MIAMI – Several siblings met Tuesday for the first time after a chance encounter on Facebook.
"I was about to jump out of skin. I just couldn't wait," Jesse McDowell said.
McDowell's sister, Marion, went to college with a woman in Ohio who was friends with Randall Vandivier.
She noticed his last name, so she sent him a friend request and began asking questions.
"Some months ago, right before Thanksgiving, Randall posted a picture of him and his aunt, who is a Vandivier, on Facebook," Marion McDowell said.
The photo led to more questions about the two families in Ohio, including whether Randall Vandivier's father served in World War II and died in Miami 50 years ago.
"We exchanged pictures of our father and we were shocked. It was the same man," Marion McDowell said.
"When he sent that picture of our dad, of a photo that we never had, he was in uniform, and I said, 'Yeah, that's our dad right there,'" Jesse McDowell said.
The resemblance extended to Jesse McDowell and Randall Vandivier in two childhood photos.
"We exchanged pictures when we were just 2 years old and we looked like twins," Randall Vandivier said.
The two brothers and four sisters have some catching up to do and welcome the possibility their family could still grow.