BOOTHWYN, Pa. - Imagine finding the long-lost family you never knew you had, in your 70s. That’s exactly what happened to a 77-year-old Delaware County man who thought he was an only child, for decades, only to learn he was one of 13 children.
It all started with a DNA test."You can’t have too much family," Ed Grunwell said.Boothwyn resident Grunwell choked back tears as he talked about the family he never even knew existed, including 12 siblings. "I still have six brothers and sisters, two half-siblings and the other four are my full siblings."He was adopted as an infant by Pete and Rose Grunwell, of Ridley Park and lived a happy life as the couple’s only son.
Then in 2019, after Ed and his wife, Doreen, submitted DNA to Ancestry.com, results showed a possible match for a cousin.Ed remarked, "I knew my first cousins."Another so-called relative reached out after seeing a picture of Ed and Doreen on Facebook taken in 1967 and then another photo at their son’s wedding.
She noticed Ed’s family resemblance. It turns out, his sister, Betty Jane, had been looking for him for 24 years.Ed’s birth mother, Libby Weaver, and father, Charles West, were not married.