Imagine being left on a doorstep just hours after being born, and spending nearly 30 years wondering about your origins.
This was the reality for Aniya Smith, a woman from Jacksonville, who, after decades of mystery, has finally uncovered the truth about her birth parents.
“They were shocked, really shocked as you can imagine. No one knew about me. No one even knew my mom was pregnant,” Aniya shared.
Aniya’s journey began in earnest when she shared her story with First Coast News in 2021.
A genealogy enthusiast, referred to as a ‘search angel’, reached out to help her.
“A search angel is someone who does all the back-end work for you. So, they put the families together, they connect the dots,” explained Aniya.
The breakthrough came with an Ancestry DNA test, which revealed a half-sister and eventually led Aniya to her father in Jacksonville.
Their first phone call was a pivotal moment, filled with long-awaited apologies.
“That’s something I haven’t really gotten from my mother, but I can definitely feel that it was something that he had been carrying with him for very long,” Aniya recalled.
Aniya learned that her parents were just teenagers when she was born – her mother 18 and her father 19.
They left her on an apartment doorstep in Jacksonville’s Riverside neighborhood in 1992.
“My mom hid the pregnancy the whole nine months, so no one knew my mother was pregnant other than my father,” she said.
This revelation led to Aniya connecting with her mother’s side of the family.
Her great-uncle, Charles Thompson, was stunned to discover Aniya might be his relative.
“Piece by piece. I put the puzzle together,” Charles said, confirming Aniya’s place in the family through DNA.
Aniya’s conversation with her birth mother was filled with questions and a quest for understanding.
“I remember just sitting on the phone with her and just asking her a million questions about herself,” Aniya said.
Despite reaching out, neither of her biological parents wished to speak with the media.
Aniya’s adoptive family has been a pillar of support throughout her search.
While she didn’t find all the answers she sought, her feelings of anger about being abandoned have subsided.
She’s now focused on building relationships with her four siblings and both sides of her biological family.
The journey of reconnection is ongoing, with her great-uncle Tony Thompson organizing a Zoom call to introduce Aniya to the family.
“I wanted her to meet her family. I thought it was important that she had missed thirty years of being around her family,” Tony expressed.
Aniya and her son Zion are eagerly anticipating a face-to-face family gathering in the spring.
“I plan on giving her a 30-year hug. I’m just gonna hold her and tell her that she is loved by all of us here and she is a part of this family,” Tony Thomson said, echoing the sentiments of Charles Thompson, “She is a part of my family. She is welcomed into this family with open arms, her and her son Zion both, and we love them to death.”
To learn more about Aniya’s journey to get answers watch the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
