Biological Family Members Share Emotional Reunion At DIA After Ancestry.com Search
DENVER (CBS4) - A 70-year-old woman and her six siblings met for the first time in Denver thanks to a DNA website that brought them together.
"I don't have any words for it," explained Sharon Jones, who flew in from Oregon to meet her siblings. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
For years, Jones had been searching for her biological father. He left for the Korean War back in the 1950s, not knowing he had a daughter on the way.
"I never knew who my dad was," she explained. "I was about to give up on searching for him."
That was, until her husband recently gave her a DNA ancestry kit. Jones sent her information into Ancestry.com, while across the country, another family was digging into their history, too.
"It says 'Your results are in' one day and you can go in and look," explained Kelly Rowe, Jones's sister. "Sharon was at the top of my list."
The test showed a DNA match that the two were likely close relatives. Jones said the site said they were a 99% match, but when they saw photos of each other, the family knew.
"We discovered her and Lori side by side and were like 'Oh,'" laughed Sherry Green, one of their other sisters. "There was no question who the dad was."
This past week, Jones flew from Oregon to Colorado to meet her five sisters and one brother for the first time. She was greeted at Denver International Airport with hugs and tears.
"They came up one by one and hugged me and that was really, really neat," Jones said, tearing up.
"The bond was immediate," Lori said. "And she's just like us."
The newly found family spent the weekend getting to know one another, telling stories about their father and even taking Jones on her first "sister shopping trip." Jones said she can't wait to be a part of their family memories to come.
"The DNA was there but it feels like they're sisters to me in my heart," she told CBS4.
