Help This Woman Find Her Birth Family on Facebook

When Tana White-Inskeep blew out the candles on her birthday cake this week there was no doubt what she'd wish for – to finally get to meet her biological family. White-Inskeep was adopted shortly after her birth in Houston on April 21, 1978, and has little information about her parents and siblings. Traditional routes have only revealed a few clues, so she's turned to social media for some help.

White-Inskeep's motivation, she admitted to KHOU, is that "everybody wants to be known and to know where they came from and who they are." The 36-year-old mother of two, who has been aware most of her life that she was adopted, contacted the agency that set up her adoption soon after she was born but it didn’t have any details to divulge. Going on what little she does know — her birth certificate says she was delivered at the Woman's Hospital of Texas by Dr. Ladwig and has two older sisters, possibly a twin brother, and her mother is Hispanic and father Caucasian — she scribbled in marker on a poster board, snapped a photo holding it, and now hopes the Internet can assist in her investigation. 

White-Inskeep, who lives in San Francisco, created the Facebook group called “Find Tana’s Birth Family” on April 19, hoping that, by requesting that friends, family, and others share the page, she can cast a net wide enough net to bring in some answers.

People have congregated to the page to offer tips, love, and support for White-Inskeep in her quest. One commenter suggested using G’S Adoption Registry, a group that helps families reconnect; another suggested creating a hashtag (#findtanasbirthfamily); and a person whose family knew Dr. Ladwig (who died recently), mentioned she knows where his records are kept and those could potentially help.

“It’s exciting just the hope of being able to find them,” White-Inskeep said in the interview. “But if I don’t I’m really OK with that. I really am.”