What is a Search Angel?

A helping hand when you do not know where to begin

A family search can start with a name, an old photograph, an adoption record, an unexpected DNA match or a question that has followed you for years. Search Angels help organize those clues, find useful records, compare possible identities and explain what the evidence supports. They contribute research experience and a careful method; you bring your question, your choices and the information you are comfortable sharing.

Search Angels commonly help with adoption, unknown parentage, donor conception, late discoveries about biological relationships and other gaps in a person’s biological family history. Every situation is different. A volunteer’s relevant experience, the available records and the permissions for the case determine the help they can responsibly offer.

You can be interested in learning names, understanding a family connection or documenting a history without wanting a reunion. Your search goal belongs to you. Identifying a possible relative does not give anyone permission to contact that person.

What a Search Angel can help you do

• Turn a broad question into a research plan. Describe what you already know, what remains uncertain, which sources might answer the question and what a useful result would look like.
• Find and evaluate documentary records. Depending on their reviewed specialties, a volunteer may work with censuses, birth and marriage records, obituaries, newspapers, directories, court records, archives and other appropriate sources.
• Separate people with similar names. Compare dates, places, relatives, occupations and other details before treating two records as the same person.
• Follow a possible family connection. Build and test a documented hypothesis instead of accepting an unsourced online tree as proof.
• Work with DNA evidence when separately qualified and authorized. A volunteer whose DNA skills have been reviewed can help examine match patterns alongside records. A match or ethnicity estimate by itself is not a complete answer.
• Explain the result in plain language. Share the sources consulted, the reasoning, any contradictions, the limits of the conclusion and useful next steps.

The volunteer works within the specific skills BTLGen has reviewed. A records researcher is not automatically approved for DNA work, every country or every specialty.

Search Angel services are free

There is no research fee for Search Angel volunteer help. BTLGen recommends an optional donation or thank-you gift to recognize a volunteer’s time and care, if you are comfortable giving one. No donation is required, no minimum amount applies, and choosing not to donate must never affect your access to help, the effort given to your case or the release of your results.

You and the volunteer can agree on a direct payment method such as Cash App, PayPal or Venmo. BTLGen does not collect or process these gifts. Confirm the recipient before sending anything and keep names of relatives, DNA information and other private case details out of payment notes. A gift to an individual volunteer is personal appreciation; BTLGen does not issue a charitable donation receipt.

The volunteer’s research time is free. A DNA test, a record ordered from an archive, copying, postage or another outside expense can still have a cost. Any expense must be explained and approved by you in writing beforehand. A volunteer cannot quietly turn a free case into paid professional work. A separate professional arrangement requires your choice and separate agreed terms.

How your private search works

1. Tell us what you hope to learn. Sign in to your Member Hub and create a private volunteer request. Add the research question, relevant region or community, and a description of the records you already have.
2. Choose a suitable reviewed volunteer. Compare the volunteer’s approved specialties and availability. Creating a request does not give a helper access, assign someone automatically or guarantee a match.
3. Agree on the boundaries. Identify the goal, the material needed, expected updates, any approved expenses and what will be delivered. Decide separately whether DNA research or contact with relatives is allowed.
4. Both people sign both documents. The case requires a confidentiality agreement (NDA) and a research agreement signed by you and the volunteer before research begins or private case access opens.
5. Review the research together. Ask for the sources behind an answer. Discuss uncertainty and competing explanations, and decide whether to continue, change the plan or stop.
6. Receive the agreed work and choose what happens next. A conclusion can be supported, tentative or unresolved. You control any further sharing or authorized outreach.

Volunteer help depends on relevant skills and availability. Some searches take time, and some remain unresolved. Neither a family identification nor a welcome response or reunion can be promised.

Prepare without oversharing

Start with your question and a short timeline: names already known, approximate dates and places, what you have tried, and where you found each clue. Describe sensitive documents rather than posting them publicly. You can add source references in your private request and decide with your chosen helper what authorized material is needed.

Never provide account passwords, government identification numbers or another person’s DNA data without their authority. Permission to view a record is different from permission to upload, download or publish it. BTLGen access does not replace another service’s supported sharing permissions.

If information is distressing, you can ask to pause, limit the next steps or end the search. Search Angels provide genealogy help; support for medical, legal or emotional decisions may require an appropriate qualified professional.

Your privacy, your pace and your choices

Living people and private case information must be protected. A search request is private by default. Only the requesting member and the specifically chosen helper can participate under the required signed agreements. Relatives, colleagues, mentors and other members do not automatically receive access.

You can pause the helper’s future access from the case. Changing the agreement requires new signatures. A volunteer cannot publish your story, display your records in a portfolio, contact a possible relative, or send your case to an outside service simply because you accepted help.

BTLGen is a place for people to connect and find genealogy help. Search Angels and research professionals who participate here are independent volunteers or service providers, not BTLGen employees. Any research arrangement is made directly between the member and the helper. Joining or receiving a BTLGen review badge does not create employment, authorize someone to act for BTLGen, or guarantee a result.