Liz Kellner loves puzzles, but piecing together the hardest one of her life required a little help from 23andMe.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-10-15-09.17.15-169x300.jpg" alt="2014-10-15 09.17.15" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21930" width="169" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-10-15-09.17.15-169x300.jpg 169w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-10-15-09.17.15-577x1024.jpg 577w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-10-15-09.17.15-496x880.jpg 496w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-10-15-09.17.15.jpg 640w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px" />
“This was the first time I was one of the pieces,” said the 48 year-old entrepreneurship specialist.
Abandoned as an infant, Liz said her origins were always a mystery to her.
She’d been found on a cold December day in Minneapolis almost 50 years ago. She was only a few days old when a rookie cop discovered her in an apartment laundry room wrapped in a kimono.
Looking back now, Liz doesn’t see her story as a tragedy – quite the opposite.
“I was lucky enough to have a birth mother who, when she realized that she couldn&#8217;t take care of me, left me somewhere safe, and warm, given that it was in December and in Minnesota.”
Then there was the young cop who found her, the nurses who cared for her at the hospital, the foster mother who took her in, and the loving parents who ultimately adopted her.
Liz says she was fortunate. If she hadn’t been abandoned she never would have had the wonderful parents who raised her, or the younger sister who was born nine years after her adoption. Her family, she said, is the “best gift ever.” 

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				Liz with her parents.
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Liz wouldn’t want to change any of that even if she could. But that never altered her desire to know more about herself. It never changed wanting to know about where she came from or why she’d been abandoned as a baby.
Over the years, Liz searched for answers. She always knew she’d been adopted. As she was able to piece together the story of how she was found, she also did her best to find and thank those who’d been so good to her.
“Sort of paying it forward, you know,” she said.
Liz found and thanked Officer Jannsen, one of the police officers who found her. She also tracked down the foster mom who cared for her until her adoption and thanked her for taking such good care of her and being a part of the system.
They all remembered Liz.
“I guess I made an impression,” she said.
But the trail ended there, until, that is, she tested with 23andMe.
Initially the most important part of her results had to do with her ancestry. Liz quickly found out that despite being raised a Catholic, her heritage was 100 percent Ashkenazi Jew. Surprising for Liz, but the real surprised didn’t come until the summer of 2014 when Liz signed into her 23andMe account after not looking at it for awhile. She immediately saw something she’d never seen before.
“”I log in and …(the) screen says I have a cousin, and an aunt, and a half-sister.”
Stunned and thinking it was a mistake, she quickly logged out. She waited and then logged back in.
“Yup, still there,” Liz said.
It was the first time she’d ever been able to identify close biological relatives, in this case using 23andMe’s DNA Relatives tool.
This alone was huge, and Liz didn’t dare hope that she’d be able to answer the questions that have been there her whole life about who her mother or father was.
But she was also skeptical. Her first thought was that it was a mistake, so she emailed her sister, and her best friend, who is a bit of a genetics buff. Then she sent a message with her data to a friend who is a genetics professor. She wanted to know what they thought. Was it correct? Did she really just find her first close blood relatives?
Her sister’s response was immediate: “Oh My God!”
Then the professor weighed in.
“Congratulations, you have more family.”
Liz felt her head spinning.
Then things got really interesting.
Liz connected with her newly identified aunt, Abbieann. Abbieann had also been adopted. As they talked they realized that rather than Abbie being her aunt, they were actually half-sisters and they shared one other sister, who was also adopted. Because Liz’s two new-found biological sisters had been adopted in a more traditional way, they had birth certificates with names on them.
The two had used that to find their biological mother, who is also Liz’s mother and who was still alive. Liz’s full sister had also tested. So in a short time Liz went from having one sister to eight siblings, and identifying her birth parents, who were both still alive.
“So unreal,” she said. “There’s no way to describe my emotions. I think my heart stopped.”
While this was way more than Liz had ever hoped to learn, the new connections brought up difficult questions and histories. Her birth mother is still alive but has dementia. Liz’s siblings who share her father worried about the impact meeting Liz would have on their mom. Cautiously Liz moved forward and introduced herself to her new found cousins, aunts, uncles and siblings, most who seemed to welcome her into the family, even though “they didn&#8217;t even know I existed,” she said.
Liz also met her father, who had also been unaware of her birth. When they finally met, Liz saw in him some of her own quirks and habits.
Sitting across from him, she had the same strange sensation she had when she sat with her sisters. Here she was looking at someone who shared features and mannerisms with her, someone who looked totally familiar, but who was also a stranger.
“To sit and talk with someone who is your sibling, or your biological parent, at age 48, who you have never met &#8230; incredible,” Liz said.
This had all been more than she’d hoped for, but the encounters also left her with some lingering questions that may never get answered. She couldn’t ask her biological mother about what happened. Even if she’d been able to ask her mother those questions, she’s not sure she would be able to tell her why she’d been left in a laundry room, what day she was actually born or whether through all those years, her mother ever thought about the child she abandoned.
Liz’s biological family’s story is a complicated one, filled with emotional landmines. Her biological parents ultimately got married, but that was almost 19 years after Liz’s birth. Her biological father said he didn’t know of her existence or that of her two sisters who share the same mother. He had raised another family during that time, and only married Liz’s biological mother after his first wife passed away. As Liz figured all this out, she felt compelled to protect some of those family members who didn’t know about her and this complicated history. But that also meant that she didn’t get the opportunity to ask some of the questions she wanted to ask.
“At least I was conceived out of love,” she said.
She felt lucky to have made these connections. They’ve triggered all this thought about nature and nurture, she said. She found that she could see many of her traits in her new found siblings and birth father. Making all these connections helped her explain a little bit more about herself as well, she said.
Liz said she doesn’t know what will come from all this, but learning this history and meeting her biological family has helped her. Liz doesn’t know if the relationships with her biological family will endure, the bond she has with her family hasn’t changed and only become stronger.
Liz said she shared her story, in part, because she and her new found sisters believe that there may be at least one other sibling out there who Liz wants to find. She believes her sibling would have been adopted in the Chicago area through Jewish Services in late 1954 or early 1955.
Liz is still trying grapple with what these new connections have meant to her.
“So unreal,” she said. “(There is) no way to describe the emotions.”

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Putting It Together

We’ve heard some incredible stories from 23andMe’s customers, but Menachem Bodner’s brought us to the edge of our seats.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Menachems-parents-259x300.jpeg" alt="Menachem's parents" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21940" width="259" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Menachems-parents-259x300.jpeg 259w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Menachems-parents.jpeg 408w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px" />
A Holocaust survivor, Menachem has been searching for his twin brother, ever since the two were separated in Auschwitz when they both were only four.


Although his search is not yet over, thanks to some incredible detective work by the genealogist Ayana KimRon and testing with 23andMe, Menachem is a step closer having found first cousins in California who were able to give him more details about his mother and even share with him a photo of his parents. The first picture he’d ever seen of them.
The story of his search is documented <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4589762,00.html">here</a>. (Some of the details of how Ayana used Menachem’s 23andMe results can help anyone doing genealogy with 23andMe.)
Ayana first spoke with us early this year, telling us about Menachem&#8217;s search after 23andMe contacted her with an offer to help.
She had already done an incredible amount of work, using Nazi archives, immigration records, documents from Auschwitz and other sources to piece together as much as she could about Menachem. She found his name at birth – Elias Gottesman, his brother’s name Jeno Gottesman, their place of birth in the Carpathian Mountains of Hungary, and the names of their parents, Roza and Ignatz Gottesman.
Ayana also tracked down what happened to Menachem’s mother, Roza, who survived Auschwitz only to die at the hands of anti-Semitic rioters in her hometown in 1946. But from there the trail ran cold.
Menachem, who was adopted by a couple who survived Au
<div id="attachment_21943" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21943" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Menachem-and-Ayana-300x249.jpg" alt="Menachem, with Ayana, seeing a photo of his parents for the first time." class="size-medium wp-image-21943" width="300" height="249" />Menachem, with Ayana, seeing a photo of his parents for the first time.</div>schwitz and then immigrated to Israel, has never given up and he has found someone who is equally committed in Ayana.
Using 23andMe results, Ayana was able to help Menachem connect to three first cousins in California.
&nbsp;

“I knew about their existence but DNA was a miraculous short cut,” Ayana said.


Their mother, Menachem’s mother’s sister who immigrated to the United States before the war, had told them about the family and sister she left behind. They in turn were able to tell Menachim about his mother, and share with him a photo of his parents, giving him the first opportunity to see an image of them.
Ayana shared with us a photo of him seeing his parents for the first time.
Menachem is still searching for his brother. To help in his search Ayana has set up a Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/A7734/499971010060858" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

Auschwitz Survivor Finding Family

A few weeks ago Vox did a piece about a 23andMe customer, who at 50 found his biological sister and his mother using the service. He’d been adopted. His sister never knew her mother had had a son that she<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000015521781Small-300x199.jpg" alt="Troubled Water" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21718" width="300" height="199" /> put up for adoption. Their initial meeting was joyous, which we wrote about, but in the ensuing years their relationship soured. For adoptees using 23andMe – as well as the biological family who they may connect with – these reunions can be either joyous or fraught with anxiety. After the story in Vox ran, one of our customers wrote about her own experience complete with both the good and the bad. Her story includes the promise and pitfalls of connecting with lost family. 
By Anonymous
A year and half ago, 23andMe connected me with my maternal half-sister. This connection began as the stuff of fairytales but quickly devolved into something akin to an episode of “Mean Girls.”
We had formed an immediate bond over Facebook, Skype, texting, phone calls, and emails, communicating at a pace that over ran every other aspect of our lives.
It was beautiful and exhilarating and fun, but everything is at 100 miles per hour. Until you crash. Within two months of our connection, she had cast me out of her life, showing me the rage on the flip side of her love. You rarely end up where you started, though. 
<h6>A Ending and a Beginning</h6>
While my bond with her came to a heartbreaking end, I now embrace that separation as the catalyst for the amazing turn of events over the last year.
Like many adoptees, my identity has been a queasy dysphoria, a sense of separateness where connectedness was supposed to be. I grew up with a family in which no one looked, sounded, and thought like me. My identity was pockmarked with isolation and a knowledge that part of me existed in the shadows.
My 30-year search for biological family was not so much a search for “family,” as a search for myself. I wondered if I would die without knowing this part of myself. I was even more terrified that, when I did find her and other family, they would dislike me. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000021155400Small-300x223.jpg" alt="Old photos" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21717" width="300" height="223" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000021155400Small-300x223.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000021155400Small-768x572.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/iStock_000021155400Small.jpg 803w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<h6>Burdened by History</h6>
Everyone has a story. I did, and so did my sister. She grew up with our mother, who was controlling and destructive. Although our mother had plenty when she died, my sister inherited nothing but a box of old pictures and a fear of abandonment.
Our mother told my sister about me two decades earlier. She told me that, by the time we met, she had a vivid fantasy of the kind of person I would be. The problem was, her fantasy did not resemble who I am.
Neither of us was really prepared for reality.
<h6>Virtual Connections v. Real Ones</h6>
Cyberspace offers distance and deniability, even when the conversation seems never-ending. I still smile when I remember the first night we connected on Facebook, a six-hour chat with her, her husband, and my original family, while I accepted friend requests from total strangers and carried on open conversations between all of us on our pages. For five weeks, the pace was breathless. One of our aunts privately warned me later to slow down and be cautious, but I paid her no heed.
I was like Sally Field clutching her Oscar — I found my sister, and she liked me. She really liked me!
<h6>I Love You</h6>
When we finally met, I think I lost her at “hello.” I just was not what she expected, and the scars left behind by life with our mother became too much for her to overcome. During the week, I repeatedly begged her to open up about what was bothering her . After I returned home in another state, I called to tell her I had arrived safely. Despite the tension of the week, she told me, “I love you,” and hung up.
Within a week, I received an email from her telling me that me that we were not compatible. I begged her to give us more time, time to become family. I received two more emails, each written with blades more sharp than the last. My worst fear had been realized. I found my sister, and she hated me.
She really hated me.
<h6>Grieving </h6>
I grieved for my sister like she died. There was a time I would have done anything to repair the rift, but that time is long passed. There is a saying that everyone who comes into your life is there for a reason, but not everyone is supposed to stay. She may not have stayed in my life, but she did introduce me to our aunts and uncles with whom I have wonderful relationships.
She also went on the painful journey of digging through that box of pictures our mother left to find some idea of who my father was. During those wonderful weeks before we met, she found his picture and name.
<h6>One Search Leads to Another</h6>
Heartbroken after our tragic week, I turned my attention to finding the one person I had never intended to find. I found my father in a day, and I talked to him the next night.
In the last year, I have fallen in love with my father, the man who I grew up believing was heartless and cruel. Growing up, I never once pictured his face my head, but I only needed to look in the mirror. I look just like him. I have a wonderful stepmom and two younger paternal siblings, a brother who will one day conquer the world and a sister who is a rock. I traveled to meet them for the first time this summer.
<h6>It Was All Worth It</h6>
Being with them is home for me. I am forming an especially unique bond with my paternal sister. She is a young’un, 18 years my junior. During our hilarious talks in her living room that week, however, her old soul and my younger spirit found a common resting place in the middle somewhere.  She has asked me to come back for Christmas, and I am going. I found my sister, after all, and she likes me. She really likes me!
As adoptees, we wait so long to fill this gap in our lives. It is natural for us to believe that the first relative we meet is the destination, rather than one more step in the journey. Despite how things ended with my maternal sister, I would not trade those first happy weeks for anything.
And, without them, I never would have found my paternal family. In the end, it was all worth it, after all.

Not Everyone is Expected to Stay

Jayne Berry’s adoptive parents let her know she was special. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg" alt="23andMe_Logo_blog" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6586" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog.jpg 350w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> 
As a child, her parents told her: “Most children are just given to their parents, but you were chosen to be our daughter.”
Jayne felt lucky to have the parents she had, but because she never wanted to hurt them, she waited to ask more about where she came from. Who was her biological mother and why she’d been put up for adoption?
After testing with 23andMe and connecting with a niece, she finally got answers, met three full brothers and one half brother and learned about her now deceased mother. Her story was featured on Lexington, Kentucky television station and the local paper.
We asked if we could share her story with our readers.
“I would be honored,” Jayne said. “My goal is to help those who are still searching.”
Check it out.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/655c9tW6fwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Sharing Her Story

This past weekend, 23andMe’s Joanna Mountain and Christine Moschella, attended
<div id="attachment_21379" style="width: 309px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21379" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/J-C.001.jpg" alt="Joanna Mountain, 23andMe's Research Director, and on the right Christine Moschella, 23andMe's Community Manager." class="size-full wp-image-21379" width="299" height="233" />Joanna Mountain, 23andMe&#8217;s Research Director, and on the right Christine Moschella, 23andMe&#8217;s Community Manager.</div>
the <a href="http://i4gg.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014 Institute for Genetic Genealogy Conference</a> at the <a href="http://www.4hcenter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National 4H Center</a> just outside Washington, DC. The conference offered a great opportunity to connect again with genetic genealogists and learn from other experts in the field.
Over the three days Joanna, 23andMe’s Director of Research, and Christine, our Community Manager, shared details of some of our ancestry and genealogy features. But the pair were also there to hear feedback directly from our customers, and to answer questions about topics ranging from where things stand with the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/update-on-the-regulatory-review-process-with-the-fda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FDA regulatory process</a> to tips on using our saliva kit.
<h6>
Using DNA Relatives 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1-300x220.jpg" alt="African American Example" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-19805" width="300" height="220" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1-300x220.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/African-American-Example1.jpg 661w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></h6>
Joanna presented an overview of two of 23andMe’s most popular tools – <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/23andme-ancestry-basics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DNA Relatives and Ancestry Composition</a>. She went over &#8211; their origins, methodologies, and history &#8211; highlighting both the science behind these features and how they have been improved over a relatively short time.
The purpose for attending the conference was not only to share information with genetic genealogy enthusiasts but also to get feedback about how these customers are currently using the service and to hear ideas for improvements.
In numerous presentations and conversations with attendees, we heard about some of the creative ways customers are interacting with the information provided by 23andMe, and learned more about what kind of tools and information genetic genealogists in particular find most important.
<h6>Feedback</h6>
We also got some feedback about which features could be improved. In some instances, we are already in the process of making those improvements, which we are very excited about. We hope the community continues to provide the kind of constructive feedback that they’ve always given as we improve our ancestry features.
Overall it was a fun and intense three days for Joanna and Christine, who said they loved meeting some of our most passionate customers in person. It’s always motivating to hear about the difference that 23andMe has made for customers and how excited they are about what more we could do. It’s an excitement we share. Thank you <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CeCe Moore</a> and <a href="http://www.timjanzen.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tim Janzen</a> for organizing the conference, with plenty of help from their family members; we hope that they will organize another such event in the future!

Tools For Genetic Genealogists

If he hadn&#8217;t known his story was true, Phil Silvers said even he would have been skeptical.
“Who would believe it?” said Phil, a 72 year-old retired middle school social studies teacher in New York City.
<div id="attachment_21257" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21257" class="size-medium wp-image-21257" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-300x225.jpeg" alt="Phil with his grandson Frederick Silvers." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-880x660.jpeg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image-1180x885.jpeg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image.jpeg 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Phil with his grandson.</div>
“If they put something like this in a television show no one would think something like this could happen.”
He grew up in New York City, and although he wouldn’t say so, his early life was tough. He wasn’t particularly close to his parents, and they never told him of his origins.
<h6>“It might have been better if they’d told me when I was young but they didn’t do that back then,” Phil said. “This was the 1940s and they didn’t talk about this sort of stuff then.”</h6>
<h6>
</h6>
<h6>Making His Own Way</h6>
Phil&#8217;s father had always been distant, which Phil thought was just part of his culture.
“I figured it was a European thing. He just didn’t take much interest in me.”
<div id="attachment_21254" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21254" class="size-medium wp-image-21254" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/image_2-300x199.jpeg" alt="Phil on the right with his daughter Katie and his brother William. His biological father Norman Aghassi is in the photo on the right." width="300" height="199" />Phil on the right with his daughter Kate and his brother William. </div>
But nonetheless Phil was thankful for what his parents gave him:
“They did do one thing for me that made up for all that.”
They sent him to college, he said.
Phil became a teacher. His father died of a brain tumor in 1963 and Phil’s mother eventually moved to Florida. Phil married, raised two great kids, who became successful on their own. The closeness he lacked with his own parents he made up for with his wife and kids. He was happy.
<h6>A Surprising Revelation</h6>
But when Phil’s mother died. She left him – her only child – out of his will. She’d said he would know why. He didn’t, and her decision started him asking questions. What Phil learned was that he’d been adopted. Although there had been some hints that maybe he wasn’t his parents’ biological child, Phil hadn’t known. Some of his cousins knew however.
“It was a bit of a soap opera,” he said.
So at 50, Phil started to learn a bit about his history. But what he found out just deepened the mystery.
<h6>Unraveling the Mystery</h6>
He heard from a relative that he’d been adopted from a Jewish agency that took in the children of unwed mothers, but he couldn&#8217;t find out much more. Phil was born in 1942. He did the math and realized he’d been conceived right around the time of Pearl Harbor. Lacking the real story, he’d thought maybe he’d been the product of a liaison with a sailor who was being shipped off to war. It was a nice story, but it wasn’t true, as he would find out much later.
After learning he’d been adopted, Phil soon stopped keep digging for information. He figured his biological parents were possibly already dead or at the very least elderly, so he didn’t pursue it.
“Fast forward 20 years,” his daughter Katie said.
<div id="attachment_21248" style="width: 233px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21248" class="size-medium wp-image-21248" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMG_6958-223x300.jpg" alt="Phil's biological father Norman Aghassi." width="223" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMG_6958-223x300.jpg 223w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMG_6958-655x880.jpg 655w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMG_6958.jpg 762w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px" />Phil&#8217;s biological father Norman Aghassi.</div>
<h6>Breaking Things Open with DNA</h6>
They’d been watching the PBS show Finding Your Roots with Louis Gates Jr. who explores the ancestry of his guests using historical records and DNA testing, including testing done by 23andMe.
“I convinced him that we should use 23andMe to at least find out where we come from,” Katie said. “None of us really thought we’d find actual family. We did the test and were amazed at our results.”
Because he’d been adopted from a Jewish agency in New York, Phil and his family believed he likely had Eastern European ancestry. When they got his results, however, they saw something unexpected.
<h6>23andMe Makes the Connection</h6>
Although Phil’s maternal line showed Eastern European ancestry, his paternal line showed ancestry from Iraq.
“This surprised me,” Phil said.
For a long time, there was a sizable Jewish community with a long and rich history in Iraq dating back to the days of Babylon. But many Jews began leaving Iraq in the 1930s and in the decades that followed. For Phil and his daughter, just learning where they came from was enough, they said.
<h6>Finding Family</h6>
But then a few years after learning this, Phil got a message from a 23andMe customer, who was identified as a possible first cousin.
“I told the person that we didn’t know anything about where our family had come from,” said Katie, who helps maintain her father’s account for him. “The next thing I knew the same person contacts me saying that his father and my father are matching as half brothers.”
Phone calls followed and finally, Phil and his entire family met his half brother and his family.
“I was in shock,” said Phil.
<h6>Connecting with His Brother</h6>
He was taken aback by the similarities. He and his half brother were both teachers in New York City schools. They both have a daughter and a son. Their daughters are both lawyers and their sons were high achieving students. (Phil’s son became an actuary, while his half-brother’s son is an oceanographer.)
His half brother shared photos of their father with Phil and he immediately saw the resemblances. He learned that he’d been a good dad. Phil also learned he’d been conceived before his biological father was married.
<h6>Learning about his Father</h6>
His father came to New York in 1939 and lived in NY before visiting Iraq in 1947 where he met his bride and then returned to New York to raise a family. Phil also learned that one of his family names is Aghassi, and he wonders now if he’s somehow related to the famous tennis player Andre Agassi. There’s a lot for him to learn about the history of his ancestors, he said.
“But much of my life is over now,” he said. “I wish I’d learned some of this when I was younger, but I’m thankful to know. I’m going to read some books and learn about the ancient history of Baghdad.”
He also plans to get to know his half brother better. Phil has visited his brother and his family at their home in upper Manhattan. His brother’s family will also be attending Phil’s grandsons first birthday.
Phil’s daughter Katie is still amazed that the mystery of her family’s ancestry is solved.
“It was truly an incredible experience and would not have happen without 23andme,” she said.

Who Would Believe It?

David was 17 when a few words change him forever.
His mother and father were having a bad patch and his mom had had a little bit too much to drink when she let something slip.
<div id="attachment_21151" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21151" class="size-medium wp-image-21151" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-300x225.jpg" alt="David, left, in his graduation picture. His biological half brother Kevin at around the same age. The two only recently met." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/David-Kevin.002.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />David, left, at 17. His half brother Kevin at around the same age.</div>
She told David he was her favorite child and then slipped in something that it was “because she wasn’t sure if I was my father’s child,” David said.
The next day she tried to backpedal, chalking her to having too much to drink.
“But you can’t take something like that back,” David said.
Now 54, David, who owns a small construction company in Colorado, said he could never shake what his mother said.
“This was the most devastating news I had ever heard in my young life,” he said. “I had a very loving dad who would do anything for his children. He is my hero. My mom, she did the best she could.”
But what his mother told him triggered a flood of questions. If it was true, David wanted to know who his biological father really was. He felt he needed to know so he could make sense of some of the differences he could already see that set him apart from his siblings, but for 20 years his mom wouldn’t discuss it, leaving him with one question:
“Who am I?”
<h6>Finding Out</h6>
It wasn’t until he tested with 23andMe last year that David got closer to answering some of those questions. The experience changed him for the better, he said.
“The biggest thing I learned is that distance, time and environment cannot change the traits you were born with,” said David.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21157" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Taz-Tattoos-300x214.jpg" alt="Taz Tattoo's" width="300" height="214" />
But David’s journey to get to that point was a long one. His mother’s revelation changed how he saw himself. Even though what she said also seemed to explain a lot, it also set him apart from his family. And it left him feeling angry.
It took David another 20 years before he could confront his mother about what she’d said. But even then, she gave him a false lead and until the day she died ten years later, told him nothing more about it.
“I gave up all hope of ever finding out the truth,” he said.
Then late last year he tested with 23andMe, and he was matched with a first cousin named John. Then one of David’s brothers tested. The results showed that the two were actually half brothers, confirming what his mother told him so many years before.
“I wasn’t really shocked,” David said.
But seeing that result helped David identify that he and his first cousin, John, were related paternally. Now David knew that he was on the right path to identify his biological father. But he needed more information.
<h6>A Hunch</h6>
David grew up near the border between Michigan and Wisconsin where hunting is a big deal and where out-of-towners often came during hunting season. David knew he was conceived around that time, so on a hunch, he asked John whether any of his uncles were hunters.
“He had an uncle who was,” said David. “The problem was, his uncle was married at the time of my conception.”
It would be a delicate thing to ask about, but John talked to one of his uncle’s sons, who agreed to test. Waiting to learn the results were “the longest of my life,” David said.
“I had to prepare myself for the possibility that I may of found out who my father was or that I had a brother I never knew of!” David said.
He also had to prepare himself to be disappointed or rejected, he said.
Meanwhile, John wanted to make sure his cousin understood what it might reveal.
For David the days of waiting were unbearable. He fretted that maybe he’d pushed too hard.
But then he got a late-night text from John.
“David, let me be the first to welcome you to the family,” it said.
David couldn&#8217;t believe his luck: “I can’t describe the emotions that were flooding through me.”
<h6>So Much In Common</h6>
He learned that his biological father was still alive and that he had two brothers and they wanted to meet him.
“I was thankful that they didn’t “kick me to the curb,”” David said.
When he first talked to his brother Gregory, he was dumbfounded.
“NEVER did I expect to be speaking to my brother,” David said. “We spoke to each other for over an hour and a half. We had so many things in common! We liked the same things. We thought the same way.”
And after sharing some photos they saw that they also looked alike. David then talked to his other brother Kevin. Kevin and Greg invited him to visit them in Chicago and meet their dad, David’s biological dad. Excited David made arrangements to travel to Chicago from his home in Colorado.
<h6>Talking to His Dad</h6>
But before he went to Chicago to meet his biological dad, David traveled back home to Michigan to talk in person to his father, the man who raised him.
“I told him that I have always loved him and always will but, he was not my biological father,” said David. “He immediately hugged me and said ‘I knew that David. I was never going to say anything because I don’t want to hurt you.’”
It was as if a huge weight was lifted from David&#8217;s shoulders. His father told him he was happy that he was able to learn the truth.
“He is an amazing man,” David said of his father. “The love and respect I feel for my Dad is immeasurable!”
<h6>Brothers Meet</h6>
When David arrived in Chicago he first met with his brothers.
“I felt from the moment I met my brothers an immediate connection to them and they said the same thing,” he said.
<div id="attachment_21152" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21152" class="size-medium wp-image-21152" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Peterson-Group-300x168.jpg" alt="From left David, John, David's 1st cousin, his half-brothers Kevin and Gregory, and Harry, David's biological father. " width="300" height="168" />From left David, John, David&#8217;s 1st cousin, his half-brothers Kevin and Gregory, and Harry, David&#8217;s biological father.</div>
They noted not just the physical likenesses but other things. They shared some of the same personality traits and oddly both David and one of his brothers had a Tasmanian Devil tattoo on one of their arms.
<h6>Call Me Anything You Want</h6>
Meeting his biological father also proved to be beyond words, David said.
His biological father told him: 
‘Wow, this is something. Now I got three sons. Can I call you son?’”
“You’re my father,” David told him. “You can call me anything you want.”
His biological father was most distraught that he had a son for all these years who he knew nothing about. And he was upset that he couldn’t remember David’s mother. But it didn’t hold him back from welcoming David into the family.
“I was welcomed with open arms by my father’s family,” he said. “I can’t remember ever feeling the love that I had felt those four short days I was visiting.”
<h6>Making Up For Lost Time</h6>
One of his brothers soon came to Colorado for a visit and now they plan on making up for the lost time.
For his part, David is still shocked that this mystery that nagged at him for most of his life has been solved. But he’s also fascinated by how even without ever meeting his brothers or his father, that he can still be so much like them.
“How does one explain how much a person has in common with a sibling or father they have never met?” asked David. “I have always wondered why I did the things I did, who I looked like… now I have my answers.”

Can I Call You Son?

Earlier this month Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s senior director of research, spoke during a panel discussion at the annual Genealogy Jamboree hosted by the <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21119 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Joanna_and_Blaine_Bettinger-e1402696162448-300x288.jpg" alt="Joanna_and_Blaine_Bettinger" width="300" height="288" />
Starting in 2013, the four-day conference has included a day devoted to the use of genetic testing to inform the search for family history and ancestry.
This year, Joanna participated in a discussion about what the future might hold.
“People are going to start seeing how they’re related to one another,” Joanna said, and then looking around at the audience she added, “Maybe at one of these conferences, they’ll put up on the screen how all attendees are related.”
<h6>More Commonplace</h6>
Most of the other panelists –  which included Bennett Greenspan, the president and CEO of FamilyTree DNA, Jake Byrnes, of AncestryDNA, and the genetic genealogist, Diahan Southard – agreed. As more and more people are tested, as genetic databases grow, tracing relationships between people will become more commonplace.
Moderator <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-5404 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208-300x225.png" alt="Don't just settle for two branches of your family tree..." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208-300x225.png 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Picture-208.png 408w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“It could be terribly convenient for those of us who are studying genealogy,” said Blaine.
<h6>World Family Tree</h6>
While a world family tree isn’t necessary for the effective use of genetic genealogy, it is a way to merge genetic information with information from <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/ancestry/family-tree/">family trees</a> and research documents to inform people about their family history.
“I see a universal world tree emerging from the combined efforts of everyone in this room and at companies,” Joanna said in Burbank. “It’s already happening to some extent – kind of a crowd-sourcing effort.”
<h6>Sharing</h6>
This is happening because individuals are sharing information, but also because companies like 23andMe are allowing developers to create APIs that will offer consumers more tools to use in their searches.
But Joanna also reminded those in the audience that people test for many reasons. They might want to know about their family’s or their own risk for disease, or see traits they might pass onto their children, but in testing they might learn something they didn’t know about their ancestry. 23andMe is trying to allow consumers to explore their DNA through all those facets, she said. They might also learn that their ancestry makes them more or less prone to certain health conditions.
“We’re looking for ways to integrate both the health side and the ancestry/genealogy side (because those) go hand-in-hand,” she said.

The Future of Genetic Genealogy

We got a great response from our Google Hangout earlier this month, which focused on some of 23andMe’s basic ancestry tools. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-21014" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-300x75.jpg" alt="05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy" width="300" height="75" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-300x75.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-768x192.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-1024x256.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-880x220.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy-1180x295.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05152014_hangout_banner_0002_right_Busy.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


During the presentation <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com">CeCe Moore</a>, a genetic genealogist and 23andMe Ancestry Ambassador, started with a quick overview of the science behind using DNA for ancestry before diving into the features.
Also joining CeCe were Laurie Kahn, an ancestry Product Manager here at 23andMe and Christine Moschella, our Community Manager.
After the basics the team dove right into some of 23andMe’s features including Ancestry Composition, Ancestral Origins and DNA Relatives.
CeCe covered ways customers can use different settings to get finer detail about their ancestry and how to make the most of your matches. She also covered some of the basics on how to invite DNA Relatives to share information that can help in genealogical searches and how to use information even when those matches don’t choose to share with you.
This is our first Google Hangout to go over 23andMe tools with customers and we hope to do more. It’s a great overview and if you are just starting to explore your ancestry with DNA this is a wonderful way to get oriented with some of ways you can explore using 23andMe. So check it out.
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