Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18
2 Dutch Women Discover They Are Sisters 15 Years After Losing Touch
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

2 Dutch Women Discover They Are Sisters 15 Years After Losing Touch

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

Summary

  • A MyHeritage DNA match revealed that Meena Geltink, 43, and Minal Tijssen, 44 — childhood friends adopted from India to the Netherlands — share the same biological parents.
  • A Facebook message this spring from Tijssen, sent 15 years after the two last saw each other, prompted Geltink to reinstall the genealogy app she had deleted after years without results.
  • The women first met as teenagers at a weekend gathering for adopted children and quickly bonded, with Geltink recalling that Tijssen looked strikingly like her.
  • Both grew up less than 100 miles apart in the Netherlands in the 1980s, close to their adoptive families but searching for their origins and identity.

Insights

What hidden biological forces drew two teenage strangers together decades before a DNA test revealed their ultimate family secret?
When a forgotten DNA app reveals your childhood friend is your biological sister, how do you process the lost years?