A DNA testing service helped a Tennessee woman meet her biological dad for the first time in 53 years, just in time to celebrate Father’s Day.
Deb Scales, 53, told KFSN that she was using AncestryDNA to learn about her family's background when she learned her father who recently has passed away wasn't her biological dad.
The service revealed Tim Herrick of California is her birth dad.
Scales says a common match on Ancestry’s website helped solve the puzzle less than two months ago.
"Six weeks ago, my sister called me and said that this young lady from Tennessee said that she was family. Well, I said, 'How is she family?' And my sister said her and Deb are 25%," said Herrick.
"I found out that I had a 25% match of somebody I didn't know. And then that drew her another match of 15% and then under that, another match for 16%, and I was wondering who these people were," said Scales.
Herrick told KFSN that he doesn’t recall much about the year Scales was born other than that he was a bachelor at the time. Now though, he’s married to his wife of 51 years and has three kids, a stepson, seven children, and four great-grandchildren, KFSN reports.
His already large family is now adding one more member. Herrick says Scales will be a great addition.
The pair told KFSN that they quickly realized they have many similar traits and mannerisms, like how they eat and their sense of humor.
To celebrate the newfound family members, relatives from five different states plan to get together this Father’s Day weekend, KFSN reports.
CNN contributed to this report.
