23andMe leads to more family for Florence woman

We’ve all seen the advertisements on television for 23andMe, a DNA testing kit that can tell you who your ancestors are. For people interested in their genealogy, this is a fun way to find out more about your family. But for one woman in Florence, this was a way to find her family. 

Caireny Jensen grew up never knowing her father. Her mother, Beverly Abbe, was born and raised in Virginia City, MT. After graduation from high school, Abbe moved to Seattle where she became the first woman to graduate from the fire academy there. She went to work at SEATAC and had a very successful career. 

But Abbe was missing something from her life. It was 1982, and she wanted a child. She found a fertility doctor – there were no sperm banks then – and after several consultations, she was artificially inseminated, and then gave birth to Caireny. A few years later, Abbe adopted a girl from India, and that made their family complete.

Abbe was always open with Caireny about how she came to be. “But it always bothered me that I didn’t know my heritage. I wanted to know the other half.”

Caireny grew up in Seattle but she and her family came back to Virginia City and Montana to visit quite often. In 2007, she moved back to Montana and eventually settled in Florence. She said Virginia City was too small and she wanted to be closer to a larger city. Although not working now, she is normally an independent hair stylist at Canvas Studios in Missoula. 

Caireny had recently given birth to a son. It was a premature birth and the child has several non-genetic issues. Her mother now lives with her to help with the child.

Caireny wanted to know more family history to fill in the blanks of her heritage. This past Christmas, 23andMe had a sale and Caireny decided to give it a shot but really didn’t expect to find out anything. She mailed in the sample and then, a couple of weeks later, she received an email.

Caireny said there were tabs across the top of the email with different categories. She clicked on relatives first. To her ultimate surprise, she found out she had two sisters and a brother! She decided to reach out to them after the holidays. 

Caireny had always thought that perhaps her father was a doctor or that he was in the medical field. After contacting him in mid-January, she found out he has always been in social services. His name is Bill and he is married and the couple has a daughter who is an ER nurse. 

By now, Caireny had found not only her father but also three sisters and a brother. But it didn’t stop there. She found two more siblings, a brother and a sister who had gone through Ancestry.com to find out about their family history. Between Christmas and now, Cairney, who already had one sister, has found three half sisters, two half brothers, her father, and a step sister. 

The siblings and Bill have connected on Facebook and have been exchanging stories. She said that Bill, their father, wants to help fill in the blanks and give what family medical history he may have. He said that when he agreed to become a donor, he only donated once and was told there was a chance of none to up to six pregnancies. 

One more rather critical piece of the puzzle has also come to light for Cairney. Two of her aunts on her father’s side have had breast cancer. She said they were young and the cancer was very aggressive. So, she has already had a mammogram. 

“When I was reading about the history, it was really like a weird novel,” she said. “I was like, oh yeah, that’s about me.”

The new family has been keeping in touch with each other during the pandemic to make sure everyone is all right. Each sibling has a different story to tell regarding family. All originated in the University of Washington area but then spread out as they grew older. One sister didn’t find out until after her parents died that her dad was not her biological father. One lives in the Dominican Republic, one just returned from living in Prague, and Bill lives in Texas with his family.

Abbe, who lives with her daughter Caireny, said she is so thankful to Bill for her daughter. And Caireny said her father is brave for reaching out as well. “He’s been very kind, and an open book. And his wife has been so good too.”

The new family was originally planning to meet in Glacier National Park in July as it was within driving or train distance, and “it’s pretty.” With the pandemic, they are not sure they will be able to do this. They have scheduled a Zoom meeting for the first part of May and will make plans from then. 

“I just feel like a void has been filled, one that I didn’t know was there. It was that empty space. So exciting that I have family out there,” said Caireny.