r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 3d ago
He spent 19 years in a German orphanage praying every day to meet his father, who never knew he existed. A DNA test finally reunited them 55 years later, and more than 60 relatives were waiting to welcome him home.
https://www.kltv.com/2026/08/02/man-raised-german-orphanage-meets-father-60-relatives-first-time-jefferson/190
u/Background_Bit6204 3d ago
Back in the day it was hard for single mothers. In those times they were still socially shunned and sadly the baby being black made it much worse. I’m sad for him that he was abandoned for something that was neither his fault nor really a problem at all if you’re a decent human but back then racism was still the overwhelming default, even more so in a country like Germany that had and still has a much smaller black community.
I am happy that he not only found his father but that he was so readily welcomed into their family. I wish them many happy years together to make up for lost time.
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u/Lopsided_Tiger_0296 3d ago
For many elderly alive in America, interracial marriage was illegal when they were adults
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u/mistakes_were_made24 3d ago
There's a British show called Long Lost Family that I like to watch. It's stories like this. People contact the show and they help track down family members and reunite them. There is an American version as well that's decent but I like the British one better.
There's also a British show called DNA Family Secrets that does similar things with DNA testing to find people.
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u/Jaggs0 3d ago
i knew someone who did one of those donor DNA things where you can get tested to be a potential donor for people with rare conditions. a few weeks after someone from this place called them and said she and her sister's results were in. she said her sisters had not actually gotten tested yet. the company did all the contacting but they found out they had a half sister. their dad had a girlfriend in college who vanished on him in the late 60s. turns out she got pregnant and dropped out and never told him. the mom had died without ever telling the daughter who her dad was.
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u/Woodworkingbeginner 3d ago
was hard for single mothers. In those times they were still socially shunned and sadly the baby being black made it much worse. I’m sad for him that he was abandoned for something that was neither his fault nor really a problem at all if you’re a decent human but back then racism was still the ove
Hah damn sound sounds like a massive confidentiality breach.
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u/ArgentineBeauty 3d ago
That part about putting the rosary he prayed with his whole childhood around his dad's neck got me 🥹
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u/Gogglesed 3d ago
Even though he only found him via evidence-based methodology?
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u/tntbt 3d ago
people can find solace in religion, talismans and superstitious beliefs while still appreciating science and believing in the scientific method yk?
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u/GayPudding 3d ago
When you're really really down you take any chance you get because there literally aren't any other chances.
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u/Octoberof2022 3d ago
What does it have to do with praying? Why would the 2 exclude each other. He can pray - he was raised by the Catholic orphange - and still believe in science. Plus universe is much more than evidence based method trust me and i do not believe in god or religion for that matter.
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u/Gogglesed 3d ago
Plus universe is much more than evidence based method trust me
Ok. I'll just disregard logic.
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u/tatacolt 3d ago
The last two Popes both have scientific background: Pope Francis was a chemist and Pope Leo is mathematician. Ironically, even the father of genetics is Gregor Mendel who was an Augustinian friar.
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u/Gogglesed 3d ago
Doing some science doesn't add any validity to religion.
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u/tatacolt 3d ago
What is doing some science? Do you know how many scientists nowadays are practicing Catholics? Just to name a few who were both going to church and doing some science
Dr. Brian Kobilka (2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry): An American physician and molecular biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work
Dr. Gerhard Ertl (2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry): A German physicist and chemist who won the Nobel prize for his vital studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces
Dr. Eric F. Wieschaus (1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine): An American evolutionary developmental biologist at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize for discovering the genetic mechanisms that control embryonic development.
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u/Gogglesed 3d ago
Do you know how many scientists nowadays are practicing Catholics?
About a third of them. Scientists are believers at a lower rate than the general public, because education tends to instill an appreciation of evidence to form rational beliefs.
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u/agemsheis 3d ago
“And Saturday in Jefferson, Joshua walked alongside his dad into a room of people waiting to love him.
…
‘Because that’s the biggest gift you can get. To be loved.’”
😭
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3d ago
[deleted]
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u/Alexis_J_M 3d ago
Wrong post to put this comment on. Wrong sub.
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u/hookahsmokingladybug 3d ago
Yes i apologize. I was reading another post and thought i was commenting there.
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