Nine On Your Side's Pat Parris has received a strong response to the nearly year-long journey for his two DNA test subjects, both adopted at birth.
But one emotional response hit close to home. John DeLoera is an editor at KGUN 9. He was also adopted at birth and was moved by watching Sue Amundsen and Clint Miller find and eventually meet their birth mothers using ancestry.com DNA test kits.
Their stories of discovery inspired John to think about his own life, and being adopted as a baby.
"In the stories, what's happened since then, they've really seemed to kind of fill a hole left behind. And I'm kind of wondering if perhaps the same would happen for me. Hole there, but have I hidden that away," said DeLoera.
Just like Sue and Clint, John has been apprehensive about searching for his birth parents. He didn't want to upset the loving parents who raised him, and he feared rejection.
With that slight apprehension, John's DNA journey began. He submitted a DNA sample to ancestry.com.
Several weeks later the results came back. They showed John is 46% Native American.
"I've always kind of thought that, to be quite honest," said DeLoera.
With that knowledge of his heritage, the search began for John's family. Adopted here in Tucson, John always believed he was born in the Morenci, Arizona area.
John did find several promising leads on ancestry.com, with several first or second cousins listed. He went to work contacting all of the names on the list. But like Clint, one of our other DNA test subjects, John has hit a dead end.
We're now going to employ the help of Clint, a security analyst with an extensive background in on-line research. We hope Clint can help John connect with his birth mother too.
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