To teach his students a powerful lesson in genetics, Bryant McAllister, an associate professor of biology at the University of Iowa, poses a simple question.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-23169" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer-225x300.jpg" alt="BFM_computer" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer-885x1180.jpg 885w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BFM_computer.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />


“Who are you?” Dr. McAllister asks.


The answer, and the genetic tools to explore it, offer an opportunity for students to learn, not just about themselves and biology, but also a little about the scientific revolution of personal genomics.


“My idea was to utilize personal genomics to provide an opportunity for students to investigate their relationships with others through DNA analysis,” Dr. McAllister said. “I thought it would provide an unique and engaging perspective for them.”


After researching a number of personal genome testing options, he concluded that 23andMe was the best choice for his course:
“Who are you? Revelations from the Personal Genome,” which he first taught in the fall of 2014 to a small class of first-year students.
The course was open to all &#8212; without any science prerequisites or restrictions on students’ majors — and designed to be relevant for all types of students.
The 23andMe DNA kits are free to the students (costs are covered by a university budget for first-year seminars), but Dr. McAlister makes it very clear to his class that participation in genotyping is completely optional.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-23170" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ed-logo-245x300.jpg" alt="ed logo" width="245" height="300" />


“We spend the first class discussing the possible surprises that may come from doing a genetic test &#8212; such as a half sibling students never knew about or discovering unexpected ancestry composition. I feel it is my responsibility to clearly inform the students,” Dr. McAllister insisted.


He encourages students to speak with their families before deciding if they will get genotyped, and he explains the controls students have when viewing their data, such as the ability to turn off relative matching. Students have a week to decide if they would like to participate in 23andMe genotyping.
The 15-week class is set up so saliva samples are shipped to 23andMe after the second class meeting. This allows enough time for sample processing so class work with the 23andMe results starts no later than mid-way through the course.


Once the 23andMe results are returned, students trace the history of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome and identify their own placement on a haplogroup tree. They study the significance of ancient genetic variants associated with Neanderthal admixture, and relate it to their 23andMe Neanderthal percentage ancestry reports.
In another activity, students consider the comparisons of SNP data against reference populations in order to determine ancestry using M&amp;M  candy.
Learn more about Dr. McAllister’s activity, <a href="https://education.23andme.org/l/where-did-my-mms-come-from/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Where do my M&amp;Ms come from?”</a>
In addition to exploring their  ancestry using 23andMe results, students also study the genotype -phenotype association for traits, such as lactose intolerance and the ability to taste bitter substances. Students also discuss genome-wide association studies focused on habitual coffee consumption, a particularly relevant topic for new undergraduates adjusting to college life.
Now in its second year, this freshman seminar is receiving a lot of interest. The class filled up very quickly, and students are more informed about what they will be participating in.


This growing student awareness of direct-to-consumer genetic testing is aligned with Dr. McAllister’s other ideas on how to further student engagement and understanding of personal genomics at the University of Iowa. For example, he would like to build a community of biology and life science majors who apply their science background to learn the applications of and technology behind personal genomics.


“I think these students could be a very helpful resource for people in our local community, to help people without an academic background in biology navigate their personal genotyping results and understand their implications,” he said.


Dr. McAllister also is interested in determining whether or not the use of 23andMe, along with specific learning activities, could significantly motivate students in an introductory biology course and increase their likelihood of success.


“In my opinion, we are just scratching the surface as to how personal genotyping can be used as an effective educational tool,” he said.


Editor&#8217;s note: This is the first in a series of &#8220;Educator Spotlight&#8221; posts highlighting how educators are incorporating genetics into lesson plans. To find out more check out <a href="https://education.23andme.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andMe For Educators</a>.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

A Fresh Take on Genetics for Freshmen

Selma Spieler wished she knew more about her father.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_22922" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22922" class="size-medium wp-image-22922" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Avram-and-family-225x300.jpg" alt="Selma's father Abraham and her mother Gisha &quot;Gussie&quot; and her sister Aida." width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Avram-and-family-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Avram-and-family.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Selma&#8217;s father Abraham and her mother Gisha &#8220;Gussie&#8221; and her sister Aida.</div>
She knew he came from Russia, was generous – regularly bringing food to neighbors and sending money to a cousin in Israel who was studying to be a doctor. And she knew her father worked hard, toiling at night in a bagel factory in Brooklyn after he immigrated to New York in the 1920s.
But there was a lot she didn’t know about him.
Before she could learn more, her father, Abraham “Avram” Leib Greenberg, died. Selma was 14. It was 1946 and at that moment it sunk in that she’d never be able to ask him about his past, about the seven siblings he left behind in Russia and Poland, or how his family was able to survive pogroms, the violence of World War I and the Russian Revolution.
Selma thought she lost all that family history with her father, a man born in the 1800s, who survived world-shattering changes that swept through Europe before he came to America. She was sure that the history of his life vanished with him. She thought that all the family he left behind was gone too, swept away in the violence that came after her father immigrated. Now in her 80s, she’d long ago given up on finding out anything more about her father and his family.
“My mother just assumed that they had all died in the Holocaust,” her daughter Risa Rubin said.


It’s an experience many Jews with family roots in Eastern Europe can relate to – large parts of their family history erased by the Holocaust and the upheaval of the Second World War.
But more than seventy years after her father died, Selma learned with the help of 23andMe bits about her father’s history that she never knew before. She and her daughter Risa discovered the fate of his siblings. Some were indeed lost in the Holocaust but others survived. And most astounding of all, for Selma and her daughter, is that using 23andMe they were able to find some of her father’s family in Israel and travel to meet them in person including meeting Selma’s first cousin Fania.


“If my mother and I had not done this we would have never known,” Risa said. “She was so emotional, she cried when she found all this out… this has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”


This journey of discovery started when Risa and her brother Eric joined 23andMe. Risa was interested in learning more about herself and her ancestry. And then when her mother also used 23andMe, Risa helped her connect with a previously unknown relative named Ayelet, who lives in Israel.
<div id="attachment_22924" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22924" class="size-medium wp-image-22924" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-300x225.jpg" alt="Risa and her cousin Ayet after meeting for the first time in Israel." width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_3721-1180x885.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Risa and her cousin Ayelet after meeting for the first time in Israel.</div>
“I noticed that my mom and Ayelet shared DNA, including a segment that was completely identical,” Risa said.


Before that moment, Risa and her brother had assumed that all of her Grandfather’s family had been killed in the Holocaust. But she quickly learned that she had dozens of living relatives on that side of her family, who mostly live in Israel. Ayelet has a brother who had already done an extensive family tree and it proved to be a goldmine for Risa and her mother. Together with the help of Ayelet, Selma’s cousin Fania and another cousin named Naomi, they began filling in the pieces of their missing tree including finding the children and grandchildren of Selma’s uncles, her father’s brothers as well as the children of her aunt. They also learned more about Abraham’s life before he came to America, and that all but four of his siblings had survived the Holocaust, many of them had immigrated to Palestine before the war or wound up in Israel after it.
Ayelet’s great grandfather was Selma’s father’s brother. Ayelet had even known of Selma’s father – his Uncle Abraham – but he’d been told that Abraham had never made it out of
Russia. Selma’s cousin, Fania, however was told that Abraham had made it out and wound up in America, but she knew little else.
Their relatives in Israel were able to offer documents, photos and family history for Selma – information about her father that she never knew.
The documents had information about where he moved in Russia and then Poland, before he immigrated to America. Her cousin Fania recognized the photo of her grandparents that Risa and Selma had brought with them. Selma also learned more about his siblings, Moshe, Haya, Isaac, Slova, Rachel, Yaakov and Shlomo.
The trip allowed Risa and her mother to connect not just with family in Israel, but others in the US and in Russia, a total of more than 50 relatives in all.
“The process of finding our family has been an amazing experience. It was bashert — meant to be,” Risa said.  
“Thank you 23andMe for finding my family.”

Meant to Be

We’re returning one more time to the story of Jessica and Alice, and how they used 23andMe to unravel a <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/jesss-story/">century old mystery</a>.
<div id="attachment_22174" style="width: 236px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22174" class="wp-image-22174 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg" alt="Jess's grandfather Phil and her great grandfather Sam. " width="226" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg 226w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-662x880.jpeg 662w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam.jpeg 665w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px" />Jess&#8217;s grandfather Phil and her great grandfather Sam.</div>

We first <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/jesss-story/">wrote about the story</a> back in February 2015 and again <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/the-other-side-of-the-story/">a few weeks later</a>, and we aren’t the only ones fascinated by it.


Scott Fisher, the host of the syndicated family history radio program <a href="http://extremegenes.com/ep-104-23andme-dna-day-and-pursuing-a-jail-break/">Extreme Genes</a>, dedicated his most recent show to their story.
Fisher has <a href="http://extremegenes.com/story-and-photos-of-two-men-switched-at-birth-in-1913-with-their-oops-fathers/">a great interview</a> with Jess, Alice, and genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who each detail how they worked over three years to piece together a mystery that probably couldn’t have been solved any other way, and it all started when Alice tested with 23andMe.


“I took a DNA test and the results came back all the way wrong,” Alice told Fischer.


Or at least that’s what she thought.
Raised to believe she was three-quarters Irish, Alice’s ancestry results came back showing that she had 50 percent Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. This sparked what turned into years of trying to figure out if this was all a mistake or something else. Her mother and father weren’t around to ask anymore, so Alice eventually had all seven of her siblings tested with 23andMe.
They all showed the same result. They were half Ashkenazi.
How that was possible was the mystery to Alice, so she began working to solve it. She enlisted the help of CeCe, no stranger of difficult family mysteries, and the two got to work.
“There are unexpected surprises in pretty much every case I work on,” said CeCe.


This one was no different, and CeCe and Alice dove deeper looking at paper records and came up with some theories. If it was just Alice’s results that were different, perhaps the difference could be explained by a single infidelity, but everyone in her family had the same ancestry profile. Obviously something about their family history was different than they suspected. Alice’s father, James, had had a tough upbringing. He knew his parents but had been raised in an orphanage.
Alice began zeroing in on her father and the possibility that   he was switched at birth. But how could you figure something like that out?

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				Alice&#8217;s grandfather, John, who is believed to be Jess&#8217;s great-grandfather.
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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/filename-1-150x150.png" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-23095" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/filename-1-150x150.png 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/filename-1-271x271.png 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/filename-1-372x372.png 372w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				Jess&#8217;s Grandfather, Phil.
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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/img_9061-150x150.jpeg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-23094" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/img_9061-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/img_9061-271x271.jpeg 271w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
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				Jess&#8217;s great-grandfather, Sam, who is believed to be Alice&#8217;s grandfather.
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				Alice&#8217;s Father, James.
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He was born at Fordham hospital in the Bronx in 1913, so CeCe and Alice began looking at birth records for babies born on the same day, in the same hospital. Perhaps, they thought, a nurse accidentally put Alice’s father in another child’s crib. CeCe and Alice even went so far as approaching the descendants of a man born that same day with a similar last name and had him test with 23andMe, but they found no match.


And then last year, Jessica, who lives in North Carolina, signed up for 23andMe. Like Alice she also got a big surprise.


“I knew my mom is Japanese, Filipino and Native American,” Jessica said.


Her dad was a bit of a mystery because he’d died when Jessica was still young, but she knew that he was Jewish. But the results came back and instead of showing she had Jewish ancestry, it showed she was a quarter Irish.
“It didn’t match what I knew,” Jessica said.
That might have been it, but that one of Alice’s nephews also tested with 23andMe. Alice found that she shared no DNA with him, that they in fact were not biologically related. Although that would seem to be another dead end, Alice knew that his results could help her solve the mystery.
When he shared with Alice some of his DNA Relative matches, she saw a name she didn’t recognize, Jessica.


“When I saw her listing, I started shaking,” said Alice.
She knew this could be the key.
So Alice sent her a message.
“Help solve a hundred year-old mystery,” Alice said in her message.
Jessica was intrigued.
When they connected, Alice immediately asked whether Jessica had been surprised by her ancestry results.
And then Alice floated her idea, that Jessica’s grandfather and Alice’s father, who were both born on the same day at the same hospital in the Bronx in 1913, had been switched at birth.
For Jessica, the whole thing sounded intriguing. She wanted to know. For Alice, who’d resigned herself to never solving the mystery, she could hardly contain herself.
When they shared family photos, it seemed even clearer that the mystery had been solved.


“You can’t look and come to any other conclusion,” said Fischer in the show.


For CeCe, the photos illustrate something she’s seen in many cases. Here are these two men, clearly not biologically related to the parents who raised them, and for those men how out of place they sometimes must have felt.
It’s also intriguing to think about how their lives might have been different, said Jessica.
“That might be the strangest part,” Jessica said. “They ended up living different lives.”

Family Mystery Solved with 23andMe

It wasn’t a wish, but on many of his birthdays, Lenny Scovel would take a minute and imagine the thoughts of a woman he’d never met.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22916" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-300x300.jpg" alt="Lenny quote" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-quote.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


“I would wonder if my mother was out there somewhere thinking about me, perhaps saying, ‘Oh it’s my son’s birthday today,’” said Lenny, 52. 

<h6>Born in Greenville</h6>

Adopted as a baby, he never knew about his biological family, not even his ethnic origins.


“All I knew was that I was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1963 at St. Francis Catholic Hospital,” said Lenny, who runs a wedding business in Colorado.


Whether his mother was wondering about him or not, isn’t known but there were people he didn’t know who were thinking about him.

<h6>Siblings Searching</h6>

For decades, Karen Bumgarner and her brother Terry McCutchen searched for their siblings scattered across the United States. They referred to their lost brothers and sisters as their “family diaspora,” a moniker coined by the first found brother, Richard Frazier.


Their mother, Jean Woodward, had had twelve children, but only kept Karen and Terry. Her first husband had served in the Army Air Corps and was killed in Germany during the Second World War, and in the decades that followed she married twice and became pregnant by several different men, and each of those children she gave up for adoption.
Over the years, Karen and Terry had succeeded in finding several of those children, largely thanks to the ceaseless efforts of Terry’s wife Kathy. But sometimes they had little to go on. For one of their brothers all they had was:


“Boy. South Carolina. 1963.&#8221; 
 
<h6>Origins</h6>

They had no idea how to find him. This was long before the advent of direct-to-consumer genetic testing services like 23andMe. There seemed little hope that they’d ever find their brother.
Although Lenny Scovel often wondered about his biological mother, he didn’t feel abandoned. He felt lucky to have been adopted and raised by a loving couple, Don and Mary Scovel. He just always wondered where he came from.
<div id="attachment_22918" style="width: 203px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22918" class="size-full wp-image-22918" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/10356315_10152545668998277_9759572226819466_n.jpg" alt="Lenny and his adoptive father Donald Scovel." width="193" height="253" />Lenny and his adoptive father Donald Scovel.</div>
“I’m eternally grateful to my parents,” he said, “but my biological origins have been my life’s curiosity.”


After seeing the 2013 movie Philomena, a moving story about an Irish Catholic woman’s search for the son she gave up for adoption, Lenny redoubled his interest in finding out more about his origins.
<h6>Using DNA</h6>
But it was his wife who helped push him along, purchasing a 23andMe kit for him as a Christmas gift in 2014. The thought was that at the very least, he would learn definitively what his ethnicity was.
“Even the lack of ethnic identity has been a gaping hole in me for 51 years,” he said.


A few weeks later he did indeed learn about his ancestry – he didn’t just have English and Irish ancestry, but also Norwegian and a little Native American ancestry as well.
Yet it was a connection with another 23andMe customer that sparked the revelation. 23andMe identified someone he initially thought was a cousin, named Tania B. This was the first time he’d ever connected to any biological relative.
“I immediately sent her a message,” he said. “What happened in the next few hours was unbelievable and overwhelming.”


Tania confirmed that she was a relative but they weren’t cousins: Tania was likely his half-niece and her father was Lenny’s half-brother, Randy Bryan.


“Like dominoes, my family began to fall into place,” Lenny said. “I soon had three half-brothers and three half-sisters. As incredible as that is, we believe there are at least four more!”
<div id="attachment_22917" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22917" class="wp-image-22917 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-and-Siblinhgs-300x225.jpg" alt="Lenny and Siblinhgs" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-and-Siblinhgs-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-and-Siblinhgs-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-and-Siblinhgs-880x660.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lenny-and-Siblinhgs.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Lenny, on the far right, with his siblings. From left to right and in birth order: Terry McCutchen, Karen Bumgarner, Bonnie Frank, Richard Frazier, Randy Bryan, and Becky Nolen. (Photo: Lenny Scovel)</div>
<h6>
 A Blessing</h6>

Their mother, who’d been born in 1922, had died in 2000. She’d married at 19, had two children – Terry and Karen – but her husband was killed during the war. Jean married at least two more times and had several children from several different men.
But a lot of that information her children didn’t piece together until she was diagnosed with cancer. Her daughter Karen sat with her before she died and attempted to get from her a list of those lost children. One of the last things she told them was about a son, born in 1963 in South Carolina.
It would be almost 15 years before they could find him with the help of 23andMe. For Lenny, it was the fulfillment of a life long quest.


“At last, my life’s great mystery finally revealed itself,” he said. “What an incredible blessing.”

<h6>Connecting</h6>

In June of 2015, seven of the twelve siblings met for what they called a “union-reunion” in the town of Sisters, Oregon. It was the first time Lenny was able to meet his brothers and sisters.
&#8220;They were all ready for me,” he said.
At the reunion, the siblings toasted their mother, talked about their lives and family, and pledged to continue to search for the siblings yet to be found.
“There is no way Jean could have ever imagined that moment, with so many of us together,” says Lenny, “but we all owe our lives to her, and in spite of what you might consider her questionable choices, we are all so grateful for our lives, and for each other.”

Boy. South Carolina. 1963.

A Florida amnesiac has finally figured out his identity with a lot of help from strangers, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and DNA testing. 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22891" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Benjaman_Kyle-199x300.jpg" alt="Benjaman_Kyle" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Benjaman_Kyle-199x300.jpg 199w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Benjaman_Kyle.jpg 401w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />

Benjaman Kyle, who was <a href="http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1007umga.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">found beaten</a> and semi-conscious behind a south Georgia Burger King 11 years ago, has spent the last several years in Jacksonville Florida, working in a kitchen. His story received national attention with coverage on <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129668438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NPR</a> and Dr. Phil to name a few.


“My identity has been found,” Kyle posted on his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/benjaman.kyle.9/posts/10207885434472513" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook page</a>. “It is now the start of the eleventh year since this began and I never thought this day would come. A little over two months ago I was informed by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cecemoore1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CeCe Moore</a> that they had established my Identity using DNA.” 


It was thought that the beating left him with “retrograde amnesia,” so that he could remember more recent event, but the past was largely blank. CeCe spent two years working with a team comparing matches from several DNA testing companies, including 23andMe where he had more than half a dozen close cousin matches and dozens of more distant cousins.

Looking at surnames, geography and the little information that Benjaman had – which included a specific birth date – she was able to find several likely matches, according to a <a href="http://www.news4jax.com/news/man-with-no-name-finally-knows-his-real-identity/35286594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Florida News station</a> that covered the story this week.
One of the few memories he retained was of Indianapolis. The search connected him with family in Indiana, including several brothers.
Over the summer testing confirmed a family match.
He didn’t reveal his real name yet because:
“I am reserving my new name, for now, until I have met my new found relatives,” he said.

<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m36CvhghVq8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

DNA Testing Helps Amnesiac

Blurring the line between stranger and relation, the artist <a href="http://laurelnakadate.weebly.com/">Laurel Nakadate</a> used DNA testing to connect to hundreds of cousins who she
<div id="attachment_18738" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18738" class="size-medium wp-image-18738" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-225x300.jpg" alt="Laurel Nakadate. Photo: © Suki Dhanda, 2011, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR-660x880.jpg 660w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Suki_Dhanda_Portrait_LR.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Laurel Nakadate. Photo: © Suki Dhanda, 2011, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York</div>
photographed for a series of arresting portraits.
The photos, all taken outdoors, at night with the subjects alone and lit by only a flashlight, convey both intimacy and distance at the same time. We first <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/strangers-and-relations">wrote about</a> the photo series two years ago.
Called <a href="http://www.tonkonow.com/nakadate_relations.html">“Strangers and Relations”</a> the portraits also beg the question of what those two terms really mean.
Would you feel any different standing alone at night in the middle of nowhere with a stranger pointing a camera at you, if that stranger was a relative?
Nakadate, who spoke with us about her project, said the idea for the work came after thinking about the distant cousins she found through 23andMe and another company. This collection of people, who were strangers to her,   shared a common ancestor, and that mix of the familiar and foreign is what spurred her to embark on a what ended up being a 50,000 mile journey around the United States photographing her distant cousins.
Her portraits from Strangers and Relations have been displayed across the country, most recently in her former hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.
Below are just two that are featured in the series.

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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Tyler2_MG_0651_LR-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-2-18736" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Tyler2_MG_0651_LR-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Tyler2_MG_0651_LR-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Tyler2_MG_0651_LR-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Tyler2_MG_0651_LR.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
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				Tyler, Texas #2, 2013. © Laurel Nakadate, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
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				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-2-18731" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/LN_Relations_Cleveland_MG_9246_LR.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
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				Cleveland, Ohio #1, 2012 © Laurel Nakadate, Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
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Strangers No More

When he was 21, Gary Skillings tried to contact his mother through a nun at the Catholic orphanage from which he was adopted in the 1950s, but she didn’t want to see him.
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<div id="attachment_22818" style="width: 168px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22818" class="size-full wp-image-22818" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/safe_image.php_.jpg" alt="Gary Skillings' Photo" width="158" height="158" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/safe_image.php_.jpg 158w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/safe_image.php_-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 158px) 100vw, 158px" />Gary Skillings&#8217; Photo</div>
“That was kind of a heartbreaker,” Skilling told <a href="http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2015/08/30/dna-test-brings-florida-man-home-maine/1771495">the Sun Journal newspape</a>r in Maine. “But I honored her wish.”


Although he longed to know more about his background and who his mother was, Gary didn’t search any further after that failed attempt to make a connection. But he was left with at least one bit of information, his mother’s first name, Aline. Fast-forward a few decades, Gary was able to use 23andMe and genealogical records to learn more about his mother, and connect with cousins he never knew he had.


His story, nicely told by the local paper in Lewiston Maine, includes meeting more than 50 relatives, cousins, aunt and uncles who welcomed him into the family.


“They had this reception for me and all these people showed up,” he told the newspaper. “They were all total strangers to me, yet all related.”


They shared photos and family stories with him. He learned more about his now deceased mother, Aline Mary Cotes, and his out-of-wedlock birth. He found a close cousin, who knew about his birth and actually knew about Gary’s effort to contact his mother so long ago. She had vowed to keep it all a secret.


Check out the story <a href="http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2015/08/30/dna-test-brings-florida-man-home-maine/1771495">here</a>.

Mending a Broken Heart

Several media stories in the last few months have highlighted the potential of 23andMe to help adoptees.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-6586 size-medium" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/23andMe_Logo_blog-300x300.jpg" alt="An image of 23andMe's logo." 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" />
One of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/nyregion/a-son-given-up-for-adoption-is-found-after-half-a-century-and-then-lost-again.html">more touching pieces</a> highlighted a woman’s 50-year search for the son she’d given up for adoption at 19. She was able to find him using 23andMe, only to lose him again to cancer. Another interesting <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-21/korean-adoptees-are-using-dna-kits-get-glimpse-their-ancestry">story on PRI</a> looked at Korean born adoptees using DNA to learn more about their ancestry.
Inventor and scientist Thomas Park Clement, who was among the first wave of Korean adoptees to come to the United States in the 1950s, set aside a million dollars of his own money to cover the cost of other Korean adoptees who want to get tested.
&#8220;Everyone on the planet has the right to know who their relatives are,&#8221; Clement is quoted as saying.
Those stories and others highlight that while it’s not designed with adoptees in mind, 23andMe has become a resource for many wanting to fill in the gaps in what they know about their ancestry, their inherited traits or family history. 
For many of us we take for granted knowing this basic information about ourselves, but for many adoptees using a DNA test is the only way they could find out this kind of information.
<div style="float: center; text-align: justified; width: 650px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;"><a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/more-than-just-luck">More Than Just Luck</a> 
With the help of a genetic genealogist and her 23andMe results, a woman abandoned behind a grocery store as an infant is able to identify her biological mother.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-22519 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of brothers who found each other using 23andMe with a quote that says &quot;Stories of this kind, they are hard to believe…”" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Jimmy-Paul-quote1.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
Not an adoption story, but this story tracks some of the same kind of ordeals adoptees have to go through to find out about their biological families. In this case, half brothers– one who lives in Brazil, the other in the United States – connected through 23andMe. Their story, which spans over several decades and includes some harrowing childhood trauma, ends with the two brothers meeting for the first time.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/goodnight-son/">Goodnight Son</a> 
Not every reunion between an adoptee and his or her biological parent or sibling is a happy one, but for Mike Reed the meeting with his biological father couldn&#8217;t have gone better. His biological father welcomed into the family and introduced him to his nine half siblings.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21929 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of Liz with the quote: “To site and talk with someone who is your sibling, or your biological parent … who you have never met… incredible.” " width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-768x768.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-880x880.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote-980x980.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Liz-Quote.jpg 1000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
Abandoned in a laundry mat as an infant, Liz Kellner used 23andMe and ultimately found her sisters and biological parents.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/an-unexpected-discovery">An Unexpected Discovery</a> 
Cody tested to find out more about his health, but in the process he found his biological parents and half siblings. He also learned that he&#8217;d been conceived when his mother was a young teen and that&#8217;s why he&#8217;d been put up for adoption.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/its-a-girl">It’s A Girl</a> 
Although not an adoptee story, Kelli&#8217;s story highlights some of the anxiety many go through when trying to connect with a biological parent. They simply don&#8217;t know how it will play out. For Kelli the experience was a good one. She used 23andMe to help her find her biological father. Once she made the connection her biological father, who hadn’t known of her birth, welcomed her into the family.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-21348 size-thumbnail" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote-150x150.jpg" alt="A photo of an adult son who found his biological father using 23andMe and how the two later became friends: “I am awed by how this happened.” " width="150" height="150" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Jeremy-small-quote.jpg 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /> 
An adult son connects with his biological father and they become friends.
<a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/a-siblings-story-from-23andme">A Siblings Story</a> 
Using 23andMe Tricia found her half brother and half sister. They were able to tell her more about her biological father and the three of them met and became friends.
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Searching With 23andMe

The amazing <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/p/about-me.html">CeCe Moore</a>, a genetic genealogist and 23andMe Ancestry Ambassador, has done it again, solving a family<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-12939" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CeCephoto.jpg" alt="CeCephoto" width="114" height="162" /> mystery and helping a woman connect with her biological mother for the first time.
“DNA,” Moore told the Orange County Register, “was the only way to solve this.”
<a href="https://www.ocregister.com/articles/tovo-670236-kayla-baby.html">The story</a>, which appeared in the Orange County Register, generated a lot of questions and some strong reactions. CeCe and her team had helped Kayla Tovo, a 27 year-old mother and US Army veteran, solve the mystery of her birth.
Kayla was just a few hours old when a janitor found her wrapped in a towel in a milk crate left in the back of an Alpha Beta grocery store.
Her story could have ended in tragedy if not for being adopted by a wonderful loving mother and growing up in a supportive home. But after having children of her own, and a brush with death in Afghanistan, Kayla decided to try in earnest to find the woman who abandoned her. She wanted to know why. A friend connected her to CeCe. Kayla then tested with 23andMe and found a first cousin once removed, providing her the pivotal lead to connect her to her biological family.


“I received questions from all over social media on this story,” CeCe told us. “(Kayla) was lucky, and some have complained they don&#8217;t have matches that close.”


But as the database grows, so too does the possibility for new and closer matches, she said.


“New matches are coming in all the time and the newer ones are more likely to respond and share family tree information than the older matches,” CeCe said.
Check out Kayla’s <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/articles/tovo-670236-kayla-baby.html">story</a>.

DNA Relatives — Page 9