Are Genetic Testing Sites the New Social Networks?

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Sherri Tredway, 55, is a marketing and development director for a social service agency based in Washington, Ind. She was adopted as a baby, and in January she drove two and a half hours to Bowling Green, Ky., to meet her biological half sister, Patty Roberts-Freeman, 60, with whom she connected through AncestryDNA.

Ms. Roberts-Freeman needed an outfit for a wedding, so they arranged to meet at a shopping mall to find one together. They started in the food court, where they bought sodas and talked for over an hour about their mother, their current lives, their upbringings.

They then went to a Belk department store, where they tried on outfits. “I was looking at some dressy dresses and showed her a few, and she said, ‘No, no dresses for me!’” Ms. Tredway recalled. “I remember saying, ‘O.K., are you sure you are my sister?’ which we both laughed about. She found a silky floral shell and a beautiful sweater in rose, pink and cream to wear with some slacks. It was very classy.’”

The half sisters have since seen each other several times, meeting in restaurants between their homes. They also see other relatives including two more half siblings, Sissy Bonham, 51, and Michael Clavette, 54, as well as their biological mother’s sister, Nancy Kalman Bell.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t talk to Aunt Nan,” Ms. Tredway said. “I call her to talk, when I’m upset, anything. She’s my family now.”



Source : Nytimes