Venus and Serena Williams, the Marx brothers, or our very own CEO Anne Wojcicki and her sisters Susan and Janet — our connections with siblings can be one of the strongest bonds in our lives. Finding those connections is one of the things that make 23andMe so special, our ability to reunite long-lost siblings — some have been looking for each other for years, while others never knew one another existed. 
Today on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siblings_Day">National Siblings Day</a>, we wanted to revisit a few of our favorite stories about brothers and sisters who built new connections with the help of 23andMe.

<a href="http://people.com/human-interest/identical-twin-sisters-separated-birth-find-each-other-33-years-later/">Amanda and Katey</a>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-1024x620.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-26115" width="1024" height="620" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-1024x620.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-300x182.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-768x465.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-880x533.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay-1180x715.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Amanda-Kay.jpg 1311w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />The story of identical twin sisters Amanda and Katey finding each other still gives us goosebumps. The pair were both born in Seoul, South Korea, but separated after being adopted to two separate American families. Amanda grew up in California, while Katey was raised in Arizona. They found each other using 23andMe after 33 years being apart. They soon discovered uncanny parallels in their lives — from failing algebra the same year in school, to passing their driving test on the second try. After decades apart the two sisters are now making up for lost time.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw8G1JCr47w">Winnie and Meta</a>
<iframe loading="lazy" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hw8G1JCr47w" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Winnie always knew she was adopted. The 76-year-old always felt supported, had children and grandchildren who loved her, but always felt something was missing. Winnie spent decades searching for her birth family, pouring over her adoption records, and searching through tens of thousands of names she thought might lead her to her birth mother or father. Winnie’s big break didn’t come until she took 23andMe’s DNA test, which helped her find a nephew, and ultimately her half sister, Meta. This led her to two more half sisters and her half brother, who were overjoyed to meet her. Winnie shared with us when she found her family, “To actually hug someone you are biologically related at 75 years old, is just amazing.” 

<a href="https://www.today.com/video/watch-3-siblings-reunite-with-their-long-lost-sister-on-megyn-kelly-today-1185580099728">Laurie, Amber, Christine and Brian</a>

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-1024x566.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-26116" width="1024" height="566" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-1024x566.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-300x166.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-768x424.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-880x486.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-1180x652.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Siblings-Laurie-Christine-Brian-and-Amber-271x149.jpg 271w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Siblings Laurie, Christine, Brian and Amber were adopted at a very young age. While Laurie, Christine and Brian stayed together, Amber, the youngest, was adopted by a separate family. The four were separated for decades. Then Laurie took the 23andMe genetic test and got an unexpected message, “you have one direct family member” in her DNA Relatives report. For decades the four siblings had no means of finding each other. Now that they’ve connected, they are talking non-stop. Best of all, Amber is pregnant and she will be giving her child the gift of additional family, two aunts and an uncle. 

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eYt9CESTq4">Pat and Angel</a>
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Pat was adopted as a baby, and never knew any of her birth family. Her daughter Kelle used 23andMe not knowing she would find her mother’s sister, Angel. For years Pat’s fear of being rejected by her birth family, prevented her from searching for them. But after she and her sister Angel connected in December 2016, she was welcomed with open arms and has never looked back.

Anyone with a brother or sister knows the bonds siblings can share. That’s what makes these stories of siblings finding each other so powerful. Not everyone is looking for long lost family, but we all have our own DNA stories. What’s your 23andMe story? We’d love to hear it. Please share it with us at <a href="mailto:stories@23andMe.com">stories@23andMe.com</a>.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

23andMe Celebrates Siblings Day

Our customers often share their stories with us, which are both moving and motivating as we get to see the real impact 23andMe results can have in people’s lives.
One such story came in recently from Bev Glaspey of Lake Placid, Florida. Bev called it her ‘Family Christmas Story,’ because it was about the best kind of present, a gift of family.
This is their story.
<div id="attachment_25935" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25935" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1024x609.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25935 size-large" width="1024" height="609" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1024x609.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-300x179.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-768x457.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-880x524.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/IMG_1636-e1513622666512-1180x702.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />At their first meeting in early December, from left to right, Florence&#8217;s half-brother Robin, her daughter Bev, and Florence.</div>
Bev’s mom, Florence Axelson was born in Chicago in 1922, and adopted when she was 1 year-old. For all of her 95 years she had almost no information about her birth family. The one exception was that back in the mid-1970s Florence applied for a passport and in the process she also had to get a copy of her birth certificate.
Getting that document also got Florence the first bit of information about her origins, her biological mother’s name. But when she tried to use that bit of information to get more details about her adoption she hit a brick wall. The records, she was told, had been destroyed in a fire.
There was little more that she had to go on, and over time life got in the way of searching. That didn’t mean it wasn’t something she thought about. In fact, all of her daughters, Bev and Bev’s two sisters, all wondered about their mother’s family. Even simple things, like what their family’s nationality was, remained unknown.
That is until Bev purchased a 23andMe kit for herself and her mom. Bev started exploring their DNA Relatives, finding cousins she never knew she had. The closest was a cousin named Cathy, who was the key to unlocking Florence’s story.
Cathy&#8217;s mom, who is still alive, is Florence’s half-sister.
“Mom found out she was the firstborn child to a young unwed mother,” Bev said.
She learned that she didn’t just have one half sibling, but her biological mother had 12 children in all, three of her half-sisters and one half-brother are still living.
Florence was able to talk to two of her half sisters, and then at 95 she was able to meet her half brother Robin and his wife Kim for the first time when he came in early December to visit her at her assisted living facility.
“I was able to find mom’s birth mother’s family,” Bev said. “This has been a wonderful gift to our family. “

One Family’s 23andMe Christmas Story

Every day for 55 years, Ida Pollack thought about her baby, wondering if she’d made a mistake in letting him go.
As she’d told the Omaha Herald recently, she always asked herself the same thing: “Did I make the right decision?’”
Now she finally has the answer thanks to 23andMe.
A few weeks ago Ida, and the son she raised Travis, met her first born, Barrie Bode, who Ida gave up for adoption as a frightened 19 year-old.
The meeting in New York City gave Ida the peace of mind that even though giving him up was hard it was the right thing to do.
“I was glad I did after I met him and found out what kind of life he had. He had wonderful parents,” she said.
<div id="attachment_25930" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25930" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-1024x560.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-25930 size-large" width="1024" height="560" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-1024x560.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-300x164.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-768x420.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-880x481.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-1180x645.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-271x149.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-372x204.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/LMW0670-e1513285850598-574x315.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Family gathering for the first time in New York City. From Left to right, Barrie Bodie, his son Alex, Travis and Ida. </div>
&nbsp;
Their story isn’t just about Ida, but about Barrie and his brother Travis. Coming together in New York just before Thanksgiving was the culmination of months of talking and emails between Travis and Barrie.
They’d been able to find each because Barrie’s son had used 23andMe and so had Travis. Alex and Travis matched on the DNA Relatives tool as predicted first cousins — Travis and Barrie are biological half brothers.
When he first saw the match, Travis was a bit confused.
“I know all my first cousins,” he said, but he didn’t know who Alex was.
But Travis also knew that first cousins can share a similar amount of DNA as a nephew or half nephew. And he knew that his mother had given up a baby for adoption when she was a teenager. So Travis called her and asked her about the baby’s date of birth. So when Travis finally connected with Alex, he knew what to ask. “Was your dad adopted?” And “what is his date of birth?”
The dates matched his mother’s first born. Travis figured out that Alex’s father, Barrie, was his brother, and his mother’s first born.
The two connected talking on the phone for hours. For Ida the news took a little time to settle in, but soon they were making plans to meet in person.
For Barrie, who over the decades had made efforts to find his biological family, meeting his mother was a bit overwhelming. Like a lot of adoptees, he wasn’t even sure his biological parents would want to meet him.
“You always have that fear that the person might not want you to find them,” Barrie told the Omaha World Herald.
In this case, Ida and Travis welcomed him and his son Alex with open arms. For Ida meeting her son has opened a new chapter in her life.
“It’s something you’ve been thinking about your whole life, and suddenly it’s the beginning of another story,” she said.
[vc_video link=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2KutYiOTC8&#8243; align=&#8221;right&#8221;]

A Family Reunited Using 23andMe

Thanksgiving is about family. A ritual that weaves together each generation, sharing old memories, making new ones, and seeing in all that, the common heritage we share in our DNA.
A few days ago 23andMe invited about half a dozen families to come together for a holiday dinner and a chance to meet a newfound father, mother, brother or sister for the first time. 
“It’s an emotional thing for me because I always thought I was as an only child,” said Barbara Saunders, just before meeting her sisters Ida Sturgill and Joyce Randall. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-25902" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-880x587.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LMW0704-1180x787.jpg 1180w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /> The meeting in New York just before Thanksgiving was the culmination of months of talking and email after the sisters had connected using 23andMe. Now they were getting a chance to see each other for the first time.
“I have chills,” said Ida, before Barbara walked in and all three sisters hugged.
Their embrace and disbelief at seeing and touching their newfound sister were much like what rippled through each family that came together.
Standing with her son, Travis, Ida Pollock looked both excited and nervous, as she waited to meet “my son that I gave up for adoption 55 years ago.”
Barrie stood with his son, Alex, pinching himself that this was all possible. As she entered the room and their faces flushed with emotion, he uttered, “Oh my goodness,” and embraced his mom, and then his brother. 
Ida said she felt thankful. Bodie felt overwhelmed.
“To have everything come full circle like this is just beyond being thankful,” he said.
As Natosha Brown walked in and saw her biological father, William, and her four sisters and a niece, her father said he had been searching for her since he’d learned of her birth. 
“I feel like we have 36 years to make up for,” Natosha said. Smiling and crying the sisters embraced. Her father captured the feeling of everyone who was there.
“It’s a blessing and its thanksgiving, so what better time,” he said.
See more about the families that met for the first time using 23andMe <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY7JOD4eQR0&#038;list=PLFvkfbvHpp1kU9nvguZrZ2Y7nYc8_swVA">here</a>. 
&nbsp;
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23andMe Family Stories for the Holiday

The stories all start the same – with a 23andMe kit given at Christmas – but then they follow their own fascinating narratives that are as unique as the customers who share them<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-17056 size-full alignright" src="http://35.88.189.111/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ChristmasTree.jpg" alt="" width="424" height="283" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ChristmasTree.jpg 424w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ChristmasTree-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px" /> with us.
Almost daily we hear from people who’ve learned something new about themselves or their families using 23andMe. Some of the stories are moving or mysterious, others have a lighter touch, but they all carry the weight of someone’s humanity.
With the holiday just around the corner, we wanted to share a few stories with you.
There’s Pat Nosko’s story of finding family.
“It’s the most amazingly beautiful gift I could have ever hoped to give my mother,” said Kelle Scott, who gave her mother Pat a kit at Christmas. Pat, who’d been adopted and knew little about her biological parents, <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/a-most-amazing-gift">found a sister </a>she never knew she had.
It’s was Lenny Scoval’s wife how gave him a kit for Christmas, and he too <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/boy-south-carolina/">found family</a>.
An adoptee, who at 52, connected with seven of the twelve siblings he’d never knew he had.
It was Adam’s partner Steve who gave him a kit as a present. Adam <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/a-list-for-midlife">found biological family</a>, but also found that he could help someone else, someone who like himself had been searching for biological family. Adam probably best summed up what many customers have told of about using 23andMe.
“This entire experience has helped explain why I am the way I am,” he said, “and I am forever grateful.”
Happy Holidays! 
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A tree in the snow in a forest that is lit up like a Christmas tree.

The Gift

Total strangers, John and Rhonda have one thing in common, the same father.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-23484 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote-300x169.jpg" alt="J$R quote" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote-880x495.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote-980x553.jpg 980w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JR-quote.jpg 984w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


The two made that discovery earlier this year after using 23andMe.


“Nobody knew about John,” said Rhonda, a 55 year-old marketer in Buffalo New York.


For John, recently retired and 67 who also lives in the Buffalo area, DNA testing was the only way he would have ever found Rhonda and information about his biological father. For both of them the test helped lead them to clues about their father and a tangled history of multiple families and an ongoing search for siblings spread out through generations and geography.
“I now have a printed family tree that  takes three trees to show and is  so long, it covers the top of two long tables,” said John. “(Testing has) been a positive experience for me and a healing experience for the family. I&#8217;ve been welcomed with open arms.”


Being orphaned, along with his half brother, from his single mom when he was just 10 had been so traumatic for John, that he blanked out all the memory of his childhood. He couldn’t even remember his mother’s face until a few years ago when he saw a photo of her for the first time. That had been out of sheer luck, after a mutual acquaintance connected him to his cousin and elderly aunt. John believes it may have been more than luck with a little help from his mother, watching from above.
It was his aunt and cousins who had the photo and tidbits about his mother. John and his family enjoyed a series of reunions in the US and in Italy over the past 5 years. His aunt also shared with John the one bit of information she had about his biological father, his father’s first name.
<div id="attachment_23482" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23482" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-23482" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/John-Vitale-200x200.jpg" alt="John Vitale" width="200" height="200" />John Vitale</div>
“There is no way I could have identified the family on my father&#8217;s side,” he said. “All I had to go on was his name was Marvin, and I only learned that a couple of years ago.”


But for both John and Rhonda using 23andMe to explore their ancestry changed not just what they knew about their families and their background, but their understanding about themselves.
John had thought he was Italian, but was “shocked” to learn he was half Ashkenazi Jew on his father’s side.


“I knew nothing about my father, I assumed he was Italian,” said John. “My mother&#8217;s family is Italian with roots in Sicily and Milan.   I was raised Catholic.”
Learning about his Jewish ancestry, didn’t change his beliefs, but it did change his perceptions.


“It has made me more sensitive and curious of the Jewish faith,” he said.


For Rhonda, who was raised by a Jewish mother, learning about about her biological mother’s Catholic background put certain things about herself in context. It also raised a lot of “nature versus nurture issues” for her.


“I grew up as an only child, in a family that I was very different from,” she said. “I look nothing like, or act nothing like, my adopted mother or father.”


And then there was the connection she made using 23andMe to her biological family for the first time – not just to John, but also to a full sister named Trisha.
That connection with her sister was so strong that Rhonda wonders if there’s a chance that they might actually be twins separated and adopted out to different families.


“When I met Trisha, it felt like I was talking to myself,” Rhonda said. “The similarities were astounding.”


23andMe also helped Rhonda connect with her oldest living half-sibling, who is unrelated to John. She was one of the 2 children born to her mother when her mother was in an internment camp in Germany. It was that woman, Danuta, who gave Rhonda much of what she knows about her mother, including her mother’s history with Marvin and the other children she bore him.
<div id="attachment_23483" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23483" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-23483" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/rhoried-pic-200x200.jpg" alt="Rhonda Ried" width="200" height="200" />Rhonda Ried</div>
All of Rhonda’s full siblings were adopted by other families, she said. At least two of whom she’s connected with through 23andMe. Rhonda discovered she has 5 full siblings and 6 half siblings, including John. And there could be more, she said.
Now both Rhonda and John are hoping that they will be able to connect with other siblings. They are aware of two sisters in Arizona.


“We are becoming acquainted with members of the family living around the country,” John said.


They have scheduled a virtual family reunion on Skype in a few weeks, but their search continues.


“I fully expect we’ll find others,” said John. “We’ll just keep looking.”

Nobody Knew

When Kelle Scott connected with some distant cousins on 23andMe she didn’t realize
<div id="attachment_23409" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23409" class="size-medium wp-image-23409" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-300x169.jpg" alt="Pat Nosoko" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-880x495.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Pat Nosko</div>
she’d also stumbled on the perfect gift for her mom – family.


Kelle’s mom, Pat Nosko, was adopted, and never knew her biological parents. Kelle had originally used 23andMe just to find out a little bit about her family’s ancestral background, but what she found was a missing branch on her family tree.


“This was a most unanticipated result,” Kelle said.
Her mother, Pat, was adopted in 1950. She knew what her name had been at birth, Charlotte Farmer. She knew where and when she was born, but not much else. Although Pat wanted to know more, she said she never pursued a search in part because she didn’t want to hurt her adoptive parents.


“I was adopted by lovely people,” she said.


And Pat never felt like there was a hole in her life she needed to fill, so she left it alone for 65 years.


Then her daughter tested with 23andMe, connected with a third cousin named Jane, who’d began piecing together an extensive family tree. When she asked Kelle for information about her mom, Kelle told Jane her mom
<div id="attachment_23412" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23412" class="size-medium wp-image-23412" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-300x169.jpg" alt="Pat, left, and her daughter Kelle." width="300" height="169" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-880x495.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pat-kelle-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Pat, left, and her daughter Kelle.</div>
was adopted and she didn’t know much of anything. She did, however, know her mother’s birth date, and the name she was born with, Charlotte Farmer.
That little bit of information was enough and one morning before dawn, Kelle got a message from Jane.


&#8220;I think I found your mother&#8217;s birth mom,&#8221; Jane said.


It turned out that Pat’s biological siblings – she had six – had posted on three adoption message boards saying that they were looking for a sister, adopted in 1950, named Charlotte Farmer.
Those messages were like “bread crumbs” giving their biological sister a way to find them, if she wanted.
For Kelle this was momentous news, but the messages were old.


“I needed to give this information to my mom, but I’d hoped that first I could find at least one living relative who was looking for her,” said Kelle.
So Kelle and Jane kept searching, trying to find a living family member for Pat.
She had a name of one of Pat&#8217;s sisters, Angel Fitzgerald.
Pat had no idea.
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“It was kind of amazing because I didn’t know any of this was going on,” said Pat.


Kelle found a few phone numbers for different women named &#8220;Angel Fitzgerald.&#8221; She didn&#8217;t know which one might be her mother&#8217;s sister. So she gave a few of the numbers to her mother.
One of the numbers she called, she asked for Angel Fitzgerald. When the woman said it was, Kelle asked her if she was the same Angel Fitzgerald looking for &#8220;Charlotte Farmer.&#8221; It was.
Pat was stunned.
“I was speechless,” she said. “It took me a little bit before I could speak.”


The sisters spoke for the first time ever, and Pat found all of her six siblings, their children, the aunt she’d been named for and the names of her mother and maternal grandparents.
Not long before Christmas, the sisters met for the first time in person.


“It&#8217;s the most amazingly beautiful gift I could have ever hoped to give my mother,” her daughter Kelle said.

A Most Amazing Gift

<div id="attachment_23295" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23295" class="wp-image-23295 size-full" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/JohnBrian.jpg" alt="John&#038;Brian" width="240" height="294" />John, standing, with his sister Kathy and their half-brother Brian, who they found through 23andMe.</div>
Brothers from different mothers, John and Brian came together because of 23andMe.
For John, 68, finding a half-brother was the last thing he expected.
“I was shocked,” he said.
John used 23andMe because he’s interested in science. Since his days in high school biology class, John has always been curious about genetics. He wasn’t looking for family.
“Imagine my surprise when I found a half-brother,” he said.
Actually his results initially listed Brian as a predicted grandson – half siblings share about 20 percent of their DNA, the same percentage shared by a grandfather and grandson. There is also an 18-year difference in age between the two, so John had some tense moments trying to figure out his relationship with Brian.
But when Brian first contacted him by email, the message jarred loose a memory for John. He – and the rest of his immediate family – all knew that his Dad, who ran a photo studio in a coal-mining town in West Virginia, had had an affair with a woman who worked for him and that the woman got pregnant.
“We knew there was a child out there but that’s it,” said John, who eventually took over the family business.
<div id="attachment_23296" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23296" class="size-medium wp-image-23296" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Francis-John-Brians-Dad-225x300.jpg" alt="John and Brian's father." width="225" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Francis-John-Brians-Dad-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Francis-John-Brians-Dad.jpg 240w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />John and Brian&#8217;s father.</div>
Brian knew none of this.
He actually had no information at all about his biological family apart from some basic non-identifying facts about his mother – her religion and age for example.
Brian, a 49 year-old CPA living in Florida, often wondered about where he came from, but when he tested with 23andMe back in 2014 it was just to get some very basic information about his ancestry. He didn’t expect to find family.
When Brian first got his results he looked through his DNA Relative matches and among the long list of distant cousins, he saw one very close match, a relative with whom he shared 20 percent of his DNA.
“That’s close,” Brian said.
He just didn’t know how close. Looking at a 23andMe video Brian figured out that he and his close match were likely half siblings. For someone who’d never knew any biological relatives, this was a big deal. So Brian sent a message to his match and waited.
When John looked through the message from Brian and some of the facts he provided, he quickly figured out that Brian was his half brother. They began exchanging messages.
“I was a little leery about how he’d handle it,” said Brian. “It had to be shocking for him.”
Brian’s sister, who is also an adoptee, encouraged him to go forward with meeting John and his wife Jennie along with John’s sister Kathy and her husband Paul.
Brian didn’t just worry about how his existence would impact John and his family; he was also concerned about whether he’d be accepted. John and his family are religious and relatively conservative. His wife has a doctorate in theology and is a Christian counselor.
Brian was raised in a not very religious Jewish household, and he’s gay. He didn’t know what to expect.
“Over the years I imagined many different scenarios, so I went in with my eyes wide open,” Brian said.
John and his family welcomed him with open arms.
&#8220;I could not have asked for a nicer experience,” said Brian. “They were cordial, polite and respectful.&#8221;
John felt the same.
“It meant a lot to meet him,” said John. “I’m extremely impressed with Brian, his maturity and intelligence. He’s a good caring person.”
John also offered something to Brian that was invaluable, a vast collection of photos and even film of their biological father. Their father had run a photo studio business and was always taking pictures and filming.
Brian got to see his biological father at all these different stages of his life and even see how he moved, his mannerism and how he talked.
“It was more than I could have asked for,” Brian said.
Sharing that gave John his own sense of joy, he said.
Their father had a lot of flaws, John said, but everyone liked him. He had a big personality and John tried to share some of that with Brian.
“It meant a lot to me because it meant a lot to Brian,” John said.

Eyes Wide Open

Many adoptees talk about walking through a crowd, looking at the faces of strangers and wondering if they are brushing shoulders with one of their parents or a brother or sister.
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<div id="attachment_22978" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22978" class="size-medium wp-image-22978" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FB_IMG_1444610175227-300x285.jpg" alt="Carole, center, with her sister Felice Weinbaum, left, and Sabrina Goldberg on the right." width="300" height="285" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FB_IMG_1444610175227-300x285.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FB_IMG_1444610175227.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Carole flanked on her left by sister Felice Weinbaum, and her sister Sabrina Goldberg on her right.</div>
Carole Huber, an adoptee, was no different. That urge to learn more about her biological parents, about her story, never really went away. But decades of wondering left her thinking she would never find her biological family or learn her story. That changed after using 23andMe.


“This brought me to my family,” she said.


In fact, Carole met her mother, without even knowing it, more than 2,500 miles from where she had been placed for adoption.
Carole worked as an oncology nurse at a Florida hospital’s cancer unit. She now thinks hard about one patient in particular, as well as his wife, daughters and sister-in-laws that had visited him daily over his three week hospital stay on her unit.
Many years later, Carole now has trouble remembering his family and any conversations they may have had, but she thinks about them all the time.
“My (biological) mother’s husband was admitted onto the oncology unit. I was the charge nurse so I met my mother, sisters, cousins and aunts. I was in the room with them, but I didn’t know,” she said. “I had no idea.”


She now also wonders about a house, not far from her home.
“It turns out my aunt lives in that house and I pass it every day and I didn’t know,” she said.
Now after learning about her family, those encounters and her daily trips past her aunts house suddenly take on a new meaning.
<div id="attachment_22982" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22982" class="size-medium wp-image-22982" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Carole-and-Family-300x271.jpg" alt="From left to right Carole's daughter Carley, Ryan Kaplan, Carole Huber, Marissa Kaplan and Joan Sinkin, Carole's aunt." width="300" height="271" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Carole-and-Family-300x271.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Carole-and-Family.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />From left to right Carole&#8217;s daughter Carley, her cousin Ryan Kaplan, Carole Huber, Ryan&#8217;s sister Marissa Kaplan and Joan Sinkin, Carole&#8217;s aunt.</div>
Until recently Carole didn’t know anything about her biological family. Put up for adoption in 1964, she had almost no information about herself. By accident she’d been given her mother’s maiden name, but it was so common to be unhelpful. And her mother had also told her something.
“My mother thought I was part Swedish,” Carole said.
Wanting to learn a little more about herself, Carole turned to 23andMe in 2011.
“So I set on a journey to find my ancestry,” she said. “I never intended to find family.”


She learned that her adoptive mother was not far off with what she knew. Her 23andMe results showed she had about 40 percent Norwegian ancestry and she learned many other things, but initially didn’t connect with any close family. All that changed in 2014 when two new matches popped up in her DNA Relatives on 23andMe.
Carole connected with a brother and sister with whom she shared about 7 percent DNA – meaning a close relative match. For Carole, who’d never before been connected to a close biological relative, this was a big deal.
Messaging the two through 23andMe she explained that she was adopted and that she knew almost nothing about her biological family. Giving them her email address and the one bit of information she did have about her birth mother, her mother’s maiden name. She got a quick message back.
“I’ll get back to you.”
This man and woman turned out to be the children of Carole’s first cousin. Their grandmother is Carole’s aunt, the aunt who lives in the house Carole passed by almost daily on her way to work.
In the meantime, she went to Facebook and looked them up scanning through their family photos.


“Within 15 minutes I was looking at my mother’s face,” she said.


The next morning she heard back from her new found relatives and was brought into a very large family. Her biological mother had only died nine months before, but Carole&#8217;s aunt gave her the backstory of her birth and her biological mother’s life.
She’d been conceived after her birth mother moved to Los Angeles, but that had remained a secret. After Carole was given up for adoption, her mother moved back to New York, ironically not all that far from where Carole grew up.
Within a few months of returning from Los Angeles, Carole’s birth mother met her husband and was married. Soon thereafter, she had two more daughters, Carole’s half sisters. Her aunt told Carole all this only 12 hours after they made their connections through 23andMe.


“She knew about me and she told me I have two sisters,” Carole said.


Right after talking to her aunt, Carole got a call from one of her sisters.
“It was so immediate,” Carole said.

Wondering for more than 50 years about her biological family and where she’d come from, the immediacy of learning was a little shocking for everyone.


“I wasn’t sad or happy, just emotional,” she said. “I know I got very, very lucky, I know that something like this could have gone very differently, but they’ve embraced me and I’m part of their family now.”
Carole now has two sisters, two aunts, an uncle, nine first cousins, and 5 nieces and nephews. Her own three children are intrigued and her adoptive mother is tickled by the whole story.
“She’s very solid in her own shoes,” said Carole about her adoptive mother. “She thinks it’s a hoot.”


Carole’s one regret is that she made this connection just a few months too late and wasn’t able to meet her birth mother. That’s when she thinks of all the times she might have crossed paths with her mother and her aunt. It turns out that her mother and her husband retired to Florida and had lived in the same town as Carole. Her aunt lives there too, only a few blocks from her home.
“My aunt lives in the next development over and I pass her house every single day on the way to work,” she said.
She’s sure she met her mother when her husband was admitted to the oncology unit where she was the charge nurse.
“I met my mother, sisters, aunts and uncles,” she said “But I had no idea.”


Carole feels extremely fortunate and is so grateful for 23andMe who has helped change her life forever.

siblings — Page 2