EAST/VALLEY

The sister she never had

NH woman, 85, has DNA analyzed, discovers 96-year-old Uxbridge woman is sister she never knew

Alison Bosma, MetroWest Daily News
Uxbridge resident Harriet Curry, 96, and her sister Betsy Baker, 85, of Exeter, New Hampshire, talk about being sisters in Uxbridge on Monday. [Daily News and Wicked Local Photo/Dan Holmes]

UXBRIDGE — When Betsy Baker of Exeter, New Hampshire, had her DNA tested, she had hoped to learn more about her past. But the test results brought a big surprise — she had a sister she never knew about.

At 96 years old, Harriet Curry of Uxbridge was equally surprised when she found out about Baker.

“We’re happy we found one another,” Curry said Monday afternoon.

Curry and her newfound sister chatted over post-lunch snacks in Uxbridge on Monday. Baker, 85, had traveled from her home in New Hampshire, to visit. It was the second time the pair got together since Baker discovered she had another sister.

“It was just a feeling I had,” Baker said, of inconsistencies in her known family history. She remembered thinking, “The only way I’m ever going to find out is if I get my DNA done.”

A cousin had taken a DNA test and found no relation to Baker. Baker then used kits from three different DNA testing companies — Ancestry, 23 and Me, and Family Tree.

“I found out my father was not my biological father,” she said, which is why her cousin's test showed no genetic connection to Baker.

Baker's mother was her biological mother, but the sisters she grew up with, she discovered, were actually half-sisters.

Two years of on-and-off digging led her to Curry’s granddaughter, Laurie Tedeschi, of Blackstone.

“‘I don’t know how to say this to you, but I think you’re my niece,’” Baker remembers saying to Tedeschi the first time they spoke.

Coincidentally, Baker's hometown of Exeter, New Hampshire, just happened to be the next town over from where Tedeschi’s family camps every summer. The pair met in person in July.

“DNA is really changing the world,” Tedeschi said.

When Curry, back in Uxbridge, first heard the news, she was shocked and in denial.

“Oh my God, I didn’t believe it,” she said. She remembered thinking, “My father wouldn’t do that. He didn’t have time.”

Her mother died when Curry and her sisters were young, and the three girls kept their father busy.

“My father raised us three children like he promised my mother,” Curry said.

He was a single man, she admitted. The widower must have met Baker’s mother when Curry was about 11 years old, Curry and Baker agreed. It’s not clear, they said Monday, if he ever knew he had another daughter, though Baker thinks there’s a chance her mother tried to tell him.

After the initial shock wore off, Curry didn’t want Baker to remain a secret.

“The next thing I know, she’s telling everyone in the building, ‘this is my sister,’” Tedeschi said, and asking when Baker was coming to visit.

The reunion is bittersweet. Curry's and Baker's other siblings have all died.

“After all of that we found one another,” Curry said, looking at her sister, “and I love her, too.”

The sisters’ future relationship is unsure, but family members said they can likely meet at least once every year, when Tedeschi’s family, including Curry, takes their annual summer camping trip.

“It’s nice to have a sister,” Curry said, with a mischievous grin. “She’s younger, and I can boss her around.”