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Genetic testing allows woman to celebrate Father’s Day

By Kimberly Cauvel, Skagit Valley Herald
Published: June 16, 2019, 10:31pm

ANACORTES — After years wondering about her heritage, Anacortes resident Megan Wylie ordered two DNA testing kits, spit into two tubes and mailed them off with the hopes of learning more about herself and her family.

At first, the results told her how prominent German and Irish are in her ethnicity, as well as what conditions were like when her ancestors arrived at Ellis Island.

Then, in late 2018, the results connected her to a man she had spent years looking for — her father.

Wylie said she felt a rush of emotions when she found Mark Mathieson.

“Exciting, interesting, anticipation,” she said of when her father’s previously private results on 23andMe — a DNA testing company — made the connection.

Mathieson said he was at first in a daze after learning he had a fourth daughter, about a year older than the one he always believed was his first.

“I was on the dumbfounded side. I was shocked; I had no idea,” he said. “It was 40 years (ago), and I had no idea I had another child out there.”

Now, Wylie has reason to celebrate Father’s Day, as well as new family to join for holidays and events such as her daughter’s baseball games.

“It’s been a long time that it took me to get to this point,” Wylie said. “It’s been an interesting journey, to say the least.”

That journey began with a child’s question of “Who’s my dad?” and grew over time into a personal research project.

“I asked the first time around 6 or 7 — I remember we were at the grocery store,” Wylie said. “Then I thought about it in my teens, and when I got married … I looked again and again.”

She not only asked her mother, but other family members, as well. She also called those in the phone book or on the internet who had the name of the man her family incorrectly suspected was her father.

“The curiosity has always been a part of my life,” Wylie said. “I would ask from time to time.”

Over the years, Wylie hit many dead ends using the phone and the internet to look for her father.

“Then came DNA,” she said. “You just spit in the tube and send it off … then you get back the results.”

Finding a connection such as the one between Wylie and Mathieson, of Enumclaw, requires the person being sought or someone closely related to them to have used the same DNA testing service.

That’s why it took Wylie several years after receiving her own results to learn of the connection with Mathieson, who had submitted a 23andMe kit but had his results set as private.

MIT Technology Review estimates that at the start of 2019, 26 million consumers had taken part in DNA testing services.

“We hear every week of people finding a biological parent or sibling using 23andMe, but these stories remain special because they only represent a small percentage of all the stories we hear from our customers,” 23andMe representative Scott Hadley said.

Wylie is happy to finally have the question that lingered throughout her life answered and to have cause to celebrate Father’s Day.

“This is my first Father’s Day actually having a father,” Wylie said. “It’s been really fun getting to know him.”

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