MyHeritage Reunites Daughter with Father Who Didn’t Know She Exists

When Seraine Danner was 7 years old, she learned something earth-shattering: that the man she had known to be her father, wasn’t her biological father. After almost 10 years of searching, a DNA match on MyHeritage finally led her to her birth father, and the two recently met for the first time.

Watch their emotional reunion below:

Seraine began actively searching for her father at age 15. “My mom gave me a few names that she thought could possibly be his, but she wasn’t sure,” says Seraine. “So I was trying to do all my research and everything, but it led nowhere, ‘cause how would I know?”

A few years ago, Seraine took a MyHeritage DNA test and got a match for a first cousin once removed. She decided not to pursue it because she was afraid they wouldn’t respond.

But then, not long ago, that person messaged her with a list of family names. “I tried to figure out how we’re related, but I was not familiar with any of these names,” says Seraine. It then occurred to her that maybe this match was from her lost father’s side. So she gave the cousin a list of names that her mother had given her that might have been her father’s. One of those names — Vincent Lipski — rang a strong bell. “She said that he was actually her cousin,” Seraine recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — that means that’s my dad!’”

The cousin gave Seraine the names of her birth father’s siblings, and she reached out to one of them on Facebook. His sister managed to connect Seraine to Vincent. “He called me a few days later, and we’ve talked every day since.”

The news was a huge shock for Vincent. He had no idea that he’d fathered another. “Once he heard about me, it blew his mind,” says Seraine. “He took about a day and a half just to process it. He’d had no clue.”

“It’s definitely a process,” says Seraine, “but I’m super excited. My birth father, he’s just the sweetest person. And you know, I think taking the time to talk with him and get to know him, I literally couldn’t ask to find a better birth father. He’s just such a nice guy.”

Vincent as a child (left), and Seraine as a child (right)

“I was afraid that once I would find him, he’d be, like, a bad person or something,” admits Seraine. “But really he’s one of the sweetest people ever, and he’s been through a lot. He’s just so excited to get to know me and everything. He’s like, I actually have my own daughter now!”