I took a DNA test — and met my long-lost brother at 27

Weird But True

By Brooke Kato

May 20, 2023 | 2:12pm

Talk about brotherly love.

A British man finally met his long-lost brother this month, thanks to an ancestry site.

Rhys Williams, 27, was just 9 when his mom passed away. It wasn’t until his cousins revealed that the man raising him was not his biological father that Williams decided to dig into his family tree — without any luck.

Williams finally ran a DNA test in January 2022, publishing his results on MyHeritage.com. While his birth father had passed away six years earlier, a match came up for a sibling: Chris Jones, 53.

Williams connected with Jones for the first time on Zoom via an aunt.

He said it was “crazy” to meet his long-lost brother in May after learning the heartbreaking news that their father is dead.

After laying eyes on Jones, who is more than 20 years his senior, Williams knows he “will have a very good hairline” as he ages.

“This is someone who is flesh and blood — who looks like me,” Williams told SWNS.

“It feels like another piece of the puzzle is filled in,” added the university lecturer from Staffordshire, England. “The puzzle started as big question mark, but it is getting filled in now.”

Virtual hangouts weren’t enough for Jones. He drove more than two hours from Oxfordshire for a surprise meeting, with Williams under the impression a videographer was visiting to hear his unique story.

“I drove up there and had to send the cameraman a secret message to tell him I was there,” Jones explained. “I sent him a text saying, ‘I am delivering your camera batteries,’ and then he came to the door, and I went in the house to surprise Rhys.”

Williams had “no idea,” embracing his older brother when Jones appeared in his living room.

“It was a lovely moment,” said Jones, adding that the pair “get on really well.”

Jones, who works as a global logistics buyer, grew up as an only child, but knew he was adopted.

While he had a “good upbringing,” he wished this meeting happened earlier.

“It is nice. It is lovely how it has all happened now,” Jones said. “I have never had a younger brother. It is a different experience.”

The brothers share a number of physical traits, but even “things that aren’t genetic,” such as certain interests, are eerily similar, Williams said.

Oddly enough, their birth father and Jones suffered a similar rare eye injury.

“We both like the same color. We both love cats. We both decide to make impulse purchases,” he explained. “Things like that. Things you don’t even realize but, obviously, there is a lot of genetics.”

After their celebratory meeting, they are planning to see each other again in June.

“It feels like this is the time it was meant to be, and now it has happened,” Williams gushed.