Two half-sisters who hadn't met until a DNA test discovered they had both named their kids after each other.

Jessica, 48, who wishes to keep her surname private, met Nicole Chalawich, 53, for the first time in July last year.

Jessica, whose mother was adopted, had always been curious about her family and ordered a DNA test from Ancestry.com.

Nicole, who'd already done a DNA test, was checking her profile one day and was shocked to find she had new genetic match - a half sister on her paternal side.

She contacted Jessica over social media and the pair decided to meet on July 28, 2023.

The connection between the two sisters was instant.

And although the two women didn't know each other, they were shocked to find strange parallels between their lives such as naming their children after each other.

Nicole named her daughter Jessica and Jessica named her son Nicholas, the masculine version of Nicole.

Nicole, a dental assistant based in Waterford, Michigan, US, said: "I have always wanted a sister so finding Jessica just felt to perfect."

"I personally feel that the universe brought us together now for a reason, but there was a plan all along."

When Jessica first heard from Nicole, it was a bit of a shock to the system.

She had found a sister she didn't know about but she also discovered that the person she had called dad all her life was not her biological father.

Jessica said: "I was in shock at first."

"After I read the message from Nicole, I went through so many emotions in about 10 minutes."

"I felt a second grief for my father, who had already passed years prior, and then a sense of joy for these newfound family members."

"So it was a lot."

Jessica travelled up from her home in Florida to stay with Nicole in Michigan, where her sons also live.

The sisters spent a week together and immediately "fell in love"."



Nicole said: "We so easily fit together and could just talk for ages with each other. "

"I immediately felt like she was a mini-me."

The sisters are unclear as to what happened nearly 50 years ago.

Both of Jessica's parents died years before the two sisters met and Nicole's dad, who is also Jessica's biological father, passed away 20 years ago.

Nicole said: "I grew up with our father in the home but Jessica grew up not knowing him at all and with a different father."

"We have both lost all of our parents, so there is unfortunately no one left to ask about how all this happened."

Over the past year of getting to know each other, the women have continued to discover strange parallels between their lives.

As well as their children's names, they found out they share the same middle name, attended the same church and both lost their mothers in the same way.

Nicole said: "The stuff with our kid's names is just crazy."

"Not only did I name by daughter Jessica, but she named her two sons Michael, which is the same name as our shared father, and Nicholas, like me."

"Growing up, people always called me and my dad Mick and Nick, which is what everyone calls Jessica's sons."

"We also both have the same middle name, Lenore, inspired by a poem by our father's favourite writer, Edgar Allen Poe."

"Both of us unfortunately lost our mothers in the same way, to a heroin overdose, but at different times during our lives."

Jessica said: "We're both just really happy to have found each other. I finally have a family member I look like."

"And I really do think we were brought together at the right time."