Awesome - When Two Sisters Took A DNA Test, Their Father's Twisted Past Was Finally Exposed
Taking a DNA test can help you learn more about your genealogical heritage, but the tests also occasionally reveal long-kept family secrets. When twin sisters Audrey Bell (left) and Cynthia McFadden (right) sent in their saliva samples to 23andMe to learn more about their ancestral origins, the siblings discovered their father's past was more twisted than even he knew.
Innocent Start
Everything started when Audrey Bell bought a 23andMe DNA test in 2017. The 51-year-old mother from Long Island had triplets, and she wanted to know which two were identical and which was fraternal. It was a harmless experiment.
Missing Lineage
Their results showed their relationships to one another, but it also indicated something odd — none of the children had any Italian ancestry. Audrey’s father, Richard Palmadesso, proudly spoke about his Italian background, so she was confused as to why her kids were Italy-free.
Confusing Results
The mystery only grew in 2019, when Audrey's sister, Cynthia McFadden, took her own 23andMe test. She also was missing her Italian heritage. The sisters were concerned at this point. Unfortunately, their father had passed away, so they weren’t able to get any information from him. They'd have to look elsewhere.
Third Sibling
Recalling what they knew from their parents, Richard Palmadesso’s birth certificate said he was born on May 31, 1943, in Staten Island to Isabel and Angelo Palmadesso. Richard was the couple’s first child, but Isabel had two daughters from another partner.
Losing His Parents
Isabel died when Richard was 12, and he was sent to live with his uncle, Giacomo “Jack” Palmadesso, where he remained until he graduated from high school. Angelo also died when Richard was 27, leaving Richard parentless at an early age.
More Testing
With few relatives to turn to, Audrey and Cynthia asked their dad’s first cousin, another Richard Palmadesso, to take his own DNA test. When Cousin Richard’s results returned, the sisters were shocked. Compiled data indicated that Cynthia and Audrey weren’t his biological relatives — or related to anyone else in the Palmadesso family.
New Relative
After this enormous revelation, Cynthia decided to use 23andMe to search for DNA relative connections with other users. Quickly, she found Tom Martin, who was listed as her uncle or grandfather — and distinctly not Italian. She decided to message him.
Looking For Someone
Tom responded. He was a 79-year-old retiree living in Florida who had his own pressing reason for wanting to use the platform. On July 9, 1945, his younger brother was kidnapped a few days before his fourth birthday.
Strangers With Candy
The story, as Tom told Cynthia and Audrey, went like this: Tom (right) and his brother Gerald “Jerry” Martin (left) were riding bikes in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, when a strange woman approached the brothers and offered them candy. Jerry followed her and never returned to Tom and the bikes.
Cold Case
Tom and Jerry’s father, Harold Martin, filed a police report. Authorities theorized that Nancy, their biological mother, may have taken the boy, but this was never proven. To his grave, Harold believed that Jerry was still alive. Fascinated with his story, Audrey and Cynthia started to wonder...
Piecing It Together
Even though he was no longer around, Audrey and Cynthia still knew plenty about their grandfather’s past. He served for two years in WWII, and so they started theorizing what might have happened. Maybe, the twins believed, Isabel got pregnant or lied about doing so close to when Angelo was shipped out.
Covering Her Tracks
Whether the pregnancy wasn’t viable or ever existed at all, when Angelo returned in mid-1945 he was expecting a toddler-aged boy to be waiting at home. Isabel may have panicked and decided to steal one as a cover. Was Richard Palmadesso really Jerry Martin?
Searching For Connection
The more Cynthia and Audrey spoke with Tom, the more they believed this was possible. Cynthia even asked her law enforcement brother-in-law — Audrey and Cynthia had a third sister, Stephanie — to look into Jerry’s original case file. Maybe some modern-day investigators could connect some dots.
Lost File
But the file was impossible to locate. The precinct informed the BIL that his file could have been destroyed in a fire, which would make it nearly impossible for the twins and Tom to get any concrete evidence about the kidnapping case. They were back to square one.
More Similarities
Though the original file never appeared, the women continuing speaking to Tom (left), eventually exchanging pictures with him. He looked incredibly similar to Richard (right). Feeling more connected than ever, they invited him for Thanksgiving in 2019 and realized their facial features weren’t the only things the two men had in common.
Coconut Cake And Movies
"The funny thing," Cynthia recalled, "is when we met our Uncle Tom, we found out he loves a lot of the same things our dad did. They both loved coconut cake, and movies and acting. Uncle Tom even had some headshots from when he was younger and wanted to be an actor." Still, the twins wondered if the Isabel-kidnapping story held any water.
_12242020_0543-375w.jpg)
Outlandish And Maybe True
The story seems outlandish but remains a plausible possibility. According to Paula Fass, author of Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, Isabel did share commonalities with a child abductor. “What’s unusual about this case, is that the child was stolen at the age of four,” she said.
Getting Closer
While the twins continued searching for the truth, they and their “new” uncle remained in contact. "Mary and Tommy are very warm and loving and have accepted us with open arms," Cynthia said. After all, they were heavily affected by the mystery, too.
Accepting The Outcome
Tom still carried unanswered questions about his little brother. "He gets upset that they didn't find each other in time to meet again but is happy knowing that my father had a family that loved and cared for him," Audrey said. He wanted to know what life would've been like were they raised together.
Aucun commentaire: