When Ruthann was a child, she was jealous of her siblings going off for outings with their father. Being
the youngest of 5, she would watch her older siblings and envy the relationship they had with their dad.
But since he wasn’t her father, she would be left behind to wonder who was her dad. She grew up in a
poor, dysfunctional family and she remembers vividly sitting on her cracked driveway, drawing in the
dirt with a stick and thinking she would be better than they were. She would get out of Long Island,
learn to drive, get a job, and not be “like them.” Her mother had mental health issues and a drug
problem, and her brother, her only role model, was in and out of jail.
Ruthann’s life was a parade of different men her mother named as her biological father. Meeting them,
getting her hopes up, and then being disappointed when the DNA tests came back negative. Between
the time she was 14, when she met the man named on her birth certificate, and the time she took her
Ancestry DNA test, she thinks there were 5-6, but she doesn’t remember the exact number, because
each test led to more disappointment. To keep people from seeing the hurt, she would give the name
of famous men when asked the question, “Who’s your father?”
She found DNAngels on Google and became a client in September 2021. Her case quickly fizzled out and
was placed on hold in October of that same year. Despite having several strong matches, including a
potential half-sibling, her case remained unsolved for almost a year. It would turn out that the possible
half-sibling didn’t know his biological father either, but the man they were both looking for was closer
than either realized.
At some point, after she had done an Ancestry test, the name of her mother’s best friend had been
given to her as someone who might know the identity of her missing father. It was thought to be the
father of her children, a man named Tony. Ruthann reached out to her oldest daughter, who agreed to
test, and came back not a match. But the daughter provided an interesting clue: she and her younger
sister, Gloria, were half-siblings, and Gloria and Ruthann’s baby pictures looked like they were the same
child. Could it be that the man who fathered Gloria had also fathered Ruthann? When asked, Ruthann’s
mother denied it, and so did the man, Vinny, but he giggled a bit when he answered, making Ruthann
wonder.
It wasn’t until Kate Penney Howard took over the case in August 2022 that Ruthann began to hope that
her mystery might finally be solved. Kate made short work of figuring out the matches and determine
the mysterious top match was indeed a half-brother, even though he was close to 20 years younger than
Ruthann!
Kate was able to conclusively prove that Ruthann’s father was one of 3 brothers – and one of those
brothers was Gloria’s father, Vinny. Ruthann reached out to Vinny again, and while he is no longer
denying it, he will not take a DNA test and didn’t want his sons to know. However, the jig is up because
Ruthann had already reached out to the oldest son, and they have met and realized they have a lot in
common! Gloria has also taken a private lab test with Ruthann to confirm they are siblings. It turns out
that Ruthann’s Mother, Vinny, Gloria’s Mom, Vinny’s Wife, and the younger brother’s mother, all hung
out at the same bar. Vinny’s wife apparently knew of Gloria and the younger brother’s existence and
was not happy about it, but she had no idea about Ruthann.
Ruthann’s advice to those seeking their DNA truth is to never give up, even though people told her for
years “you need to close this chapter and move on.” Even when she had nothing to go on, she never
gave up. “You should always ask questions, and keep going, there are a lot of ups and downs but stick
with it,” she says. She no longer looks in the mirror and wonders where her features come from “I
know who I am now!” she says. And who is she? She’s a mother of 3 children, a college graduate, has a
good job in medical billing, can drive a car, and can finally name her father. When she went down to
Staten Island to meet her potential half-brother, she stopped at the beach and carved “Complete 2022”
in the sand, because it has taken a long time to get here, but she is finally complete.
Superhero Origin Story
