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Live Oak resident Sandi Pauly lived over 70 years of her life as an only child. However, little did she know that a little research to learn more about her father would lead to the discovery of a sibling residing in Michigan. In July, Pauly met her brother for the first time.

It all began when Pauly set out to learn more about her father. Her boyfriend, Ron Smith, joined ancestry.com to learn about his own family’s history and later began searching for Pauly’s family history.

Pauly and her brother, George Dunn III, 74, had the same father, Lester Carl Anderson, and were raised and attended grade school in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“We never knew each other. We went to two different elementary schools and didn’t know each other. He didn’t live far from me on Mohawk Street, which I didn’t know at the time. It’s just such a coincidence,” Pauly said.

Pauly said a discovery in her parents’ marriage license led her to believe she could have a sibling.

“Nobody ever told me that he was married before he was married to my mother,” Pauly said. “The only reason I suspected I might have a sibling out there was because I was looking about three years ago at my parent’s marriage license and I found out my father had been married before while he was in the service in Michigan. I was thinking he got married and got divorced pretty rapidly, and maybe he had a child and the only reason he got married was to give the child his name. That’s when we started looking around.”

Pauly said they searched for quite some time and felt like they were at their rope’s end.

“I was getting nowhere, and on January 31, I was going to delete my ancestry.com account,” Smith said.

That same day Smith received a message from Tina Cole, Dunn’s daughter-in-law and frequent user of the site, inquiring about Anderson.

Dunn, a retired president of the Middle Michigan Development Corporation, was also born in Lincoln Nebraska and at three months old, his biological mother made the decision to give him up for adoption to George and Jessie Dunn. Since Dunn was adopted as an infant, he never got to meet his biological father.

Pauly, who was raised by her paternal grandmother, stated her father was a “bum.”

“My father’s mother pretty much raised me while my mother worked. My father was a total bum,” Pauly said. “He never had a job and he was an alcoholic. He didn’t do anything for us. I didn’t consider him a father.”

Dunn had a document tucked away for years that had information regarding his biological father, but had purposely done nothing with it. his parents. Dunn said it wasn’t until both of his parents passed away that he developed an interest in learning about his biological father. Dunn said his father had not been married prior to his birth date.

Through several private messages, Cole and Smith realized there was a match. Pauly and Dunn then began communicating every day and the siblings met for the first time on July 9 at the Dunn’s residence on Lake Isabella.

“It was like I’ve known him forever. I hugged him kissed him and wouldn’t let go of him. We just started talking and didn’t stop. We haven’t stopped to this day,” Pauly said. “We’ve sent over 250 emails.”

Pauly said while searching the documents, she learned her father had been previously married to Helen Mach-Clifton, who is now married to John Clifton. Pauly said they are still searching records to see if she has any other siblings as a result of that marriage.

“We may have another sibling out there. I don’t know,” she said.

In addition to meeting her brother, Pauly stopped by Canton, Ohio on her way back to Florida to   visit with her seven month old great-grandson, Chandler, whom she had never met before.