After years of searching, Matt Heninger had given up on finding his biological family. But then, with the help of family history work and DNA testing, Heninger discovered something completely unexpected.
“You are my brother,” read the email message Matt Heninger received on Jan. 3, 2016. After 53 years of wondering where he came from, Heninger said this message changed his life.
Heninger was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and adopted as a baby. He said he had tried in the past to find information about his birth family but after many unsuccessful attempts, he decided to end his search.
“It kept being a little frustrating, but I still had hope that one day I would meet my birth mom,” recalled Heninger, who lives in Gilbert, Arizona, with his family.
Heninger’s wife heard about a DNA test offered through Ancestry.com while working at the Gilbert Arizona Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After all the dead ends in his search, Heninger said he wasn’t thinking about finding his family when he took the test; he just wanted to find out his ethnicity.
Lead image from Deseret News.
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