A St. James woman has achieved her dream of knowing her family after spending 45 years not knowing who her biological mother is.

"I hit every roadblock because it was a private adoption," says Jennifer Villasante. "I didn't have her name, I knew nothing."

Villasante's aunt gave her a Christmas gift through Ancestry.com, and she soon was able to find out who her birth mother was.

The St. James native also found out she had a sister and a cousin who lived in Smithtown.

Villasante was soon able to meet her family.

"It was the most amazing feeling," Villasante says.

She says when she was growing up, her mother was in Kings Park, just a few miles away from where she lived.

Villasante found out that she has close to 40 cousins on her biological side.

Villasante says she is now inseparable with her cousin Debbie and they now live down the block from each other and work together.