Woman Finds Biological Father After Decades Apart Using Public Records Search Website

With the help of her daughter and public records search website Instant Checkmate, a California woman has located the truth about her father's identity

San Diego, CA--After nearly 60 years apart, a California woman has tracked down her late biological father's identity. The woman's daughter used Instant Checkmate, a public records search website, to locate her mother's half-siblings and connect with them on Facebook. The families expect to meet in person pending the results of a DNA test.

When Rhonda was a teenager in the '70s, she realized the man who raised her was not her biological father. Despite Rhonda's search, she was unable to track down her father's identity, and her mother passed away before she could disclose his identity. It wasn't until the summer of 2015 that Rhonda's daughter, Chelsea, finally found the answers her mother wanted.

She made a breakthrough when she ordered her grandmother's marriage certificate and identified Rhonda's biological father's name. Armed with this information, Chelsea used Instant Checkmate, a website that aggregates public records, to track down his location and possible relatives. Although records indicated that Rhonda's biological father had died in 2005, Chelsea was able to locate her mother's half-siblings on Facebook.

"My mom had searched forever, you know?" Chelsea said. "It's such a huge piece of the past that nobody knew about. I mean, my grandma took all this stuff to her grave with her, so none of us really knows what happened."

Reuiniting With Family

Rhonda will meet with her newly found extended family in person once a DNA test provides hard evidence that they're related. "But if nothing else, they're her half-siblings, or possibly step-siblings," Chelsea said. She added that, though Rhonda will never be able to meet her father, she is able to meet parts of him by connecting with her family.

Further details about their story are available on Instant Checkmate's blog. Instant Checkmate is a public records search service designed to help people reconnect with lost family and friends and learn more information about almost anyone in the United States. It offers background checks, reverse phone number searches, and reverse email lookups that display details like contact information, location history, criminal records and more.

** Names and identifying details have been changed in this story to protect the privacy of individuals.