At 90, Man Left On Doorstep As An Infant Unearths Dozens Of Blood Relatives He Didn’t Know He Had

Mar 21, 2023 by apost team

A 90-year-old man from Pittsburgh wrote a Christmas wish in 2016, stating that he wanted to find and reconnect with his birth family. Jim Scott from Lafayette Hill has been trying to look for the blood relatives he never knew because he was left on a doorstep as a 12-day-old baby in 1932. 

Jim's eldest child, Maryland Haig, has been helping him trace his roots since she found out about her father's wish. So, they took DNA tests and submitted his profile on Ancestry.com, the largest genealogy company in the world, which has access to billions of historical records and DNA kits. Through the website, Haig also found news clippings of her father from April 1932. Those were his only documents or records at birth. 

Jim was not even aware that he was the adopted child of twice-widowed Walter Scott until 1953. In an interview Tribune-Review, he recalled seeing the proof of his adoption on his birth certificate when he applied to join the Naval Air Cadets at 21 years old.

"I had never seen my birth certificate. When I looked at it, under parents, it said: 'Unknown.' That's when I learned about everything."

After learning the truth, Jim, the only child of his adoptive father, said that he did not get upset with him because he had a great childhood. 

"I was very, very well cared for, never abused, never neglected, always cared for."

However, since knowing his past, Jim spent the rest of his adult life looking for answers about his long-lost family.

He was named James Edward Broad by two policemen, James Walker and Edward Hays, who found him inside a basket on a doorstep on Broad Street. Haig presumed that her father's real parents were struggling to raise a family, so they left him in a good part of Pittsburgh in the hopes that someone would take him in. He was adopted at 2 years old. 

All the pieces came together after the Ancestry.com test, which revealed a man named Bob Laubham, a barber nine years younger than Jim, was his half-brother. Laubham was the oldest of six siblings and said their father never talked about it. 

Haig also discovered a few of her father's cousins online, and they have exchanged Facebook chats as well. In May 2022, Haig found Felix Zabroski, 86, who shared the same mother as Jim. 

“To be truthful with you, I already had seven siblings and there's no way in the world I thought I had another one out there,” Zabroski told Trib Live.

Jim also learned he has 14 siblings, but only eight are living. Speaking with Fox 29 Philadephia after meeting a couple of brothers and a sister, Jim said there was no feeling of estrangement at all. It was as if he had known his siblings forever.

Jim – who has been a Birds fan for over six decades – was in for more surprises when he was invited to a Philadelphia Eagles game in February 2023. He was also presented with tickets to the 2023 Super Bowl, courtesy of the NFL. His newly discovered family even threw Jim a send-off party to Phoenix. Jim was overwhelmed by the love and excitement for the future. He told Fox 7:

“The entire thing is unbelievable… I’ve not really traveled. This is a first.”

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Isn’t it wonderful that today’s DNA technology can track down long-lost family members for people like Jim? Have you ever tried using a DNA test? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to friends and family who’d love to read about Jim’s story.