Wisconsin woman finds half-sister through DNA kit

MARINETTE, Wis. — Thanks to a DNA kit, a Wisconsin woman has connected with a half-sister she never knew existed.

Jill Boulanger Heidtman, of Marinette, did not even know she had a half-sister until she used a DNA kit from 23andMe, a genomics and biotechnology company, WBAY-TV reported. She was adopted at a young age, but was able to track down her half-sister, Jamie Lang, through medical records she unlocked through 23andMe.

Lang, of Anchorage, Alaska, sent in her kit almost simultaneously, the television station reported.

A Marinette woman discovered she had a half-sister thanks to a home DNA kit https://t.co/waWZSTr4bv
— WBAY-TV 2 (@WBAY) November 5, 2021

“Right after Christmas I bought mine, because I asked for one for Christmas and I didn’t get one,” Heidtman told WBAY. “It was literally five to six weeks after I bought it and sent it in that we connected.”

Lang said she bought the DNA kit on an impulse.

“I had bought 23andMe myself on a Black Friday sale, just like on a whim, I had never even wanted to do it,” Lang told the television station. “And I had mine sent in like right, I think I sent it in the day after Christmas.”

Heidtman, 51, quickly found out she had not one half-sister, but two others.

“The strangest thing I was thinking of was I grew up my whole life in Green Bay and they grew up originally in New London,” Heidtman told WBAY. “And we were so close to each other but we never ran into each other.”

Heidtman graduated from East High School in Green Bay, according to online yearbook records.

In August, Heidtman flew to Alaska to meet Lang and her family, including her other half-sisters and her birth mother.

“It was fantastic, it was a great meeting, I was so excited to meet everybody,” Heidtman told WBAY.

In less than a year, the two sisters and their families have become very close.

“We have a group text that all of us are in that we chat usually every day. We’re definitely all alike, it’s really weird,” Lang told the television station. “Even without growing up together, there’s just something in the genetics.”

“We didn’t have to go through puberty together,” Heidtman said. “Now we get to go through menopause together.”