Found my father, finally, and 7 siblings!

By Missy Dunlap, on July 25th, 2020

Kenneth Everett Paul Nelson 1927-2007

I grew up telling people that my father died in the Korean War (1950-1953) I was born in 1952. I imagine now that it was my maternal grandmother telling me that. Later in life, when I asked my mother about him, she said “he looked and sang like Vic Damone.” Eventually, I learned that he had not died, but she had no other information beyond what was on my birth certificate, that he came from New York, was a musician, and was 27 at my birth, same as my mother. Later, I would learn he was actually born in 1928 and was three years younger than my mother.

I have three half brothers, Larry, Joseph & Bruce. We each have different fathers. None of us look much alike, although the two youngest look more like our mother.

Larry Leighton, Missy, Joseph & Bruce Bishop and our mother, Esther Sarah (Hill) Bishop

I became a member of the LDS church in 1977, along with my first husband, and began my genealogy which ignited my search for my father. I tried phone books and letters, with SASies for easy replies, to men named the same as my father in the Colorado Springs area where my mother met him. That did not net me any results or leads.

Unbeknownst to me, he had returned to the east coast, Pennsylvania and his wife and children had relocated to California where they joined the LDS church and she raised them as a single parent, never remarrying. My father remarried and I have another sister in Ohio.

In 2018 I did the DNA with Heritage.com and got some results. I contacted everyone who was not obviously on my mother’s side, because it is already well documented. I got one result that was promising but appeared to be a dead end.

Bless her heart, when I was telling Bill about my father, Kami was excitedly telling him he had another sister.

Two years later, I rejoined Ancestry.com and, using the information I had from my Heritage results put the name of one individual, Robert, into Facebook and found someone with the same name but different middle initial. I messaged him and It turned out that the name I was looking for is his father. After thinking I had hit another dead end, and submitting my DNA to Ancestry, he told me to call someone in his results with my father’s last name, Nelson, William Nelson.

I put the call off for a few weeks but with his encouragement, I finally called and Bill was very welcoming and felt by the end of the call, comparing what few details I had, that we could be siblings. He wanted me to get on Zoom with him right then but I begged off, wanting a shower.

The next day I was on Zoom with him, his spouse, my siblings, all except one who would join in a following session, and their spouses. We met for weeks while I waited for my official DNA results which returned showing that the two siblings who had submitted their DNA to Ancestry were closer to me than my grandson, the only other close family member to have also done so.

So, here I am 68 years old and have now seen photos of my father, who I resemble more than my mother, and met six of my seven siblings online through Zoom. My brother, Steve, who was only a few months apart in age, passed at two years from meningitis.

Two sisters and a brother, with their spouses, visited just this past week for two days. It was wonderful! We had a great time with karaoke and pictionary, shooting and thrift store shopping, as well as sing alongs around the piano as their mother and our dad did when they were young.

Indeed, my father was a singer and my siblings mother was a Juliard trained concert pianist.

My father passed in 2007 and their mother in June right after I found them. I did not get to meet either of them but they left me with a wonderful bunch of brothers and sisters to call my own.

Update: a year later, in 2021 ALL my siblings came to our home for a Nelson Reunion. We had a wonderful time.

2021 Left to right: Jann, Barbie, Diane, Jenni, Ed, Missy, and Bill

2021 Back Row: Jann & Warren, Bill, Ted, Leon, Ed & Monte. Front Row: Sara (my daughter) Kami, Missy, Barbie, Joann & Diane. Front & center: Clifford (honorary son) & Bosco