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This is Our American Stories, and up next, a story from one of our listeners. Jamie Scott. Jamie now tells a story about how, because of a simple DNA test, his family went. From two to Uh, yeah. within the span of a few months.
Take it away, Jamie. Uh I've got an interesting story to tell you. It's all about family. You see, when I was born in September of 1963, I was put up for adoption. I didn't realize this till years later, of course.
I was adopted by a wonderful man and woman, Ted and Sandra Scott. And I was raised in Concord, North Carolina, which is in Cabarris County in the beautiful. part of North Carolina in the Piedmont region. Had a good raisin. They treated me good, they took care of me, they provided for my needs, loved me to death.
and treated me just like their own son. See, mom and dad didn't think they could have any children, so when they adopted me, They figured that I would be it.
However, My little brother. surprised him a couple of years later. He came along. Yeah. I found out when I was a few years old about my adoption because.
It was a mean lady that my mom worked with that one time said to me when I was about four or five years old that. My mommy was not really my mommy. Ah You want to talk about breaking a kid? I didn't know what that meant. Of course I told my mom about it and she got very upset.
I don't know what you did to that lady, but I'm sure it wasn't nice. But uh she sat down and explained to me that that yes, I had been adopted, that uh that somebody else had given birth to me. And that uh That they had gone in, they wanted a child, they chose a child, they wanted somebody for their very own. And they went and chose me. and he also described to me how Paul talks about in the scripture that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we're adopted into the family of God, we become His sons by adoption.
And it's just exactly the same process. If God could do it, why can't others do it?
So that made me pretty good with the whole adoption thing. I didn't have a problem with it. But like most kids who are adopted, and I'm sure all of them do. I haven't talked to a ton of 'em, but every single one I've ever spoken to has always said that you always wonder Why? Why would you give it up for adoption?
Why? Weren't you kept what? And you assume, like children do. What's wrong with me that They gave me away. Not thinking as we do later on when we're parents and when we're.
having our own children that it was very possible that they did what was best for me. You never know for sure, but you know, you always have that uh that thought in the back of your head. Uh Well, I went to the U.S. military, retired from the Navy, had families. Children.
even adopted a son. Regular life didn't give it much thought. Every now and then I would consider it and think about it, but didn't give it much thought. Until uh Uh my dad. He was in his 80s at this time.
Mom had already passed away, and he was thinking about this ancestry.com thing. and wanted to know what his background DNA was. Where his family had come from. I mean, he knew his mother and father and that whole background, but he was wondering.
So, of course, he went ahead and did the DNA. And then, uh. He got it and he was all excited about it. He had Scottish and Welsh and a whole bunch of different things in his background. And then uh He said, isn't that nice to know that we've got that in our background?
And I looked at him kind of funny and Of course then he realized that, you know, I don't have the same background as him. And he said, well, why don't you do it? And I said, well, I'll do it one day, Dad. And maybe, maybe I'll do it. I don't need to do it.
I'm perfectly happy with father I have. Of course, that made him happy, and I knew that while he would want me to go ahead and do it because he thought it was the right thing to do. Uh, it would have bothered him when I found out if I'd found other family, it would have bothered him.
So I didn't worry about it. A couple of years later, Dad passed away. And uh I really hadn't thought about it until I was actually listening to Our American Stories. And it was in the month of November, I'm pretty sure it was in November, which is supposed to be something like adoption month. And there was a lot of these adoption stories and I thought, Oh, I think I better...
Now's the time to do that DNA test.
So, I ordered the ancestry DNA test in November, right around Thanksgiving time frame, and I When they had did it, sent it off. I got the results of my ancestry DNA test. on Christmas Eve, 2018. It said that I had two first cousins. And I thought, well, that's interesting.
So I opened up the Ancestry Saw. I had a gentleman named Daniel, a gentleman named Scott. didn't know the names, didn't know anything about them. But I did went ahead and shot them an email off and said, Hey, it seems that we're first cousins. Just wanted to let you know that I'm adopted and trying to find out things about my natural family.
And it appears that we're cousins. Scott didn't reply to me at all. He didn't know what to think. I don't think he noticed it right away for several days. I did speak to his mother later, and she told me that he had, by the time he emailed her and asked her what she knew, the rest of the family was already aware of me.
But anyway, uh Daniel responded to me within a half an hour. said he was on his way to a Christmas party, but that I looked a lot like his grandfather. and he sent me some pictures of his grandfather. His name was John Ed. Ferguson.
and lived in Cabarris County, North Carolina.
So he had passed away several years earlier.
So he wasn't alive at the time, but they did look a lot like him. He also called, spoke to his mother. uh Sue, who lived in uh New York on Long Island area. And Sue contacted me a couple of days later. And said that we talked for a little bit, told her what I was trying to do, and I was trying to figure out my family.
So she said she would take a DNA test.
So we were waiting for the results of Sue's DNA test to see where. and how we were related. When I got an email from Ancestry telling me that I had a close relative. Had popped up.
So I opened up Ancestry and looked, and I had. a lady named Catherine Joy Binkley. listed as possible even sister. I contacted her. And found out that she was adopted also.
She was a year younger than myself and had also been adopted. And that her son had gotten her the DNA tests for Christmas that year, and she had done it, sent in the information.
So I got hers back around February. I contacted Sue, so she came back in March. It came back in March that she was my half-sister. It also showed that she was Joy's half-sister.
So it appears that we all share the same father.
So I was pretty excited to to get Sue as a as a sister and to get joy as a sister. And then to kind of find out that Sue was actually one of seven. That my biological father, John Ed Ferguson, had been married and had had. six children, then uh had gotten a divorce. Back in the time, which was odd, he was actually able to keep the children, and his wife, ex-wife, moved to Arizona.
Where later on, she had more children, of whom I've met Mary, who says, you know, we may not be related by blood, but you're still my brother.
So anyway, um then he remarried and had a daughter named Robin. It just appears that during the time, about three years that he was divorced. Uh he produced me with some woman as yet unknown. And produced my sister Joy, and we did discover who her. Biological mother was, of course, she'd also passed as well.
But it's wonderful because here I went from having one brother whom I love very much. To having many brothers and sisters. It's wonderful to have family. It's fantastic to have family. And a special thanks to Jamie Scott for sharing his story and great work, as always, by Monty.
And by the way, you now know that we really mean it when we say your stories are our favorites. Jamie Scott's story. Here on Our American Stories. At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded.
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