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Identical Strangers Undergo DNA Testing — Are They Related? [Video]

By Noelle Nicholas
Published on: 00:30 PST, Jan 24, 2016

Two ladies from Ireland, who look and act shockingly similar, recently underwent DNA testing to find out if they are related. The results from the DNA testing were not exactly what they expected.

In a story reminiscent of the Disney movie Parent Trap, which was originally released in 1961, then remade in 1998, two girls who could pass for identical twins have a chance meeting at summer camp. In sharing their life stories, as DNA testing was not available at the time the original film was made, the girls learn they are actually twins, separated when their parents divorced.

This type of scenario may very well have played through the minds of Niamh Geaney, and her close look alike, Irene Adams. Naturally, only DNA testing could provide the unequivocal answers these ladies sought.

ABC News reports Niamh Geaney, 27, created the website Twin Strangers for herself and others who wanted to find doppelgangers. Through facial recognition software, the website can match those who look alike. Geaney and her doppelganger are the first pair from the website to undergo DNA testing.

When she launched the site, Niamh surely never imagined she would meet someone so like herself that she would undergo DNA testing in the hopes of finding a long lost relative, but that’s exactly what happened. She’s actually found three women who look like her twin so far, but the similarities with Irene were such that they felt DNA testing may prove they share an ancestor somewhere along the line. She may seek DNA testing with her other look-alikes at some point in the future.

“We got in touch, met up and it was absolutely surreal to see yet another one of my doppelgangers in the flesh.

“It was like watching myself. Our facial expressions are exactly the same, our eyes and nose crinkle the same way, we smile the same and she also talks with her hands just like me.”

The two are so much alike they could easily be mistaken for identical twins, Irene and Niamh knew this was not possible, as they were born a year apart. The possibility of sisterhood still existed, though, so they headed to DNA Ireland, a national DNA testing center, to learn if their lineage was the same. They were both surprised by the test results.

With a simple swab of the inside of their cheeks, Irene’s and Niamh’s DNA underwent three different types of testing that day. Obviously, the first two checked to see if they shared one or both parents. They do not.

The third test remarkably checks ancestor lineage from up to 20,000 years ago. This DNA test places people in groups marked with a letter, based on their lineage. Each group shares at least one common relative.

Niamh Geaney is related to those in Haplogroup H, while Irene Adams placed within Haplogroup T. The results of the DNA testing surprised the girls, to say the least.

The Mirror reports the DNA testing showed the women’s ancestors did not even come from the same area. While Geaney’s relatives from 20,000 years ago were in South West Asia, Irene’s were in Mesopotamia.

“The whole DNA test was so exciting for us, just the possibility that something was going to come of it was really cool.

“I think I might try and do another test with my other doppelgangers to see if there’s anything there – we’re supposed to have seven people in the world who look identical to us so my main focus is finding my other four.”

While the DNA testing proved the girls are not sisters, they still remain friends.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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