There are few places as far removed from Manhattan than vast tundra and cold forests that make up the land of the Sami, but for Laura, a full-fledged New Yorker, there was no place she felt more connected.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-300x300.jpg" alt="Laura G." class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21064" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G.-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Laura-G..jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
After venturing into the vast region that covers the artic north of four Scandinavian countries to form the cultural region also known as Sami or Lappland, Laura was hooked.
“The draw to this part of the world became irresistible,” said the writer and media consultant.
<h6>A Connection with Scandanavia</h6>
And it wasn’t just the otherworldly beauty of the place that pulled at her. Laura felt another bond she couldn’t quite explain. That deeper connection became clear only after testing with 23andMe. It’s what ultimately triggered a life-changing decision that also altered how Laura thought of herself.
“Everybody has a tribe and we’re all connected to other people and that’s an unassailable fact of science,” Laura said. “But to have a sense that you belong and are connected is an amazing and profound thing.”
For ten years Laura was a successful media consultant in the media capital of the world, New York City. She lived in Chelsea and was comfortable in the bustle of a city of eight million people. Austere and cold northern European landscapes were not on her radar.
“But I was sent to Sweden on a work trip and I felt this weird connection,” she said.
<h6>A Fascination with the Place</h6>
She remembered visiting a park there that had a reindeer enclosure. She kept coming back, sometimes in the evening just to look at the animals. She didn’t know what it was that fascinated her or why she fell completely in love with the place.
“It was strange,” she said.
At this part of her story, Laura takes a moment to explain that for much of her life she felt she was missing something. Her biological mother had died when Laura was three, and that experience was always with her. Although her dad remarried a caring woman who adopted and raised Laura – the only mother she’s known – Laura always felt a need to know more about her biological mother and where she came from.
“As with many children that lose a parent early, I developed an insatiable appetite for anything related to history, and background,” she said.
<h6>Looking Deeper</h6>
In essence, she wanted to look backward to find out more about her mother and in doing that learn more about herself. Although she went on to become first a journalist and then a writer and media consultant, Laura was always drawn to history. And growing up as the child of a doctor, she was also drawn to science. Then about three years ago she learned about 23andMe and using DNA to explore her own ancestry. For her, it was a perfect mix of cutting-edge science that also gave you insight into your family’s genetic history.
So she got tested.
“That was probably the most important thing that has ever happened to me,” Laura said. “When I took the test I was shocked to discover that I shared DNA with the Sami people of the northern Arctic.”
<h6>The Sami</h6>
That strange connection when she felt, suddenly made sense. Laura started to make more regular visits to the region so she could learn more about the culture and the people.
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sami</a> are the oldest indigenous culture in Northern Europe. Their people live across stretches of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. A reindeer herding culture, the Sami have had a cultural rebirth establishing a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_University_College" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sami University College</a>, to teach the language and maintain the traditions of the people.
Laura made several visits to the region and with each one her affinity with the Sami grew, she said.
“It was shocking to see people who looked like me,” said Laura, who is blond but with almond-shaped eyes, common among the Sami.
<h6>Taking a Leap</h6>
Her visits became more focused on an area in northern Norway around Kautokeino. Then last summer she took an even bigger step, she packed up everything she owned, put her two cats in pet carriers, and moved to the Norwegian Arctic and the heart of Sami reindeer herding country. There she enrolled in Sami University to study the language.
Her visits had been an effort to understand the genetic connection she had with the place, even cataloging her exploration in a blog called “Genetic Nomad.” She wanted to learn as much as she could about the Sami.
“I came to the tundra for a visit, and another visit, and another, and fell in love with the people and culture,” she said.
Even after a harsh winter, the draw of the place hasn’t changed, she said. Her connection to the place and the people has only grown stronger, she said. Laura said she marvels that a simple DNA test could have had such an impact on her life, and she believes it could do the same for others.
“I found my tribe,” Laura said. “I don&#8217;t think I could ever properly express my gratitude or how powerful I believe the ancestry portion of this test can be for humanity or for people who felt they had no history.”

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Genetic Nomad

Stephanie Griffith-Jackson always believed her ancestry was diverse, but she never suspected her DNA would lead her to France.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21038" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Stephanie-Jackson.jpg" alt="Stephanie Jackson" width="260" height="196" />
Interested in her African American ancestry and her family health history, Stephanie tested with 23andMe to learn more. The results surprised her.
“I’ve always been a mutt, and proud of it but this takes it to a whole new level,” Stephanie said.
<h6>African and European Ancestry</h6>
She learned that along with her African ancestry she had a much larger percentage of European ancestry than she expected. With a little more research into her genealogy, Stephanie discovered that her great-grandfather was Welsh.   He married her great-grandmother, who was African American, in the early 1900’s.
“It’s tough to find information on that side of the family, because after the wedding, my great-grandfather’s family disowned him for marrying outside his race,” she said. “It makes me want to cry to think about that story.  He risked everything for love.”
<h6>Connecting to Other Cultures</h6>
The more Stephanie learned about the “various and wonderful cultures” she came from, the more she wanted to connect with them.
Using 23andMe&#8217;s DNA Relatives tool, Stephanie reached out to several distant cousins, including one living in France. This cousin turned out to be an ex-pat Californian named Terry. Terry and Stephanie connected through 23andMe, and then started communicating online.  They found that they have a remarkable amount of similarities.
<h6>Cousins</h6>
When the pair had a chance to get together in California, where Stephanie now lives. The two distant cousins got along like childhood best friends.
“When we first saw each other, we screamed, hugged and cried,” said Stephanie. “We stayed up until four in the morning.  We were connecting, so we didn’t want to stop talking.  It was like we had known each other forever.  It was strange. I felt like I’d already met her like I already knew her.”
The pair also found that they shared a strong interest in genealogy.   Stephanie has been exploring her African roots and recently took a trip to Africa.  She even started a website for people who wanted to explore their genealogies.
&#8220;I will never be the same after getting my DNA tested,” Stephanie says.  “I’ll never think of myself in the same way. We are all connected. We are all family.”
Stephanie continues to research her genealogy, including her Native American and Portuguese roots on her mother’s side.  She and Terry talk every day.
“I&#8217;m so happy to have found 23andMe,” said Stephanie.  “I have discovered that color doesn’t separate us.  I truly believe that if everyone had the opportunity to have their DNA tested, it would do a lot to lessen prejudice in the world and bring people closer together.”
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.
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Connecting Cousins

Although his family had always told him they were of Mexican and Puerto Rican ancestry, David Aguilar never thought that truly captured who he was.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20991" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/David-Aguilar-260x300.jpg" alt="David Aguilar" width="260" height="300" />
“I always felt that I didn’t really fit into that particular category,” said David, a former ballet dancer who now works as an acrobat.
As a 7 year-old David asked his aunt about his heritage and she bluntly told him:
“&#8217;You’re Mexican.’”
His response was equally direct:
“No I’m not,” he told her. “I will tell you one day what I am.”
<h6>Exploring His Ancestry</h6>
Decades later, David used 23andMe to help him piece together his ancestry and find himself in the process. David knew his ancestry was complicated. His mother, who was raised in Hawaii, had Puerto Rican ancestry. His father, raised in Texas, had Mexican ancestry. But neither of them paid much attention to their heritage beyond that and for David, he wanted to know more about where his ancestors came.
He knew very little about his family’s origins, the links to Mexico and Puerto Rico. He’d learned that his family might have had some Dutch and Irish ancestry in that mix, but he didn’t know much more than that.
“They never really kept track of that in those days,” Aguilar said.
<h6>A Surprise</h6>
His family’s idea of their ancestry didn’t really match what he felt inside.
“It’s almost like someone telling you you’re a girl when you’re actually a boy,” he said.
When he heard about 23andMe, David jumped at the chance to get more detail about his ancestry.
When the results came in, it felt like opening a present, he said.
“I was blown away by it.“
The results vindicated his early misgivings about how his family characterized their ancestry. He learned his heritage was a mix of European, African, Middle Eastern and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
He couldn’t wait to share – he began posting what he learned on his Facebook page right away.
David said this more detailed description of his ancestry, helped put into context so much of what he felt. He’d always been drawn to Europe and Russia in particular, during his time traveling as a dancer. He even lived in Russia for a time, where he was able to quickly master the language.
“I was even told by Russians that I don’t have an accent when I speak Russian,” he said.
<h6>Newfound Heritage</h6>
He lived in Russia for three years. David attributes his affinity for the culture and language to his Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. He also points to something else, the Star of David tattoos he’d gotten long before his 23andMe test informed him of his Jewish ancestry. Without even knowing, he believes he was drawn to the image because of his ancestry.
David approached his family about his newfound heritage. He remembers the response of one of his aunts:
“‘Oh, congratulations. I’m so glad you found out for yourself.”
But David now has an answer when people asking about his ethnic background.
“I tell them I am 70 percent European, I’m 3 percent black, I’m 3.3 percent Middle Eastern, I am Ashkenazi Jewish….” he said. “When I give them the breakdown they say, ‘Wow, you really know your history,’ and I say, ‘yeah, I do.’”
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

Who I Am

Kathy Fisher’s life journey has taken her far from home, but she’s never been far from family, even if she didn’t know it.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20977" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/KathyMom-251x300.jpeg" alt="KathyMom" width="251" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/KathyMom-251x300.jpeg 251w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/KathyMom.jpeg 725w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px" />
In an uncanny coincidence, 23andMe connected Kathy with an unknown cousin whose path had crossed hers multiple times in her life — from South Africa, to Botswana, to California.
Kathy, 54, is originally from South Africa, but for the past 30 years, she’s lived in California.  Kathy works at Stanford University, where a colleague who specializes in personalized medicine first introduced her to 23andMe.
Intrigued by the chance to learn more about their DNA, Kathy and her husband both sent in test kits.  When Kathy reviewed her results, she noticed a familiar last name in the DNA Relative tool.
“This last name was most unusual in the United States,” said Kathy, “it was not even common in South Africa.”
Kathy looked into the person’s background and found out they did indeed share some DNA. She sent an email explaining the connection and asked some questions about where this newfound relative lived.  He answered her email immediately, and together they realized just how small this world can be.
<div id="attachment_20979" style="width: 237px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20979" class="wp-image-20979 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kathy-Cousin-2-227x300.jpg" alt="Kathy &#038; Cousin 2" width="227" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kathy-Cousin-2-227x300.jpg 227w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kathy-Cousin-2.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px" />Kathy and her cousin Neville.</div>
Kathy and her third cousin, Neville, met in person soon after connecting through 23andMe. Amazingly, Neville lived just 20 minutes away from her in California.  What’s more, as they shared their life stories, they realized their paths had intersected a number of times since childhood in a series of fantastic coincidences.
It all began when Kathy was 13 in 1971, and her family moved north from South Africa to a remote diamond mine, Orapa, Botswana.  She lived there off and on for the next 10 years.  After she left, her sister, brother-in-law and their two children lived there for about another 15 years.  Kathy moved to Namibia and then to the U.S in 1983.
Unbeknownst to her, from 1992 to 2000, Neville worked for IBM in Gaborone and went to Orapa to service computers a few times a year.  Kathy’s sister, Joan was the general manager’s assistant at the time and would very likely have met Neville.
But that was only the beginning, Kathy lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1983.  Neville married and had a child and moved to the U.S. in 2002, spent two years on the east coast and then moved to Northern California.  From 2007 to 2009, Neville was working at Stanford University.  At the time, Kathy was working at a private school just 10 minutes from Stanford.
Before Neville left Stanford to work at a start-up near the university, Kathy herself began working at Stanford, so they remained mere minutes from each other every day.  Neville’s start-up was eventually bought by eBay, where he works now.
Kathy and Neville both live near each other in the San Francisco Bay Area now.  They’ve most recently come together for a barbeque at Neville’s house, where Kathy met his family.
Kathy has two grown children who are 28 and 36, and she is organizing another get together at her home so her entire family can meet Neville’s.
“I am amazed by how many times our paths have crossed, but we’ve never met until now,” said Kathy. “It is so wonderful to be able to connect with Neville and to bring our families together after so many near-misses over the years.  It’s the beginning of a relationship that’s been a long time in the making.”
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.
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Parallel Lives

In her 30 years of searching, Perline Porter had to chase down rumors, uncover lies and overcome false assumptions, but in the end she discovered the truth.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20880" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-278x300.jpg" alt="Perline's Photo" width="278" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-278x300.jpg 278w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-768x828.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-950x1024.jpg 950w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-817x880.jpg 817w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo-1095x1180.jpg 1095w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Perlines-Photo.jpg 1493w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px" />
“I finally know where I came from,” said Perline, a 58-year-old retired computer tech. “I found my biological father and family.”
The searching – dizzying in its twists and turns– finally ended last year when Perline found her half-brother using 23andMe. Her decade’s long search and ultimate success in finding her lost biological family became the fodder of her book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-DNA-Search-my-Roots/dp/098962000X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&#038;qid=1396908948&#038;sr=8-2&#038;keywords=my+dna+roots" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“My DNA Search for My Roots.”</a>
The pages of her story track the years of disappointment Perline endured during her search. Through it all she never lost hope, a hope fueled by a feeling that ever since she was young she knew there was something about her that set her apart from her family.
“When I was around 10 years old I suspected something was different,” she said.
Her older brother and sister used to tease her saying she had a different father. On her own, she also found evidence that all the stories she’d heard about who her father was didn’t add up.
At the same time, Perline felt proud of who she thought was her dad, a man named Harry Holbert. But she looked nothing like her two older siblings who were fathered by Harry.
Perline had a tough childhood. Her mother drank, and she grew up in an alcoholic dysfunctional family. At 16, Perline got pregnant and married her boyfriend. She lived with his family and worked in the kitchen of a rest home.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20884" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/My-DNA-Search-Book-Cover-200x300.jpg" alt="My DNA Search -- Book Cover" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/My-DNA-Search-Book-Cover-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/My-DNA-Search-Book-Cover.jpg 231w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
When Perline was 17, her mother, in a drunken stupor, finally told her the truth about Harry. He wasn’t her father he had died before she was born. Her mother said Perline’s father was a man named Buck Casper, a close friend of Harry’s but it turned out to be a false lead that took decades to unravel and it wasn’t the only one. Perline learned that her mother had somehow changed the name of her father on her birth certificate.
As she searched through the years, Perline got very good at tracking down names and addresses and using public records. She also went back into her mother’s history. Harry ran a bar in Kelso, in California’s Mojave Desert where they lived. Kelso was a train depot not far from Barstow.  Perline realized that although she was born in Utah, she must have been conceived it Kelso, so she knew that learning more about her mother’s time in Kelso might help her find her biological father.
Over the years she got close to who she thought was her biological family only to learn she was wrong. All that experience taught her something too. Much is said about being able to track public records and people to learn the truth. But Perline asks: “What about when people and paperwork lie?”
Perline eventually turned to 23andMe to get tested because she knew that at least, “DNA doesn’t lie.”
When she tested in 2011, she got a match with a second cousin and his daughter. But she was still fixated on finding “Buck” and she ignored the match. She did find Buck, and although Buck was not well, his son tested. Perline was sure they were related, but it turned out what her mother told her was not true, Buck was not her father.
That’s when she went back to her second cousin match on 23andMe.Using the help of genetic genealogists, Kathryn Johnston and CeCe Moore, Perline zeroed her search for her father to three brothers John Collins, Edward Woodrow (Woody) Collins and Hugh Collins. Because of their ages, Perline thought for sure it was “Woody” or “Hugh.” She didn’t consider John Sr., who would have been 17 at the time of her conception. Her mom had been 25 at the time, was a widow with two small children.
It turned out Perline was wrong. As she was contacting relatives of the brothers, they all seemed to be saying the same thing – the younger brother John Sr. was the lady’s man. They thought he was her father.
Eventually, Perline contacted John’s son, John Jr.
He wanted to know more about who she was and because Perline had already met relatives of his through 23andMe, she recommended he contact them about her. Eventually, he did and decided that Perline wasn’t trying to scam him and he agreed to test with 23andMe. Perline traveled to California and met John Jr. She immediately noticed their similarities in John Jr., and her and saw pictures of John Sr. that resembled her two sons.
“I was totally amazed at how much he looked like my two boys,” she said.
They were able to confirm the connection using 23andMe.
John saw in Perline his father’s mannerisms and even the way she told a story or liked to drop one-liners. It all seemed uncannily similar to his dad.
“It is truly amazing how you can inherit traits from your father without even knowing who he is,” John said in a newspaper article about their reunion.
He also introduced Perline to her half-sister Carey, and they all got together in person in Fallon, Nevada.
For her part, Perline marvels at ultimately finding who her father was. There were many times that she was so discouraged that she wanted to abandon her search. Indeed she’d sometimes stop and focus on her life, but she never gave up entirely, she said. She was driven to find out the truth about herself.
&#8220;When you don&#8217;t know who your other half is, you&#8217;re just missing something,&#8221; she said.
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

Searching For Her Roots

In honor of both Easter and Passover, we want to share Debra&#8217;s 23andMe story.
A Christian, Debra didn’t just read the Bible, she began to immerse herself in the Torah, the first five books of Hebrew Scriptures that are also part of the Old Testament. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20783" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Debra-Moore-Photo-200x300.jpg" alt="Debra Moore Photo" width="200" height="300" />In looking into her own family history she didn’t have her parents around anymore to ask about her ancestry so went to the DNA and tested with 23andMe.
What she didn’t know was that those two paths would cross in a most unexpected way.
A teacher by profession, Debra has always had an innate desire for knowledge. After going through a very difficult divorce she sought solace in the scripture.
“As a Christian, I wanted to understand and appreciate the Jewish roots of Christianity. So I began researching the Torah,” she said.
A three-year spiritual journey ensued. Debra delighted in the learning, immersing herself in the customs and celebrating the holidays.
“I remembered a preacher once saying, ‘If you want to be blessed, bless Israel.’” She said. “And here was this treasure of traditions that were unknown to me.”
Friends and colleagues would invite Debra for Passover and to break the fast on Yom Kippur. She celebrated Purim and Sukkot, joining in on the readings and embracing the customs.
“When my kids come home they know if it’s Friday we are going to have Sabbath prayers and they look forward to it,” she said.
As she continued on this spiritual journey, Debra took a personal journey as well when a few months ago her daughter suggested they both join 23andMe. Ever eager for discovery, Debra agreed. Waiting for the results was the hardest part.
“My daughter and I submitted our samples without acknowledging any family connection,” she said. “23andme recognized that we were close relatives and labeled her as my daughter. Wow!”
But the biggest revelation came when they both reviewed their ancestry results. They had tried other genealogy services in the past and were left with more questions than answers. This was not the case with 23andMe.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve known all my life I was African American – all I had to do was look in the mirror but this – this was so exciting. My most unexpected, but highly prized revelation was that we have Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry,” she said.
Debra was surprised and elated. After three years of immersing herself in the Jewish faith she now could say that was REALLY part of her. She immediately shared the news with the rest of her family, friends and colleagues.
“One of the secretaries who works with me is Jewish and we were always talking about the holidays and such. When I got my 23andMe results I ran down the stairs and I said “Look! We’re cousins!”
&#8220;It was such an honor to be in the room,&#8221; she said. &#8220;For four years, I had observed Passover at home alone, but this year, I stepped out and made contacts within the Jewish community. I am so thankful and grateful for 23andme.&#8221;
Through all of this Debra only has one regret, that her mother has passed and she was not able to share this news.
“Years ago, my mother worked with a man who was Jewish. She spoke highly of this man who worked along side her in a factory in St. Louis, MO and was not bothered that she was Black. She remembered that this man and his family were so kind to her.”
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

We’re Cousins!

Anyone with a brother or sister doesn’t need a national holiday to remind them how special bonds between siblings can be, but in recognition of<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siblings_Day"> National Sibling Day</a> we bring you another in a long list of stories of siblings who found each other through 23andMe.


Tricia had a few details, but never enough to find her father.
John and Charlene, her brother and sister, never knew Tricia even existed. Apparently neither did their dad. It wasn’t until Tricia tested with 23andMe that they found each other and learned that they were all related.
<div id="attachment_20717" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20717" class="size-medium wp-image-20717" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Siblings-on-dads-bench-selfie-300x232.jpg" alt="Trish, center, and her brother John and sister Charlene." height="232" width="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Siblings-on-dads-bench-selfie-300x232.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Siblings-on-dads-bench-selfie.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Trish, center, and her brother John and sister Charlene.</div>
Tricia first started searching for information about her biological parents more than a decade ago. With the help of her adopted brother, Tricia had tracked down the name of her biological mother, who’d passed away.
She was also able to find the town where her mother had lived, even the old school she attended. When she visited the old school building she saw for the first time a photo of her biological mother hanging on the wall. It was a striking moment for her to see some of herself reflected in the face of a person she’d never met.
“That was a kick in the pants,” Tricia said. “To see her face and that ‘Oh yeah, I got all things from her.’”
Later she tracked down her biological mother’s sister, who helped her cobble together a few more details around her birth. Her aunt told her that her parents were college students, when she was conceived. Her mom at Oregon State University, and her dad was a basketball star at a nearby college.
“In my head I thought maybe it was one of those spring break flings,” Tricia said.
According to her aunt, once the family learned of the pregnancy they took her mom out of school. The family moved to another town, and Tricia was put up for adoption and given to a new family on Christmas Day in 1957 a few days after her birth.
Those were all details Tricia had never had before. She learned a little about her mother, saw some more photos and learned that she had Irish and Norwegian ancestry.

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More Stories About Siblings
&#8211; <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-20609 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling-300x219.jpg" alt="Mike &#038; Leslie smiling" height="219" width="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling-300x219.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling.jpg 697w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
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Hey Bro&#8217;
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But in all those details there was nothing about her father. And she left it at that, until she tested with 23andMe in late 2013.
Tricia said she signed up for 23andMe to find out a little bit more about where in Europe her ancestors came from.


“I was tickled to find out how much Cro-magnon (Neanderthal) I was,” she said.


But a match with a first cousin named Randy was a total surprise, she said.
“I did not expect that,” Tricia said.


She and Randy began exchanging messages and Tricia’s surprises kept coming. He wanted to figure out how they were related and began asking her about her background. Tricia told him what little she knew. A few of those details stuck out, basketball, a small college town in Oregon and the date of her birth. Randy connected the dots.


“I think my Uncle Ralph was your dad,” he said.


Tricia was stunned. Randy explained that his uncle had died a few years ago, but he added a happy surprise.
Ralph had two children, a son and a daughter. Tricia had a brother and a sister.
She didn’t know what to say.
In Texas, a woman Tricia had never met soon got a surprise of her own. When Charlene’s cousin Randy called, he started the conversation by asking if she was sitting down.
“My first thought naturally was, “Who died?” Charlene said.


Randy quickly explained that he’d tested with 23andMe, gave her a short description of DNA testing for ancestry and said he told Charlene that when he tested he’d connected not just to third and fourth cousins but to a single first cousin, who he didn’t know. He tried to explain how overlapping genetic segments are used to calculate “relatedness.” That the closer a relation the longer the overlapping segments. Charlene wasn’t following all of what he was saying until he got to the punch line.
You’ve got an older sister Charlene, he told her.
She said she was thankful that she was sitting down.
Charlene then talked to her brother. Randy helped connect them to Tricia and after exchanging messages, photos and family details, it was clear that they were indeed siblings.
“I’d always wanted a sister,” Charlene said.


Around Christmas time 2013 Tricia flew to San Diego where her half brother lived and her biological father was buried. She met him and Charlene. They spent the holidays together. They visited their father’s grave. They bonded. They learned of some uncanny shared family traits – an interest in painting, the sea and oddly dragonflies.
For Tricia the connection to family couldn’t have happened at a better time. Over the last few years she’d endured some difficult health problems and a divorce.
Now she feels blessed and finds herself, &#8220;smiling like a Cheshire cat all day long.&#8221;
She recently spent a week in Texas with Charlene and her family.


“Life is good thanks to 23andMe,” she said.
23andMe provides genetic testing services for informational purposes; your results may or may not help you to search for or identify relatives or family members.

A Siblings Story From 23andMe

Leslie grew up with a family secret – somewhere out there she had a big brother named Michael, her father’s illegitimate son from before he married her mother.
<div id="attachment_20604" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20604" class="size-medium wp-image-20604" alt="John Lesley Scott, Jr." src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/John-Leslie-Scott-copy-290x300.jpg" width="290" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/John-Leslie-Scott-copy-290x300.jpg 290w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/John-Leslie-Scott-copy.jpg 697w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px" />John Lesley Scott, Jr.</div>
As a child, Leslie made this mysterious brother her imaginary friend. And as she grew older, she became determined that one day, she would find Michael.
Meanwhile, in another part of the country, Michael had struggles of his own.
The man he thought was his father left the family when he was still a baby and married a woman he was having an affair with. Michael grew up fatherless and wondering why.
He had his doubts about the man he thought was his biological father. Then in the early 1990s, as the man he thought was his dad lay dying of cancer, Michael asked him if he was really his father. He didn’t know, so Michael asked him to take a DNA test, even though it upset many people in his family. Michael said he had to know whether the man who left him and his mother, was really his father. It turned out he wasn’t.
“I was glad to know,” he said, “but it left unanswered the question of who was.”
<h6>
Searching for Scotty</h6>

It took years of search by both Michael and Leslie and some help from 23andMe to finally answer those questions.
Back when he first learned the man he thought was his father, wasn’t, Michael went to his mother for answers, but she was little help and even tried to stop him from looking. Although Michael had a name on his birth certificate – the surname Scott – his mother had told him that it was just a friend named “Scotty.”
He took what she said at face value, but in retrospect, Michael admits it was obvious she was hiding the truth.
“People don’t casually put their names on birth certificates.”


Michael tried everything to figure out the mystery, but at some point, he said he gave up. He thought he might simply have to accept that he might never find his father.

“I wasn’t at peace with it, but I sort of had to come to terms with it,” he says.

<h6>Houston</h6>

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Michael someone was looking for him.
Leslie was hard at work. She’d found a birth certificate, which gave her a name – Michael Scott – and a birthplace – Houston, Texas.
So tried calling all the Michael Scotts in the phone book. She hired private investigators but got no leads. When she heard about 23andMe, she decided to take a chance.
“I knew it was a long shot, but I was just hoping that he was in the system,” she says.


He wasn’t.
So Leslie finally confronted her father as he lay dying after a car accident.


“I told him what I knew,” she said.
Her father didn’t remember his illegitimate son’s birth date, but he knew Michael’s mother’s last name.
She also learned that her father had only been 23 when he had the affair with Michael’s mother, then a woman of 43. At the time, he said he’d promised her that he would “stay out of their lives,” so he never tried to find his son.
Armed with a name, Leslie then decided to search for Michael’s mother instead. What she found was her obituary. Among the survivors, it listed a Michael Dougan living in Seattle, Washington.
That was her brother she thought.
“I almost threw up,” Leslie said.

<h6>
Like A Freight Train</h6>

It turned out he was an illustrator, and she was able to find a phone number online. She didn’t wait, calling him right then and there.


“I should have tried to calm down a little,” she says, “but I was like a freight train, out of control.”

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There was no answer, so she left a breathless message.<iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="450" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/139432651&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;visual=true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
Michael had heard the phone ring, and didn’t pick up, but when he listened to the message and heard the words “John Lesly Scott,” the name on his birth certificate, his heart skipped a beat. He rushed to pick up.
“I went to grab the phone, and I’m trying to figure out how to answer it, and then the call gets cut off,” he said.


For an agonizing five minutes, he tried to figure out and then realized he could use automatic redial to call back.
Leslie picked up the line.
“I was shaking,” Leslie said. “We spoke for probably three hours.”

<h6>
Missing Pages</h6>

There was no doubt in her mind that she’d found her long lost brother.
But Michael was more skeptical.
“She said, ‘you’re my brother.’ And I said, well I think I might not be. I don’t want to get your hopes up because there’s really a chance that we might not be related, and I was always told you were not.’”
To confirm their kinship, they agreed that he should take a DNA test through 23andMe, where Leslie already had tested.
“I thought, at least I’m going to get a chance to prove another negative,” said Michael, who agreed to get tested.
While they waited for the results, Michael and Leslie talked a lot on the phone, they swapped photos and arranged live-video chats.


Leslie saw in Michael’s gestures and expressions her own father. She just knew, she said.
Michael wasn’t so sure.
“No matter how many pictures we showed each other, none of them could provide the smoking gun.”

<h6>Bingo</h6>

Then it was Leslie who started to lose faith.


“I freaked out,” she recalls. “I started crying and went to bed. I thought if this is not right, I’ve destroyed this guy’s life. I just dropped a nuclear bomb in the middle of his life.”


Michael finally got his results.


“And bingo, it was right there,” he said. “I realized this was it, that it doesn’t get any clearer than this.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20609" alt="Mike &#038; Leslie smiling" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling-300x219.jpg" width="300" height="219" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling-300x219.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Mike-Leslie-smiling.jpg 697w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
It was 2 a.m. He texted Leslie, telling her to get up and go to the computer. They talked until 5 a.m.


“It’s like finding the other half of me,” Leslie says on reflection. “We have so much that makes us connect.”


He likes spicy food; so does she. He’s an illustrator; she’s artistic. She sings the blues; he plays blues guitar. She’s a chef; he loves to cook. She has olive skin; so does he.
Leslie had found her big brother, and Michael found a sister. They both answered questions that had eaten away at them all their lives.
Michael said up until the moment the connection was confirmed by 23andMe, his search for his father had been like an unfinished mystery novel.
“You get all the way to the end and the last five pages are missing,” he said.
Now he has the ending.


“It’s like finally finding the last five pages of that novel, and feeling, ‘So that’s how it turns out!’”

23andMe Helps Brother And Sister Connect

In the best children’s stories, the parents are done away with early on.
Mom or dad – sometimes both of them – are dead and gone even before the opening “once upon a time.”
<div id="attachment_20441" style="width: 204px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20441" class="size-medium wp-image-20441" alt="Cover of 1915 edition of J. M. Barrie's novel, first published in 1911, illustrated by F. D. Bedford." src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Peter_Pan_1915_cover-194x300.jpg" width="194" height="300" />Cover of 1915 edition of J. M. Barrie&#8217;s novel, first published in 1911, illustrated by F. D. Bedford.</div>
It’s a plot device that helps the reader make an emotional connection with the characters. It also starts the arch of the protagonist’s transformation from, say, a cinder-covered floor washer to a princess, or from puny sorcerer’s apprentice to King, or from a group of lost children into adventurers in Neverland.

<h6>Learning a Secret</h6>

As a successful children’s book editor, “Marcia Brady,” knows all about this storyteller’s tool. She’s even used it before. But what Marcia didn’t know was that the plot of her own life story had just such a twist.
In her early 30s, while Marcia was busy juggling her career and tending her young kids, she learned that the man who raised her wasn’t her biological father.
Her parents had used a sperm donor when they were told they couldn’t conceive on their own.
“I never even suspected it,” she said. “I look more like my dad than anyone else in my family.”
<h6>
 Donor Conceived Children</h6>

Marcia is not alone.
In a modern twist to the search for roots, donor kids like Marcia are turning to 23andMe for answers about their ancestry. For some the reasons to test often have less to do with finding a biological father and more to do with simply learning basic information about ancestry, medical history or finding out about whether they have siblings. They want information about themselves they can&#8217;t find any other way.
In Marcia’s case the revelation that her parents had turned to a donor to conceive, drove what turned into a years-long search into her background and family history. Even before coming to 23andMe, Marcia used the same kind of pluck and drive seen in the best characters of fiction to track down two half-sisters through a donor registry.
<h6>Turning to 23andMe</h6>
They confirmed their sisterhood with a DNA test. Then a few years later, when 23andme opened for business, she got tested.
<div id="attachment_20438" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20438" class="size-medium wp-image-20438" alt="Cynthia Lund, left, and Kathleen LaBounty." src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Cy-Kathleen-300x206.jpg" width="300" height="206" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Cy-Kathleen-300x206.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Cy-Kathleen.jpg 648w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Cynthia Lund, left, and Kathleen LaBounty.</div>
When Marcia’s results arrived, she was shocked to find a match for a half-brother. Because he was six years younger, Marcia assumed he would be the biological child of the donor, which would lead her to the donor’s identity.
“He didn’t log into his inbox on 23andme for three months. Those were the longest three months of my life!” she said. “When he finally saw my letter he replied that same night. It turned out he was another offspring of the donor. He hadn’t known of anyone else in his situation and was really excited to learn more.”
<h6>
 Connecting with Sisters</h6>

They discovered they only lived two hours apart and hit it off from the moment they met. Two years later, a new half-sister joined their 23andme list.
“It’s very exciting!” Marcia says. “I can’t wait to see if anyone else is out there.”
Unlike those great old children’s books, Marcia’s story isn’t fraught with suffering. She loves her father, the man who raised her. In fact, she’s never told him that she now knows that he isn’t her biological father, because she didn’t want to somehow hurt his feelings.
That’s why she wants to remain anonymous.
But still the news that he wasn’t her father changed Marcia’s understanding of who she is and it raised many questions.
Who was her biological father? Would he want to know about his offspring and (ten!) grandchildren? What traits might he have passed onto her that she has in turn passed on to her own children?
She and her newfound half-siblings feel like a family now, although one with a big mystery at the core. A mystery they are determined to solve.
Marcia isn’t alone in trying to fill in the blanks in her family history. Just like adoptees have done before them, the children of parents who used “assisted reproduction” to conceive want to learn more about their biological ancestry.
But this push for more information sometimes pits the desire of the donors to remain anonymous against the rights of their children to know even the most basic facts about their background. 23andMe allows people to contact members with whom they may be related, but keep both parties identities private. It’s up to the individuals whether they want to respond.
This kind of search for ancestry has even woven its way into popular culture.
The plot of 2010’s “The Kids are All Right” and the 2013 comedy “The Delivery Man” revolve around the offspring of donors searching for their biological fathers. Also in 2013 was a documentary on MTV called “Generation Cryo” that followed a teenager’s quest to find her biological father and her half-siblings.
But for many donor kids testing is less about finding a biological father but simply learning basic information about ancestry, medical history or connecting with a biological sister or brother.
<h6>
Finding A Sister</h6>

Cynthia Lund, a 33 year-old massage therapist in Salt Lake City, said that when she signed up for 23andMe in the back of her mind she had the idea of possibly finding her biological father. But for Cynthia, who knew since her 14th birthday that she’d been conceived using a sperm donor, it was also simply a practical decision.
“I had no family health history for one side, and I wanted to know if there was anything I should be concerned about,” Cynthia said.
She subscribed to 23andMe, in part, because she wanted to know about any potential health risks. In the back of her mind she wondered if she’d learn something more about who her father was.
Instead, she found her half-sister.
“I was playing with the site’s Relative Finder when I noticed a link to ‘view your close relatives,’” Cynthia said. “There was a disclaimer that said something like ‘are you sure you want to know’ and my heart started racing, of course I want to know.”
It was overwhelming, she said. She was crying and “freaking out.”
“As soon as I composed myself I started typing a message,” she said. “It probably took me an hour. I checked every five minutes for the next several days until I finally heard back.”
It took a little over two weeks before her half-sister saw the message. Then it was her turn to “freak out,” Cynthia said.

“She and her mom freaked out just like me and my mom did,” she said.
She responded to the email and the two women, who are about two years apart, finally talked on the phone. They spent several hours sharing their life stories with each other, finding that they had more than just DNA in common, but that they had some similar interests and personality traits. A few weeks later, Cynthia took a flight from her home in Utah to see her newly found sister in San Diego.
“It’s ridiculous how much alike we are,” she said. “We definitely pass for full siblings. We look SO much alike!”
Both Cynthia and her sister were raised as a single child, so finding a sister was both exciting and a little surreal for them both.
Since their first meeting, the two have become very close. They went together to Italy for a 10-day vacation, and they now are visiting each other pretty regularly. Cynthia said they’re either exchanging phone calls, texts or emails almost daily.
“It’s so great having a biological sibling, especially when I hadn’t had that experience for my first 30 years,” she said.
“We’re definitely family! “
While Cynthia is still interested in learning about her donor dad if possible, that’s not something that her half-sister is focused on.
“I don’t want anything from him, I just want to see what he looks like and help me understand family medical history,” she said.
“It’s hard to explain but I only have this half picture of myself. 23andMe is perfect service for anyone like me who has this sort of black hole in their history and wants to know more about themselves.”
<h6>
Still Searching</h6>

Kathleen LaBounty, another donor child searching for information about her biological father, has been searching for years. Oprah and National Public Radio featured her six-year search for her biological roots and her advocacy on behalf of the donor children.
In her Herculean search she’s sent more than 600 letters to prospective fathers, all went to the same medical school in Texas from which donors were used at the fertility clinic her mother used to conceive.
A well-grounded and happy child, Kathleen said that when she was 8 years old her mother told her she’d been conceived with the help of a donor.
The first thing Kathleen did was run downstairs and hug her father, saying she felt so much love for him for making her his own.
The revelation also helped her understand some of the most obvious differences between her and members of her family. She’s short and skinny. They’re tall and burly.
“In family photos I don’t blend in well,” she said.
<h6>
 Family History</h6>

Her search for more information about her ancestry has taken on more import in part because she now has children of her own. She wants to know about her family medical history. Recently she joined 23andMe. She learned that she has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Raised as an agnostic but one who attended a Baptist school, this was news to her.
Many of her closest matches in 23andMe’s Relative Finder are from Russia. She connected with a third cousin, who lived just ten minutes from her home.
“He looks like Ben Stiller,” she said.
She’s been able to communicate with other distant relatives connected through 23andMe’s DNA Relative tool, which she said has helped her get a better picture of the paternal side of her ancestry.
She’s also recommended 23andMe to others who, like her, we&#8217;re looking for family. Two of those who she recommended the service to, turned out to be half-sisters, she said.
“I would love it if close relatives would eventually submit their DNA and I could connect through 23andMe, but if it never happens that’s OK at least now I know my heritage,” Kathleen said.

Stories — Page 17