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In recent years, in has become possible to discover the name of a father whose identity is unknown, using DNA testing sites such as AncestryDNA, 23andMe and MyHeritage, and to make contact with biological paternal relatives. If you have taken a DNA test at one or more of these sites and are struggling to make sense of your matches, I can help you with this. I have successfully connected clients with cousins and half-siblings in many cases. This can be a complex procedure, however, and every case is different. I liken the process to a jigsaw puzzle of a beach scene, in which the sky is your eldest biological paternal ancestors, and the generations trace down through the horizon to the sea and to the sand, and somewhere in that lower part of the jigsaw puzzle lies your father. I look at your matches (for example, a second paternal cousin) to see where that match lies in the jigsaw puzzle, and trace backwards and forwards from that individual. The closer the match, and the more matches there are, the more I can narrow down the potential candidates and the greater the likelihood of success. There are so many variables in this kind of research (number of matches, closeness of matches, how prepared your matches are to respond to messages and cooperate) that it is impossible to give an indication of cost. As a ballpark, the most straightforward of these research jobs are in the region of £750 plus modest costs, and the more complicated ones £1,500 or more. I perform the research in tranches of £250, and update you at every stage, and discuss how you would like to take it forward. If you are prepared to do some of the legwork (such as contacting matches) this will reduce my fee. My initial fee of £250 would include: • Tracing backwards from your mother in order to eliminate maternal matches at the DNA testing sites • Analysis of your closest matches in order to give some idea of the how much work it is likely to entail and therefore my final fee.