DNA Found a Brother 🧬

By Cecelia “Cece” Redmond

Some people are born into your life. Others arrive with a quiet ping ✨.

That’s how Sean T. Traynor entered mine — not through family stories or childhood memories, but through a curious 7 cm DNA match that blinked onto my screen one day 🧬. A number so small, it should have been lost by now in the sea of thousands. And yet, that tiny string of shared code opened the door to something much greater.

Sean has a passion — not just for history or lineage, but for honoring the lives that came before. He walks through old graveyards and forgotten plots ⚰️, not with indifference, but with reverence. Armed with cleaning brushes and a gentle heart 🪣🧽, he scrubs the lichen and timeworn grime from weathered stones, whispering care into names that time tried to erase. To Sean, every headstone matters. Every story deserves to be seen.

We met in person in 2014 📅, during my first journey to Ireland 🇮🇪. I found myself wide awake in his flat past midnight, both of us huddled over family records and grave listings 📜, following the trail that Oonagh Fowler had started — the Redmonds of Giant’s Causeway 🌊.

Each visit since has been a mosaic of laughter 😄, landscapes 🌿, and “Picky-Bit Tours” — Sean’s affectionate name for our countryside rambles 🚗, inspired by what his Mum called a meal of leftovers: just a picky bit of this and a picky bit of that 🍞🧀🥚.

Sean’s heart doesn’t stop with gravestones and family trees. He once made a quiet kind of fame on Facebook when a tiny hedgehog 🦔 appeared in his garden. He named him Herbie — and what started as a one-time visit became a delightful saga. Sean installed a little camera inside a cozy hedgehog box 📹📦, and hundreds of us became enchanted followers, watching as Herbie returned night after night, sometimes with his growing little family in tow.

When new construction began nearby, the noise and disruption forced Herbie and his family to relocate to greener, quieter gardens 🌱🌼. It was a true heartbreak — not just for Sean, who had grown so attached, but for all of us who had followed Herbie’s story. A soft sadness settled in the garden, as if even the soil missed their tiny paws.

One of Sean’s favorite hideaways is Murlough Bay, a windswept gem on the Antrim coast. Though fans of Game of Thrones may know it as part of Slaver’s Bay 🎬, to Sean, it’s something far more sacred — a place of peace, memory, and belonging. Just a short drive away, we visited Ballintoy, where he spent childhood summers in one of the tiny fishermen’s cottages near the beach 🛖. While others might see fantasy landscapes, Sean sees home — shaped by real stories, real people, and the enduring pull of place.

Over time, I introduced Sean to others connected to the Redmon/Rodman line, and true to form, he welcomed them with diligence, warmth, and that fierce Traynor loyalty 🤝. He’s been a steady hand and a tireless seeker — digging through records 📂, traipsing through graveyards 🌧️, and nurturing the stories of the departed with the same care he gives the living.

And somewhere in all that searching, we found each other.

Sean is no longer just a DNA match. He is my brother 👣 in every way that counts. I am one more sister among his five beloved ones 👭👭👭 — and I’ve come to know them, too, through messages, photos, and threads of shared laughter across oceans and time zones 🌐.

One of the saddest days of my life was the day his beautiful mother passed 🕊️. She knew my name. She knew my story. And though we never met in person, I loved her — as deeply as I love the son she raised with such tenderness and curiosity. Like Sean, I still miss her.

And so, in May of 2026, I will return. I will cross the ocean 🌊 to stand once more on Irish soil — to visit Sean, my brother by grace and DNA, and to embrace the friends and family I’ve come to cherish across the sea 🛬.

Because sometimes, a tiny match can lead to the greatest kind of kinship.
And sometimes, DNA really does find a brother ❤️.

Shortly after publishing this story, Sean’s sister Bernie shared these heartfelt words:

“CeCe…. That is such a lovely story. You have Sean down to a T!! We’ve all done those ramblings with him through the beautiful churchyards, and he tells us the most amazing stories. He really is a fount of knowledge! We have all been in his picky bits tours too, it was sad to see the old ‘picnic’ go 🚐

Hopefully Sean will be well on the way to recovery for your next visit and perhaps one or two of us sisters will make it over to catch up with you.

I will hope to have read your book soon. Much love,
Bernie. Xxx”

To Bernie — and all of Sean’s beloved sisters — thank you.
Your family welcomed me not only into your lives, but into your stories.
Here’s to more ramblings, more “picky-bits,” and the beautiful thread that DNA, memory, and love have woven between us. 🌿