Facebook delivers family connection

Hoping to find her birth mother, Nicholle Renee Oliver turned to a Facebook page dedicated to helping people track down lost family members.
Oliver posted the information on the social media site at 10:30 p.m. on March 10 and headed off to bed.
In the morning when she checked the Facebook account, there was a photograph of her mother as a high school senior.
By the end of the day, Oliver was in contact with two half sisters and making plans to travel to Ohio to meet them.
Since meeting her sisters, the Houston mother of three has become a media celebrity. She’s been featured on television stations in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, with the story picked up by CNN, Fox News, AOL online and newspapers in Great Britain.
“It’s been crazy,” said Oliver, 36, who grew up as the only child of John and Rose Oliver.
Unable to have children, the Olivers, who resided in Houston, turned to a relative who worked for Catholic Charities in Canonsburg and arranged for Nicholle’s adoption.
Oliver is quick to point out that her adoption was very positive, and she will always consider the Olivers her mom and dad.
“I meant the world to them,” she said.
Unfortunately, John died when Oliver was only 5 years old, and six years ago, her mother passed away. With her parents and her grandparents gone, she had no one to ask about her birth parents, so she turned to Facebook.
She posted a photograph of herself holding a sign seeking her birth parents from Columbus, Ohio. She included her birth date in Washington, and she noted that her birth mother was Jodi Hildreth, who would be 64 years old.
The post was shared thousands of times, Oliver said, and she received a message suggesting she expand her search by joining Facebook’s Search Squad.
The information she had been seeking was posted within three hours of her query.
She also was encouraged to contact a woman named Dollie Conant, who was believed to have a connection to Hildreth. Oliver did, and Conant’s immediate online response was “OMG, you’re my baby sister!”
Oliver learned she had another sister, Rosie Franklin. Her birth mother, however, died in 2001. She still does not know her birth father’s name.
Three days later, Oliver and her finance, James Hollenbach, drove to Cincinnati to meet Franklin, then to Lima, Ohio, to meet Conant.
For the occasion, Oliver wore a bright green shirt that reads “Kiss me I’m Irish.” Although she had previously worn the shirt, it wasn’t until this St. Patrick’s Day that she learned her maternal grandfather had immigrated to the United States from Ireland and that she is, indeed, Irish.
Oliver had always known that her birth mother was a heroin addict. Hildreth’s struggles with drug addiction continued throughout adulthood. As a result, both Conant and Franklin were raised by their fathers.
Perhaps realizing she would not be able to adequately care for Oliver, Hildreth decided to let another couple raise her.
“She definitely did the right thing,” Oliver said of her birth mother. “I feel like I was the lucky one. I was raised by a family that took care of me, and I had a good life. That’s all that matters.”