Carrie and Betty were united though saliva test.
by Maryssa Rillo
Ventura local, Carrie Adams and her family tried 23andme and were not only informed of their heritage, but they were united with family they never knew they had.
According to 23andMe.com, 23andMe is a company that gives people the opportunity to test their DNA at home with their saliva. The process is done in three steps which include ordering a saliva kit, spitting in a tube to register the saliva and logging onto the website after 3-5 weeks to see the results of the DNA testing.
Adams said she was introduced to the company by her sister-in-law who was curious about her ancestry.
Adams is a child of six and her mother passed away when she was 63. Her mother was born in 1923, but since her parents were unwed, she was given up for adoption. Because of this, she and her kids never knew where they came from.
In January 2019, Adams sent in her saliva kit and on February 14, 2019 her results were in. Her results informed her that she was 1/3-Portuguese, 1/3-French and 1/3-English. The results also revealed that she had an aunt on her mother’s side that she never knew she had.
“Once we did that and the results came back, there she appeared, my aunt,” Adams said. “As long as your relatives do it, they pop up. Right there it said, ‘100% this is your aunt.’”
Once Adams found out about her aunt, she reached out to her via email.
“She’s 96 years old. She lives up in Washington close to Seattle and has four children. I sent her an email and said I think you’re my aunt. I went on to tell her about my mom and everything and so she wrote back, and she was so happy,” Adams said.
Three weeks went by and her aunt, Betty Compton, flew into California with her daughter Melanie and Melanie’s husband to meet the family.
“These all were just the happiest people, seriously,” Adams said. “She’s just lovely and she clung onto me and now she calls me her auntie mom. I can’t explain, once we found them it was like we’ve always been looking for them secretly and we just wanted to know where we came from.”
Compton registered her DNA with 23andMe when her birth certificate revealed her mother had another live birth that she did not know about. After asking her mother about the situation and receiving no answers she began 23andMe in hopes to find her brother/sister one day.
“It was always a big secret. She didn’t even know if it was a sister. She said she looked everywhere at everybody thinking that could be my sister,” Adams said.
While Compton and her daughter were in town, Adams and her siblings threw a big party of about 30 family members.
“We brought them into the family, and it was like they’ve been there forever,” Adams said.
Adams said she and Compton still email each other every day.
“It’s just amazing it turned out so pleasant and that I’m 70 and she’s 96 and she’s still alive so I can ask her things,” Adams said. “We just have little things to say. She’s like the mom I didn’t have because mine left so early.”
According to Adams, Compton is grateful for the experience and is happy she found out about her sister and family.
“She said when she finally found out about my mom, she said, ‘you know what that’s the coolest thing because when I die now, I’m going to go get to meet my sister,’” Adams said.
Adams recommends everyone to register their DNA with 23andMe.
“I would really recommend for people to do this, it’s just amazing really. It was the nicest most wonderful thing,” Adams said.
