In February 1979, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer met for the first time since being separated at birth. The 39-year-old identical twins had lived apart for nearly four decades, adopted by different families in Ohio. What they discovered upon reunion stunned scientists, psychologists, and themselves: their lives had followed astonishingly parallel paths, despite no shared upbringing.
Separated After Birth
Born slightly premature on August 19, 1939, in Piqua, Ohio, the twins were placed for adoption by their unmarried mother. Jim Springer was adopted by Ernest and Sarah Springer, who believed the other twin had died at birth.
Jim Lewis was adopted two weeks later by Jess and Lucille Lewis. He learned he had a twin at age six and, encouraged by his mother, began searching as an adult. In January 1979, court records led to a match. On February 9, they reunited.
Astonishing Life Parallels
Each man had married and divorced a woman named Linda and later married a woman named Betty. They named their first sons James Allan and James Alan. Both had childhood dogs named Toy, grew up with adopted brothers named Larry, and worked part-time as deputy sheriffs.
They preferred math over spelling, smoked and drank similarly, vacationed at the same Florida beach, and drove Chevrolets to get there. Both excelled in mechanical drawing, carpentry, and block lettering. Their speech patterns and even their slang were eerily alike.
Scientific Interest Sparks Landmark Study
The striking similarities caught the attention of Dr. Thomas Bouchard at the University of Minnesota, who led the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. The project used Springer and Lewis as a starting point to recruit more long-separated identical twins.
Medical and psychological testing revealed that both men suffered from identical patterns of “mixed headache syndrome,” shared high blood pressure and heart rates, and bit their fingernails identically. Their test results in various cognitive and physical assessments were remarkably similar, sometimes more consistent than if the same person had taken them twice.
Global Twin Research Expands
Their case helped launch one of the most detailed twin studies in the world. Other reunited pairs, like Oskar Stöhr and Jack Yufe—one raised in Nazi Germany, the other in a Jewish family in Trinidad—provided additional data.
The research led to deeper insights into genetic and environmental contributions to personality, health, and behavior. By the 1980s, twin studies had grown into a global scientific endeavor with registries and conferences around the world.
Jim Springer and Jim Lewis’s reunion provided researchers with extraordinary material and helped create a framework for understanding human development at its most fundamental level—through two lives, almost identically lived.
In 1979, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer met for the first time in 39 years.
Born as identical twins and separated at birth, they were raised in different towns.
What followed their reunion stunned both men and scientists: their lives had mirrored each other in uncanny ways..🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/yJs9aO9OpS
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) June 9, 2025