By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

Complicated family connections have defined Aliciette Dockery-Cornelius’ life, a journey marked by resilience, rebuilding and an unwavering faith that ultimately led her to reunite with her long-lost siblings.

Born and raised in Sacramento, near Center Parkway and Valley Hi Drive, Dockery-Cornelius’ early life was a series of transitions. She remembers living “a good little life” with her great-grandma as early as age 4 or 5, then her grandma, before returning to her mother.

At age 11 or 12, she was taken by Child Protective Services after she says her mother started having babies who were born with crack cocaine in their systems. This initiated a tumultuous period in the foster care system. She recalls “horrible” conditions at the Children’s Receiving Home where she was initially taken, how foster parents acted differently toward her once the social workers left, and a time when one foster father tried to put his hands in her underwear.

“My first year, I think I went to, like, 10 different foster homes. I’ll never forget that,” says Dockery-Cornelius, now 42.

She was labeled a chronic runaway, often staying at a local housing complex to avoid CPS detection. “I used to turn myself in just to get new clothes and stuff.”

The housing complex was notorious for drugs and crime, but to Dockery-Cornelius, it provided a safer haven. She managed to stay off the system’s radar until getting pregnant at almost 18, then applied for WIC, a federal program that provides nutritional support to low-income women and their infants. She also was arrested after getting into “a little trouble,” but was released.

Youth, she says, are often “thrown to the wolves” and then society passes judgement on them for doing what they have to in order to survive.

Family Matters

While out hustling, Dockery-Cornelius saw a man one day who looked like her. She asked his name and realized it was her biological father. She announced their connection, but says the man simply kept walking. Both parents were on drugs and she admits to selling to them, like any other addict. Hardened by their abandonment, she felt that it was about time they contributed to her financially.

“Back then at the time, I had a real thug’s heart and I didn’t care,” she says.

She created boundaries so that their lifestyle “didn’t affect” her. Over the years, however, she kept track of their general whereabouts. When her father had a heart attack eight years ago, Dockery-Cornelius stepped up, coming back from Oakland to care for him. He reverted to past behaviors and returned to the streets, before passing away in August 2024. As his eldest daughter, she got the call that he was on life support.

“There’s a lot of childhood trauma that I deal with as an adult because when they get sick, I’m going to step up,” she says.

Years later, Dockery-Cornelius’ dedication to family turned to trying to find her siblings. She is the only child her mother and father share, but says her father had another daughter and that her mother has four younger children, including a set of twins. She had a single picture of the twins, a boy and a girl, which she posted online every year on their birthday, hoping someone would recognize them.

“This past year was my year,” she exclaims, detailing how a friend suggested she post the photo in a popular online group for people looking for missing relatives around the globe.

The response was overwhelming, with 700 shares and countless messages.

“I don’t think I slept,” Dockery-Cornelius says. “I had so much information coming in I felt like a private eye.”

Step By Step

With the help of volunteer genealogists she met online, Dockery-Cornelius’ meticulously sifted through birth records and anonymous messages. The breakthrough came last month when someone sent her some names and she found one of the twins on Facebook.

“I inboxed him, and I said, ‘Hey, is your birthday [such and such]?’ He said ‘Yeah, it is.’ I fell on my knees and I was crying and I was shaking and then I just introduced myself.”

She learned that her twin siblings and a younger brother all were adopted by the same family. She hopes to meet them in person, but is content to give them space to process it all.

“I’ve got numbers I can call and I’m happy with that,” she says.

Dockery-Cornelius still is looking for a younger sister who is now 21 or 22. She doesn’t have a photo of her, but knows that she originally went to live with her father, and remains determined to find her.

Locals looking for siblings who are or were in foster care can reach out to the Sacramento Department of Child, Family and Adult Services records office for general inquiries and records requests. Staffers can help people complete and submit required forms. For inquiries about siblings currently in care, relatives can contact CPS by calling 916-875-6350 or DCFASrecords@saccounty.gov.

If adoption is involved, people can contact the California Department of Social Services Post Adoption Services Unit. The county also suggests the following organizations and agencies for support, guidance, and education on strategies to find siblings: Children’s Law Center, Sacramento Court Appointed Special Advocates, California Youth Connection, and the Youth Law Center.

Dockery-Cornelius knows the county process, but says she hasn’t gotten much help.

For those doing their own family searches, Dockery-Cornelius suggests doing DNA testing on a site like Ancestry.com and emphasizes the importance of keeping an open mind when seeking family, acknowledging that not everyone may want to reconnect.

 “All these years, I just kept my faith. That’s the main thing you have to do, is keep your faith. … I know the stuff that I experienced and I just prayed that they never experienced any of that.”

Despite her difficult past, Dockery-Cornelius’ unwavering faith instilled a powerful belief that reunification was possible, even after decades apart.

“Three decades later, [my siblings and I] are in our 40s and 30s, so it could happen,” she says. “It might not be when you want it to happen, but it can happen, as long as you keep your faith and you don’t give up.”

Good Times

Now, Dockery-Cornelius is focused on her future and helping others.

“I knew I wanted to reach my full potential,” she says. “I knew that if I could master everything on the street, I could just imagine what I could master if I turned my life over.”

She obtained a commercial driver license, became a bus driver, and is pursuing a clinical medical assistant certificate. She plans to start a nonprofit called United By Blood in South Sacramento to provide a resource hub for at-risk youth and adults.

“There’s a lot of kids that are becoming these Ebony Alerts, but there’s something going on at home,” Dockery-Cornelius says. “It isn’t because they want to run away. Mama’s at home drunk, smoking crack, or Daddy’s doing stuff. There’s stuff that’s going on to where they don’t want to call CPS and be in the system. I want to be the resource before they get to the system.”

She envisions a community center that offers support, job assistance, food, and hygiene supplies. Her ultimate goal is to purchase a bus for mobile services, including actively seeking out youth’s families.

“We are going to reunite people,” Dockery-Cornelius says. “It’s never too late because you are united by blood, no matter what. You can’t change that.”