On one Friday evening, Terry Walsh sat down to eat dinner with his daughter and her family at Joe’s Place in Herrin, Illinois. By the end of the dinner, the group learned something that would change their lives thanks to Ancestry.com.

Walsh’s father, Charles left the family when Terry was just three months old. Besides a newspaper article stating that the car his father left in was abandoned in New Jersey, the whereabouts of Charles Walsh were unknown. To be quite honest, Terry was completely okay with not knowing what happened to him. However, Walsh’s daughter, Christy Johnson had tried looking for her grandfather over the years.

Flash forward to that Friday evening at dinner. Matt Johnson, Walsh’s son-in-law, is an ancestry fanatic. He had investigated all sides of the Johnson-Walsh family tree for years. As a Christmas gift,  Matt had asked Terry to do the Ancestry DNA test to discover more about the Walsh side of the family tree. The unknown whereabouts of Walsh’s father had made it difficult to find much.

As the family ate dinner, Johnson was explaining what ‘matches’ had been found since the results had come back two weeks prior. As he was looking at the app on his phone and explaining, a new notification had popped up since the last time he had logged in. More results were in, and there was a “close” match in the Ancestry database.

In the description, it explains that “close” means that the match is closer than a first cousin, possibly a niece/nephew or half-sibling. After talking a little bit about what the notification could mean for the Walsh side of the family, Christy joked, “Who knows? Maybe you have eight or nine brothers and sisters Dad!”

That night, Matt went home and messaged the  “close” match. Her name was Lori Tepedino. Walsh would soon find out that this was his half-sister, and this was only the beginning of a big discovery. After communicating back and forth, Walsh would learn that he had 11 half-brothers and sisters. Seven of them are still living.  

When Walsh took the DNA test he had no idea that it could lead to anything like this.

“I thought it was a joke,” Walsh said. “I couldn’t believe it. I just thought it’d say I was kin to this or that person, but not ever anything like this.”

Once summer hit, the group from that night at Joe’s Place embarked on a trip to Saint James, New York to meet two of his newfound siblings and other family members.

The 16-hour drive from Marion, Illinois led to a surprise hug between Walsh and Tepedino at the Tepedino household and so much more over the weekend in New York. The group would go on to meet Walsh’s other half-sister Valerie Serpa, as well as multiple other family members.

Despite all of the new greetings, the hugs and stories shared between the family during the weekend made it feel as though they’d known each other their whole lives.

“It felt so natural,” Tepedino said. It felt like this is where we should all be, as a family together. What the trip itself meant to me is hard to put into words. There was so much love and the innate feeling of being with family, was love that could not be denied. It was life changing.”

For Walsh and Tepedino, they can now say they’ve completed a hole in their hearts. They may not have found out much about their father, but they’ve found something extremely valuable. A loving bond between family members for years to come.

“I don’t need any more information on my father and can put this to rest with ease now,” Tepedino said. “There was so much healing connected with this. The finding of my family has completed the story, and with such a happy ending for a new beginning.”

For Walsh, this trip was never about his father. For him, it was the 60 years of not knowing anything about possible family members and coming full circle.

“It put some closure on some things,” Walsh said. “For me it wasn’t about my dad. It was always about family. I missed out on being a brother to my sisters.”

The families have already begun their plans for future trips. Including to meet some of Walsh’s other sisters and family in Georgia, as well as another trip to New York, and the clan from Saint James making their way to Marion, Illinois.

For a new brother and a new uncle “Ta-Ta,” Walsh is excited for the future ahead, and is happier beyond words for being able to add to his family.

I already had a great family here,” Walsh said. “They just add to what I already have here. I just wish I’d had it sooner.”