In my pursuit to share the wonderful world of DNA with folks far and near, I’m always looking for opportunities to present DNA-themed programs. The Heritage Room at the Berne Public Library has hosted several such presentations, …
Tag: family
The Mystery of the Abandoned Hotel Baby
Thursday, March 16, 1918 . . . Richmond, Indiana. A weeks-old baby boy found alone and crying in a room at the Kelly Hotel. Hotel employees cannot locate parents who may have used a fictious name at …
The Case of the “Maybe Brother”
Audrey (Bleeck) Steury grew up in the Salem Children's Home in Flanagan, Illinois. Audrey’s mother Ida, as she faced end stage tuberculosis, placed eighteen-month-old Audrey in the orphanage with instructions that she be raised in the home …
A Tribute to my “Real” Parents
My mom used to get miffed when people would say how wonderful she and dad were to adopt four children. “We weren’t wonderful,” she’d insist, no attempt to disguise the irritation in her voice. “We were selfish. …
Meeting the Bio Family: Chapter 9 — “Maine in October”
“Come to Maine next fall,” urged my “new” brother Alan as his visit to Indiana wound down, in September of 2017. He had traveled a thousand plus miles to meet us, the half-sister and family DNA had …
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Meeting the bio family: Chapter 4 — Finally a Sister
A sister obsession I knew from the moment I spotted them that they were sisters. Something about the way they interacted as they meandered around the old-fashioned country store. My “sister-radar” triggered into overdrive. I studied the …
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Meeting the Bio Family: Chapter 2 — Little Bro
On a Tuesday about three weeks before the big trip to Hawaii to meet my birthfather, his wife, and my sister and her husband, a half-bro from that side of the family, from the opposite side of …
The first year of the rest of my life
from July 26, 2017 I don’t believe in coincidences. Well, not unless we’re talking two cooks who bring the exact same strawberry chocolate trifle to the potluck dinner. Or best friends buying the same shirt on separate …
A Visit to my Hometown
from June 27, 2017 The sun peeks through the trees as I glance about the quiet, old neighborhood in the town where I was born. From across the street, I snap pictures of the house where my …
Mystery solved: The Next Steps . . .
While my parents had years to ponder my “foundling” beginnings, to conjure up scenarios about the who, the when, the why, I have had but a few months to imagine the details surrounding my being left on a …
