A family tree branches out
Australian woman’s quest leads to her father in Truro
TRURO, N.S. – From family tree to Christmas tree.
Caroline Centa is leaving the warm weather of Australia to spend Christmas with her newly-discovered father in Nova Scotia.
She’s hoping to experience her first white Christmas, but the thing she’s looking forward to most is spending her first holiday season with her dad, Paul Menhennett, and meeting her half-brothers.
She and her family, which includes her 11- and 12-year-old children, are scheduled to arrive in Nova Scotia at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
“Dad told me that he has got a real tree for us – my first real tree – and that we will deco- rate it that night,” she said. “I’m looking forward to waking up on Christmas day to my newlyfound family. I’m looking forward to opening presents together and then playing in the snow – hopefully. I suspect we will be very jet-lagged on Christmas day, so also hope to have a relaxing day with lots of food and drink.”
Centa, 41, put a lot of time into researching her family tree before discovering her father.
“Growing up, I knew that the man I called Dad was not my biological father,” she said. “My mother met him when I was five and has been with him ever since. However, I didn’t need to know who my father was. My Dad was good to me and that was enough.”
When she was in her 20s, she developed an interest in genealogy and began working on her family tree. She had information dating back to the 1400s on her mother’s side; the other side of the tree was pretty sparse.
Her mother, only 17 when she became pregnant, told Centa she believed a man named Kenneth Taylor was her father, so all she had was a name.
She managed to track him down but got little information from him before he moved and she lost contact.
DNA TEST
When Centa’s mother-in-law gave her an Ancestry DNA test for her birthday it produced information she didn’t expect.
“I got a new match; a second cousin named Grant Menhennett,” she said. “This was exciting for me. I knew all my first cousins, second cousins and third cousins on my mother’s side of the tree. Grant was not one of them, so I concluded that he must be from my father’s side.”
She messaged Grant, who gave her the names of his siblings. Using one of their public trees on Ancestry, she tried to add to her own tree. She became frustrated when she was unable to fit the Menhennetts, herself and Kenneth Taylor together. She went through her matches closely to try and solve the puzzle. She discovered that to be related to two of her matches, she had to be a descendant of Monty and Tess Menhennett. She researched them and found out their children were about the same age as her mother and that their sons were Facebook friends with her mother’s cousins. She messaged and asked if they knew her mother.
“Paul responded and said he did remember my mother and asked why,” said Centa. “I said that we were somehow related and wanted to see how I fit in the tree. He then asked if he could be my father. I didn’t want to rush things, so I said it was possible, but I wasn’t sure as my mom said it was someone else. I asked if he would be willing to do a DNA test for me and he said yes.”
They often chatted online while waiting for the results and both were becoming convinced they were related. On March 1, 2018 it was confirmed.
OVERNIGHT GRANDDAD
“I have two sons and I always wanted a daughter,” said Paul Menhennett, who moved to Canada 30 years ago. “This came out of the blue and it’s a surprise but it’s great.
“Last November I went to meet her and my two grandkids. Overnight I became a grandfather.”
He surprised his daughter by showing up during a family reunion, and they immediately embraced.
“It felt so natural. As though I had grown up with him,” she said. “I felt love. I felt acceptance. I felt complete.”
They spent two weeks together in Australia.
“There are so many similarities between the two of us, so much so he nicknamed me Apple, from the saying ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’” said Centa. “How much alike we are contributed to us being convinced we were father and daughter before the actual results came in. The biggest similarity I noticed was our love of acting. I always wondered why I was the only one in the family who loved the stage. Now I know.”
Centa has also gained several other family members.
“My family in Australia have met her and she often has breakfast with my mother,” said Menhennett. “It’s made my mother very happy.”
Canada has been at the top of Centa’s places-to-go list since she was about 11 years old, and she’s looking forward to getting a break from the high temperatures in Perth. Although swimming and a barbecue won’t be on their list of activities this Christmas, there will be some new things.
“They’ll be racing Santa Claus to get here,” said Menhennett.
“They’ll have a real tree for the first time and they’ll be here two weeks, so I plan to take them out to do things like skiing, skating and curling,” “I’ll take them to places like the Maritime Museum”
Just like Santa, Centa’s children will be arriving with special gifts.
“My children love having another grandparent and often comment about how lucky they are to have three grandfathers,” she said.
“They’ve been making a box of things to give him and can’t wait for Christmas this year.”