Melissa Hall had been searching for her biological family on her father’s side for years. According to Local 10, her parents, who adopted her at birth, were loving, but Hall had felt that there was a connection missing in her life. After decades of looking, she finally met her biological relatives. What she didn’t know was that her family had been looking for her too.
“It was like, ‘oh my goodness this is like really happening,’” she said. “I really see that there are people that share my blood out there.”
After using Ancestry.com’s DNA test kit, Hall was connected to two cousins — Deboral Hallmon and Synita Seymour, who had also taken one of the DNA tests. Hall sent them messages, and it was Hallmon who replied first.
“I just responded and she responded back and so it started from there,” she said.
Seymour also responded to Hall’s message. “Family was so important and I just knew it was always a lot of missing puzzles, and I just wanted to find them,” she said.
Hall learned through messages with Hallmon that her biological father had unfortunately passed away. After two years of calls and texts, Hall flew to Florida to meet her newly discovered family for Christmas, where she felt a connection immediately. The cousins and family members can be seen sharing hugs and tears of joy in the news video of their meeting.
READ: Five siblings separated in foster care hope to be adopted together
Though Hall’s father, Johnny, had died, she was able to see pictures of him and hear about him, as well as her grandfather Daniel. She learned that like her birth mother, her birth father had been in college to become an educator when she was born. Hall had studied to become an educator as well.
“I feel sad that he’s not here to share this moment with us,” Hall said. “I know that he’s looking down saying, ‘I’m glad you met my family.’”
Thanks to DNA test kits widely available now in the U.S., countless families have been reunited, including two friends who worked together only to learn they were actually biological sisters. They learned their birth mother had died, but they were able to be connected with the rest of their full siblings and biological father in the Dominican Republic. One of the sisters, Madison, said that she had always wanted to find her birth family. “For me, it’s always been, ‘I’m going to find these people if it’s the last thing I do,'” she said. “I was going to die trying.”
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