Miriam Cardenas arrived at Miriam Okonjo’s family home in Columbia and embraced the half-sister she had not seen in 39 years, ending a genealogy search that had led Cardenas across 1,684 miles. The two women had been separated as children and had grown up without a way to find one another.

Cardenas, a genealogy researcher, traced family records and contacted Okonjo after connecting details from old documents to a current address. Their first meeting took place in the home’s front room, where relatives had set out family photographs and made space for the women to compare memories and names from their early lives.

Okonjo said the reunion gave both women answers about a family history that had remained incomplete for decades. Since the visit, the sisters have stayed in regular contact and are continuing to share photographs, records and family stories.