Left on a doorstep as a newborn, 90-year-old Montgomery County man finally meets long-lost family

LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. - A 90-year-old Montgomery County man is reunited with his long-lost family he didn't know he had after being left on a doorstep as a newborn.

Maryland Haig spent years trying to help her dad, Jim Scott, of Lafayette Hill, find information about his birth family. He was left on the doorstep of a Pittsburgh home at just 12 days old.

"In my opinion, somebody could not afford another mouth to feed and took my dad to a better area of town, I think in hopes of finding a family that might be better able to care for him," Haig explained.

He was named James Edward Broad, after the two police officers who drove him to the hospital and Broad for the street where he was left. He was adopted at two, but had no idea, until he wanted to join the Naval Air Cadets in 1953 and needed his birth certificate.

"Under parents, it said ‘Unknown.’ What do you mean unknown? Because Walter Scott and Mary Cosgrove were my natural parents," Jim stated.

That’s when he learned the whole story. "I was never really upset about it, because I was so well cared for."

But, he always wanted answers. In 2016, he wrote a letter – ‘My Christmas Wish’ – to find the family he never knew. Maryland worked through Ancestry.com to try to unravel the mystery. The family provided DNA, eventually learning Jim had 14 siblings, eight still alive. Jim finally met two of his brothers and a sister.

"It was like I had known them forever. It wasn’t strained at all. Neither one held back. It was just really good," Jim remarked.

The resemblance with his brother Felix is uncanny.

Jim’s daughters say their dad always stressed the importance of family and are now getting the opportunity to meet relatives they didn’t know existed, including some 31 cousins.

"These people welcomed us with open arms. We really dropped a bombshell and they just welcomed us," daughter Merry Cassidy said.

"Just the hug. It was a true hug. You didn’t want to let go. It was like, ‘Where have you been our entire lives?’" daughter Melissa Murdock explained. "It’s just been a wonderful relationship."

The families are planning a get-together somewhere in between here and Pittsburgh in January, possibly Gettysburg and hoping to meet more of their long-lost loved ones.