A DNA Notification That Rewrote a Friendship
Two women in the Netherlands have learned that a friendship they formed as teenagers was actually a family bond: they are biological sisters. Minal Tijssen, the older of the two, was alone at home when a MyHeritage notification announced that her DNA results were ready. The match was labelled “Meena — sister,” and she did not immediately realise that the result referred to the same Meena she already knew.
Both women were left at orphanages in India as infants and were adopted by separate families in the Netherlands. In 1996, as teenagers living about 130 kilometres apart, they met at a gathering for adopted children. Friends noticed a strong resemblance, and the two began exchanging letters and half-jokingly called each other “sis.” They eventually lost contact for roughly 15 years.
The connection returned only after each woman independently used a MyHeritage DNA test to look for biological relatives. The service identified Geltink as Tijssen’s sister, and the two had an emotional reunion in the Netherlands on 11 August 2026. Since then, they have spoken or messaged for hours every day. Tijssen said the discovery finally eased a long-held feeling of loneliness; Geltink described being with her sister as feeling “like home.”
How Two Separate DNA Searches Confirmed a Family Link
How Two Separate DNA Searches Confirmed a Family Link
The match surfaced because both women had already submitted DNA to MyHeritage. When Tijssen’s results became available, the platform’s database compared her sample with other users and identified Geltink as a close relative. Neither woman needed to search for the other by name; the biological relationship emerged from the genetic comparison itself.
Their earlier meeting in 1996 mattered because it had already planted the idea of a sisterly bond. Friends commented on the resemblance, and the two wrote to each other half-jokingly as “sis.” Without genetic testing at the time, that connection remained a personal feeling rather than a fact. The DNA result turned a long-standing curiosity into a confirmed family relationship.
For adoptees who grew up without known biological siblings, a result like this can resolve questions about identity and belonging. Tijssen described the discovery as completing a missing piece; Geltink said seeing her sister felt “like home.” The emotional significance in this case is the shift from unexplained resemblance to verified kinship.
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