DNA test reunites abandoned baby with family

More than 40 years after being abandoned as a baby and placed for adoption, Tamara Ebanks finally met the woman who gave birth to her, Angela Housen Mattis.

But she still does not know who is her father. Raised in the Cayman Islands by a couple who adopted her in Jamaica at age three, Ebanks has always yearned to know her blood relatives.

"From I was small, I tried to find my real family, but never got anywhere," she told THE WEEKEND STAR. "The little information I had -- where I was born, what my name was -- it wasn't enough."

In early 2023, she decided to try a DNA ancestry kit through the US-based company 23andMe. All that was required was for her to send in a saliva sample and wait for genetic matches.

When her results came back two months later, Ebanks' world shifted. The report showed that she shared about 11 to 12 per cent of her DNA with a woman she had never met -- a genetic marker suggesting they could be close relatives. That woman turned out to be her niece and the daughter of her eldest sister, Raquel Hayden Fogo, who at the time had children living in Canada.

"I told her (the niece) I was adopted and didn't know my biological mother," Ebanks said. "At first, she was polite but quiet. Then one day she said, 'You know, my mom once mentioned something about an abandoned child.' I froze. I didn't even know what to say."

That revelation set off a chain of emotional discoveries. Ebanks eventually got to speak to Hayden Fogo. But the conversation only deepened the mystery.

"Nothing she said was lining up -- where I was born, the year, the details -- everything was off," Ebanks remembered.

Then came an unexpected breakthrough. Two years ago during a visit to Kingston, Hayden Fogo unexpectedly ran into her younger sister, Natesha Burrell, who had been searching for a missing sibling since 1998. Hayden Fogo showed Ebanks' photo to Burrell.

"[She] looked at it and said, 'Wait, she looks just like me!'" Ebanks recalled. Soon after, Burrell called Ebanks directly.

"Wen we finally spoke, she was like, 'Oh my God, you look exactly like us.' When I saw her picture too, I knew, that had to be my sister," Ebanks said. "Then a relative in the States messaged me and said, 'I used to help take care of you when you were a baby. Without a shadow of doubt, I know it's you.'"

Two weeks later, Ebanks flew to Jamaica. A maternity test conducted at DNA testing company, Polygenics Consulting, in Kingston, confirmed that she was indeed Mattis' daughter. She learnt that she was the sixth of Mattis' children. But joy quickly gave way to silence.

"After the test, she just shut down," Ebanks said. "She told me my father took me away and that police told her since she had so many children, she might as well let him take one."

Others in the family dispute that version. "They said she used to treat me bad," Ebanks said. "I don't remember it -- I was a baby -- but that's what I was told."

But relying on what she said are official records, Ebanks said she was taken to the Bustamante Hospital for Children as a sick infant.

"After that, they said she left early one morning and was never seen again," she said. "They even put out a notice in The Gleaner to find her but got no reply. That's how I ended up in a home and was adopted."

Ebanks lived in state care for three years before being adopted by an elderly Caymanian couple who she described as "loving and kind." Her adoptive mother passed away when she was 14, and her father lived to 91.

Now, Ebanks wants to find her father who she believes is Ruben McKinnis. Her birth certificate notes that she was born in Sandy Bay, Clarendon, in July 1983.

Burrell said she started searching for her long-lost sibling when she stumbled upon a strange birth certificate at home.

"When I opened it, I saw the name Tamara Jessica McKinnis. Same mother's name. Same year. I was three at the time. That's when I realised, my mother had another child we never knew about," she said.

Two decades later, the persistence to find the sibling finally paid off when a family DNA test exposed the truth.

"My big sister in Canada did 23andMe, and so did her daughter. That's how Tamara matched with us," Burrell explained. The sisters even took a DNA test to see if they shared the same father, but they do not.

Still she is determined to help Ebanks find her biological father.

"Who doesn't want to know where they come from?" she asked. "I found my father when I was eight, and he died two years ago. Losing him felt like losing half of myself. Tamara deserves that chance too," Burrell said.