Facebook message leads man to long-lost Jewish family

It may sound like the plot of Netflix’s latest binge watch, but for Danny Edwards, finding out at the age of 48, that he had been adopted was a life-altering reality. In tracing his ancestry, not only did Edwards discover that his biological mother was Jewish and deceased, but also that he had brothers halfway across the world. 

When Edwards’ cousin, who had changed her surname after marrying, called Edwards “cuz” on Facebook, his aunt on the other side of the family made an assumption that would change his life. Mistakenly thinking Edwards had discovered a new biological cousin, his aunt sent him a private message and inadvertently revealed a long-held family secret. 

“I’m so glad to see that your family have finally told you after all these years that your mom and dad are not your mom and dad, that they’re your grandparents,” she wrote. “And that your oldest brother is actually your dad.” Edwards was shocked. 

He immediately revisited a moment 15 years prior, when an ex-girlfriend had suggested that his sister was his mother. While he’d considered the possibility at the time as he was much younger than his sister and two brothers, he’d dismissed it, and never questioned his parents. Now he confronted the idea that his now-late brother, Michael, was his biological father. With his parents both deceased too, Edward turned to his other siblings and their spouses and found that they’d all known about the adoption. 

“The people I thought were my parents had sworn everyone to secrecy,” says Edwards. “The whole family knew about it, except me.” He decided to contact Michael’s daughter, who lives in Scotland with her mother. “She discovered who I was in 2014, a year after her father passed away. I had seen her in London at the time, and she said she’d planned to tell me then, but just didn’t know how to.” 

After the truth came out, she travelled to Cape Town to spend time with Edwards. “She brought a DNA kit from a genealogy company, ancestry.com, because we thought that we were half siblings,” Edwards says. “Yet, the results revealed that she and I weren’t a DNA match at all, which meant that her father was no relation to me.” 

So, Edwards began to construct a timeline around his birth in Johannesburg on 13 April 1976. “My mother, Michelle Wolk, had either convinced my brother that I was his, or she told him that she was pregnant. Since they were dating, and likely due to family pressure, he married her. They both lived with my grandparents while she was pregnant. Six to eight months after my birth, they approached my grandparents and said they couldn’t look after me and wanted to divorce. They asked if my grandparents would consider adopting me.” 

The adoption took about 18 months, and once it was finalised, Wolk and Michael divorced and went their separate ways. “I grew up in a Catholic household and was none the wiser until last May, when I discovered the truth,” says Edwards. 

In subsequent investigations, Edwards consulted genealogist Jonathan Perkes, as well as Michelle Lurie, who runs a Facebook group called Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy. They used ancestry.com to help compile his family tree, which now includes about 2 640 people. “Through this, I’ve found many Jewish relatives, many of whom I’ve connected with,” Edwards says. 

While Edwards suspects he has found his father through the site too, he has been unable to confirm this. 

Nevertheless, with additional help from a Jewish friend, Janine Waltman, who consulted Edwards’ newly discovered family members, public records, and social media, he found his two younger half-brothers, Barry Halstead and David Glickman. “When Janine saw photos of Barry, she immediately sent them to Diana, [his girlfriend, Diana Brogneri], who sent them to me,” Edwards recalls. “I asked, ‘Why are you sending me photos of myself? And she said, ‘This isn’t you. This is your brother’.” 

Wolk had married Halstead and Glickman’s father in 1980. “It was a very unsettled family, and [Wolk] was declared an unfit mother. The boys were taken away from her when Barry was three years old and David was about six months. They were adopted by different families.” 

Shortly before Wolk passed away in 1988, she requested that the adoption agencies bring her two sons to her so she could say goodbye. “That’s the last time that they were together until they found each other in 2014,” Edwards says. “Barry’s wife was going through his adoption records and found the link to David and they were reunited.” Halstead grew up in London and Glickman, who was adopted by a Jewish family in Johannesburg, subsequently immigrated there. 

After Edwards discovered his brothers, the three started a WhatsApp group. “A year later, I flew to London to meet them. Being in each other’s presence was something else. You’ve got all this family out there – new siblings, nieces, and nephews.” 

Growing up, Edwards says Judaism was largely foreign to him, but during the past 10 years, he had met many of Brogneri’s Jewish friends in Cape Town. “Judaism is something I want to explore, but I’m just taking it one step at a time.” 

He and his brothers are also aware of another sibling, possibly named Ian or Wayne and born in 1978 or 1979. Edwards remains determined to track down this last brother. 

Edwards says he remains confident about his identity. “While there’s a massive new side to me, I’ve been quite calm about it.” He’s grateful to have had a good upbringing and holds no resentment. Yet he admits disappointment that his adopted family didn’t tell him the truth sooner. 

“Had that happened, maybe I could have found Barry and David 10 years earlier. I sometimes feel I’ve been robbed of time, but everything happens for a reason. I look forward to growing these newfound relationships and embracing whatever lies ahead.”