October 10, 2016 at 5:03 p.m.
Lost and found: Rhinelander woman meets biological family nearly 60 years after adoption
Lost and found: Rhinelander woman meets biological family nearly 60 years after adoption
By Kayla Thomason-
The test that started it all
As Sue Grannan tells it, the adventure started with a DNA test her daughter, Kimberly, received last Christmas. Kimberly was interested in researching her background and the popular genealogy website Ancestry.com offers a service that can tell users where their ancestors came from.
After mailing a tube containing her saliva to the company, she received an email detailing her ethnicity and a list of other Ancestry members whose DNA potentially matched hers.
One woman in particular, Ariel Taylor, had a considerable number of common DNA markers and was on top of her list.
Kimberly found Ariel Taylor on Facebook and sent the young woman a message, "I took the Ancestry DNA Test - it says we could be cousins."
"When Kim messaged me that we were possible second cousins I immediately knew who she was and how she was related to me," Taylor told Grannan in a message. "It was all very exciting. I always had heard talk of my dad's other missing siblings, who were adopted into other families before he was born, but never actually thought we would be able to find any of them. After talking with Kim for an hour or so, I called my parents to first tell them. They were actually with me when I did the original DNA test."
Ariel Taylor took the Ancestry.com DNA test in October 2015. She wasn't looking for information on anything in particular related to her background. She was simply curious about the test and how accurate it was.
"My parents were the first people I told," Taylor said. "I think I said something along the lines of 'Guess what, I found your long-lost sister!' My parents kind of laughed at me when I took the test, like 'What are you wasting money on now, Ariel?' and something actually came from it so I felt validated.'"
At the time, Grannan and her husband were in Arizona for the winter. It was a Thursday and she was headed to play bingo when Kimberly called with the news.
"My daughter calls me up and she's like 'Mom, can we talk?'" she recalled.
"I said 'Not really, I have to leave for bingo,' and she said 'You can't and I said 'Why can't I?' and she goes 'Because I think I've found your mother' and she starts crying."
Grannan, who was aware she had been adopted in Germany, had tried previously to find her biological family but was unsuccessful.
"I always resigned myself to the fact that I will never know," Grannan said, adding that she was skeptical when she heard Kimberly's news and didn't want to get her hopes up.
"She was so emotional and I'm like 'That's nice dear, but I've got to get to bingo. If I'm not standing on the road my ride is going to go without me."
At bingo, she couldn't help but share the conversation with her friends, who expressed astonishment that she would have come out that afternoon instead of looking into her daughter's news.
"They were just astounded this whole thing happened," Sue Grannan said.
She said she felt a rush of excitement at the news, and then reality sank in.
"I've got all these siblings now and I've never had that before and I'm a big sister and I've never been a big sister and how do you be a big sister?" she said, chuckling.
The union
Earlier in the year, the Taylor family began planning a big get-together in North Carolina so Grannan could meet her brother, mother and her four half siblings and their families.
"The Taylor children knew their mother had other children out there somewhere and were so excited, very friendly and very loving," Grannan said.
Grannan's half-sister, Loni (Taylor) Taliaferro, who couldn't wait until the end of summer to meet her sister, visited her this June for five days.
Grannan proudly showed her the local sights, including the Hodag statue, Lake Superior, Mercer, where Grannan grew up, and the Hodag BMX track.
Grannan was surprised to find so many similarities between herself and her newfound sister, from their slight frame to their mannerisms and style of attire.
"It's just crazy," Grannan said.
A few weeks later, Grannan flew to North Carolina to meet her brother Bill McConley and his wife Amy Jo.
"Bill was my biological brother also adopted by an American serviceman," Grannan said.
"I flew to Bill's and found he and I are like this," she said, crossing her fingers.
They both enjoy art, particularly object art, share several mannerisms, and they both like antiques.
"When I was there we went to junk stores, antique stores and we'd gravitate toward the same stuff," she said.
Grannan also creates jewelry. She mentioned to her brother that she wants to make pendants out of broken pieces of china.
Showing him this on Pinterest, as well as some of her other "pins," they discovered that they had even more in common.
"You've got a lot of the same stuff I do in here," she recalls Bill remarking.
While in North Carolina, Grannan received a warm welcome from a group of his friends.
"They were all so happy for us, so happy for Bill," she said. "He has such a wonderful family of friends there."
Two days later, they drove south to their half-brother LaVerne Taylor's house for the main family gathering.
Grannan's daughter came out separately to meet them there.
Upon meeting her biological mother, Edeltrude Taylor, Grannan discovered that because of her mother's deteriorating health, Edeltrude didn't seem to comprehend that Sue was her daughter. However, once the family introduced Grannan by her birth name "Magdalena," it clicked.
"She was very quiet at first," Grannan said. "Well, then we started playing cards and she's very competitive and that heavy German accent was fun to listen to. I found out she was also artsy craftsy and always had a few projects going at one time. She loves playing cards and games and used to play bingo."
Two days later, filled with newfound information and overwhelmed with joy, she flew home.
"I had such a good time, it was real hard to leave," she said.
More travels are planned for the future, including a potential visit to Wertheim, Germany where Grannan's newly-discovered aunt, Gisela, lives. Gisela also plans to visit the U.S. this fall.
A family torn apart
At the family gathering in North Carolina, Grannan learned what led to her and her brother Bill being put up for adoption.
After a very difficult childhood, Edeltrude left home at the age of 17.
She had two daughters, Waltraud, born in the spring of 1950, and Tatianna. Both Waltraud and Tatianna are still missing and there is dishearteningly little information that the family has found on Tatianna.
Edeltrude met and married a man named Carl Schischa. They had a baby boy together, Claro Bernhardt, now Bill McConley. Two years later Edeltrude was pregnant with their second, a girl named Jenny Magdalena, now known as Sue (Leidenheimer) Grannan. Over the previous two years, Carl had revealed himself to be an angry and sometimes violent man, very unlike the man Edeltrude had thought she married. Fearing for the safety of herself and her children Edeltrude defied the cultural norm of the time and left.
Racism
As a single mother alone with a little boy and another child on the way, she met a black U.S. soldier, Herman Taylor. He would bring her food and was very kind to Edeltrude. Grannan shared what little she knew of her birth.
"I was told that my mother had been seen around town with Herman," she said.
In Germany in 1955, mixed race couples were not an everyday occurrence and the small community reacted with shock, anger and in some cases, violence.
"She had people throwing rocks at her and she just went through a whole lot, even being disowned by her own family, but Herman was her knight in shining armor. Whenever you talked about Herman, you could see the love," she said.
Just eight days after Grannan's birth, she and her brother were taken away to be placed in what the German government felt were "more suitable" families.
In 1957, Herman and Edeltrude had a son, LaVerne Taylor.
Edeltrude and Herman Taylor were married June 4, 1958.
"They went to the orphanage to get us back but were refused," Grannan said.
Edeltrude, Herman and LaVerne Taylor moved to the United States. After LaVerne they had four more children: Loni, Renaud, Sonja and Larone. They were married 42 years when Herman passed away.
Grannan's path
Grannan was adopted by an American serviceman and his wife at the age of 2 1/2.
"They weren't able to have any children," she said.
Her adoptive parents were in their early 40s when she was welcomed into their family.
"They were wonderful, wonderful parents," she said fondly. "I never felt that I was missing anything, I always knew I was adopted."
When she was in first grade or so, some children were taunting her because she was adopted.
"They were saying stuff like 'you don't really have any parents, your parents didn't want you, they got rid of you and the people you have now - your parents - they just took you because they felt sorry for you and not because they really care," she said.
Grannan went home crying and her mother told her something that has carried her through to this day.
"At the end of our conversation she says 'well from now on if anybody says anything to you about that again you tell them that your parents got to pick who they wanted and their parents were stuck with what they got,'" she said. "And after that I was nothing but proud."
She had a wonderful childhood with parents who were good and helped others, and she never felt that she was missing out or didn't belong.
Even so, Grannan is grateful beyond words to have her birth family in her life.
"I always said that I'd love to find siblings, that would be just awesome," Grannan said. And now, she has an entire additional family, with an astounding story, and a rich appreciation for the gifts life has to offer.
"We are hoping that in some way this article may help us find the two siblings that are still out there somewhere," Grannan said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at kayla@ rivernewsonline.com.
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