SEQUIM — Susan Davis found her long-lost brother by randomly typing his name into her Facebook.com search field one night in May.
When she saw his face, she said she knew it was him — the brother she had sought for 47 years.
“It was just the most amazing thing. I typed in his name, and it just popped up,” Davis said Tuesday in a phone interview from her brother Rodger Barto’s home in Carrollton, Ohio.
Carrollton is a tiny eastern Ohio town of about 3,200 and the county seat of Carroll County.
Davis — the founder of the Center of Infinite Reflections, which hosts a variety of spiritual workshops at 144 Tripp Road, between Sequim and Port Angeles — reunited with her brother and his family in Ohio last week.
The two siblings and relatives met at an airport Sept. 15 amid a small crowd, who gathered because Davis, who planned to return to Sequim on Wednesday night, had told some people on her plane about the journey ahead for her.
Barto was only 13 when Davis, then 18, joined the Air Force and left their grandmother’s home near Morgantown, W.Va.
Davis served in the military and married an Army man, living in Bangkok, Thailand, and all over the world.
Like his sister, Barto joined the Air Force after high school, and on a trip to Carrollton with a military friend, he met his wife-to-be, Margie Ray.
A short time later, after her high school graduation, they wed.
After his discharge, they returned to Carrollton and have been there ever since.
Barto had tried to find his sister, but he didn’t know her last name.
He assumed she had married but didn’t have a clue what the last name was.
The grandmother who raised them was gone, and there was no home to go back to.
Internet connection
Davis said until she used Facebook she didn’t know where to begin to look for him, either.
Without the Internet there was no way to find her brother.
“I didn’t know where to start looking,” she said.
“And it’s no wonder he couldn’t find me. I had married three times and lived all over the world and the country.”
Social Security staff confirmed that Davis was alive and had a number, but they wouldn’t tell Barto her name or where she might have been living.
Knowing she was out there but not being able to locate her was frustrating, Barto said.
In the years following, a brother to both Davis and Barto died at age 42, and Barto sold the home property after his parents, brother and grandmother had died.
But neither forgot the other.
Barto’s daughter, Tonia Baker, had searched in recent years, looking for her aunt on the Internet, but without a last name, it was fruitless.
In May, after Barto was honored at his church in Carrollton, his wife put a photo of him on Facebook with the statement that he was looking for the sister he hadn’t seen in 47 years.
Two days later, on May 23, Margie Barto sat down at the computer for the first time that weekend.
There was an e-mail from Davis.
“I just started crying and screaming. I called my daughter Tonia because I didn’t want to call Rodger; he was still at work and had to drive home,” she said.
Davis said she had never looked on Facebook before, but for some reason that day, she just typed in Barto’s name.
When the single entry popped up and she saw the photo, she knew she finally had found her brother she loved so much.
They spoke on the phone shortly after that and have been in constant contact since.
Davis, who is five years older, and Barto noticed that in every picture she is holding him as a small baby and toddler, or holding on to his hand as he got older.
“She practically raised me. She took care of me,” Barto said of Davis.
Davis has had a busy life, with two children and four grandchildren.
She has had an Internet business for more than 10 years, has lived and taught in many states and teaches relaxation and meditation at the Center of Infinite Reflections.
Barto has been busy with his two children, Christopher and Tonia, and enjoys having his grandchildren nearby.
He has served as mayor of Carrollton and managed the Ponderosa Steakhouse at Carrollton since it opened.
Although he retired a short time ago, he said he somehow has been talked into returning to work a few days a week.
Many similarities
The siblings were amazed at their similarities. They have the same facial features, and each has a head of white hair.
They take their coffee the same way, they both collect shoes and both are workaholics, according to Tonia.
The reunion continued early Friday morning when Davis’ daughter, Kathy Jerde of Golden Valley, Minn., finally arrived in Carrollton after weather delays.
“This is very exciting. But it felt like coming home. It was very comfortable, and you just know they are family,” Jerde said.
Jerde said she is thrilled to have a new uncle, a wonderful aunt, cousins and second cousins.
She said it previously was just her mom; her dad, who died three years ago; and her brother. Now she has extended family.
This week, the siblings visited an elderly aunt still living in West Virginia.
Family history
Both are amazed at the family history they have put together going back several generations and were pleased to learn of their great-great-great-grandfather who served in the Revolutionary War.
The aunt has the old family Bible and both are very anxious to see what information it contains.
Davis said a celebration was held at the Bartos’ church, First Christian, in Carrollton on Monday to honor her brother’s birthday, which was Friday.
Davis and her daughter assured the Bartos and the rest of their new family that they will be back often and soon.
Davis said Tuesday that she expects her brother and his family to visit her in Sequim in June.
“We have been talking about all old family pictures,” Davis said, adding she is talking to people she has not seen in many years after the national story broke.
“We have been bonding,” she said. “It’s all new to me.”
________
Portions of this story came from The Dover-New Philadelphia (Ohio) Times-Reporter.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
