DNA test helps father and daughter unite after 64 years from thousands of miles away

NEW BERN, N.C. (WTVD) -- 'Never give up' is the message one North Carolina family is sharing after a DNA kit united a father and daughter 64 years later and a continent apart.

New Bern resident David Jones told ABC11 affiliate WCTI he never knew he had a daughter. He said he raised two sons and recently learned about Jennette, who lives in Germany.

"I was really surprised," said Jones.

He was stationed in Germany as a medical paratrooper during the late 1950s and said he spent the night with a woman in the Frankfurt area, and that was that. Unknown to him, that encounter, produced a child-- his daughter Jennette.

Jennette started looking for her family in 2018 and took an ancestry DNA test. Through the help of a cousin, David and Jennette were connected over 60 years later.

"It took a little bit to see, is it really real? You know, you don't want to get hurt. If maybe something's wrong and you're happy, but something's not right," said Jennette Lopez-Jones.

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After fully confirming Jones was her father in January, she booked a plane ticket from Germany to North Carolina as soon as she could make the trip.

"She told her mother when she was really small that one day she was going to find her biological father. (yea, my whole life) and it finally come true for her," Jones said.

Not only did Jennette get a father, but she now has a brother and a whole family she never knew about.

"Don't ever give up on anything because it can happen. This is real, this is a reality here, that we finally got together really," said Jones.