8 Long-Lost Family Stories You Won’t Believe

5. A Hawaiian Coincidence

Rick Hill went on holiday in April of 2011 with his partner, Maureen and their three children to Hawaii. Originally from Massachusetts, the family were exploring the islands and decided to take a last minute trip to Waikiki Beach on the 25th of April. There was another man on the beach that day, Joe Parker, who had also ended up there at the last minute on a work engagement.

When Parker saw Maureen trying to capture a family snapshot, he offered to take the photograph. However, instead of asking them to say cheese, he told them to say “Leominster” which is the town directly next to Hill’s hometown. Parker told Hill that he was from Leominster, but had moved to Hawaii. The two men, amazed by the coincidence, began name dropping to see if they had mutual connections.

One name in particular drew Hill’s attention: Dickie Halligan. Hill knew him because he was his father. Incredibly, he was Parker’s father, too and the men were actually half-brothers! Parker had been raised in foster care, believing for most of his life that Halligan was his uncle. Hill was raised by his mother and step-father and had met his father, but many years ago. All of that because they both decided to go on a trip to the beach!

6. The Delivery Man & The Cashier

In October of 1985, a woman named Christine Tallady gave birth to a son. She was a single mum, and didn’t believe she could handle keeping the child, so she adopted him out to a loving family who named him Steve Flaig. Years later, she married and had two other children, but her firstborn always stuck in her mind.

The boy, Steve Flaig, started looking for his birth mother the moment he turned 18 in 2003, but for years, he had no luck. When he was 20, he got a job as a delivery driver at Lowe’s in Grand Rapids, Michigan and eventually gave up, thinking he would never find her.

Then in 2007, he realised that he had in fact been spelling his mother’s name wrong the entire time, which is why he hadn’t been able to find her. When he searched the correct spelling, he found that his birth mother lived very close to him, and even closer to Lowe’s where he worked. On a gamble, he asked his boss if he knew a woman named Christine Tallady. His boss certainly did, she was the head cashier at the store, hired just a few months before!

It took Steve almost two months to approach her, with the help of his adoption agency, but Christine was overjoyed to meet him. Their story made national headlines, and they even appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

7. A Happy Ending At Last

On the 28th of April 1997 in Cape Town, a baby girl was born to Celeste and Morne Nurse. They named her Zephany. Tragically, an unknown woman kidnapped Zephany from the hospital just two days later, on the 30th of April, while Celeste was sleeping. The family were devastated, and searched for the girl for many years, hoping against hope that they might one day meet her again, but imagining that she was probably long dead. The Nurse family went on to have three other children, but eventually, the strain of never knowing what happened to Zephany tore them apart.

Then in 2015, Cassidy Nurse, Zephany’s younger sister, started the 8th grade at a local high school. Unbelievably, Zephany was a senior at the same school, enrolled with a different name. Children were quick to realise how strangely similar the two girls looked, and commented on it. Cassidy went home and told her father about the 17-year-old who looked remarkably similar to her, and he connected the dots.

Morne met Zephany with Cassidy and chatted with her about her life. He was convinced she was his daughter. So he contacted the police and had a DNA test done that proved Zephany really was his daughter. The woman who raised Zephany was arrested, but her identity remains a secret. And the Nurse family have a lifetime of catching up to do.

8. The Twinsters

In February of 2013, Sam Futerman, a 25-year-old actress adoptee from Busan in South Korea, received a Facebook message from a stranger named Anais Bordier. A friend of Bordier’s had noticed the uncanny resemblance that Futerman bore to Bordier in a YouTube video, and sent her the details saying that she looked like Bordier’s doppelgänger. When Bordier read more about Futerman, she realised that they were both adopted from the same place, and had the same birthday. So she messaged her.

Futerman was just as shocked as Bordier by the similarities in their adoption stories and their appearance, and the girls struck up a friendship on video chat and eventually met. It was amazing how many things they had in common. When they met, they were wearing the same nail polish, they laugh in exactly the same way, both bite their nails and both can’t stand the taste of cooked carrots. Yet they had grown up on opposite sides of the world.

Their story got so much media attention that the girls decided to film a documentary about their experience. Apart of the documentary included a DNA test, where it was confirmed that the two really were identical twins. They have also since written a book.

Have you ever heard a story as crazy as this?