Those closest to me know that my mother was adopted. It’s no secret, never has been. Her parents (my grandparents) are incredible people who raised her (and me) in a loving and structured home. My grandmother is my hero and my grandfather(s) encouraged me to put myself through college and succeed like they did. We couldn’t have asked for more. But something was always missing in our (my mother and I) lives: our origin. She grew up an only child, and I grew up an only child. We were biologically isolated. We look different than everyone else in our family. And while others proudly celebrated their ethnic heritage, we couldn’t. In the past five years home DNA testing has become more attainable and affordable, so we began a scientific and serendipitous journey that led to finding my mother’s biological parents. Continued from Finding DNA: An Adoption and Ancestry Success Story (Part 1), this is part 2 of our story.
Shared in Finding DNA: An Adoption and Ancestry Success Story (Part 1), we were matched with my mother’s biological mother’s close family on Ancestry and have since made connections and reunions. Our journey of discovery didn’t start with the intentions of finding her birth parents, it was more about wanting to know our ethnic origins and maybe medical predispositions. We found some direction with Family Tree DNA mitochondrial testing, but we really had fun with the AncestryDNA testing. We both took autosomal DNA tests (AncestryDNA from saliva) on Ancestry that would tell us our ethnic lineage from both parents. I wanted to compare my mother’s ancestry with my own so I could help pinpoint what ethnicity she received from her birth parents versus what I received from mine.
What showed up in my DNA was a large percentage of Scandinavian, Irish (now part of a larger group in their database: Ireland/Scotland/Wales), and smaller percentages of Western Europe (France, Germany, etc.), Italy/Greece (now part of a larger group in their database: Southern Europe), and Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal). So basically I’m an Irish Viking with some rest-of-Europe thrown in. What showed up in my mother’s DNA was a large percentage of Italy/Greece (now part of a larger group in their database: Southern Europe) and Scandinavian, and smaller percentages of Western Europe (France, Germany, etc.) and Irish (now part of a larger group in their database: Ireland/Scotland/Wales). So my mother is an Italian Viking. Very cool.
From my mother’s biological mother’s side of the family, we learned that their lineage can be traced back to England and Germany/Switzerland (roughly). They also confirmed what we were told about her biological father being an Italian in the Air Force and were even given a name, although the exact spelling of his first and last name would have been slightly skewed by time and memory. I searched a bit on Ancestry and only found near misses so I gave up searching again. And then months later another amazing thing happened…I got an email on Ancestry from a close family to 1st cousin relationship with extremely high confidence in New Jersey and with the same last name we were told by my mother’s biological mother’s side of the family!
The match turned out to be my mother’s half sister, Christine, and she confirmed his military service timelines. Her father Vincent passed away (may he rest in peace) nearly 20 years ago, and never knew my mother existed! She was only slightly surprised to find us though, he had had a lot of children. Huge Italian family with their lineage traced back to Naples, Italy and Palermo, Sicily!
We’ve shared pictures and stories and have marveled at the resemblance my mother and I have with them. On my mother’s father’s side of the family, clustered in and around New Jersey, my mother has six half siblings: Vincent, Steven, Christine, Paul (rest in peace), Sherri, and Michael…and dozens of cousins, nieces, and nephews!
Though we haven’t had the pleasure of connecting with everyone, those that we have spoken to and met during a recent trip to New Jersey have welcomed us into their huge Italian family with open arms. I’m still trying to process how my mother went from being biologically isolated to one of 10 children on both sides (and on both coasts)! I’ll say it again- I’ve never seen my mother so happy and complete in my entire life. And all from a little tube of spit…well, a few tubes of spit from all parties (thank you!). I don’t think any of us ever expected to make these connections.
Next: Additional testing (for science!)…
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