'I found out I was secretly adopted thanks to chance discovery moving house - now I've got five new siblings'

A woman said she was 'overwhelmed' to see people who looked like her after finding out she was secretly adopted thanks to a chance discovery moving house.

Jessica Murace, a 20 year old from Manchester, was astonished to learn that she had five biological siblings and successfully reunited with them on Instagram after a 15-year separation. At the age of 14, Jessica discovered that she had been adopted as a baby when she stumbled upon social services documents.

She also found out that she had five siblings - Heather, 25, John, 24, Katy, 22, Nicole, 21, and her late brother William, who passed away last year at the age of 18 - after seeing their photos in the documents. Initially, Jessica kept her discovery a secret from her adoptive parents, but eventually decided to reach out to her siblings and arrange a meeting.

READ MORE: 'We did what was right for my dad, now I live in fear of the police knocking my door'

After tracking them down on Instagram and coming across a group photo, Jessica met her siblings in Birmingham in April 2019 for a "surreal" and "emotional" reunion. Since then, Jessica has been seeing her brothers and sisters several times a year and describes finding them as "life-changing".

Jessica, who works in luxury retail, said: "Finding my siblings has been life-changing - it hasn’t always been easy, but I’m happy I’ve met them. It’s given me a chance to know who I really am."

She added: "It was surreal. For the first time, I saw people who looked like me, it was completely overwhelming."

Growing up in Manchester with her adoptive family, Jessica had been unaware that she had any siblings and had always felt like she didn't quite fit in. Jessica revealed that she was often mistaken for an adopted child at