Dad on Facebook living as Elvis impersonator in Thailand

B.C. woman finds biological dad on Facebook living as Elvis impersonator in Thailand

Elvis Impersonator – After spending the first 46 years of her life without knowing her father, a Kelowna, B.C., woman decided to try to find him by sending out a personal plea in a video she posted on Facebook.

“I have never met my biological father. My mom was a teenage mom and my father was a visitor to Canada from the Netherlands,” she says in the video. “All I know is that he was born in the Netherlands. He visited Canada in 1968 when my mother got pregnant with me.”

Within three days, she discovered he’s been living in Thailand for the last 16 years, performing as an Elvis impersonator for charity. He’s also worked as an actor and musician.

“I guess he’s very, very well-known and a little bit famous in Europe,” she says.

Her father, Cees de Jong, performs as Colin Young in Thailand, where he has two young children named Elvis and Priscilla.

A long search

Dodaro had tried off and on to find her Dutch father for years with no success, because he has one of the most common first and last names in the Netherlands: Cees de Jong.

“It’s kind of the equivalent of searching for John Smith in North America,” says Dodaro.

But once she posted her video on Facebook, the search took on a life of its own. People started sharing it and tagging their friends of Dutch descent, she says.

Eventually a newspaper in the Netherlands picked up the story and a reporter took on the chase to find Dodaro’s father. He tracked down de Jong’s phone number in Thailand.

When the reporter asked Dodaro if she would like to call her father, she said she was too scared. MORE: