Reunited, and they feel so good!
Meet Joanne and Jeff. Joanne was adopted at birth back in 1944. A few years ago, she learned who her birth mother was, but never thought she'd ever learn the identity of her birth father.
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Jeff and his five siblings (two of whom are now deceased) knew Joanne was out there, because they had been told that their father had had a child with another woman, while still married to their mother.
He and his siblings always wondered about her, but didn't know of a way to find her.
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In 2017, one of Joanne's best friends bought her a DNA kit, mainly to see if the idea that she was part Native American was true. As a bonus, she had a second cousin match – me – who contacted her to see how they were related.
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Turned out, she was the daughter of my father's first cousin. She almost laughed at me when I told her we could figure out who her father was, but two months later, we had our man!
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We reached out to one of the man's sons, Jeff, who ultimately agreed to test at our expense. The results? A beautiful shared amount of DNA at 1,535 cMs – proving they were half-siblings!
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Today, living only a couple hours apart in central Michigan, the two are building the memories they'd always hoped to have as they spend time getting to know each other.
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Like Joanne, Shari (center in the black dress) was adopted at birth.
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We worked together and eventually were able to determine who her birth parents were, in spite of the fact that she was legally unable to obtain her original birth records from the state of Missouri, where she was born.
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Sadly, Shari had no half-siblings – but she discovered a ton of cousins, who she was able to meet two years ago.
Client Testimonials ...
In their own words:
“Phyllis has done a great job helping our family dig deeper into our ancestry.
We were especially pleased that she helped us identify my late wife’s birth parents. We had been trying for years to find them on our own, but sealed adoption records stymied our efforts.
Phyllis used her expertise to identify the parents, and since then my daughter has been able to get to know members of her previously unknown biological family.
It’s been a very rewarding journey. ... I highly recommend Phyllis for both her DNA knowledge and genealogical research skills.”
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– Elliot T., Madison, Ind.
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