Peninsula family connecting with long-lost siblings

Though Luckhurst was hosting friends at her home when Blome sent a message to her March 30, Chris Colgin couldn’t wait to call Blome, who the website said could be a first cousin of the three siblings. Though he was attending a conference in Reno that weekend, Chris Colgin decided to give Blome a call from his hotel room to see if he could answer some of Blome’s questions about their family connection. A few minutes later, he was convinced he was speaking with his half-sister.

“There was no doubt,” he said. “It was almost as if I could visually see her from Reno.”

Though Chris Colgin detected a striking resemblance between Blome’s voice and mannerisms and those of his late mother Marla Ragaza, the San Diego resident’s birth story matched notes Ragaza left with her children about three others she’d had with three other men in the mid- to late-1960s before she married the Colgins’ father Mike Colgin. Chris Colgin said Ragaza died in 1997 of complications from congestive heart failure and told him and his two siblings about their half-siblings when they were in their late teens.

Exploring roots

Adopted by a couple living in San Diego, Blome was born March 17, 1969, at Mercy Hospital and San Diego County records show her mother’s maiden name is Ragaza. She said she had a great upbringing with wonderful parents and for a long time wasn’t sure about reconnecting with her birth mother. But after watching the TV show “Finding Your Roots” with her daughter and with her 50th birthday approaching, about a year ago Blome decided to try submitting information to AncestryDNA to better understand her genealogy.

Blome said she was interested to learn of her Filipino and Irish background as well as to learn about some distant cousins on the Irish side of the family. But she was intrigued when she opened her laptop March 30 to find a match with Luckhurst, who the database suggested could be a first cousin. She said she reached out to Luckhurst and explained she was adopted and was hoping to learn more about her family history, growing worried later in the day about how her message could be received by the family.

But when Luckhurst responded asking if she was born on St. Patrick’s Day at Mercy Hospital, Blome felt relief, which was joined by excitement to receive Chris Colgin’s phone call the same evening.

“I went from an only child to being the middle of six in one day,” she said.

Blome said the excitement has lasted in the weeks following the discovery as the siblings texted and called each other, eventually arranging an in-person meeting in the Bay Area in late April. Blome, a middle school teacher, said she considers herself an outgoing person but grew nervous as her plane landed in Oakland, wondering how her siblings would react to meeting her.

But she said as soon as she saw Luckhurst and Chris Colgin’s wife Sandi Rocco at the airport, all of Blome’s nerves melted away.

“As soon as I went down to the baggage claim, that all just went away,” she said. “We just hung out all night and basically just talked and laughed.”

Blome said she’s enjoyed looking at photos of her mother and her siblings through the years, noting many family members and close friends have observed a striking resemblance between her and Marla Ragaza, who was also a teacher. She remembered silence following one of her laughs last weekend and someone noting she sounded just like her mother. She said she’s excited for her husband and two children to meet siblings she never knew she had on Mother’s Day, when the siblings plan to meet again.

‘She fit right in’

For David Colgin, seeing Blome learn about her birth mother and interact with his family was nothing short of unbelievable, especially since the Colgins had wondered whether they would ever meet their older half-siblings. He said he and his siblings are known to talk over each other, and Blome was no different, and added many felt like his mother had something to do with their new connection.

“She’s just like us,” he said. “It’s nuts. She fit right in.”

Though Blome was nervous to tell her adoptive mother about her connection with her siblings, she said her mother, who is about to turn 88, was overjoyed to hear her daughter finally had the siblings she had always wished for her to have.

“I felt it as a mom, too, it was important to me to let my kids know what is your heritage and bloodline,” she said.

Chris Colgin said the reunion has already sparked plans within the family to get together for holidays. It has also sparked a renewed effort to fill in the blanks of their family history and connect with their two older brothers, Robert and Paul. According to a handwritten note from Marla Ragaza, Robert Jaeger was born Dec. 23, 1965, in Salinas and Paul was born Dec. 13, 1967, in San Diego.

Another reunion

In an effort to try connecting with her two half-brothers, Luckhurst said she entered the names of her brothers on the family tree hosted on Ancestry.com and was told there were a few matches in public records to a Rob Jaeger who lives in Kansas City. She said the family was able to find a phone number for his wife Liz Jaeger, who is a Realtor, and heard back from Rob Jaeger Thursday night, much to their excitement. Having been adopted three days after he was born, Rob Jaeger said he knew very little about his birth mother and father before the siblings connected with him last week, and Luckhurst noted they were shocked to connect with two of their half-siblings in just weeks.

“We’re all just exhausted,” said Luckhurst. “But happy exhausted. After so many years and years of wanting to find our siblings, and it’s like, ‘wow, in one month, we found two.’”

Having long thought he was half Hawaiian and half Irish, Rob Jaeger said he was interested to find some 53% of his heritage is based in Malaysia and that he is likely 47% Ashkenazi Jewish when he did a DNA test along with his adoptive mother a couple years ago. Aside from his birth mother’s last name, Rob Jaeger knew very little about his biological parents and said he hadn’t felt an impetus to find his birth parents, in part because he didn’t think there was a way to do so and also because he had a wonderful life with his adoptive parents and two siblings, who were also adopted.

Rob Jaeger said his wife let him know she had just spoken with his half-brother Chris Colgin when she returned home from work Thursday night, and he spoke with Chris Colgin and Blome shortly after, learning from Blome that Ragaza had saved newspaper clippings with reports of his birth father’s death on an aircraft carrier in 1966. Having believed his father’s last name was McLoughlin for years, Rob Jaeger soon learned his birth father’s name is Norman Levy.

“Now here I am, I just found out I’m the oldest of six siblings on my birth mother’s side and now I just found out the name of my father,” he said. “I was like, ‘how much more can I absorb here.’”

Rob Jaeger said knowing his father’s name allowed him to piece together aspects of his birth father’s life he either never knew or had slightly inaccurate information for, like his career as a pilot in the U.S. Navy and not the U.S. Army as he had previously believed. He said he has also been able to connect with a half-sister on his father’s side in the time since he spoke with Blome, and is looking forward to learning more about his family history as he continues to communicate with his siblings.

Though he acknowledged there are many aspects of his birth parents’ lives he will never know, Rob Jaeger expressed his gratitude for both the life he lived with his adoptive parents and his good fortune in connecting with his half siblings.

“All of this unfolding has just been a blessing,” he said. “There’s a lot of questions that will now be answered.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106