TWO identical twin brothers who were separated at birth have been reunited after 39 years only to find they lived eerily similar lives.
Brothers Jim Lewis and Jim Springer grew up just 40 miles away from each other in Minnesota, US, without knowing each other existed.
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Born in 1940, both boys were adopted by different families and took the surnames of their new parents.
Remarkably, both families called their new sons James, or Jim for short.
Jim Lewis was aware he had been separated from his twin brother but was told by his mother that he died at birth.
Almost 40 years later, the men were reunited after Jim Lewis accidentally stumbled upon the contact details of his identical twin.
After their first meet, they were astonished to find they lived similar lives.
They both had wives with the same first name and had similar interests and hobbies.
As students, the boys enjoyed mathematics and woodwork but had a strong dislike for spelling.
Both of the twins first wives’ names were Linda.
And when they divorced from them, they both married a second wife, called Betty.
They even both had a brother called Larry, and a dog named Toy.
The two men were chain smokers, suffered from migraines and drove a Chevrolet.
The only contrast was their jobs, one a security guard, the other a deputy sheriff.
Due to the twins indistinguishable characteristics, the men were studied by University of Minnesota professor Thomas Bouchard.
They completed tests on personality, medical history and brain waves.
When asked to draw a picture, they drew the same thing.
The results stunned Professor Bouchard, who said he was left “flabbergasted”.
A similar case in California bewildered viewers when it was revealed two men with the same name were near-identical.
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