The story is an astonishing case study on nature vs nurture
Here is the astonishing story of two identical twins who were separated at birth yet went on to live the same life.
Born in 1940, James ‘Jim’ Springer and James ‘Jim’ Lewis, were separated just three weeks after their birth and grew up in different towns in the state of Ohio, living just 40 miles away from each other.
Jim Springer was raised in Piqua, Ohio with his adoptive parents. His favourite subject at school was maths and he enjoyed woodwork, but wasn’t very good at spelling. He had a dog named Toy and would later go on to have a career in law enforcement.
He married a woman named Linda – later divorcing and re-marrying a woman named Betty – and had a son named James Allen Springer.
Meanwhile, 40 miles away in the town of Lima, a boy named Jim Lewis was raised by his adoptive parents.
He also enjoyed maths, woodwork and loathed spelling before growing up to have a career in law enforcement and a son named James Allen.
Despite growing up apart, the two Jims are very alike (YouTube)
He was married twice, first to a woman named Linda and then again to another woman named Betty.
However, at the age of 39, the two men’s lives would take a unique turn after they were reunited and shared details about their lives.
And the similarities didn’t end with their names, jobs and interests either.
Both men drove the same brand of car, smoked and took holidays at the same beach in Florida.
They also had similar personalities and medical histories – providing psychologists with a fascinating understanding of the difference between nature vs nurture.
The Jim twins went on to receive an invite from the University of Minnesota to undergo further testing for their research on identical twins raised in different environments, conducted between 1979 and 1999.
The two brothers eventually connected in 1979 (Youtube/True Lives)
Speaking about how they were able to get back in touch with each other, Jim Lewis explained that he’d called the local probate court after being told by his mother that he had a living twin brother.
Jim Springer had also been aware that he was a twin, however, his mother had believed his brother had passed away as an infant.
After getting hold of his adoption records, Lewis reached out to the Springer family and the brothers were finally able to reunite.
However not every aspect of the brothers’ lives were identical, as one Jim would go on to marry for a third time – to a woman named Sandy.
No word on whether or not the other Jim also knows anyone by the name of Sandy.
