Sisters united after six decades following MyHeritage DNA test results

Imagine meeting your sister for the first time – six decades after she was born. This was the “surreal” experience of two women brought together in Adelaide by DNA test results.

Imagine meeting your sister for the first time – six decades after she was born.

This was the “surreal” experience of Gawler grandmother Julie Mamo when she laid eyes, and hands, on her sister, Julie Ansell, at Adelaide airport.

Ms Mamo was put up for adoption at just nine days old and named by her adoptive parents.

When biological mother Lillian gave birth to a second girl, two and a half years later, she decided to give the baby the same name.

“The word that we keep using is surreal, because it is,” said Ms Mamo, 66.

“It’s just magic.

“This time last year, we’d have never, ever even dreamt of meeting.”

Separated by 16,000km for most of their lives, the Julies were brought together by the results of MyHeritage DNA tests done separately by Ms Ansell’s nephew and Ms Mamo’s daughter.

Sisters Julie Mamo and Julie Ansell were brought together in their 60s after MyHeritage DNA test results found a connection between their families. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The families connected first through Facebook and then the Julies began to exchange text messages and video calls.

Less than a year later, they were meeting “in the flesh” for the first time.

“I’d had 20 hours to get used to the idea that I’m flying to Australia to meet my sister,” Ms Ansell, 64, said.

“I was walking up the ramp and saw her. It was very, very emotional. I couldn’t stop crying.

“It was like a couple of koala bears (hugging). It’s been lovely ever since.”

Their mother, Lillian, was just 17 and unmarried when she gave birth to her first daughter, Ms Mamo, in Dover, England in 1956.

It is believed Ms Mamo’s father was a soldier.

She was adopted by Mavis and David Holland and lived fairly close to her birth mother until the age of 12, when the Holland family migrated to Australia.

It was around this age that Ms Mamo was told she had a younger sister.

Ms Ansell was also aged 12 when she learned of her sibling.

After giving her firstborn up for adoption, their mother, Lillian, fell pregnant to an American air force soldier in 1958.

Then she met Edward Fisher, who “fell madly in love with her, even though my mum was carrying me”, Ms Ansell said.

The pair married and had three sons.

Julie Mamo as a young child with her adoptive family in the UK. Picture: MyHeritage.com

Fast forward to Christmas 2021 and, on the other side of the world, Ms Mamo’s daughter, Louise, purchased a MyHeritage DNA test for herself and her mother.

Eight months later, in the UK, Ms Ansell’s nephew, Jason, received the results of a MyHeritage test and found a 14 per cent DNA match with a woman in Australia.

He asked his aunty Julie if she knew who the connection might be, and at first she drew a blank.

“Then I had a light bulb moment,” Ms Ansell said, and confided in Jason that she had a sister out there somewhere.

“He’s come back 10 minutes later and said ‘I’ve found her, she’s in Australia’.

“It’s absolutely mind-blowing. I would have known nothing about it unless Jason had done this DNA test, and she (Ms Mamo) would have known nothing about me until her daughter (Louise) did that.”

Jason and Louise connected through a Facebook group and when Ms Ansell was shown the first photo of her sister, she knew: “The minute I saw her, she’s the spitting image of our mum.”

Sadly, Lillian died in 2019 before she could see her firstborn again.

Julie Mamo, right, and birth mother Lillian Fisher, right. Picture: MyHeritage.com

After meeting her sister, Ms Ansell said she found herself “looking at bits of her, like her toes, and then looking at my toes” to find similarities. And there are many.

As well as their name, the sisters both found out the other existed at the age of 12.

They say they were both “tomboys” growing up and both enjoy wood working as a hobby. They are both divorced, with three adult children.

Their favourite colour is black and “we dress the same, too”, said Ms Mamo, who is a grandmother of six.

“We’re sitting with family and everyone’s going ‘Oh look their noses are the same’. There’s so many similarities in things.”

However, the pair don’t believe they share the same father.

And while Ms Mamo is tall, her sister is not – something she noticed on first meeting.

“She was one of the very last people to come out (of the plane). I hugged and hugged … I didn’t cry though. I remember thinking ‘Oh, she’s not tall like me’,” she said.

“We’re a unit … like salt and pepper.”

Ms Ansell, a grandmother of four, said the pair had not had an uncomfortable moment since meeting.

“We’ve been bonding, our bond is getting stronger,” she said.

“It feels complete. She’s my sister. I couldn’t imagine life without her now.”