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Kennesaw man reunites with family
DNA kit reunites man with his biological family
KENNESAW, Ga - An emotional night for a Kennesaw man. After a half-century of never even knowing he had half-siblings, they all met for the first time Friday night.
Bryant Elliott always knew he was adopted. His birth mother, just 16 years old, left him at a Children's Home in Florida when he was 1 day old. Bryant was adopted by a couple in Alabama 6 weeks later. After Bryant had his own son, he decided to try to find his birth parents.
"I hired a Private Investigator in 1992 and he was able to find her. She agreed to talk to me, and I went to Florida to meet her," said Bryant.
Her name was Patricia. She said Elliott's biological father never even knew she was pregnant. Over the years she had lost track of him. When Patricia died in 2002, Elliott gave up all hope of ever finding his biological father.
That is until he took a DNA test. A woman in New Orleans took the same test. The few details they had lined up and Bryant soon learned he had family, a half brother and half-sister, in New Orleans. Bryant invited them to Kennesaw and they met for the first time.
Amanda McDonald and Joe Philips say they never knew about Bryant, and their dad, Allen, never knew either.
"The story he told mom was that he lived in Florida and he met a woman and fell in love and she broke his heart, that when he moved back home to Louisiana and met my mom," said Amanda.
The siblings said meeting each other is surreal, and they admitted to being a little nervous. But within minutes the photo albums came out and they were telling family stories.
"I suddenly turned into the middle child, I was always the oldest!" said Joe Phillips.
The siblings' father died a few years ago without ever knowing about Bryant. Amanda says there are so many similarities between Bryant and their father, she can't wait to fill him in on what he was like.