My introductory letter to my siblings that was never sent (drafted May 2018)

This is my draft letter to my siblings that I never sent. It was drafted May, 2018. Sort of gives you the history we talked about earlier today on Zoom. I was scared to send it and never did. Turned out my half-sister JoAnne did her "23 and Me" several months after I had drafted this. I figured I showed up on Joanne's as her borther and also, that she wanted to know her relatives or she would not have done the test so I called her up on the phone. From there I ended up calling Mary, my full sister, and she then did her DNA shortly thereafter. She visited here right after our call and her DNA came back in January 2019. The next month we traveled to LA where I met Joanne. And we stopped near Pismo Beach and met my half brother Bob. We have been to Bob's a couple times since then and also to Joanne's. We've met Mary twice then then in Oregon. I have not met my borther Ray who lives in Palm Beach nor my brother Jim, though we've now talked in the phone. *************************************************************************************************************************** Hi Jim,Mary, and Ray - I will start this letter without holding anything bsck. I think I’m your older brother and was given up for adoption at birth. Our parents got married six months after my birth and then you all came along. No moral judgement - this was 1950. Now the story. About 4 ½ years ago, Aviva (our daughter) and Matthew were expecting our first grandchild, Sol. They had DNA tests thru “23 and Me” for genetic purposes, not geneology. I asked to see the results and they did not seem right. I let 4 years go by before I saw a “23 and Me” two for one special and Susan (my wife) and I did the sample. What came back in February was not as expected. First, my mom (now adoptive mom) was Jewish - so I would have expected to be 50% Jewish but was not. Second, there were no familiar family surnames. I emailed my cousin (now adoptive cousin). He called back the next day and told me I was adopted. Apparently all the family knew and were sworn to secrecy. My parents brought this to their grave. So at 67 years old (68 on June 2), I first find out I’m adopted. Two relatives (based on the DNA) contacted me. They suggested I try a Facebook site called “DNA Detective”. I joined the site I put this story up. Within a day I got information from a volunteer genealogy expert that we were siblings. I was given Mary’s Facebook page along with Migdalia. I did a personal Facebook message to Mary and then decided to hold back. The information came to easy and the investigator did not have the DNA - only my info as to birth and that I was related to an Etheridge. These same two relatives suggested I hold back and get more information by also getting my DNA done by Ancestry.com which I did. Fast forward to last week when we returned from a vacation. My DNA was back from Ancestory.com with no new relatives. The same two cousins wrote to suggest I work with a second DNA Detective expert from Texas that they have been working with. I did and that second DNA expert reverified what the first expert had said. I’m the child of Emma Wengerd and Eugene Etheridge. In fact, she has developed an entire family tree. While without you getting one of those DNA tests to verify the result, I’m over 90% we are in fact siblings with the same two parents. I hope one or more of you get a DNA test thru one of the two companies. I birth certificate says I was born June 2, 1950 in Maywood, California to Joseph Palmer and Leah Solomon. My parents had been married for fifteen years (1935) when I was born; my mom was nearly 45 years old and my dad 41 years old. I’m an only child. Apparently the number of the original and the replacement (the one with the adoptive parents) birth certificate are the same. That’s the case here. It made it easy for these volunteer experts to track down. So I have a birth certificate with our bio mom and a birth certificate with my adoptive parents. Six months after I was born, our parents got married and then you all came along. Seems as young children we even lived very close together before you moved to Oregon. I have no way of knowing if our parents knew each other or if there was ever contact after the adoption. I’m happily married and retired on the Mendocino Coast north of San Francisco. Susan and I both retired from working for the State of California as government workers. We have two daughters - Rose and Aviva. Rose is single and lives in New York with her boyfriend, and is a medical student. Aviva (whom I mentioned earlier) is married and has two sons - Sol, age 4 and Eriv, 6 months. The most interesting part of this saga is not knowing anything about my mom and dad and not knowing anything about all of you other than the little I glean from Facebook. I have no idea of any of you were told of this. It may be something you already knew or may be a surprise. I know we’ve got a step-brother, Robert. He was already sixteen when I was born so may have known more and shared. I have enclosed some pictures and other info. If you are interested in contacting me, my address is 14840 Navarro Way, Manchester, CA 95459. Our phone number is (707) 882- 1750. My email is glevpalmer@gmail.com. And I’m on Facebook. I’ve already sent a message to Mary and I’ve looked at Migdalia’s page given to me by the DNA volunteer researchers. Sincerely, Gary