Well, it wasn’t exactly the contact I had hoped for, but it is a start. I received a message this weekend via 23andme from a woman asking to connect and to figure out how we were related. We shared about 12% DNA. After sending a few messages back and forth, I got the message, “I am your aunt. Call me,” along with her phone number in Georgia. I should have taken time to gather my thoughts and figure out what I wanted to ask, but I immediately called her. She is my birth father’s aunt, his father’s brother. She gave me some general family data: my birth father has 3 older sisters, he has 3 or 4 daughters and adopted 2 children from Haiti after the hurricane, and has retired from his ministry. She didn’t have much more info as she was not close to her brother (he did not sound like a great person), but did give me some health information. She also asked for my address and said she would mail me some family photos of my great-grandparents and grandfather.
She was very sweet, and I was happy to make the connection. She did also say a few things that have stuck with me, have me thinking. She said that C would have been a teenager when I was conceived. My mom was 21, so I wonder just how young he was? Also, she mentioned that she thought he didn’t want respond due to his profession, but then also said he was retired….She thought that his sister that was just older than him (J, whom my uncle dated for years) might be willing to talk to me, that she was the most likely close family member who would be open and would have a lot of information.
Of course I had a million and one questions for her after I hung up. I figured I’d hold them for a couple of days before bombarding her. So, not the contact that I thought I had, but some helpful information. And she was very kind.