Man abandoned as a baby in a phone booth to meet mother after taking an ancestry DNA kit

A 64-year-old man is set to meet his biological mother for the first time after being abandoned as a baby thanks to an ancestry DNA test.

Steve Dennis, from Phoenix, Arizona, was found in a phone booth in the town of Lancaster, Ohio back in 1954.

Since that day, Mr Dennis has lived his whole life with no official birth date, birth place or birth parents.

He was told by his foster parents that he was adopted aged three but didn't hear the true story of his abandonment until the age of 15.

Steve Dennis, 64, was abandoned in a phone booth back in 1954 in the Ohio town of Lancaster

At the time of his discovery in Lancaster, his story was widely circulated in the local press and the newspapers were inundated with offers from people wanting to adopt him.

Steve was eventually taken in by Stanley and Vivian Dennis in 1955 who moved to Arizona where he has been ever since.

Fast forward several decades and Steve's teenage daughters bought him an ancestry.com DNA kit in the hope it could unravel the mystery of his past - by finding relatives with a genetic match.

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The results returned in January, followed by a message from a man also using Ancestry.com, who was a genetic match to Dennis, who later turned out to be his first cousin.

'He said 'I think I know who your mother is. We've heard throughout our lives that there's a baby that we're related to that was left in a telephone booth,'' Dennis told the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. 'It was this like this hidden secret.'

Dennis' cousin connected him to Dennis' half-sister, who lives in Baltimore, Maryland - and who confirmed the relation with another DNA test.

Press cuttings from the aftermath of Steve's discovery showed his abandonment was big news back in 1954

From there, Dennis' sister contacted their mother, who also lives in Baltimore.

'The mother has finally said she wants to meet with me,' Dennis said. 'Slowly week by week, she said "I kind of remember".'

He has since discovered that his mother had been 18 at the time he was born and under pressure from his father to give up the child.

The couple were travelling through Ohio together from Kentucky when he was born in a hospital.

His father then took him to the phone booth and dumped him before taking off - leaving his mother alone.

Later this month, Dennis is traveling to Maryland to meet his mother and half-sister for the first time.   

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