Never could have dreamed this: DNA ancestry test kit leads Wanda Starke on journey to find sister – WXII12 Winston-Salem

The quest began with a white box containing a tube and collection bag.The directions were simple. Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line, then replace the funnel on the tube with the blue liquid cap before you tighten to release the fluid and shake.Three weeks later, the results were in from Ancestry DNA.The first thing I saw was my DNA story, the so called "ethnicity estimate," a breakdown of where my ancestors came from.It estimated that 80 percent came from Africa, primarily Benin Togo, Camerooon and Ghana. The other 20 percent came from Europe, mainly England and Wales.The next page I looked at were DNA matches. There are 865 people identified as fourth cousins or closer, and a woman named Constance was at the top of the list.But who was Constance and how was she related to me?One clue: My biological father also appeared in her family tree.The problem was I didn't know anything about my biological father except that his name was Algie. My birth mother shared that information in 2007, six months before she died.I didn't know what to do next, so I called a cousin.Matt and I were both adopted. Our birth mothers are sisters. He suggested I call a cousin on his dad's side who knows a lot of people.Raymond didn't know Constance. But he knew Algie quite well. "Algie lived within walking distance of where I actually grew up," Raymond said. "We looked up to him because he was so suave,debonair. He owned his own cab company."Raymond offered to tell Algie's family, and soon I got a call from her sister Gwen. When I asked if she knew a Constance, she was quiet until she said, "Oh-Connie-our half sister."There were more calls and texts, this time from Connie herself. And just two weeks after our first conversation, I was on the road to Maryland to meet her in person.It felt so surreal and yet so normal. We were two sisters just being sisters.We shared stories over food and wine like we had known each other our whole lives.There was so much to talk about and so little time, but it wasn't long before Connie and her husband, Roland, came to Winston-Salem for the National Black Theatre Festival."I love you, and the more Im around you the deeper it gets," Connie told me.I could never have imagined that I would get a gift so wonderful and large at this stage of my life. I never could have dreamed this.

The quest began with a white box containing a tube and collection bag.

The directions were simple. Fill the tube with saliva to the black wavy line, then replace the funnel on the tube with the blue liquid cap before you tighten to release the fluid and shake.

Three weeks later, the results were in from Ancestry DNA.

The first thing I saw was my DNA story, the so called "ethnicity estimate," a breakdown of where my ancestors came from.

It estimated that 80 percent came from Africa, primarily Benin Togo, Camerooon and Ghana. The other 20 percent came from Europe, mainly England and Wales.

The next page I looked at were DNA matches. There are 865 people identified as fourth cousins or closer, and a woman named Constance was at the top of the list.

But who was Constance and how was she related to me?

One clue: My biological father also appeared in her family tree.

The problem was I didn't know anything about my biological father except that his name was Algie. My birth mother shared that information in 2007, six months before she died.

I didn't know what to do next, so I called a cousin.

Matt and I were both adopted. Our birth mothers are sisters. He suggested I call a cousin on his dad's side who knows a lot of people.

Raymond didn't know Constance. But he knew Algie quite well.

"Algie lived within walking distance of where I actually grew up," Raymond said. "We looked up to him because he was so suave,debonair. He owned his own cab company."

Raymond offered to tell Algie's family, and soon I got a call from her sister Gwen. When I asked if she knew a Constance, she was quiet until she said, "Oh-Connie-our half sister."

There were more calls and texts, this time from Connie herself. And just two weeks after our first conversation, I was on the road to Maryland to meet her in person.

It felt so surreal and yet so normal. We were two sisters just being sisters.

We shared stories over food and wine like we had known each other our whole lives.

There was so much to talk about and so little time, but it wasn't long before Connie and her husband, Roland, came to Winston-Salem for the National Black Theatre Festival.

"I love you, and the more Im around you the deeper it gets," Connie told me.

I could never have imagined that I would get a gift so wonderful and large at this stage of my life. I never could have dreamed this.

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Never could have dreamed this: DNA ancestry test kit leads Wanda Starke on journey to find sister - WXII12 Winston-Salem