Switch at birth revealed through DNA tests 75 years later

DU BOIS, Pa. — Sometimes in life, timing is everything.

On Christmas 2017, Sandra Baronick Pyne of Du Bois had been gifted an AncestryDNA test kit by her in-laws who were creating a Baronick family tree.

When the results came back in March 2018 showing that Ms. Pyne, who grew up in a Slavic family, was predominantly Italian, she and her family brushed it off thinking there was some kind of “mixup.”

Fast-forward five months. Debra Monaco Zaffuto, formerly of Brockway, was anxiously awaiting her AncestryDNA results.

She and her husband, Barry, now living in Ebensburg, enjoy learning about their heritages. They had been to Italy several times to research an Italian village and church records. That quest persuaded Ms. Zaffuto to learn more by sending a sample of her DNA to ancestry.com.

They had no idea they would be in for the shock of their lives when the results finally came back on May 14, 2018 — they showed that Ms. Zaffuto had a sister living in Du Bois.

The sister’s name was revealed to be Sandra Baronick Pyne.

Stunned and confused, Ms. Zaffuto called her brother, Ron Monaco, of The Villages in Florida, to discuss what she had just learned.

Further research found that Ms. Pyne was born in the same hospital and on the same day, Sept. 22, 1942, as the sister they grew up with, Sandra Monaco Smith.

The two siblings also discovered Ms. Pyne’s Facebook profile picture — the striking resemblance to Ms. Zaffuto, who was left speechless, could not be denied.

“That looks just like Mom,” Mr. Monaco recalled saying.

“If you’re familiar with the AncestryDNA, you can click on her name and then it says, ‘shared matches,’” Ms. Zaffuto said. “And that’s how you know what side of the family the person is from, your dad’s side or your mom’s side. But when I clicked on hers, she was related to both sides so she had to be a full sister not a half.”

About a week later after this discovery, Ms. Zaffuto finally “got up the nerve” and attempted to contact Ms. Pyne online but didn’t get an immediate response.

Also, a letter she sent Ms. Pyne via email to explain the situation hadn’t been opened yet, either, so Mr. Zaffuto called Sandra’s son, Michael Pyne, a DuBois chiropractor, and got him to read the email.

Immediately upon learning the news, Mr. Pyne then visited his mother at her home to find her, along with his brother, Tom Pyne, reading the email.

“The same day that Barry contacted Mike, I just happened to get on my computer and my other son had come in and I said, ‘Tom, you have to read this. I don’t believe it. It doesn’t make any sense to me,’” Ms. Pyne said.

It took a while for the gravity of this incredible discovery to sink in for all of them.

Ms. Pyne’s sons eventually had their DNA tested as well by AncestryDNA and confirmed that they were Ms. Zaffuto and Mr. Monaco’s biological nephews.

Mr. Monaco’s DNA test also confirmed what they already knew — that Ms. Pyne and Ms. Zaffuto were his sisters.

DNA tests on Ms. Smith showed that she was predominantly Eastern European. Those results and those on her family also confirmed that they were not biologically related to the Monaco family but were a match with the Baronick family.

Ms. Smith was ill with cancer and all families involved chose not to tell her and burden her further with this discovery. Consequently, she was not able to meet her biological family. At the age of 76, Ms. Smith lost her battle to cancer on Nov. 30, 2018.

After everything that had transpired, both of the families came to the realization that George and Lucy Monaco, of Brockway, and Robert and Josephine Baronick, of Du Bois, went home with the wrong child when they left the local hospital in 1942.

There could be no other explanation.

Proud and happy as both parents were that day, they would never know the story that would be revealed 75 years later. George Monaco passed away in 1992 and Lucy Monaco in 2010. Robert Baronick passed away in 1978 while Josephine Baronick died in 1960 when she was just 44.

The truth may never have been known if Ms. Pyne hadn’t tested her DNA in the first place. The results remained in the ancestry.com database to ultimately be matched with Ms. Zaffuto’s a few months later.

“When I opened it and it said that I was Italian and it had names on it that I didn’t even know, I told my kids, ‘This is a big mistake, I’m Slovak,’” recalled Ms. Pyne. “And I called my sister-in-law and said, ‘They mixed my test up. I’m Slovak. Both of my parents are Slovak. I don’t believe in this DNA.’ And I forgot about it. I never even thought about it again.”

Years earlier, someone did suspect that she was Italian, however.

“My husband’s grandpa. When Jerry took me over and we were going together and he introduced me, he (grandpa) said, ‘You’re Italian?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m Slovak.’ He said, ‘I don’t believe you, you’re Italian. You look like my own daughters. So much like my own daughters. I’m going to change your name to Buronico,’” Sandra said with a laugh.

“Probably the saddest thing of this whole story is that she (Sandra Monaco Smith) was sick and couldn’t be told,” Mr. Zaffuto said. “If she had enough time and she wasn’t sick, she would have processed this and said, ‘Ah-ha!’”

“She (Smith) would say, ‘I’m the black sheep of the family. I’m nothing like you and Ron,’” Ms. Zaffuto recalled.

Early Monaco family photos show Ms. Smith as a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl that grew up in the Monaco’s Italian household. Her parents struggled to understand and explain the striking difference that was obvious to all their friends and family. Her mother especially fumed over hurtful comments and jokes made.

Ms. Pyne admitted that if she dwelled on the fact that she will never know her biological parents, it would make her sad.

“But I’m trying to look at the good side. I have the family I was raised with, and I have this new family,” she said.

The three siblings are thankful they now have the opportunity to make up for lost time.

Ms. Zaffuto and Ms. Pyne phone or text each other daily, shop together and enjoy lunches and dinners together.

“We may not have been sisters

all of our lives, but we will be sisters the rest of our lives,” Ms. Pyne said.

In turn, Ms. Zaffuto said Ms. Smith will always be her “lifelong sister,” but Ms. Pyne is the “rest-of-my-life” sister.

In addition, Mr. Monaco has traveled from Florida to be with his sisters in their homes several times. All three have recently spent time together in Estero, Fla., at the Zaffutos’ winter home and in The Villages, with Mr. Monaco and his wife, Cherre Monaco.

They are finding they have much in common but the one thing that stands out the most is that “our family is important to all of us,” Ms. Pyne said.

“In the end it is all about family,” Michael Pyne said. “I am happy that my mother gets a chance at age 76 to know her biological sister, brother and family. She is a very strong person emotionally. Having more family is definitely keeping her busy.”

Despite knowing in May, it wasn’t until July 2018 that the families decided to meet face-to-face.

Michael Pyne hosted the Pynes, Monacos, and Zaffutos at his home with children and grandchildren. It was a day spent getting to know each other, sharing pictures and stories of a time lost, laughing, and planning future get-togethers.

“I felt like we really knew each other. There was never any strangeness. We weren’t trying to be different. Everybody felt natural,” Ms. Zaffuto said.

“It was very comfortable, being from Brockway and Du Bois, it just seemed like we knew a lot of the same people, teachers and schools,” Michael Pyne said. “It was nice to learn that my grandfather, George Monaco, played baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals minor league organization. My grandmother, Lucy Grecco Monaco, I am told always dressed very sharp. She loved to cook, especially Italian meals. I am told my mother is so much like Lucy.”

It turns out the two Sandras knew of each other when they were much younger.

“I knew who she was to see her,” Ms. Pyne said. “Her first husband was a boy I graduated with. I’m sure she knew who I was, but we were not really friends. We never really had any kind of social activities together.”

They all agreed that everything seems to have fallen into place as if it were meant to be.