An Oswego native who was adopted in the early 1980s is looking for his birth parents. Michael Tweedie, 34, is turning to social media for help. As Iris St. Meran explains, the response from the World Wide Web has been overwhelming.
Michael Tweedie is hoping 21,000 Facebook likes and more than 370,000 shares of his story will get him closer to finding his birth family.
"I've waited since 1998 to get any kind of information," said Tweedie.
Tweedie knows some things:
- He was born on March 23, 1981, in a Syracuse area hospital, but he's not sure which one.
- His birth mother was 14 and his birth father was 17 or 18.
- He was in foster care for a few months before being adopted by an Oswego family.
- He grew up there until high school and he joined the Navy.
Tweedie shared this with people around the world.
"It's been about a week now, just under a week that I posted this and I've got more information and leads since 1998. There is no other way than social media that you can reach this amount of people. It has been tremendously helpful," said Tweedie.
Tweedie, who now lives in Georgia, says he has received some leads that he is working on. At this point he says he doesn't know what he would say to his parents if he met them. He's aware of the possibility that he may not be able to track them down or that they may want to stay anonymous.
"Let's say they don't want to be contacted, well they're not the only family I might have. There might be other birth family out there," said Tweedie.
And he's open to being connected to them as well. This page has allowed him to connect with others who share a similar story. He says the overwhelming support has inspired him to not give up searching.
If you have any information that might help Michael find his birth parents or you want to learn more about his story you can email him at MichaelsAdoption@gmail.com or visit his Facebook page.