Ontario resident Carlie McMaster says she submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com in 2019 to discover more about her father’s side of the family after he died.
The 28-year-old Brantford, Ont., resident said she just wanted to know her family’s health history when she made the life-changing discovery.
The website matched her genetic information with a Minnesota woman named Rylee Hall, and they started chatting about how they might be related.
“I didn’t really talk too much when Rylee first reached out because I didn’t know. I just questioned everything … It was a shock thing,” McMaster told CTV News Toronto on Monday.
“I think it was four months later that I finally reached out again on Instagram and said maybe we’ll try to investigate and find out.”
By this time, she said, she and Hall were talking frequently and discovering unique similarities: their mannerisms, the distinctive blue ring around their hazel eyes and their musical backgrounds.
Carlie McMaster, pictured in a childhood photo, says she discovered she was conceived through a sperm donation after submitting her DNA to Ancestry.com.
They eventually learned that the similarities were no coincidence, as McMaster and Hall shared a biological father and were both conceived through donated sperm.
“At first I was shocked. I think it was a lot of questioning my identity, but also being very excited to have that connection at the same time,” McMaster said.
“I had to process the fact that the father I grew up with was not my biological father, but also that I have this new connection.”
Hall said the sibling connection didn’t come as much of a shock to her because her mother had told her she had been conceived through a sperm donation a year before she took the test.
“I knew there was potential to meet brothers,” the 27-year-old American told CTV News Toronto on Monday. “So I wasn’t in shock when the news was confirmed.”
The brothers say they feel grateful to have met each other.
Rylee Hall, shown in this childhood photo, says she sees similarities between herself and her sister Carlie McMaster.
“For me, it’s just winning over somebody that I know is there for life. It’s such a strong bond that we share,” McMaster said.
Their story took another turn when they decided it was time to look for their ‘donor father’. Hall said she managed to find him on Facebook after connecting with other relatives on ancestry websites.
“He messaged me after I added him,” Hall said.
“Which was nice because it was kind of confirmation that he wants to talk. We’re not forcing him to, which was nice,” McMaster added.
The siblings said they now talk to their biological father, a Toronto resident, at least once a week.
“He’s very supportive of us already,” McMaster said. “He’s been, he’s been really great so far and he’s just a really sweet guy.”
They said that in the early 1990s, her biological father was donating to Canadian Blood Services, where he was a regular platelet donor, when he noticed an ad asking people to help families who cannot have children .
“On the papers my parents received, there was a question, ‘would you be open to meeting any offspring,’ and he checked ‘yes,'” Hall said.
Rylee Hall says she visited Carlie McMaster in Brantford, Ont. and tried Tim Hortons for the first time.
Hall said he plans to visit Ontario a second time in late August. The sisters say they will also meet their biological father in person for the first time.
The sisters say they have discovered there are three other brothers they know. The other siblings, they said, are all female and were born in the mid-1990s in Canada.
Both Hall and McMaster said that while they’re excited to meet new siblings, they’re very careful how they approach potential siblings because they don’t want to give the information away too early.
“It depends on the other person and if they’re open to having siblings because some people probably don’t want to deal with it at all,” Hall said.
The sisters will launch a new podcast on Monday called “Our Father is a Giver.” The podcast will delve into their experiences and discuss the stories of others who conceived through sperm donation and discovered the truth later in life.