I wanted to take a moment and share with all of you, my Portuguese genealogy family, a heartwarming beautiful story that I was blessed to be involved in over the past few days. As many of you know, I am adopted, and I have been searching for my biological father for many years now. 5 years ago, my husband bought me the Ancestry dna test. I then tested with FTDna and with 23andme, hoping to find dna cousins who would share their lineage with me. I learned to read Portuguese, and began researching on the Azorean gov't website to build a large tree with all the genealogy of my Portuguese cousins, looking for common ancestors between them. I have created a Master DNA tree which now contains over 10,000 people, and I have indeed found common ancestors. I am waiting the results of a dna test for a woman I believe is my aunt or 2nd cousin. Expected date of discovery: March 21st! Along this journey, I have been richly blessed me with so many new friends and Portuguese cousins. I have learned much about my ancestors, the Island of Sao Miguel, from which they came, and the struggles my ancestors endured, making my life possible.
About 3 years ago, I was working off a list of all of the men who bore my biological father's name, Robert Moniz, and lived in the Fall River area at the time of my birth. One man in particular had a son, Cory, that I located on Facebook. I messaged him there, with my story, and he agreed to take the Ancestry DNA test for me. As it turns out, we are only 5th to 8th cousins. Not close enough to provide any clues, but I added his family lines to my DNA Cousin Tree anyhow, thinking sometime in the future, it may be helpful. I also added his mother's lines, even though she was French Canadian. That was about 2 years ago. My search continues and I have not really looked at this family in quite some time. Saturday morning I received a benign message from a 70 year old woman on Ancestry. Her husband had purchased the test kit for her as a Christmas gift. She had received her results and was showing a 3rd to 4th cousin match to Cory and was reaching out to me because I am the administrator of his dna profile. She was given up for adoption in 1945 in NY, and has been searching for her biological family for 50 years. Her husband had bought her the Ancestry DNA test kit for Christmas. She wondered if I had some small piece of information that could help her learn something about her family. Due to her age, she suspected her parents would have passed away by now. The only thing she knew about her birth parents is that she had been told her mom was 17 when she was born, and she believed her father may have been a married man. I responded and explained that the test she was matching did not belong to me, but if she would share her dna results with me, I would take a look, as I did have quite a bit of information on Cory's family. Then the whirlwind began. It was readily apparent to me that this adoptee was related to Cory through his mother. I could see this due to the common matches they shared. I started to identify common ancestors between her dna matches. And I just couldn't stop. I traced the lines down and then found yet another common ancestor between unrelated 3rd cousins, and again started to trace that line down and bang.... I found a marriage between the two lines.... 5 dna cousins connecting to the wife and 6 unrelated dna cousins connecting to the husband. I had identified this adoptees grandparents! I nearly fell off my chair. This couple had 14 children...... which one was her parent? Upon closer examination it was clear it could only be one of two girls. I went onto Facebook and found the children of these two woman and sent them a message with this adoption story. Yesterday, one of the children called me letting me know that the woman we are looking for is indeed her aunt, a daughter of the grandparents I had identified. She is 90 years, alive and well, and had been searching for the past 50 years for her daughter. She had even hired 2 private investigators, all without success. We quickly identified her birth father, and learned it is suspected he descends from Amerigo Vespucci.... he is a Vespucci from Brooklyn! How amazing is that?!?!? Late yesterday Betty Belle, 90, and Jeannie, 70, a mother and daughter separated in 1945 by adoption, spoke on the telephone for the first time in their lives! They cried, they laughed and they planned to talk again today. Jeannie was able to tell the woman who gave her life how much she loved her, and how long she has wanted to know her. I cried my eyes out and could not believe that my search for my Portuguese father had inadvertently led to this. I have no words - in fact I do not think there is an English word that could do justice to this. Maybe there is a Portuguese word? I felt compelled to share this story with you all, who have been so gracious to me, and helpful, as I continue with my journey. I will continue to search for my father, but even if I never do find him, I will be a happy woman. God is good and He has a plan for everything; the good, the bad and the ugly. It all works the way it is meant to. Please know that dna works... it really does! This reunion was made possible with only 11 3rd-4th cousins.... and perhaps a few stars lining up just right! Just incredible! -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
