We all have the right to know where we come from. Whether you wereadoptedand never met your biological parents or yourfamilyhas been keeping meticulous records for generations, you still might be able to learn something new about your heritage from aDNA test.Quora users who found out surprising information about their family history from taking a DNA test have beensharingtheirstories, so we’ve gathered the most intriguing ones below. From finding out that they had a different father all along to learning about newsiblings, enjoy reading about these revelations people had thanks to a simple sample of DNA. And keep reading to find a conversation with DNA testing author and speakerRichard Hill!This post may includeaffiliate links.
We all have the right to know where we come from. Whether you wereadoptedand never met your biological parents or yourfamilyhas been keeping meticulous records for generations, you still might be able to learn something new about your heritage from aDNA test.
Quora users who found out surprising information about their family history from taking a DNA test have beensharingtheirstories, so we’ve gathered the most intriguing ones below. From finding out that they had a different father all along to learning about newsiblings, enjoy reading about these revelations people had thanks to a simple sample of DNA. And keep reading to find a conversation with DNA testing author and speakerRichard Hill!
This post may includeaffiliate links.
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Yes - I saw a picture of my birth mother for the very first time, after wondering for 35 years what she might have looked like!I’m adopted, and my adoption happened “behind closed doors” back in the 80’s. There was no letter from my birth parents, pictures, or even a name. When I was 12, I started to get really curious what my background was (after doing a school assignment of making a pie chart of my ethnicity…and making it all up!), and always wanted to see a picture of my birth parents. I was not seeking a relationship with them or to meet them - only to know a little bit more and to have a picture in my mind.My parents knew the doctor who arranged the adoption, so I wrote him a letter to find out whatever he knew or remembered. While he remembered some details, he didn’t know much and it didn’t satisfy my curiosity. However this was when the internet was in its infancy, so I just let sleeping dogs lie and moved on.Fast forward 20 years later, 23andMe came out and I was first in line to do a DNA test to learn what my ethnicity was. As suspected, it came back and I learned I had mostly southern-Italian blood. I thought this was cool to know, closed the app, and never thought twice about it. But then, the real shock…A few years later, I’m sitting around a table with a bunch of friends and one of them says “has anyone ever done 23andMe before? It’s so cool - you can see other relatives who have also taken the test!”. I never thought to use it for this info, so being curious I reopened the app for the first time in years and clicked the “relatives” section. Sure enough, I had a close cousin who was available to message.I messaged her, and she was very confused. Based on what I said, and on my name (which doesn’t reflect my birth parents name), she essentially didn’t believe we were related. I convinced her to have a phone call, and on the call it all made sense to her - my birth mother kept her pregnancy with me a secret from the family. No one knew, and so when I told her what I knew about my birth mother, she realized that we were in fact related but no one knew my birth mother ever had another kid - me!Long story short (I could go on forever, my birth and adoption were nothing short of a series of miracles) - my birth mother died when I was very young in an accident, however I learned her name for the first time. I resisted googling it, and slept on it. The next day, I’m sitting at work…I type her name into Google and hit images…and despite there being a ton of people that a popped up, I knew right away which one was my birth mother. She looked so much like me, and finally after 35 years of having a made up image in my head…I saw her. Such a surreal and amazing feeling!
A friend of mine was born using a sperm donor in the ’80s. She had two wonderful mothers and a great extended family, but part of her always wondered about the biological father no one had ever known. When she was in her mid thirties she decided to do 23andMe to see if she could get whatever information she could about that side of her family.She got the results back, found out her dad was most likely of western European descent, and, oh yeah, that she had 3 half-siblings. This was far beyond what she ever thought she would find. These must be the kids from her father’s marriage! She sent them all messages hoping to meet this other family, and maybe even her bio dad.Except none of them knew him either. Turns out they were all the product of the same sperm donor, and two of them had no idea until my friend had reached out to them that they weren’t the biological children of both of their parents. Oops. There was, of course, some family drama left and right. When the dust cleared though, they all decided to band together and find their real dad.And they did! Turns out in the ‘80s he had been a poor college kid making a little extra money donating to a sperm bank, and he still lived in the same area. Not only did they all meet him, but now he’s dating one of their moms, who, again, is the mother of one of his children, though they didn’t meet until over 30 years after the fact. Life is crazy.
To gain more insight into this topic, we got in touch with DNA testing author and speakerRichard Hill. DNA testing holds a special place in Richard’s heart, as he runs theDNA Favoriteswebsite and has written multiple books on the subject.We reached out to the expert via email, and he was kind enough to have a chat withBored Pandaabout what kinds of things people often learn through DNA testing.“You get a list of other test takers who share significant amounts of DNA passed down from common ancestors. Genealogists combine this information with paper records to confirm and extend their family trees,” Richard explained. “You also receive an estimated breakdown of your ethnic ancestry.”
To gain more insight into this topic, we got in touch with DNA testing author and speakerRichard Hill. DNA testing holds a special place in Richard’s heart, as he runs theDNA Favoriteswebsite and has written multiple books on the subject.
We reached out to the expert via email, and he was kind enough to have a chat withBored Pandaabout what kinds of things people often learn through DNA testing.
“You get a list of other test takers who share significant amounts of DNA passed down from common ancestors. Genealogists combine this information with paper records to confirm and extend their family trees,” Richard explained. “You also receive an estimated breakdown of your ethnic ancestry.”
I have a good one. I had long had a suspicion that my father was not my biological father. We looked nothing alike, not that it bothered me, but he was a 5′4″ Egyptian man and I’m a 5′9″ very white woman. At some point, my sister’s MIL gave her an Ancestry DNA kit for her birthday. Sure enough, it came back with 0% anything related to Egyptian. Both our parents have been deceased for several decades so we couldn’t ask them. At that point, I figured I should just go ahead and take the DNA test myself. Sure enough, same with me. I told my sister than I had heard a rumor from my mother’s best friend that our parents had fertility problems. I had quietly assumed that we had been a product of a sperm donation for years. My sister and I appear to be half sisters. She’s three years younger than I am so it makes sense. Sperm donors usually don’t donate for years and they may have tried to get a donor with at least some darker features. She was somewhat more shocked.Fast forward six weeks after my results came in and I get an alert from Ancestry, I have a match. I open up the email and the first line is something like - “John Smith (not real name) is your father”. I was ready to acknowledge that I was not biologically my father’s but, for some reason, it startled me that I would find my actual biological father. I didn’t contact him. I was in my forties at the time and I imagine when he donated sperm that many years ago anonymously, it never occurred to him I’d show up.That being said, a couple weeks later, he contacted me. After a few back and forth messages, it turns out he was a sperm donor, a retired OB/Gyn (not my mother’s for the record) and was indeed my biological father. On top of that, I have three other half sisters, the youngest of which is three months older than I am. He likes to brag/joke that he had two women knocked up at once. Of course, there may be more of us out there.I’ve met the family multiple times. They’re a very nice group of people and my biological father calls me his fourth daughter. I look a lot like my sisters. At 5′9″, I’m actually the shortest sister. My bio dad at his tallest was around 6′5″, I think.As crazy as all of this sounds, it didn’t really cause any identity crisis. I was in my 40’s. I knew who I was at that point and who my “real” father was, the one who had raised me. On top of that, I had fertility issues myself (just age related) and had used donor egg and sperm for my daughter. I discovered all of this after my child was born. It would never occur to me that my daughter wasn’t my “real” daughter. I gave birth to that girl and raised her and I’ve been honest with her about all of it, in an age appropriate way, of course. My mother died when I was eight so my Egyptian father was a single parent raising two girls. I still feel half Egyptian. As far as I’m concerned, I just have more nice people in my life.
Yes, a good friend had quite a shock.He, 70 years old, single, found out that he had a child. The mother was a high school girlfriend whom he impregnated and he never knew about the pregnancy or that she had given a child up for adoption.He met his daughter 50 years later when she did a DNA test as had my friend’s brother. So she found her uncle that way and soon after her biological father.My single friend became a great-grandfather overnight and is delighted to have this new family in his life. They are lovely.
Richard also has a fascinating DNA test story of his own. “I was the first adoptee to identify biological family through one of these tests. I shared the story of my decades-long search in my bookFinding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA,” he shared.“In most states, adoptees are denied access to their original birth certificates. Now, thousands of adoptees are using DNA as a powerful workaround to identify and reunite with their first families,” the author explained.
Richard also has a fascinating DNA test story of his own. “I was the first adoptee to identify biological family through one of these tests. I shared the story of my decades-long search in my bookFinding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA,” he shared.
“In most states, adoptees are denied access to their original birth certificates. Now, thousands of adoptees are using DNA as a powerful workaround to identify and reunite with their first families,” the author explained.
A month ago I looked at my Ancestry dot com account. Saw two messages from a woman who had a 50% dna match with me. I had surrendered my daughter in 1966 when I was 18 (and married, his rich parents consented to the marriage but said he would be sent back to Israel if we kept her). I was living with my alcoholic abusive mother, a wonderful stepfather, and a totally spoiled half - sister. I had suicidal thoughts almost daily, knew I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t get out.Yes, she is my 58 year old daughter. We connected and talked. I gave her life but couldn’t raise her. Good thing, in hindsight. Her life would have been hell. She has now withdrawn, which is her understandable choice. I let her know I am here for her when she is ready.
I wouldn’t call this shocking, but it was surprising.My wife and I met in high school in the early 1960’s. Both of us are white, and at that time we both knew that we were at least 3rd generation Americans but we had no idea who our ancestors before our grandparents were. When I retired several years ago, I decided to do some genealogical research for both of us. I’m not a serious researcher, but I was able to trace each of our ancestries back to our great-great grandparents, and in some lines back to two or four generations prior to them.In 2020, I decided to submit a DNA sample just to find out if there were any surprises. There weren’t any - my research was pretty much spot on. Same for my wife, with one very surprising exception: her DNA showed a trace of DNA from Senegal, a country in western Africa. My wife had ancestors who lived in Maryland, which was a slave state. I think that her African ancestor was a female slave sometime between 1780 and 1820.I told my granddaughter (age 14 at the time) about this and she wanted to see the DNA test results and asked me to print them. I later found out that she took the printout to school and showed it to all of her friends.When I was her age (around 1960) if a white person found out that they had an African ancestor, they would keep that a closely guarded secret. For my granddaughter’s cohort, it’s a status symbol. We are so much a better country today than we were then.
I had a DNA test about 5 years ago, and it confirmed what little information that I already knew. I have almost no living relatives, except for my children. That is where the shocking part comes into play. All three of my kids had 23 and Me DNA tests done at the end of 2023. They are all in their 30s now. The tests showed that they are all only 1/2 siblings, each one has a different biological father (not me). My ex (their mom) passed away 10 years ago due to cancer, so the mystery of who their biological father is went to the grave with her. This definitely has been an adjustment to our family as we all felt betrayed. At 65 to find out you have no biological children was very shocking. To make it worse, I am the last male descendant in my family.
People can make a wide variety of discovers from DNA tests. “Many other people are discovering that the man who raised them is not their biological father. Children of sperm donors are discovering half-siblings, sometimes dozens or, in rare cases, hundreds,” Richard noted. “People separated as children are finding each other. Those who trace their ancestry to certain countries, e.g., Ireland, can obtain dual citizenship.”
I am a member of Tall Clubs International. A group for people above average height. (I stand 6’4” and am one of the shortest members I have met.One of my friends is from a family of short(er) people.He stands 7’2”. His parents were 5’3 & >5ft and his sister is 5’5”. He heard all the jokes about “mailman, milkman, etcOne year for Christmas his year younger sister got one of the ancestor DNA kits and they both did whatever you do with those.Their parents had passed away several years earlier. The results came back and his sister and he have absolutely NO common factors in their DNA (completely different).They asked around their other family members and an old cousin told them. “Oh Yes, your parents adopted both of you when you were just babies.”In over 30 years, nobody ever told either one of them that vital bit of info.Now both of them are searching for where they actually came from.
We also asked Richard if he would recommend that everyone take a DNA test at some point. “Knowing where you came from (both people and places) is enlightening and satisfying. Discovering new family members can be exciting,” he shared. “For single people, it’s good to know that the person you might marry is not closely related due to some unknown connection. For most people, ethnicity reports demonstrate that we are a melting pot of many cultures and have much in common with others.““Everyone can learn something new about themselves and their family. Just remember that surprises are possible, and be prepared for unexpected results,” the author added.
We also asked Richard if he would recommend that everyone take a DNA test at some point. “Knowing where you came from (both people and places) is enlightening and satisfying. Discovering new family members can be exciting,” he shared. “For single people, it’s good to know that the person you might marry is not closely related due to some unknown connection. For most people, ethnicity reports demonstrate that we are a melting pot of many cultures and have much in common with others.”
“Everyone can learn something new about themselves and their family. Just remember that surprises are possible, and be prepared for unexpected results,” the author added.
Way back in 1998 I worked as an operator for US Quest phone company. I got a call one night (blew my stats to hell) from a woman who was trying to locate an ob dr. Her daughter was like 3 I think and didn’t look like her mom or her dad. The Father thought she had cheated on him and requested a dna test. Well the results came back that the child was neither of theirs!!! She had been switched at the hospital somehow! I searched every nook and cranny trying to find some information on this guy but couldn’t find him at all. My supervisor listened in and once I was done pulled me aside and said she would put a note in my file that I had gone way above to help this woman and we went over everything I had tried to find the guy and said there was nothing else she could think of that I hadn’t and to not feel that I had failed the woman. I felt so bad for her. All I could tell her was if it was me I would call an attorney and see what they can do.
My Mum was 79 when a lady who grew up in the same small town as she made contact and started chatting with her. My Mum said, “I don’t know who this person is, but she seems to know me.” Eventually, this lady said to my mum that she was her half-sister. They organised a DNA test and there was shown to be “a high probability” that they were half-sisters. AncestryDNA has shown that I am related to my Mum’s new half-sister. So after 79 years, her whole ancestry has changed.The story ended up being that my Mum’s father was unable to have children whilst her mother really wanted one, so the father of this other lady was allowed to produce a child with my Nan, that child being my mother. Apparently, the other family was aware of what had happened but kept it under wraps until my Mum was 79 years old when her half-sister decided to talk to Mum and see if she was a nice person. Having decided she was, she opened up to her regarding the situation.
Richard also says it’s wise to do your research before taking a DNA test, but he’s here to help.“Each DNA database is separate and you will only see matches with people who took the same test. Since certain tests will accept free data transfers from others, you can now get into all the major databases at little cost,” he noted. “On the other hand, some tests are a waste of money. Anyone interested in DNA testing should visitmy websiteto review all the major tests and get links to useful resources.”
Richard also says it’s wise to do your research before taking a DNA test, but he’s here to help.
“Each DNA database is separate and you will only see matches with people who took the same test. Since certain tests will accept free data transfers from others, you can now get into all the major databases at little cost,” he noted. “On the other hand, some tests are a waste of money. Anyone interested in DNA testing should visitmy websiteto review all the major tests and get links to useful resources.”
A guy named “Jake* contacted me and said it seemed my father “Henry” was also his father and had lived next door to his family and was very close to them (very!).Jake indeed showed up in the DNA results as my half-brother. I told him that, despite the genetic proof, he was not, in fact, my half brother. I explained that my father’s identical twin was named Henry and had lived next door to Jake while my father lived in a different state.I warmly welcomed this man into my family. His wish was to know Henry’s children, my first cousins. I contacted the first cousin who I am closer with. My cousin denied everything and swore me to secrecy. I suggested it could have been my father and, anyway, this is a human who had no responsibility for his conception.My cousin still refuses to meet Jake but came up with a theory that Henry had not cheated on their mom but rather could have worked for a doctor as a sperm donor (at the age of 55) when Jake was conceived.As our fathers are both deceased I just said “I guess we will never know.”In the mean time, my cousin’s child took a DNA test and matched to Jake. It’s hard to keep a secret these days and a human being is not a secret and has the right to know their roots.UPDATE: My cousin’s child contacted Jake and found out that Jake is part of our family. Looks like this secret is about to come out. If you have a DNA family secret please figure out how you want to frame it and tell you family before the truth comes out another way. Because it will.
Not a DNA test, exactly, but revealing nonetheless. While in college, I did leukocyte pheresis (donating white blood cells) at the Red Cross, and they have to cross-match the HLA type before they can be used. It was a two-needle setup, and when donating, you sit there doing nothing, and you get to chatting with the doctor and nurses. I once asked if the HLA types ran in population groups and the doctor told me yes, my HLA type was most commonly found in the Black population, and my cells were being used to treat a young black man who had leukemia.I’m quite pale, and my parents’ people were bigots from The Deep South as far back as we know. You can connect those dots.
As a child, I entered foster care. When I was younger, I had met some family members such as cousins and aunts/uncles. Many of them I don’t really remember because I was so young. My father was the oldest of 18 children so there were lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and 2nd cousins, etc. There was a family legend of sorts that my grandmother was Cherokee and had been adopted as an infant. I explored genealogy a bit but didn’t really have any answers in that regard. I learned a lot about other family members and some ancestors but nothing in the way of there being Cherokee or my grandmother being adopted.A few years ago, my mother-in-law told me about a project from National Geographic called the Genographic Project. This was much different than other DNA programs, such as Ancestry (dot) com. This was more of a project that explored migration and other factors. It wasn’t to see if you were related to another person.Anyhow, after some encouragement, I got a kit and submitted my DNA. When I received the response, it showed how my lineage migrated and moved around for a millennia. One thing that shocked me was I came back as being 39% Native American. In the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively high percentage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t break down tribal affiliation and the results cannot be used to enroll in a tribe. For me, it was a bit more personal. Having been separated from my family at an early age, it confirmed some of the family legend and, for some reason, I felt a little “connected” for lack of a better term.This isn’t and entertaining or interesting fact for others, but it wasn’t what I expected.
Well, I always thought I was Italian because of my last name, but then I found out my dad was really adopted and never told me about it I think because of the family trauma he went through. I found out that my Fathers maternal grandfather escaped Germany and I have also found a second cousin once removed who tells me all sorts of crazy story’s from my fathers side of the family. I absolutely love looking at all the old documents from newspapers like marriage announcements or draft papers, and reading articles about my family makes me feel like I know them, or have a better understanding of who I am.
I did. I actually took two. I found out the man I have called my father for 49 years wasn’t my biological father. My brother (his son) also had taken one and said we were not a match. My mother said he’s my father and maybe my brother isn’t his son. To which I replied have you seen him he looks just like my dad. She agreed. I am now very closely dna related to two men I’m assuming are my real father and brother that no one know who are. My father I’ve known my whole life passed away in 2015. He had a suspicion I wasn’t his but never said anything and raised me as his own. His family still excepts me as their family despite not being biologically. After 49 years I don’t need a father now honestly but I would love to meet my real father. I think that’s one my mother just might take to her grave. Time will tell.
A friend of mine and her siblings took the DNA Ancestry test just for fun, and were shocked to learn their father had had an entire family before he married their mom and had them. Their parents had passed, so there was no one to ask “WTH?!”They didn’t want to know what happened, but curiosity got the better of them. They hesitantly contacted the other family, who were indeed their half siblings (their mom was also deceased). My friend & siblings were, as a group, 10 years younger.Turns out the father’s first family knew all about his second family, from when they were kids. They apparently accepted he had new family. Their mom and dad were still a couple, but they spent limited time together because the father stayed most with his new wife and growing family.My friend said the newly discovered half siblings were excited to finally meet them. They had promised to keep their father’s secret and not contact the younger sibs; but when the youngers found them, they felt now they could reveal themselves.I asked my friend if she thought her mom knew her dad had another family, and his “business trips” were visits to see them. She said that’s what she and full siblings struggled with the most. They think she wouldn’t have accepted the situation from the start, so she couldn’t have known.But it still would have been a relief to ask her and know for sure.
I’ve had my DNA tested, mainly to try and work out who my dad’s birth father was as he was given up for adoption when he was aged 3. I worked out who the man was. I must be a bit of a shock to the great grandson of that man though as he does not really acknowledge that the connection is this close.I was talking about DNA to my maternal cousin. She got an even bigger shock. Her younger sibling and her are labelled as ‘self or twin’. She was a bone marrow donor to her sibling. Apparently when salivary glands are damaged during cancer treatment, the bone marrow makes new stem cells to produce new salivary glands.
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I found out I had a half-sister who had been born in a small town in Switzerland!I was born in San Francisco and adopted. My birth certificate has my father as unknown. So does my half-sister’s. Through genetic genealogy, we determined who he was. He was a grain dealer who worked for a subsidiary of Nestlé, which is based in Switzerland. That explains why he had fathered me in California and my half-sister in Switzerland. His obituary also said he was a big fan of Dixieland Jazz, and there was an English band in Merzligen nine months before my half-sister was born.That he was listed as unknown on both of our birth certificates, indicates he had at best a one-night stand with our mothers.We used the MyHeritage DNA test, not Ancestry.
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Yes and while the news was traumatic my familys reactions were more so. All of my life people told me that my high cheek bones etc made me looked native. Once a near stranger went into a rage b/c I insisted that I was as I looked…a blond blue eyed wasp. Then an estranged half brother many years my senior told me that he was really my father. The DNA test proved him right. Yes, his mother was native!I became the evil sister, aunt etc. My newly discovered father has been almost invisable up to that point but he completlty dissappeared once he had been proven right. All of my family shunned me as if I had done the deed that conceived me. My mother who has now passed raged at me for “trying to ruin her reputation” until the day she died. My “father” has finally been understood and is treated with kid gloves since he now claims sexual abuse. Which could be true, but the family seems to forget that I was not the abuser. My sister the psychologist has declared the topic out of bounds and won’t hear of it since she does enjoy her times in Maine with that side of the genetic pool. Blame the victim in extreme technicolor!
I took an ancestry test and didn’t find anything suspect and then a few years later a first cousin turned up. I took a look at his photo and decided he looked like my deceased grandfather. I asked my mom to have a look and she said no, looks nothing like him. I had only met him a few times in my life as he was a transient type. Anyway, my moms other half brother had an ancestry kit sitting on his shelf that his wife had gotten him. So to prove that this was another half brother, he took the test. As it turns out he is my moms viatnamese half brother. So when grandpa was in the Vietnam war he had a fling with a woman and this brother was the result, he never knew about him at all, it was a shock.
Not so much shocking as I realized I’d been lying my whole life. 😂My whole life I was asked if I was Irish. Red hair and green eyes… people assume Irish. I had several friends who had Irish heritage, one whose dad was just barely born here, her granddad was legit Irish, but I was German and Norwegian. That’s what I knew.I even had an older Irish man with a heavy accent say “so are ye Irish or are ye Scottish?” (I swear he said Ye) I said neither, and the LOOK that man gave me, like I was the biggest liar on the planet.I’d also had people assume I was Jewish. Yet again, I’m not.Then I did a DNA test. I have so many people I should apologize to. 😂 That poor old Irish man!! Turns out I’m German, Irish and Norwegian… with just a teeny tiny bit of Jewish to spice things up I guess. I found my Jewish relative hidden in my family tree later, for some reason she’d married into my Mennonite family a hundred years ago or so.
Yes unfortunately.I went to school with a girl we will call Jessica. She was lovely, kind intelligent, funny and witty but never really got into boys.Fast forward to when she was 28. She fell in love with her polar opposite. A lovely quiet guy who soon fitted into our long term friends group that caught up every Friday nite.To cut a long story short. Both were adopted so at different times both did their DNA.Yep, you know where this is going. Turns out they were twins.Both have since s******d.
For people of African-American descent, such as myself (I am mixed), one of the greatest impacts of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was severing the connection between Africans and those in the diaspora. For many years, Black people in our country have been unable to point to a country or region in Africa and say “that is where my ancestors came from.” I remember having books about Africa when I was a child and flipping through the many pages of detailed illustrations showing the wide variety of African cultural and ethnic groups that exist. When reading the book, I once asked my mum, “where in Africa do we come from?” That was one thing she couldn’t answer.Thankfully, the development of and access to new genetic technologies has allowed us to reverse some of this damage. I had decided to take the AncestryDNA test because I wanted to know two things: just how mixed I am and from where in Africa does my ancestry derive? The test did an amazing job of answering these questions! Here is my ethnic map:
My friend (I’ll call her Jen), had a son in law who had a son from his first marriage. Jen was always insistent that he was not her SIL’s biological son because he looked and acted so differently from his father.Since Jen is so into genealogy (and being right all the time). She decided to gift everyone in her daughter’s family a DNA test for Christmas. They all thought “Wow, what a cool, generous gift”, until the results came back.Yep! She was right. Her son in law’s ex wife had cheated on him and the son that he so loved and had assumed was his son for over twenty years was indeed not his biological son.This was a devastating blow to everyone. The son and Jen’s son in law was enraged at the ex wife. It must have been so heart breaking for both father and son.My friend relayed this story to me soon after it happened. She was so proud of herself for proving that she was “right” all along. Never mind all the heart ache and anger she inflicted on that family.I have no idea what the end result was with father, son and mother because I was so disgusted with my friend’s act and the pleasure she seemed to derive from it that I have pretty much stopped communicating with her. I do know that her daughter and son in law are no longer married, although I’m not sure how much Jen’s antics played a part in the divorce.I still feel so bad for all parties involved.Added note. Even though SIL can be used for “son in law” some people were finding it confusing, so I edited my answer in hopes it will be easier to follow.
DNA testing gave me both a small surprise and a big shock.Small surprise: I discovered that I have no Native American ancestry on my dad’s side despite family lore. Not that shocking, I figured it happens a lot.Big shock: Then someone contacted me saying we might be half sisters and I discovered my dad is not my dad. Turns out my cousins on the dad who raised me’s side do have Native American ancestry. I don’t, because I am not related to them. My head is still spinning. Turns out I have a whole other family with many first cousins and a half brother too. None of them knew about me and I knew nothing about them. A big surprise for all of us. They seem nice though. Very willing to talk and share info.I still have no idea how I am going to talk to my mother about this. She was 17 when I was born. 16 when she became pregnant. My biological father died of a drug overdose in 1973. My dad died of suicide in 1991. This could be a very difficult conversation, but I feel it’s one that we must have. I don’t want my mom to feel judged or cornered (or bring up bad memories for her) but I would like to know the truth. She may not even know. It was the 60s and she was a hippy (free love and all) - but she was only 16 and this guy was 24, so it could be a traumatic event for her. No one wants to find out they are the product of r*pe. Hopefully that’s not the case here.
Not shocking, just surprising for a woman born and bred in Scottish/English borders. First cousin marriages you’d expect and usual royal lineages for a Scot. But there was an ‘’injection” hehe of Spanish blood a few generations ago. Seems a married grandma of mine was a bit fond of the fellas.The biggest thing though was finding out my surname Kell is simply a product of continual misspellings on Census forms over centuries. I had presumed the name was probably from Kells in Ireland, including the rich heritage surrounding the book of Kells maybe. Turns out it was originally De Caille, a French Hugenot name. That line of family fled to UK from Europe as religious refugees. Interesting probably to nobody but me.
My daughter bought me Ancestry DNA several years ago as a Christmas gift. I knew my mother was adopted so thought it would be interesting to figure out a family tree. Two VERY surprising things:To understand how crazy this one is, I grew up in London, England and moved to Connecticut, USA in 1994. I was at our local bar here when my now dearly departed friend Daryl came in with his friend Danny. We got to chatting about family… Turns out his Great Grandmother and my birth Great Grandmother (Mom was adopted) were sisters!!!!!!!!! I moved 3000 miles from where I grew up and met a distant cousin at my local bar!Onto the scary one… My Great Great Great Grandfather (I forgot how many greats but very distant), was shipped of to the then penal colony of Australia after being convicted of r*pe!Not so shockingly, I am 91% Irish so if there are any Flahives out there, hit me up :)
My ex-wife did.Her brother was in need of a kidney transplant and, upon checking to make sure they were compatible, it was discovered that they weren’t. He was not her brother, he was her half brother.The man she had called Daddy all her life was not really her father.
Some years ago, my husband took the test. He was born in France and had three French grandparents and one German grandmother. His test came back mostly German, noting in particular German immigrants in the US midwest. No French. What?!?Come to find out that France (at least at the time) was not allowing genetic information to be made public. So, with little to no French data, this nationality wasn’t on Ancestry at all. A friend of mine with French-Canadian ancestry had the same issue. (I think this has changed, though?)As for the German, my husband grew up in the northeast of France (Alsace-Lorraine) which was German or Prussian territory at various times over history. And we suspect that many of the Germans who emigrated to the US, settling in the midwest, were probably from that area in Germany.My husband was disappointed. Instead, he found census and other official records from his region online and traced back his ancestry to a soldier who served in Napoleon’s army. Yes, he’s French.
My brother took the test, and we had always assumed that we were 1/4 dutch, and that the rest was a mix of Northern European, English, Irish ,Scottish German and French.The test came back with no Dutch, and 25 percent mixed Mediterranean.We know who all of our grandparents are, and 3 out of 4 sets of great grand parents. So, my great grand parents who told my grandmother that they were dutch, and had a name that could be dutch, jewish, irish or German.My guess is that their families were originally of Mediterranean Jewish origin and had moved to the Netherlands, before coming to Canada in the late1800s.My Great grandfather first name was Sim and my Great grandmother was Minerva. Those names are most popular in greece and Italy, though Minerva was an Icelandic name. But it does explain my grandmothers olive skin and dark brown hair.
You have to remember before doing this to be careful what you wish for. It can bring up family secrets.I have a co-worker who took a DNA test. When he got it back it showed up that he was half ashkenazi jewish. He knew for sure that this was not possible. He posted it on facebook and joked was there a mailman involved. His mother posted back, call me. It turns out that there was a sperm donor. This is important for his daughters. There is some specific genes for breast cancer that has a higher incidence for ashkenazi jewish background.He found a group on one of the DNA tracking websites for people who where half related to some anonymous donor. The donor had many offspring. Some of them were very upset, some of them where OK with it. My friend was having a hoot with it. He tells me that they are pretty certain who the donor was.Five years later my wife is on the website and looks at her family tree. Since the last time there was a bunch more on it. She looks closely and here is my friend who is distantly related through this sperm donor. For privacy they left the name of the donor blank.For us this is fun. As I mentioned above, some people learn something like this and are really upset that their parents never told them. Of course, they fail to account for, that without the donor, they wouldn’t be there to be upset.
I did genealogical research in the 80’s on my Mom’s side and it all came back Scots, English or Welsh. My father’s side was supposed to be German and Welsh. When the results came, it said 30% Jewish. What??? From where? Has to be father’s side but that means that both of his parents had to have some Jewish ancestry but my old biddy of a Welsh grandmother said she was pure Welsh. There were a few other surprises like Faroe Islands, Norway and Iceland and now, I want to see what I can find about my father’s ancestry.
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