05 March,2019 07:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Rupsa Chakraborty
Mirjam Bina and her friend during a visit to Dr Michael Lobo in December 2018
Saroo Brierly - the inspiration behind Oscar-nominated movie Lion (2017) - spent five years searching across the country, albeit on Google Earth, before he found his biological family. Netherlands resident Mirjam Bina, 42, now has a similar quest ahead of her, but thanks to improved technology, she has a better idea of where to look. DNA tests have already narrowed her ethnicity down to Mangalorean Catholic (a very small minority), and now she has found help from a famous genealogist who has thousands of genetic samples from the very community.
Mirjam Bina was just a year-and-a-half-old when she was found alone at Victoria Terminus - now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) - on March 1, 1978. A year later, she was adopted by a Dutch couple, who raised her in the Netherlands along with an adopted sister Nagpur.
Mirjam Bina with her husband and children. Looking at her children often leads her to wonder about her own biological parents and Indian roots
Mirjam grew up amid a lot of love and affection, but curiosity about her biological parents still kept her awake at nights sometimes. Today, she is married and has two children of her own, but the urge to rediscover her Indian roots has only grown stronger. "I often look at them and wonder about my own biological parents," said Mirjam, who is a team manager at the government's tax office in the Netherlands.
This isn't her first attempt to find her parents. "I had visited Mumbai in 1998 for the first time after my adoption. Encouraged by my family and friends, I went to the orphanage, Shree Manav Seva Sangh, where I was adopted from. Sadly, they didn't have much information about me."
Later, the orphanage contacted her with a single clue - a small note from the day she was found, which mentioned that she had been rescued from Victoria Terminus at 11.30 am on March 1, 1978.
Mirjam Bina around the age she was found at VT (left) and now (right)
DNA testing online
Mirjam made another attempt 40 years from that day, returning again to India in December 2018. This time, though she had more information. "In 2017, I had undergone a DNA test which revealed that I belong to the Mangalorean Catholic community, which is very limited in size. I had run the test through different genetic test tools, such as FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage and 23andMe.org, which helped me to trace my fifth-generation cousins.
I wrote to them, but it didn't help me find my closest relatives," she said, speaking to mid-day from the Netherlands. These tools don't lead directly to one's closest biological family, but provide genetic matches that serve as clues. The chances of matches are higher if there is data within five generations of the candidate.
Dr Michael Lobo, Genealogist
Specialist on the job
This time, when Mirjam visited India, she met Dr Michael Lobo, a renowned genealogist from Mangalore who has authored several books on the very community she hails from. For his research, Lobo had taken DNA samples from thousands of Mangalorean Catholics, and he is now analysing this genetic bank to try and find Mirjam's closest relatives.
"His expertise lies in creating family trees of people, so he has vast DNA data from the Catholic ethnicity in the region. He is trying to trace my close relatives within his database," said Mirjam.
Dr Lobo told this reporter: "She [Mirjam] has approached me, and I will try my best to help her. But identifying her closest relatives from her DNA will be a tough job. I think it's probable that she is from Mumbai. But it will take at least a month to make all the calculations to make the [DNA] comparison."
Still searching online
Meanwhile, Mirjam continues to try and narrow down the search through genealogy websites. Her friends Betty and Blossom D'Souza, who had accompanied her to India, said, "We are trying different avenues to find her closest relatives. If any of them have done DNA tests through these genetic banks, there is a possibility to track them down. We know where she was found, but if we zero in on where she is originally from, we can go to the local police stations to check for missing complaints that match her description."
A younger Mirjam
Have any leads?
Readers who have any information can contact Mirjam on her email ID bina597@gmail.com. She emphasises that she is merely keen to reconnect with her roots. "I am not interested in property or any other claim. I just want to know more about my roots and origin. My mother supports me in this endeavour, and if I ever get to meet my biological family, my adopted parents will still remain my heroes," she added.
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