A birthday gift led to the discovery of a lifetime when a MyHeritage DNA test revealed an 80-year family mystery, finding that a man in Quebec and a man in the Netherlands are long-lost brothers.
Frank McGrath, 78, of Longueuil, Que., and Frans Bannink, 80, of Almelo, Netherlands, met for the first time in April after a DNA test taken by Bannink’s granddaughter showed a family connection to Canada.
“My grandfather was hesitant to find out who his biological father was,” said Amber Hogervorst, who made the trip to Canada with her grandparents.
“When I saw the connection on the website, I immediately sent Frank a message and he responded some weeks later.”
The rest, she says, is history.
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“It was very emotional for me. I was very happy,” McGrath said. “Having been brought up an only child, to find out I had an older brother … and a brother who looks like our father.”
The two men share a father, Staff Sgt. Dermot McGrath, a Canadian soldier stationed in the Netherlands after its liberation during the Second World War. Dermot McGrath met Frank’s mother several years after Frans Bannink was born.
“He didn’t know. He never talked about it,” said McGrath. “He was married for 60 years to my mother and she passed away. That was his loyalty. If he had known … we all would have known.”
The brothers described their first in-person meeting in Amsterdam as immediate and natural.
“We landed in Amsterdam and rented a hotel near Frans’ home. We met every day for four days. We had some really good times,” McGrath said.
“He came downstairs at the hotel and I said, ‘There’s the guy.’ It was instant,” said Frans Bannink.
Both families were struck by strong physical resemblances, shared mannerisms, and striking coincidences, including the nearly identical names of the two brothers: Frans and Francis, who goes by Frank.
The reunion has laid the foundation for an ongoing relationship between the families.
“It was an instant connection between the two of them, and also us,” said McGrath’s wife, Johanne Tremblay McGrath.
“My newfound sister-in-law — same values, we are both huggers, and both criers,” she added.
Once separated by 5,000 kilometres, the two families now share an inexplicable closeness. Despite a deep sense of what might have been, both families are looking forward to the years ahead.
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