LDS woman finds half-sister through Ancestry.com after 60 years of separation

Carol B. Moss was ready to know the truth.
More than 60 years ago, Moss was placed for adoption. She was raised in a wonderful family and has lived a happy life. But something was missing.
“As an adopted child, you always want to know where you come from, who you are,” said Moss, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
At the same time in Georgia and other locations along the East Coast, Amy Starin Woodrick and her siblings knew they had a half-sister, but no way to find her.
Then through a series of timely events, the two women found each other by posting their family trees on Ancestry.com. They met for the first time four months ago and recently attended the RootsTech Family History and Technology Conference in Salt Lake City together.
“It’s been nothing but comfortable, so natural,” Moss said. “This fills in something that’s been missing my whole life. There is something very powerful about having natural relationships.”
Moss was born in Pittsburgh and placed for adoption through Catholic Social Services. She knew from a young age that she was adopted and has always felt she was meant to be in her adopted family. She had some non-identifying information about her birth parents, but didn’t begin searching for her birth parents until her adopted mother died.
“I knew she would not appreciate me wanting to know who they were. She raised me and I respected that until she passed away,” Moss said. “It was a sensitive topic for her.”
A few years ago, Moss, a family historian of almost 40 years, was able to work through the Pennsylvania court system and finally obtain the identities of her birth parents. She immediately went on Ancestry.com and found pictures. She also discovered an obituary that said her mother had died in 2000 and was survived by four children, one brother and three sisters. Moss wanted to reach out to her half-siblings but wasn’t sure how.
“I didn’t want to call and introduce myself because (if they didn’t know about me) I didn’t want them to think any less of their mother,” Moss said. “It would be better if they found me. The best thing I could think of was to put myself on a tree and let them find me.”
Meanwhile in Georgia, Woodrick’s husband had persuaded her to post her family tree information, including several photos.
Five years earlier, a relative had finally revealed a big family secret to the siblings — that their mother had placed a child for adoption before marrying their father. Woodrick, the youngest sibling of the four, had always wanted to find this older sibling, but had zero information.
“They kept that secret for 60 years,” Woodrick said. “We were never supposed to know.”
As she uploaded photos to her tree, she noticed a person named “Carol” had taken copies of the photos. As she examined closer, she saw the name and remembered the lost sibling.
“I didn't recognize the name 'Carol.' Then I realized that her mom is my mom, and I’m like, 'Wait a minute,'” Woodrick said. “'My gosh, this must be our half-sister.' It was amazing.”
Woodrick wrote a message to Moss: “I noticed that you’ve been using our mother’s picture. We learned five years ago that our mother had a daughter before she met our father. Would you be that daughter? If so, I’d like to correspond with you.”
Moss responded, and the rest is family history.
“I felt it was inspired. It was the way it needed to happen. The fact that they already knew about me was really great; they were prepared,” Moss said. “The timing of it all just seems amazing.”