In 1979, two Ohio men discovered they were identical twins who had been separated at birth after 39 years apart. Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were both adopted as three-week-old babies by different families living just 40 miles away from each other. Neither family knew the other twin’s location, and both were told that the other baby had died at birth.
The reunion began when Jim Lewis decided to search for his brother after years of encouragement from his adoptive mother. She had always remembered a courthouse official mentioning that “the other little boy” was also named Jim. Lewis contacted the probate court and found contact information for the Springer family. When he called Jim Springer, Lewis asked, “Are you my brother?” Springer simply replied, “Yup.”
According to People, when the twins finally met on February 9, 1979, they discovered similarities that beat even the possibility of coincidence. Both had been named James by their adoptive families and preferred to be called Jim. They had both married women named Linda, divorced them, and then married women named Betty. Their sons were named James Allan Springer and James Alan Lewis. Both had owned dogs named Toy and suffered from tension headaches.
The scientific significance behind the Jim twins’ story
The case caught the attention of Dr. Thomas Bouchard, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota who had been studying twins separated at birth since 1979. He immediately invited the twins to participate in his research project. “I think there are going to be all kinds of differences that will surprise even the twins,” Dr. Bouchard said at the beginning of his investigation. However, the similarities left him “flabbergasted.”
The twins underwent 50 hours of medical and psychological testing at Bouchard’s Minneapolis lab. Their brain wave patterns and medical histories were almost identical. Both worked in law enforcement, with Lewis as a security guard and Springer as a deputy sheriff. They drove the same type of car, smoked the same brand of cigarettes, and even vacationed at the same Florida beach without knowing about each other.
Twin brothers Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, separated at birth and reunited after 39 years, found astonishing parallels in their lives. Both were given the name Jim, each married a woman named Linda and later a Betty, and they both named their sons James Allan. pic.twitter.com/FLJkqPr5Xr
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) August 23, 2025
The Jim twins became the most famous case in what would become known as the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Over 20 years, Bouchard studied 137 pairs of separated twins to understand how genetics and environment shape human behavior. The research found that about 70% of intelligence differences could be attributed to genetic factors. The study also showed that identical twins raised apart were about as similar as those raised together in shocking family reunions that defy all expectations.
Dr. Bouchard later explained that while the Jim twins were unusually alike, most separated twins show more differences. “On average, identical twins raised separately are about 50 percent similar, and that defeats the widespread belief that identical twins are carbon copies,” he noted. The research helped scientists understand that both nature and nurture play important roles in human development, though the Jim twins case remains one of the most remarkable examples of genetic similarities that seem almost scientifically impossible to explain through coincidence alone.
