Friends Discovered They were Biological Sisters Through a DNA Test

• Julia Tinetti met Cassandra Madison as coworkers in 2013, and they quickly became close friends.
• Both were adopted from Dominican Republic. They joked about being sisters.
• They took a DNA test after discovering an error in paperwork. This confirmed their relationship.

Julia Tinetti awoke in January to a text from Cassandra Madison, a close friend. “Did the results come in yet?”

Tinetti had made this morning text a part of her daily routine for the past few weeks. Taken a DNA testFind out more about her heritage.

Tinetti, as usual, took a moment to get up and check her computer. However, this time the results were in. Tinetti was so shocked when Tinetti clicked the link that she shut down her computer.

She answered the phone. Madison, who is a surgical assistant took the call from surgery.

“Are you sitting down?” Tinetti asked her. “We’re sisters.”

A number of coincidences

Tinetti and Madison were both adopted from Dominican Republic when they were young children. They were raised in Connecticut by their parents, who live about 20 minutes apart. They did not meet until 2013, when Madison replied to Tinetti’s Facebook post seeking servers for a New Haven bar.

Tinetti noticed Madison’s tattoo of the Dominican flag as she walked by and commented. Madison shared that she had been adopted from Dominican Republic, but Tinetti wasn’t impressed.

They began to notice similarities soon. Both share a fiery personality and a love to tattoos. Tinetti even had one of the Dominican flags. Customers and colleagues began to notice their physical similarities.

At first it was a joke — but something nagged at the women. They decided to compare their birth certificates, which listed different places of birth and biological family members.

Tinetti knew of a friend who had also been adopted from Dominican Republic. Tinetti’s adoption paperwork was found to have been exchanged by her friend as she researched her family history. Both had been adopted the same day so it was possible. The information on the friend’s adoption paperwork — which Tinetti now believed was hers — matched the info for Madison’s biological family.

Family lost and found

Madison was reunited with Tinetti after her meeting. She kept in touch her father, and found out that her mother had died four-years earlier. She met her older brother as well six younger siblings.

When she saw her friend’s adoption information she called her biological father to see if he had ever placed another child for adoption. He revealed that he had a second baby girl just one year after Madison was born. He explained that he hadn’t spoken of it because he was grateful for Madison’s connection and didn’t want his luck to change.

Madison was then able to see the truth.

A super-duper extended family

Madison and Tinetti were always close. However, when they learned that they were biological sisters, it strengthened their bond.

“Family is a relative term. It can be anybody. You don’t have to be blood,”Madison stated. “Now we have this super-duper extended family.”

Madison is already in touch with Tinetti’s family and can speak some Spanish.

The entire family — including Madison’s infant daughter, Catalina — is planning a trip to the Dominican Republic in the spring. This will be the first time that the father of both the girls who were adopted would be reunited with his daughter.

Intuition: Learning to Follow Your Instinct

Both women said that they’d learned to listen to their intuition — but that even so, it’s sometimes hard to process the series of coincidences that led them to realize they’re sisters.

Although their story is amazing, they warn anyone considering DNA testing to be ready for any outcome. This is why it took so long for them to get their test done. Tinetti was careful about her past and Madison didn’t want to push Madison.

“I didn’t want to dig up something for someone who didn’t want to know,”Madison stated.