A DNA Test Revealed Her True Father’s Identity… and a Tragic Love Story
Janis Holmgren began researching her family history in 2014, since she could not shake the feeling that important chapters in her past are unknown.
Her parents had divorced when she was 11, and soon thereafter, Janis moved to Sweden with her mother to be close to her maternal grandparents. “I’ve been living in Sweden ever since,” Janis says, “but always felt like a big part of my heart was left behind, in the U.S.”
After her parents’ divorce, Janis lost contact with her paternal family and her mother held a bitter grudge against Willard, the man she thought of as her father. Along with a vivid memory from her childhood years, she couldn’t help but question her past. Janis’s mother had one photo of a young man in a military uniform that Janis couldn’t forget. “From time to time we would go through our photo albums,” Janis says, “and each time we got to this photo she always said, ‘That’s my old boyfriend, who I loved very much, but he died on D-Day. I wish he had come back to me from the war, instead of Willard.’”
Janis decided to take a DNA test to help her with her research — and the results came back very strange. “I got a lot of matches from the south, while Willard’s family was from Pennsylvania,” she says. Even stranger, Willard’s son from a previous relationship — who should have been her half-brother — did not turn up in her matches at all.
“I said to myself, Janis, there’s something very wrong here. I felt so deceived. Who am I? Where did I come from? What’s the truth? Here I am, in my late 70s, realizing I don’t know who my father is. The uncertainty became unbearable. I was really suffering, crying everywhere, and couldn’t let it go,” she recalls.
‘He was the love of my mother’s life’
In the summer of 2018, Janis went to a genealogy convention in Sweden, and decided to purchase a MyHeritage DNA test. That’s when a series of discoveries finally led to the long-awaited breakthrough.
In November, around Thanksgiving time, Janis received a notification that she had a close DNA match on MyHeritage. The match was her cousin’s daughter, Courtney, from Tennessee. Janis examined Courtney’s family tree and started connecting the dots until she finally solved the puzzle of her life. Courtney’s grandmother, Reba Bonnie Cross, had 8 other siblings — one of whom was Sergeant Albert Glenn Cross Jr., who died in June 1944 during the Battle of Cherbourg, part of the battle of Normandy, which was launched on D-Day. He was only 25 years old at the time.
“I cried, but this time out of great relief,” says Janis. “Albert was the love of my mother’s life. I was a love child.”
Albert Glenn Cross Jr., Janis’s birth father. Photo enhanced by MyHeritage
At that point in time, Albert Glenn Cross still had one living sister left, Myrtle, who was overcome to learn that 84 years after her brother’s death, a most significant piece of him was still alive – a daughter.
The following year, in September 2019, Janis flew out to visit her newfound aunt. Albert’s family held a big reunion celebration, during which 94-year-old Aunt Myrtle gave Janis the Purple Heart medal her father received, along with other medals and even the flag that covered his coffin when he was buried in the U.S 4 years after his death.
Janis receives the Purple Heart her father was awarded
Albert’s purple heart
“We had an incredible week together.” Janis smiles while thinking about her aunt Myrtle. “And each time we hugged or held hands I said to myself, this is the closest I will ever get to my father.”
Sadly, Janis didn’t get the opportunity to visit Myrtle again due to the COVID pandemic. Myrtle passed away in August 2020.
Janis and Myrtle in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 2019
Still, Janis naturally became part of a whole new family, including Myrtle’s 3 daughters.
On Thanksgiving 2022 her heart led her to fly again to her American family. “My cousin and I took a road trip through five Southern states visiting kin. It was one the best trips ever in my life.”
Many thanks to Janis for sharing her beautiful story with us. If you’ve made a discovery with MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it! Please send it to us using this form or email it to us via stories@myheritage.com.
