Minnesota women switched at birth - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

EAGAN, Minn. (KARE) – Denice Juneski and Linda Jourdeans struggle to even come up with a word for the bond they share.

Sisters? Cousins? Nothing seems to apply.

There’s no playbook, after all, for two women in their 70s who’ve just found out they were switched at birth.

“It’s a crazy thing,” Denice says. “People just automatically assume they got the right family.”

Only a few weeks have passed since Denice and Linda learned they didn’t, as infants, go home with the right family.

Already an ancestry buff, the 72-year-old grandmother submitted DNA to the genealogy website 23andMe, hoping to learn more about her health history.

A few weeks later, when her list of DNA relatives arrived, she was taken aback.

“I didn’t match anybody,” she said.

Actually, Denice matched several people, but not one name among them she’d ever heard of.

Denice took the test a second time.

Same result.

“Either 23andMe made a mistake,” Denice concluded, “or I was switched at birth.”

But if Denice had grown up in someone else’s family, who had grown up in hers?

The answer came from 40 miles away, in Hammond, Wisconsin, after Linda’s niece noticed Denice on her own DNA report.