AMERICAN FORK — For decades, all Zachary Ellis knew of his biological mother was her name: Hermalinda Parra Rodriguez. He studied it over and over. He typed it into social media search engines to see where that would take him.

It didn’t lead him far.

The American Fork resident never even knew what she looked like until six years ago, when his adoptive mother gave him a photo of her. At the time, it seemed as if that would be as far as he’d get in his search to find her.

Then, in January, he received a new hope in the form of an advertisement. He saw a DNA test for $69. With the years he spent searching for someone he longed to meet, why not spend the money? So he did a DNA test.

Months later, even he was stunned where that led him next.

A long journey

Ellis, 37, grew up in Utah with his adoptive family and knew very little of his biological family. He searched for years, trying to find his mother from her name on his Mexican birth certificate.

He thought he could reach out to national talk shows where these sort of feel-good reunions often happen. Ellis quietly chuckles as he remembers his ex-wife once writing a letter to one of those shows about his story. However, unsure he wanted to go through with it, the letter ultimately wasn’t sent.

Social media became increasingly prevalent in his search as the years went on. He messaged people on Facebook with his mother's name near the area of Mexico he knew she hailed from, but he received very little leads.

When he saw the price for a DNA test, he knew it could have been another dead end, but at least it was a new opportunity.

“It was like, 'what do I have to lose?'” he thought. “I’ve done everything, so I might as well give this a shot too.”

A result

Ellis didn’t know the results of the DNA test for a couple months after taking it. When it finally came, he was blown away by the results.

Using a database, he found a complete family he didn’t even know existed. He had a sister in Phoenix, Arizona, and four other siblings living in Mexico. He also discovered he had a second cousin living in rural Utah.

He emailed all his new-found relatives that he could through the database and eventually heard back from his second cousin in Utah. She talked with her father to try to see if he could help Ellis connect with his mother.

She then posted the birth certificate information and photo to see if that could churn results. It did.

Ellis then met his second cousin for lunch— his first meeting with anyone from his biological bloodline.

“They were so excited. They said, ‘We’ve found her! We’ve found her!’” Ellis recalled. “They welcomed me to the family, pretty much. It was an emotional time.”

His cousin connected Ellis with his mother there (who was living in Mexico) and the two chatted for the first time. He "friended" his biological mother on Facebook after the lunch meeting and they continued to talk. He learned his mother was traveling to Arizona for his nephew's graduation, and so he immediately booked the first flight he could find.

“She was that close I just had to,” he said.

A family reunion

Ellis’ time in Phoenix was short but unforgettable. He arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on May 21, where he had an emotional first meeting with his mother. From there, he went to his brother-in-law’s workplace where he also met his younger sister’s family for the first time.

He dined with his family that night at his sister’s farm, where his mother made some of Ellis’ favorite dishes and the reunited family chatted for the first time.

The two sides struggled through a language barrier, but that couldn’t prevent the connection they felt.

“It was just feeling, it was just the presence and everything,” Ellis recalled.

He learned that while he had searched for them for many years, they had searched for him too. However, neither side found the other due to using the wrong names. They searched for "Alfredo," his given birth name, and Ellis learned his mother went by the nickname “Mellie” online.

He learned that one of his brothers was a police officer in Mexico and another was a champion boxer there. He saw photos of his siblings that gave him a sense of belonging.

“Even down to the way that we shave. The way we maintain our faces is the exact same,” he said. “It’s crazy, just the things we do that we never have known.”

Ellis listened to his mother's stories and studied her face the way he once studied her name over and over again. He didn’t care that he was sent away for adoption decades prior and that didn’t come up that night. He said he was just happy to finally meet his biological mother.

“I’ve never ever had any hard feelings, any hostility, ever any resentment against her,” Ellis said. “I didn’t want to approach it like that, either.”

The following day, he toured the farm before he traveled back to Utah. They were able to resuscitate a baby potbelly pig they came across that appeared to be dead.

He also came across a white peacock at his sister's farm. He had read about all the things a peacock symbolizes, which he equated to wholeness — a complete feeling. He took a photo of the bird because, for him, as he took in this moment, that is what he felt.

Ellis said he plans to travel to Mexico in the coming months to meet the other family members he learned about. Given all the years he spent searching, even he couldn't believe how his journey ended.

“The way with this ancestry thing — I just threw it in,” Ellis said. “It was like, 'I’ve got to be in it to win it.' I wasn’t expecting to hit the jackpot at all and it just happened so fast.”

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