Posted: Feb 03, 2021 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: February 3
Rufus Copage, right, is shown this summer with his father, Alfred Ollerhead.(Submitted by Rufus Copage)
Rufus Copage is still reeling over the discovery his granddaughter helped him make in early 2020.
Using DNA kits from the genealogy company Ancestry, they learned that Copage, of Sipekne'katik First Nation in Nova Scotia, had nine half-brothers and three half-sisters scattered across Canada.
He was also shocked to learn that his 89-year-old father, Alfred Ollerhead, whom he had never met and was the father of his newfound half-siblings, was still living.
"That was a real shocker, I mean that's a big family," said Copage, a 27-year veteran of the Sipekne'katik First Nation band council who served as chief from 2012 to 2016.