Joyce Schnur, 53, joked to her best friend Lisa Henry, 52, "Your mom was like, ‘I knew it!’”
Two Pennsylvania women that have been best friends for four decades have discovered they are actually family.
"We used to just say you’re part of the family and then when we found out we were really related, it was crazy," Lisa Henry, 52, told InsideEdition.com.
"And your mom was like, 'I knew it!'" her best friend, Joyce Schnur, 53, added.
Henry and Schnur have been friends since childhood, when their families lived just blocks from each other.
“Everybody thought we were related way back then," Schnur said. "The way I met her was somebody thought I was dating this boy named Bernie, I don’t even know a Bernie. Then I hear it was her! She was dating a Bernie."
Henry laughed, adding, "I wasn’t dating him, I just liked him."
They continued to be close friends into their adult lives, going to OB-GYN appointments together when they were both pregnant at 26 years old, and raised their families closely.
"Just about every landmark, we’ve had each other," Henry said.
Schnur agreed, joking, "We don’t pay therapists; we just are each other’s therapists. You have to have that person in your life."
Henry explained that for a recent birthday, her husband gave her a 23AndMe ancestry kit, and she was fascinated with the results.
After several months of hearing Henry talk about it, Schnur purchased her own kit.
When the results came in, Schnur called Henry, asking for some help navigating the results.
“I said to her, there’s this real cool thing, it’ll show you whoever’s in there that’s related to you," Henry said. "She clicked on it and, she said, ‘I’m looking at you! You’re there, you’re there!’”
Schnur said, "Out of 177 relatives of mine that participated in the 23AndMe, she ended up No. 6. It was crazy. I’m like, 'Lisa, you’re No. 6! You’re No. 6!'"
They then discovered that Schnur’s great-grandmother and Henry’s great-grandfather were siblings.
“We have fun with it," Henry said. “We were at a church function and we were telling the priest about it — we were so excited when we first found out."
The best part of all this was that now when they tell strangers that they’re related, "We didn’t really lie," Schnur joked.
"We can’t get any closer than we already were," Schnur said.
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