Deputy finds long-lost family

It was good news last weekend for a New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputy. First Sgt. Joe Sigman was united with his sister after searching for her and his birth mother for more than 10 years.

Sigman says words really can’t describe what is going through his head right now. A few weeks ago he was in the hospital after surviving a heart attack. A week later his sister contacted him, and for the first time ever, they met.

Sigman was born in Wilmington. Days after he was born, his parents gave him away to another family.

For 46 years, he’s been left wondering who his parents are, where his two older siblings live and why he was given away to friends of the family.

After more than 10 years of searching on ancestry.com, a woman contacted Sigman’s 20-year-old son on MySpace. That woman is his older sister, who lives down the street from his birth mother. The two met for lunch last weekend in South Carolina.

Sigman says he’s excited about starting a new chapter of his life.

“There’s a lot of questions that are not answered,” Sigman said. “They may never be answered, but I put the past behind me for why they left me. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is they are here now, and I want to make a life with them.”

Sigman has not been reunited with his birth mother and older brother yet. His sister is battling breast cancer and is receiving treatments in South Carolina. Sigman says he’s planning on making many trips to see her in the coming weeks. They hope to have a family get-together so that their children can meet each other for the first time as well.