Issue link: http://tcnj.uberflip.com/i/920750
34 The College of New Jersey Magazine S cientists' recent mastery of the human genome, combined with advances in DNA testing, has created boom times for online services — think Ancestry and 23andMe — that oer scientific answers to that most existential human inquiry: Who am I? You'll find some of those answers in the portraits that follow. They're hard-won victories and, in most cases, deeply healing for the people involved. But the existential can also be fraught with hazard. TCNJ Magazine had to spike a story that would have revealed to a faculty member's father that the man he believes to be his father may not be. Moral of the story: Pursue your ancestry at your own peril, but marvel at what can be discovered when science hits home. F ive weeks after she was born on August 10, 1967, Lisa Endres was adopted into a large and loving family, with aunts and uncles and "cousins galore," she says, and she grew up well cared for and happy. But still, she was curious. "I always just wondered where I came from and who I looked like," Endres says. After she submitted a DNA sample to Ancestry.com — her daughter Kelly '19 had bought her a kit in 2015 — she was contacted by two women identified as second and third cousins. Then last July she received her birth certificate under a newly enacted New Jersey state law that opened adoption records. With her three daughters gathered around her, Endres opened the envelope and for the first time she read the name of her birthmother. There ensued a frantic search to find her. On the 10th day, one of Endres' newly discovered cousins put her in touch with a woman. The woman sent Endres an email, asking how she might help, and Endres responded, explaining when and where she was born, and that she had "only love in my heart" for her birthmother. A response came quickly. "Lisa," the woman wrote, "You have no idea how long I waited for this day. I am your biological mother." The date was August 10, 2017. It was Lisa Endres' 50th birthday. " Lisa," the woman wrote, "You have no idea how long I waited for this day. I am your biological mother." THE MOM OF A TCNJ JUNIOR FINDS HER OWN MOTHER