Milton Kline thought he knew basically everything there was to know about his family.
Growing up as an only child in Baltimore’s Forest Park neighborhood, he knew that his father left the family when Kline was quite young. Kline’s mother died a few years later, when he was only 11. His maternal grandparents raised him, and he never knew much about his father or the paternal side of his family.
That all changed not long ago when his friend Dick Goldman, a Florida-based genealogist who previously lived in Baltimore, produced a family tree for Kline, now 86.
“That was a wonderful gift and a great beginning for our journey,” said Kline, an Elkridge resident who belongs to Temple Isaiah in Howard County.
The family tree turned out to be a game-changer for Kline since it shed light on family members that he never knew even existed.
A retired teacher, camp director and coach, Kline learned that his paternal family came from Warsaw and originally had the last name of Kleinzweig. At some point in the process, Kline said a pair of young genealogists recommended that he and his wife of 62 years, Judy Levin Kline, take DNA tests. The DNA samples matched Kline with a woman named Nicole Blau, who lives in New York City.
When contacting her, Kline said Blau informed him that she had a grandfather named Solomon with the same surname as Kline but spelled slightly different. She asked Kline for a photo of his father, which he emailed to Blau. Ten minutes later, she called back Kline, who described Blau as full of “hysteria, crying. It was just unreal. ‘It’s him! I am your niece! My mother is nearby, she is your sister!’”
Kline’s newfound sister, Lois, hopped on the phone and said, “I’ve always wanted a younger brother!”
But that’s not where the story ends. Through Blau, Kline was able to connect with more than 125 family members spread across the country — including in New York, Virginia, Utah and Arizona — who are members of different faiths.
“There are three sisters, one who is deceased, three nieces, two nephews and an enormous number of cousins,” Kline said. “Also, grand-nieces and nephews. Even great-grand nieces. Amazing!”
Among the newfound family was Kline’s half-sister, Mary Ann Lambert of Raleigh, North Carolina. Lambert fondly remembered meeting her half-siblings Milton and Lois in person for the first time a few months ago, describing how she and her family “went into an apartment with strange people that we thought we would be sitting around thinking of something to say, and they just took us in their arms. We just felt like family from the beginning.”
A father of two and grandfather of six, Kline agreed. “It’s like we’ve always known each other,” he said.
Said Blau: “It’s been wonderful finding people that are enriching our family story.”
Kline said he feels blessed to discover such a vast community of people he can now proudly call his family.
“Our story never ends, for it has taken on a life of its own,” he said. “Our genealogist Dick Goldman says my story is the rarest he has ever come across in all of his years in this profession. We either caught lightning in a bottle or God acts in very mysterious ways.”
Gillian Blum is a Jmore editorial staff intern.
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