In 1961, Tim Curran was adopted at birth in California. Over the years, he'd searched for his birth family on and off, but had always been stymied by sealed records and tight-lipped officials. In the last decade, however, home DNA testing and easy online access to official records have changed the game. He spit into plastic tubes (one for each of the two big players in this industry in the United States: 23andMe and Ancestry.com), dropped them in the mail, and waited, anxiously, for the results. When the email arrived, he was stunned. "After a lifetime believing I was a basic White American, I learned that was only half true. My birth mother was born in Iowa. But it turned out my father was North African," he said. Read more about Tim Curran's DNA travel story at the link in bio. 📷: Tim Curran