Child abandoned in church Nativity reunites with biological family 44-years later

'I felt like an outsider in the family even though I knew they loved me.'

DJ Williams was discovered abandoned in the St. Anne Catholic Church's nativity scene in 1971. Now, 44-years-later, he has been reunited with the siblings he never knew he had.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Two women found newborn Williams in the manger of the Houston, Texas church's nativity scene, inspiring the press given nickname "The Manger Baby."

ABC New reported Williams was discovered with a handful of diapers, a blanket and baby formula. He was also well-fed and appeared healthy.

The Manger Baby was picked up by a social worker and he was eventually adopted by a couple who lived in Dayton, Texas. 

Since his adoption, Williams claimed his childhood was a happy one but admitted, "I felt like an outsider in the family even though I knew they loved me. I felt alone."

Williams admitted he always wondered why he was left in the manger and, when his adoptive parents passed away, he decided to get the answers he'd wanted for decades.

"My entire life I've been searching, one way or another I grab onto any bit of information that I thought might be helpful," Williams told "20/20." "Any sort of adoption registries, really anything that I could find to try to fill in some details."

One day, as Williams watched "20/20" with his partner Mike and their 6-year-old son Zephyr, they saw the story of Louise Jones, a woman who had been abandoned in a New York City phone booth. When Williams heard Jones was reunited with her biological family after receiving help from investigative genealogist Pam Slaton, Williams knew what he had to do.

Slaton told ABC News, "So DJ was watching the first '20/20' and he felt connected to me and said to his partner that's 'the girl that's going to help me.'"

Slaton admitted to only working on cases she believes she can solve. In the Manger Baby case, she felt "the odds of finding someone to me were not great. No witnesses, no real clues as to who his family might be and literally we are starting from a blank slate."

The first piece of evidence Slaton and Williams had to work with was a newspaper clipping Williams recalled his grandmother showing him when he was about 15-years-old. 
"It was really just a small column and they had a picture of a social worker holding me," Williams explained.

Luckily, Slaton was able to pull microfilm of the article from the University of Houston library and discovered the reporter's name. At "20/20's" request, ABC's Houston affiliate, KTRK, was able to interview Williams to spread awareness of his search.

Slaton had Williams submit a DNA test to Family Tree DNA, a genetic testing company, and the results found a match.

"So the DNA results came back in and much to my shock, I was able to see that there were two first-generation relatives, meaning that there were two people who came up matching his DNA very closely," Slaton said.

The results came up with a male and female.

Slaton stated: "What I eventually found out was that the first person, who was Rose, that matched DJ was actually the niece of the male DNA match. Then I realized 'oh my gosh,' the uncle must be the brother to the birth mother and the niece must be either a niece to the birth mother or her daughter."

The woman, whose name is Rose, was contacted by Slaton and it was discovered she was Williams' half-sister, who was born two years after he was. Rose shared that their mother had died, but that the family was Catholic and used to attend St. Anne's.

When Slaton told Williams the good news, he was floored.

"He totally took me off guard but I think it was shock and nervousness and just like 'are you kidding me?'" Slaton said. "I don't think he absorbed initially what I was saying to him."

Further investigations led Slaton to three other half-siblings, all of whom were eager to meet him.
Williams became emotional as he admitted, "I had honestly given up hope for the longest time. I just can't believe it. That's amazing."

"20/20" arranged a meeting between Williams and his half-siblings for the first time. The reunion was an emotional one and Williams discovered his three half-sisters and half-brother grew up together with their birth mother. None were aware their mother had abandoned a child, or why, but Williams reported he was grateful to meet his blood relatives regardless.

"For me, it was about finding that connection," he said. "You're just floating in the sea and you don't have any anchor to hold onto, and so now I have something to hold onto, and I'm not letting go."

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