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Totally OT but I thought some of you might find this interesting.   I was adopted when I was a month old.  Never knew a thing about my birth parents and honestly, wasn't that interested.  I never considered my adoptive parents anything except my real mom and dad.   Well fast forward a good amount of time.   Both mom and dad are deceased.    I finally thought about trying to track down my adoptive parents.  Wasn't looking for any emotional reunion, just curious about medical / genetic issues that might be of concern to myself or my daughters and maybe a bit of their history, just out of random curiosity.  I got no where and eventually gave up because my state of birth has some of the tightest adoption privacy laws in the nation.  

 

This Christmas, my wife gave me one of those Ancestry.com home DNA test kits.  Figured if I can't find my biological parents, I can at least get an idea of what region(s) are in my genetic roadmap.   I get the results a few months later. Nothing that interesting (I'm a mutt, Irish, English, Spanish and a splash of eastern Europe).  What was interesting is that Ancestry.com has a massive database, which my DNA results were added to (with my permission).  I find out that I'm a close to 100% match to relative who coincidentally lives somewhat nearby.   After a few back and forth emails, it looks like I found a half-brother.  He filled in the background on my / his father (now deceased) and that side of the family.   No info was had on my birth mother.  We've become pretty good social media friends and will probably end up meeting at some point down the road. 

 

A month back, we give our oldest daughter a DNA kit for her birthday.   She's always been keen on filling out the family tree.   Her results came in this weekend and within a day, she is contacted by someone who apparently is my half sister.   Just started talking to her but as a result I now apparently have a picture and information on my biological mother (who is still alive but is currently and probably will be long-term, unaware of all this).    I also just found out that my grandfather on her side was an US Army infantryman who was killed at the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest in WW2.  I found this to be pretty interesting since I'm an ex-grunt and for some reason have always been fascinated with this particular battle.   I told my wife years ago that going over to Germany and walking through that forest is on my bucket list.    Also found out that his regiment was also a sister regiment in the brigade that I served in.   Just started talking to this lady, have no idea where thing will lead but I'm truly happy with the outcome so far.   Best of all, apparently I'm from good genetic stock. No major medical issues on either side.  

 

Anyway, if anyone out there is in a similar situation and interested in trying to discover a bit of their background, I strongly recommend trying this approach.   

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Congratulations on being able to fill in some of your background! 

 

Your fascination with a battle that you now find out has has an intense connection to you.is interesting indeed. Hard to believe that's random...

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That's really interesting. I love family histories. I teach 4th grade and there's a story we read with one of my favorite quotes. "We can't know where we're going unless we know where we've been". I hope you keep finding out information on your biological family and maybe even build some relationships.

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That's a pretty cool story!  I am pretty sure I know my background (unless I was adopted and no one told me, but I think that's unlikely since I have a lot of features in common with my siblings), so I don't think I'd do the DNA testing, but I can see how it would be really useful in this situation.  It's fun to see how one check started the dominoes falling.

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On 8/3/2017 at 7:31 PM, 11bee said:

 I also just found out that my grandfather on her side was an US Army infantryman who was killed at the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest in WW2.  I found this to be pretty interesting since I'm an ex-grunt and for some reason have always been fascinated with this particular battle.   I told my wife years ago that going over to Germany and walking through that forest is on my bucket list.    Also found out that his regiment was also a sister regiment in the brigade that I served in

The whole thing indeed is interesting and that bit especially.

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On 8/3/2017 at 7:31 PM, 11bee said:

 Best of all, apparently I'm from good genetic stock. No major medical issues on either side.

That is a blessing. My genetic line has a couple issues that seem to knock some of each generation out of their career path and general employability about their mid 40s.

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