I found THREE strangers who were identical to me & one lived just an hour away – so we all took a DNA test
A WOMAN has told how she found three strangers who were identical to her – prompting them to take a DNA test.
Niamh Geaney, 33, was keen to test the theory that every person has six doppelgangers roaming the world – and gave herself 28 days to do it.
She launched a project with her pals called ‘Twin Strangers’ in 2015 to hopefully hunt down her lookalikes.
But she ended up getting more than she bargained for and found THREE carbon copies – and two lived nearby.
The blue-eyed brunette first found Karen Branigan, 36, who lived just an hour away from her home in Dublin, Ireland.
They dressed in matching outfits for the “freaky” encounter and took snaps to show their similarities which ended up going viral.
Niamh said: “I was ridiculously nervous about how I would react to meeting someone who looks like me.
“I couldn’t get over her face, and some of the expressions she would pull, I would think to myself or say aloud, ‘Oh my God, that’s my face'”
The buzz surrounding the extraordinary meeting in April soon got people talking, which unknowingly led to the TV presenter discovering her second doppelganger.
By June, she was on her way to Genoa, Italy, to meet Luisa Guizzardi who had seen the pictures before contacting Niamh via her Twin Strangers website.
Their resemblance was so uncanny, even Luisa’s mum thought her Dublin-born doppelganger was her daughter from a distance.
They travelled around the city to confuse whoever they could, before Niamh gave her double a makeover.
The duo put on makeup and eye contacts while styling their hair and clothes the same way to see just how much they looked alike.
Luisa said: “Not only do we look the same, but we have the same soul. Like soulmates.”
Niamh was less phased by her mirrored complexion after her first run in with Karen – but was still amazed by the similarity.
She said: “The first time around, seeing another girl with my face was a new sensation, but it was so strange for it to happen to me again.
“I really do think I have another friend for life and god help me if I find my seven because they’re never going to get rid of me.”
It seems Niamh spoke too soon – as shortly after, she stumbled across her THIRD doppelganger.
Thankfully, she had a much shorter distance to travel as Irene Adams, 35, was also from Ireland.
She had also heard about Niamh’s ambitious Twin Stranger project and decided to do some more research.
I was ridiculously nervous about how I would react to meeting someone who looks like me.
Niamh Geaney
Irene explained: ” I was out shopping and a girl from school who I hadn’t talked to in years was telling me about this ‘doppelganger girl’ all over YouTube that was my twin.
“So I went home and out of curiosity looked it up. I then received a Facebook friend request from Niamh and a funny message about how she thought we looked alike.
“I was intrigued so decided to meet up with her.”
Niamh again set off to find her lookalike, heading to Sligo on the West Coast of Ireland to hunt her down.
The pair were left baffled when they realised that they bore resemblance to each other than Irene’s biological sister Aoife.
Irene said her dad even admitted if he spotted Niamh “from a distance he would think it was me.”
She continued: “I was so conscious of trying to be the same as Niamh when I didn’t really need to try at all.
“People who didn’t know either of us would probably think we are related.”
They noticed they both even smiled the same way – saying they get “crinkles” across their noses and around their eyes.
Stunned Aoife was then seen in a YouTube clip documenting their experience struggling to tell the two apart.
She told them: “It’s kind of uncanny. I think the idea is very strange.
“Like the idea that someone who is not related to you at all looks almost more alike than your own sister.
“You probably have more features in common than we do!”
It prompted the pair to dig even deeper into their remarkable likeness – seeing them decide to take a DNA test.
It determined that the Irish duo were not long lost sisters or related in any way even after going back 20,000 years in their ancestry.
The results showed that there was a zero per cent chance of the women being sisters, at 150,000-1 odds, and confirmed they didn’t share one parent.
Self-proclaimed “global doppelganger hunter” Niamh found out their ancestors descended from different sides of the world, which she described as “mental.”
Despite not being blood-related, the pair have remained close – like Niamh and the rest of her doppelgangers.
And it hasn’t put her off tracking down her four other lookalikes she believes are still waiting to be found.
She encourages social media users to get in touch if you locate any dead ringers – and suggests they should try and search for their own Twin Stranger too.
The site matches people from all over the world who have a similar appearance after simply uploading some photos.
The system focuses on facial features that best match two people.
Niamh claims over half a million people have signed up in a bid to be united with their doppelgangers.