whether Andy’s case would be picked up by media as such stories are so common in the US. I knew that this kind of human interest stories are very popular in the media and if I could write a catching press release, we could get good publicity. And we did.

At first we created a Facebook page Amerikkaan adoptoitu. Then I sent out a press release which was quickly picked up by Iltasanomat. They eventually published three large articles in concecutive days. Then the biggest commercial media house MTV interviewed Andy for their news and a few regional and local newspapers published articles about his search.

And here I am now, waiting at the Helsinki airport for my flight to Miami. I am going to spend the next two weeks in Florida with Cindy, my new BFF (Best Friend in Florida), Andy, a Finn by genes and their four boys. Cindy predicted that I might see Florida only through their kitchen window as we are going to get deep into the search by comparing Andy’s DNA matches who have common segments in their chromosomes. That way we might be able to pinpoint the ancestors who are common for two or more of Andy’s matches and for Andy himself. I bet there are also other kinds of experiences coming on my way.