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NORTONEllen McGrath was tidying up behind her Mansfield Avenue home, and uncovered a mystery.

Eleven years later and more than a thousand miles away, Melbourne, Fla., resident Pamela Perepchuk was searching for her birth family. She had been adopted at 18 months old.

Perepchuk's biological father was John T. Wormsley, whose World War II Army dog tag McGrath found hidden among the broken bottles, leaves and other rubbish in the woods behind her home - in 1997.

McGrath searched for a time for Wormsley or his family, ultimately setting the dog tag aside.

Not until about a month ago, when Perepchuk hired a private investigator to help find her real family, were the two parallel mysteries solved. "What are the odds that somebody found a dog tag that would have my father's exact name and rank number?" Perepchuk said in a phone interview with The Sun Chronicle. "I never thought in a million years that I would connect with anyone."

Perepchuk said the detective she hired generated a list of Wormsleys in Maine and Missouri.

One woman Perepchuk called said she wasn't directly related - but that McGrath had written to her a decade ago, to say she had John Wormsley's dog tag.

That's when Perepchuk called McGrath.

"It really surprised me to get that phone call from a woman looking for the same person," McGrath said in an interview at her home. "So far, this is the only thing she can connect to her father."

McGrath has since mailed to Perepchuk the dog tag, and some World War II Army buttons she also found in the trash that day in 1997.

McGrath said she was routinely cleaning up her back yard, which abuts the Wheaton College woods, "about this time of the year, in the fall."

The wooded area had become littered with broken glass and other trash.

"I was afraid my son was going to cut himself just on my property line," McGrath said.

Among the rubbish were some marbles and a silver spoon. McGrath dug deeper, no more than a foot, putting the dirt into a mesh sifter "like the archeologists use."

About 4 or 5 inches into the ground were the dog tag and the Army coat buttons, along with some German buttons.

A member of Norton's historical society and historical commission, McGrath said she was "ecstatic" to find the dog tag.

"Here I could find something that is related to somebody personally," she said.

McGrath said she spoke with George Yelle, who was president of Norton's Historical Society back then.

She said Yelle told her that an officers club had been down the street on Mansfield Avenue, which is Route 140.

Also, Camp Myles Standish had been in nearby Taunton.

McGrath checked Norton's census, street listings and other town records for John Wormsley, and found no one by that name.

She also mailed out at least a half-dozen letters seeking help with her search. She contacted U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who contacted the National Personnel Records Center for her.

The records center told McGrath that Wormsley's military record last listed him living in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 15, 1952.

A reference librarian at the Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Mo., sent McGrath Wormsley's obituary.

McGrath also wrote to Wormsleys in Missouri.

One person replied: "No, I'm not related. But this is interesting. If you ever find out, let me know."

Unbeknownst to McGrath, a second person who, too, wasn't related kept McGrath's letter.

"To me, that's amazing," McGrath said.

It was that person who led Perepchuk to McGrath, who had filed the dog tag and Army coat buttons away.

"I wanted to connect with the family. I didn't want to give them to somebody who didn't appreciate them," McGrath said.

Perepchuk's appreciation for them didn't emerge until about a month ago.

That's when her search for her biological family began.

Her parents told her, before they died in 1998, that she was adopted.

"It took me a long time to come to terms" with being adopted, she said.

"I knew nothing in terms of their names or where they came from," she said of her birth parents.

Perepchuk, 61, grew up in Maine.

"That was my playground, Acadia National Park," she said. "I had a very good upbringing in Maine with my adopted parents."

Perepchuk said she wanted to find her biological family "for my own piece of mind."

"Did they have any significant medical problems I should know about?" she said.

Perepchuk said she knew she had at least one sibling, because her birth certificate lists her as "2 of 2."

She discovered she was one of five Wormsley children: three sons and two daughters.

"For some reason, I was given away, and then they had three more," Perepchuk said.

According to his obituary, John T. Wormsley left three sons, a daughter, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren when he died June 3, 1991, at age 67.

He died at home, in his hometown of Independence, Mo.

During World War II, he earned the Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and a Philippine Liberation Ribbon. He served in the Air Force Reserve until 1952.

Thanks to McGrath's help, Perepchuk recently contacted one of her younger brothers.

"They weren't even aware I existed, and I wasn't aware they existed," she said.