Been searching for his Icelandic mother for twenty years

Jonathan Roth was born in New Jersey in the United States in 1958. He is now searching for his Icelandic mother with the assistance of Icelanders on the East Coast of the United States, but she arrived to the United States in the same year she gave birth to Jonathan, when she was 18 years old. She gave him up for adoption and possibly went back to Iceland.

"Yes, this came up unexpectedly and I don't really remember how we came into contact with him," Guðni Gunnarsson, an Icelander who lives in Washington DC, says, one of those who have been helping Jonathan with the search.

Information mostly into the grave

"Jonathan didn't think much about finding his mother until he had a wife and children. He started looking 20 years ago but without any success. Then there weren't of course all those social media that we have today. Then his adoptive mother died when he was 11 years old and she knew more about his bloodmother than his father. So all the information went into the grave with her, Guðni says. Therefore, there is not much information about Jonathan's Icelandic mother and the adoption, yet there is something.

"A man, related to Jonathan's grandfather, arranged the meeting of his mother and the adoptive parents This man knew about an Icelandic girl who lived with her girlfriend, either in New York or New Jersey, and he knew that she was pregnant. He introduces her to Jonathan's adoptive parents who were not able to have children."

Not easy to get access to adoption papers

Guðni says that Jonathan's father told him that his mother had met a soldier in Iceland and he impregnated her. Therefore, she went to the US, searching for him, but Guðni says that the girl may also have been there studying or as an au-pair; no one really knows why she was in the United States.

Jonathan managed to find his birth certificate, proving that he was born in the town of Camden, New Jersey, but Guðni says that it is difficult to find the adoption papers. documents.

"This Icelandic girl goes to New York along with Jonathan's uncle and she signs the adoption papers at a law firm in the city. However, adoption papers are not accessible for everyone, those are locked documents so Jonathan has not been able to get them."

Has few relatives

When asked why they are not accessible, Guðni says the reason was that the adoption process in New York at those times  was not always carried out in accordance with law and regulations. The governor at that time was among other things involved in illegal adoptions.

Guðni says that Jonathan would like find his Icelandic mother who would be about 75 years old if she were alive.

"He has a small family here, wife and two children, but no siblings. He would like to know if he has a family in Iceland, if he has a mother and/or siblings alive."

If anybody can assist Jonathan in his search for his mother, please send an e-mail to [email protected].