A San Francisco Bay area woman who grew up believing she was an only child has discovered that she has 29 siblings after taking an at-home DNA test.
Shauna Harrison first took a 23andMe DNA test after learning as a 27 year old that the man she grew up thinking was her father was not her biological dad.
“I had been asking questions about my health and blood type,” Harrison told ABC News.
Fourteen years later, she returned to the site eager to see what she could find out about her family given advancements in DNA science and took another test. The next day she got an email.
“Hey, looks like we’re related,” the email said. “Not sure if that’s a surprise to you.”
It was. The family keeps growing and now Harrison is one of 30 siblings.
While not every new sibling is keen to be part of the extended family, others keep in touch via a Facebook page that includes a spreadsheet to keep track of birthdays and a welcome packet for new family members.
Harrison met Jodi Hale, one of her siblings, two years ago. Both found an instant connection.
“It’s just nice to have someone else that is in sort of the same place and you have a lot of the same history,” Hale told ABC News. “It’s fun.”
Harrison thinks the discovery of new siblings is “going to continually happen” for the rest of her life.
