Sperm donor mum tracks down her son’s ‘global family’ as she goes online
to find six-year-old’s 11 lookalike siblings
By Natasha Courtenay-Smith
PUBLISHED: 17:55 EST, 22 February 2013 | UPDATED: 19:11 EST, 22 February 2013
With their similarly shaped faces and shared blond hair and blue eyes, it’s
easy to guess that the three boys are brothers.
But Max Silverwood and half-brothers Liam and Grant come from three different
families and have nine other siblings around the world.
Their remarkable global ‘family’ has emerged after six-year-old Max’s
mother Ellie Silverwood tracked down the other offspring of the sperm donor she
used.
The only information she had for the anonymous man was that he is Danish and had
the donor alias ‘Dane 1421’.
Miss Silverwood, from Oxford, conceived Max with a donor because her now
ex-husband was unable to have children. As her son grew, she began to wonder
more and more about what Max’s siblings might look like if he had any.
She joined the Donor Sibling Registry, a US-based website which allows families
of donor children to locate each other, registering her interest in contacting
anyone related to Dane 1421.
In the next two years, she received messages from nine families, who between
them had eight boys including Grant, four, and Liam, five and three girls, all
conceived by the Dane. They live as far afield as the US and Australia. Max is
the oldest; the youngest is four.
‘One of the first people to contact me was Liam’s mother, Mary,’ said Miss
Silverwood, a retail buyer. ‘She emailed me a picture of Liam and I burst into
tears when I saw it. He was the spitting image of Max. I was really happy and
excited.’
The first face-to-face meeting came when she and Max flew to Texas to spend
Christmas with Grant and Liam, who have different mothers.
Ellie Silverwood and her son Max, age 6, from Abingdon. Ellie conceived via
sperm donor and she has tracked down 12 half siblings to her own son
Ellie Silverwood and her son Max, age 6, from Abingdon. Ellie conceived via
sperm donor and she has tracked down 12 half siblings to her own son
Miss Silverwood said: ‘It was hugely emotional for myself and Grant’s and
Liam’s families to see the boys together.
‘The similarities are uncanny. They all share what must be their father’s
hair, distinctive shaped eyes, eye colour, head shape and noses. They also have
the same outgoing sparky characters and they all loved playing Angry Birds.
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