Pair were best pals for 60 years — then they found out they’re brothers

They’ve been best friends since the sixth grade, a relationship that for many would feel like family.

And it turns out, they are: Alan Robinson and Walter Macfarlane, both from Hawaii, recently discovered they were brothers after knowing each other for more than 60 years. The two learned that they had the same biological mother after independently doing DNA tests.

Robinson and Macfarlane, of Oahu, told their story this week to local television stations in Honolulu, after hosting a party on Saturday to tell their families.

Recreational DNA tests have grown in popularity in recent years as the price of testing kits offered by services like 23andMe, Ancestry.com and Family Tree DNA, have dropped to around $100 or less, despite some lingering privacy concerns. The results can turn up information about distant or unknown relatives.

The men met as adolescents decades ago and went on to play football together at the Punahou School, a prestigious private high school on the island that counts former President Barack Obama among its alumni.

“When we played for Punahou, we were both first string,” Macfarlane said, in a video posted by KITV 4. “We’re brothers, playing side by side.”

Robinson was adopted by his family, while Macfarlane never knew his father, another local television station in Hawaii, KHON 2 reported.

“This guy was like an older brother all along,” Robinson said. “We’d go skin diving, I’d be making noise in the water, splashing around, he’d be teaching me how to do it right.”

Macfarlane took a DNA test after trying to seek out more information about his family online.

“So then we started digging into all the matches he started getting,” said Cindy Macfarlane Flores, his daughter.

A username Robi737 came back atop the list of DNA matches. “Robi,” was one of Robinson’s nicknames; he used to fly 737 airplanes for Aloha Airlines, Macfarlane’s daughter said. Robinson had also taken a DNA test, the results of which had been uploaded to Ancestry.com.

Marfarlane and Robinson had identical X chromosomes; the men did some research and learned they had the same biological mother, KHON 2 reported.

Both Robinson and Macfarlane described their surprise finding in positive terms.

“Yeah, it was shock,” Robinson said. “It was an overwhelming experience; it’s still overwhelming.”

The two, both retired, plan to do some traveling together, KHON 2 reported.

“This is the best Christmas present I could ever imagine having,” Robinson said.