Father and Son Meet After 48 Years

John Cummings of Keizer, Oregon was adopted at birth. After years of trying and failing to find information about his biological family, he had just about given up on ever finding out who his parents were.

Then his wife bought him a MyHeritage DNA kit for Christmas.

Within days of getting his results, he was in touch with his biological father and half-sister.

Watch his heartwarming story here:

When John first contacted the California Department of Social Services to find out about his adoption, they gave him some paperwork, but the information was very basic and there were no names or contact details. After learning that he might have to go to the Supreme Court to get more details, he got discouraged and gave up.

When his MyHeritage DNA results came in, he was interested to see his ethnicity results — that he was 53% Norwegian, for example. But he was even more interested to see that his list of DNA matches included a biological cousin, Linda.

John contacted her through the MyHeritage website, and together they connected the dots. “‘Hey, you should call Tiffany,’” John recalls Linda telling him, “‘she thinks she’s your sister and her father’s your dad.’ And I was like, ‘What?!’”

It turned out that John’s biological father, Rick, had been trying to find John for years. “The court records were sealed, the attorney who handled it — his office burned down…” says Rick. “it was just a complete dead-end road.”

“I had carried 48 years of guilt,” he goes on. “Even though I have other children, there’s that one child that I was never going to see, or know if they were well.”

“I got a message from her… as I read it, my heart started to kind of beat fast,” he recalls. “The son that I never had had just made contact.”

Not only did John and Rick finally find each other thanks to MyHeritage DNA — they discovered that they lived only an hour’s drive away from each other, and even worked right across the street for a certain period of their lives!

“After meeting John, realizing what a fine young man he is, that guilt kind of went away,” says Rick. “I am very proud of the man he is. What a great job his parents did. I know I couldn’t have done any better than they did.”

“We had so much in common,” says John. “MyHeritage was the starter to be able to get us to actually communicate.”

“If you want to find someone, it’s the way to do it,” adds Rick.

“Without the DNA, that never would’ve happened, because I was not able to make that link,” says John. “At the beginning it was a bit overwhelming, but now it’s real fun. I can ask all the questions I always wanted to get answers for. Now I get to know about my heritage.”

“Thank you to MyHeritage DNA for reuniting me with my family,” John concludes.

John Cummings (second from right) with his biological father and half-siblings