It can be quite astonishing what a simple ancestry DNA test can do. You order a kit, send in a simple saliva sample and your entire genome is checked over thousands of locations in order to reveal your ethnicity, genetic markers, relatives, and sometimes unexpected family secrets.
Finding out that you’re adopted or discovering a sibling that you never knew even existed sounds like something you see in the movies. But when Reddit user VideoFork asked, “People who have taken an ancestry DNA test and accidentally uncovered a family secret, what was it?“, thousands of replies started pouring in.
We have collected some of the most surprising comments from this viral thread, so continue scrolling! And if you have some family mysteries you want to share, don’t be shy and write them in a comment below.
This post may include affiliate links.
My son is my fourth cousin. We adopted him as an infant from an agency. Fun to find that we are actually related!
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this post, VideoFork, who was kind enough to share a few thoughts about ancestry DNA tests and the unexpected results some people receive. The user is not sure where they got the idea to start this viral thread, but guessed that it was probably from a video online. “The thing with r/AskReddit is it’s an open place but a lot of people’s personal stories don’t get heard because the topic may not suit them,” they explained.
They created the post because “we’ve all heard so many weird family stories (and I have many of my own) and with the addition of DNA Ancestry becoming easier for people to acquire, although still not cheap, you can find out crazy things about yourself and your family.”
I was adopted and always knew I was adopted. My parents told me that I came from a family that lived several towns over, and I was a surprise. When the tests came back, I found out I had a first cousin. I emailed them, started comparing notes, and wham! First, my biological mom was single. Second, I was not a late addition. I had four sisters and one brother. I was the baby, but only by a couple of years. Third, most all of them lived nearby.
Finally, nobody knew I was alive! My biological mom had passed. She had kept the pregnancy secret from everybody else. Before she died, she confided in one of my biological sisters that she had a baby a long time ago, and she had put the baby up for adoption. She told nobody else. When my sister told the rest of the family they didn't believe her! So when I finally looked them up, she was like, 'See! All those years! I told you so! We have a baby brother!' It was an amazing experience.
More than 30K members decided to share their interesting stories. When we asked the user why are others so interested in hearing them, they suggested that it might help people cope a little better. Some stories are worse than others, and “no one wants to say it but you always think somewhere deep down, ‘Wow at least that’s not me’.”
Of course, some of the members can be craving gossip, so for them the crazier the story, the better. However, more often than not, exchanging such experiences brings people together: “If you share a story about a part of your life that’s personal to you, you’re giving that part of yourself to help people to see that ’Hey, if this happened to me, then wow, you can deal with anything!’”
Being a white male raised in the south with some really racist family members they were shocked that we had 4 percent African in us.
Just goes to show you how stupid racism is.
I did the health DNA one 18 months ago because I wanted to see if I had the breast cancer gene, as there are several incidences on both sides of my family. Got my results and became very confused because it claimed I had no Italian despite my father's grandma literally coming over from Sicily in 1920. It took me a few minutes to realize what that actually meant. My parents have been together since my mother was 14, I was born when she was 17, and my father joined the military and married my mother. I called my mom and she literally said, 'That's interesting' and then she asked me not to talk to my father about it.
My sister ended up doing a DNA test and it showed that we were half siblings.
Looking into the past of your parents or grandparents can uncover hidden secrets which can be hard to accept. The user shared their personal experience of finding out something so unexpected that they had a difficult time handling it. It turns out that their grandfather sexually assaulted their grandmother way before they were born. VideoFork, who is now 23 years old, said that they do not wish to know any more details. The hardest thing was “that he died before I found out and I had known him all of my life and never saw a violent side to him.”
My grandmother is the world's sweetest person, and had a horrible horrible woman as a mother. Her father, though, was incredible. She always talks about how I remind her of him, the small and sweet things they did together, and how much she misses him. Recently, she told me that her mother would tell her "he isn't your real father, you know" whenever she felt like hurting my grandmother some more. This continued until the day she died, and her father escaped her mothers abuse, and never spoke to my grandmother again. My nana doesn't blame him at all, and still loves him very very much to this day.
She decided to go on Ancestry because she said that she needs to know before she dies, although she said it wouldn't change anything about how she felt about him.
Turns out, her mother was right. My grandmother found her biological family and loves to talk about her French heritage that she's now learning about. To this day, she doesn't hold anything against her non-biological dad.
He took care of my grandmother when her mother wouldn't, knowing it wasn't his child. He loved her, soothed her, and nurtured her through as if she was his own and he made sure thought she was. He saved my grandmothers spirit, ill tell you that much. He helped shape her into the most miraculous human being I've ever met.
To this day ill always refer to him as my great grandfather, and if I have a son ill be naming him after him. This story always gets me teary eyed, but the thought of Alistair, my nanas pretend dad, always makes me really happy. I know it makes her happy, too.
I found out I had a full 100% older brother.
My mother got pregnant by my father before they were married, which was scandalous in 1960. So, mom left town and lived with my aunt until the birth. She gave the baby up for adoption and then returned home. A couple of years later, she married my dad and had three more children together, including me. Fifty five years later, after both my parents had died, my aunt let it slip that me and my siblings were not the only children of our parents. My sister took a DNA test, and soon thereafter, we met our new big brother and his family and have become quite close.
“Finding out such jarring information about someone can cause ripples not just in the family but within you,” the user mentioned. And it can take a long time for it to settle. VideoFork said that if you decide to take an Ancestry DNA test with the intention of finding out family secrets, “you need to be prepared for the absolute worst thing you can think of and that won’t even start to fully imagine that gut punch.”
Found out I have a different father. My dad also took a DNA test at the same time and found out his father of 52 years was not his biological father either. As it turns out, I come from a line of bastards.
A few years ago my wife and I both took the 23 and Me test. One of her matches came back with 23%, which is high for someone non-family. She messaged him and they started talking. He was about 10 years older, said he was adopted, and the only thing he knew was some basic biological info. Because of his age, that would have meant her mom was about 14 when she had him, but her mom never said anything about it. She asked her youngest uncle and he said when he was a kid he remembered his sister going away for a few months because she was 'sick' and the family just pretended it never happened. So my wife now has a brother.
Genetic genealogist here. I have handled both volunteer cases and paid cases. The most shocking case I have seen was a person whose DNA led to his mother's admission that she was raped by her older brother. Very difficult situation for the family all around. The person who came to me ended up discovering their uncle was also their father.
I now warn clients, DNA can solve your cases, but they can also uncover difficult family secrets, so really think through the possibilities first.
Despite this, the user is glad that so many had the opportunity to share their stories: “It’s essentially just a question that anyone could ask but it’s good that … [some of] those 30K comments could have helped family members reunite, or people finding help for trauma that happened to them. And if one person feels better from it, then that’s fine by me.”
Found a new first cousin. My Dad's youngest sister had a child out of wedlock and gave her up for adoption. She reached out to me via Ancestry e-mail account and when I read her message I about fell out of my chair. She gave me her phone number and I left work so I could call her. When she answered the phone she just started crying. She never could find any connection to her Mother (my aunt) even though she had her name. She doesn't have any info on her Dad or his family. Her adoptive parents both died by the time she was 35 and she never had any children. So, other than her husband and his sister, she had no other family. I was able to inform her that she had a half sister and 2 half brothers and 5 cousins! Unforunately, her Mother had passed 7 years earlier.
After we hung up, I called her sister and gave her the news. She was totally shocked but reached out to her brothers and told them. they contact her the next day and it has been a happy connection.
It just so happened that I was traveling to her area for work 10 days later, so we met up. I couldn't stop starting at her while we talked because she looked just like her Mother and sister. No denying they were related.
We have visited her and kept in touch these past 2 years and exchanged presents. She is a truly wonderful person and I'm so happy that she has found a family connection with all of us.
I found a half sister that none of my siblings or mother knew about. My dad had an affair 50 years ago and is dead now. For us, it wasn't really a surprise, we already have a half-sister from another affair, but for the newly discovered one it answered a lot of questions and gave my mom some much needed closure. We all met a few times, it was pleasant.
My great-grandmother was always told by her foster family that she was given up because she was “a bad girl.” She took a DNA test and found she had five siblings. Her mother died and her dad was a blind immigrant. All his kids were taken from him because he couldn’t work and take care of them. She was reunited with three of her siblings before she died.
My aunt discovered that her mother cheated on her father and she was a product of that affair, meaning she was actually only half-siblings with her four siblings. The rub was that my aunt’s husband was married before he married her. The woman he was married to is the daughter of the man involved in the affair. So no one knew this, but my uncle got divorced and then married his ex-wife’s half-sister. I guess he has a type.
Not me, but a friend.
My friend (34F) decided to get her twin sister and parents a DNA testing kit for Christmas. When her parents opened the gift they looked at each other and said “Oh...thanks.” They quickly tried to move on to other presents. My friend was slightly confused, but dropped it.
Later they went for their Christmas Day walk. The mom and sister were walking ahead while she walked with her dad. Her dad spilled the beans! Her and her sister were adopted. The mother looked back and started crying - she couldn’t believe her husband told her daughter without them talking about it first. They were going to keep it a secret forever.
She had never suspected she or her sister were adopted because they look a lot like their parents. They are also very short, as are their parents.
Whoops!
My male cousin did one and found a female cousin we did not know about. He reached out to her and apparently our deceased uncle was good friends with her mother. Mom wanted a baby so uncle got her pregnant simply as a sperm donor. Female cousin lived a few blocks away from my grandmother. She had met her a few times going around selling Girl Scout cookies or something. My grandmother had no idea that she was buying cookies from her granddaughter.
My coworker found out he had a daughter from a girl he was with once at a party when he was 17. He is in his mid 30s, has a wife and children now. Turns out the mother died of cancer when his daughter was young and she was raised by her grandparents. They met and keep in contact now.
That my grandmother was biracial. She was abandoned shortly after birth at a church by an older white lady, adopted by a white farmer with 11 kids, and stopped talking to most of that family due to nondescript unpleasantness as an older teen. She died 20 years before I was born and looks like Maya Rudolph in the few photos I’ve seen, but insisted she was part-Sicilian.
Anyway, my mom got me a DNA test a few years ago. My grandmother was definitely half-Black, and I have no Sicilian or Italian DNA. I’ve connected with a few distant cousins over email and Zoom, am waiting for the pandemic to mostly end to talk to my dad about it and introduce him to more family.
Sadly this was likely about survival for both great grandma and grandma.
My wife was adopted at birth. This wasn't a secret, as she is brown raised by very white parents. But she lived her whole life thinking she was ethnically Hawaiian, as that was what her mother told her. She took a DNA test, not Hawaiian at all. It came back Native American (the Central America variety).
Flash forward a few years.
There was a falling out with her adoptive parents and communication was cut off. A match for a second cousin shows up one day and we decide to reach out. I figured it was a long shot, as odds are pretty strong a second cousin wouldn't know anything about an adoption 30+ years ago, but the 2nd cousin started asking her family about it and they all started taking DNA tests. Through this process we end up finding an Aunt who was able to help piece together who her biological father l
"...who her biological father likely is. Although he got deported to Guatemala years ago and they lost contact."
That my father is a registered sex offender.
My wife no longer knows who her father is. We are about to approach her mom about this, but that's a delicate relationship balance to approach due to her mom being very straight laced and proper.
Its shook my wife 45f entire foundation. She was from 6 generations of Texans....now she is lost. I don't know how to help her. She is not real interested in finding out who her real father is yet. She is also relieved because the man she thought was her father is a weird [jerk]. I wish her "dad" her moms current husband of 40 years was her real dad.....though he did legally "adopt" her years ago when the guy she thought was her dad abandoned her.
Its s mess. Hard pass on the DNA tests for me, I'm good being just 90% f**ked up.
Not to be rude, but I doubt anyone in the 6 generations of Texans is "100% Texan", and though I understand the wife's feeling of being lost, her mom is still part of the generation of Texans. It must be really hard, nonetheless.
I found out about my real father and three half siblings. It ended up being a really good discovery.
I have an uncle that was put up for adoption. He contacted my grandma and she thought he was going to extort her (they’re well off). Turns out he’s a multi, multi millionaire on his own.
They still have limited contact, though my dad has reached out and formed a relationship. Apparently they look exactly alike and have the same personality (which sounds kind of stupid now that I’m writing it out, but they’re only half-siblings).
Found out that my brother is only my half-brother. Our parents were never married, but my mom has insisted my whole life that my dad is my brother's dad. He never acknowledged my brother — claiming that the man my mom was living with at the time was probably his father. My mom has always said the other fellow was simply her roommate.
Poor brother. Imagine being a little kid and wanting your dad to love you, being rejected by the man your mom insists is your dad because he knows better and never knowing your real dad cause your mother insisted he was just a roommate. All the while older brother gets doted on by dad.
My uncle took the test and found a brother and a sister that were given up for adoption, but the family had been told that they died during childbirth.
My grandma died before they did the ancestry test and my grandfather was on his death bed when the first "lost sibling" was discovered. He died and no one brought up to him that they found them and we all met her at his funeral. She is the youngest of all the siblings.
The second lost sibling was found a couple years after that and it turns out he is the oldest of all 10 kids my grandma birthed. We have no idea her reasons for giving her first and last born babies up. Obviously she never thought anyone would find out.
It's entirely possible the hospital stole them and told her they died. This was more common with single mothers but was also done to poorer families too
I took a DNA test and found I am ethnically 25% Ashkenazi Jew. After eight months of serious digging, I found out my grandpa is not my father’s biological father.
Mother's side or father's side? I am assuming based on the above mention of Grandpa etc that it's father's side. If so, unfortunately the Jewish community won't recognise you on those grounds, my understanding is you have to be jewish on the mother's side. "Nobody's poifect" - Judd Seymore Hirsch
My wife is adopted, but found her biological mom and did one of the genetic tests. Someone matched with her and asked if she knew such and such a name. She found out her dad wasn't her biological dad, but he was actually her mom's boss.
A long lost relative contacted me. He is the same age as my dad and looked straight up related. He was adopted and wanted to connect with his birth family. Long story short, I found out that my grandfather had an affair with my great aunt and they put the baby up for adoption. My great aunt went away while she was pregnant and came back with no baby. It was the 60s. The family was freaking out about it trying to keep it all hush hush. I felt bad for the guy so I did my best to help him out. So technically, he's my uncle/cousin. And we live in kentucky, which makes it even funnier.
My ex-husband's family were proud of their Dutch heritage and claimed to be one of the founding families of the historically Dutch Holland, MI. His ancestry results didn't show any Dutch ancestry. Instead, he had primarily English/Irish ancestry.
And it's not possible they migrated to Holland before migrating to US?
My grandma found out her two sisters are actually only half sisters.
After some snooping she comes to find out that her real dad was the guy who owned the corner store where her mom worked growing up.
My FIL found out hes the milkmans son so to speak and everyone else including his sister knew. It explained why they treat his wife and kids like black sheep.
What do the wife and kids have to do with the FIL being the milkmans son?
A friend discovered that her father was not really her father. Her mom had an affair and she was the result. It tore her family apart. Her father did not know he was not really her father.
Not really a secret but my paternal grandparents swore up and down I wasn't related and my mom was a whore. Did the test and boom they are right there on the list of family, and when my dad did it it said I was directly related. So I hope their years of being asses was worth it.
Not me, but a friend never knew who his father was (mom had a weekend fling in college and never contacted the guy after) and his wife helped him use ancestry.com to try and track him down. My friend reached out and the guy was obviously surprised, but flew across the country to meet him. They have a great relationship now, the dad attended his wedding, and they try to get their families together a couple times a year or so
So I live in a very small town and when I was about 9 or so I went to my friends birthday party. This girl hung out with another group of girls so I didn’t know everyone there too well. I’m not sure how we got on the topic but one of the girls told me her dads name was Steve and she wasn’t allowed to talk to him. And I was like huh that’s weird, I have a cousin named Steve and you kind of look like his son a bit. I asked my mom to send a picture of Steve and the girl said it was her dad. Obviously I didn’t understand very well but I told my mom it that Steve was my new friend’s dad. She told me not to say anything about it. Well Steve had been married for many years at this point and had two sons only a few years younger than me...so for Steve to be my friends dad that meant that he would have had to of cheated on his wife.
I didn’t think about this for many years and we all sort of blew it off. I never really hung out with this new friend again and she grew up to have a very difficult life. I know her family struggled financially and her mom was out partying it seemed. The poor girl was even found in a porn video that ended up circling in the town. Meanwhile Steve is living in a very nice large house, his kids have everything they need and he is living the life.
So I do 23 and Me and the friend is a suggested match as my cousin. I sent her a connection request and I’m waiting for her to accept it. I’m not really sure if I should mention it to Steve or what. I told my parents only. I just feel so horrible that had Steve stepped up and fathered this girl as he did his other children her life could have been drastically different. Or at the very least paid her mother child support.
If the mom was a party girl, all the child support would have gone in alcohol and drugs. Best taking the kids with you.
My father in law who is a devout Christian was actually fathered by someone else. Turns out his biological father is an infamous drug dealer. A side surprise is that he had always believed he was a certain nationality. He doesn't have one single drop of it.
Not me, but a family friend.
He did the test and found out he had a half-brother. Turns out his dad had an affair a while back, and that kid was a product of that affair.
Not me, but an elderly customer at work the other day.
She came down with some serious illness and the doctor had her take a DNA test to see if it was hereditary. Turns out it was from her fathers side. But not the man who raised her. So she went hunting to find her real father. Turns out that he was a Korean War vet. Took part in Chosin Reservoir and loads of other things. Two years after she found him and all of her half siblings, he passed.
If you have any uncertainty before you take a dna test just make sure you’re prepared for the repercussions that it will certainly bring. It will cause irreparable damage once “the secrets out”. My wife hasn’t spoken to her mother in years because she found out the man she had been calling dad until his death was not her father and her real dad died about 6 months before she took the test. Everybody in her family already knew and nobody told her.
This whole thing of family secrets is lame. It's all because of religious conservatism. Let people know who they are and where they come from. A stepfather is good enough as a father if the real father didnt want to take responsibility. My stepdad is a fantastic guy, definitely going to be chilling with Jesus once he passes.
Not me, but my brother-in-law. Put my nephew’s test results on Ancestry and got a match that someone nearby had a genetic match. His dad was something of a womanizer so he figured maybe his dad had had a kid in a nearby city on the down low back in the day. Contacts the person, turns out it’s a woman he knows because my nephew has been in a class with this woman’s son. He tries to be gentle in asking about her family, she tells him straight up “oh, I’m the product of a one night stand, his name was (my dad’s name)”. My BIL is like “that’s my wife father...” Turns out my dad had hooked up with her mom once while on a brief return from being overseas in the Marines. Her mom got pregnant and married another guy who was happy to raise her as his own. My dad never saw the woman again. Funnily enough he also got another woman pregnant within a few weeks and married that woman. My oldest sisters are only about 5 weeks apart but didn’t know of each other until they were in their 50s.
My sister did one through 23andme maybe 3 or 4 years ago now, and discovered we had a cousin. His profile was public because he had been adopted and was hoping to reconnect with his birth family. We were able to figure out that he would have belonged to my dad's sister. My sister wasn't sure how to bring it up with her, so she asked my dad if he could talk to his sister about it, but he dragged his feet a bunch so my sister eventually had to let her know.
It turns out she got pregnant in college back in the sixties and the father bailed, so she went to stay with a friend across the country, had the baby, and put him up for adoption. She ended up telling her parents years later, and they were like, "Oh, okay, thanks for telling us," and never brought it up again because they are extremely repressed. She had also told her husband prior to their marriage, and when their kids were teenagers they had been filled in as well, so it wasn't a HUGE family secret - it was just one the extended family didn't really know about.
Anyway, my sister put our new cousin and our aunt in touch. He had done the DNA test hoping to learn more about his medical history, but also because he wanted to let his birth parents know that they made a great decision and he had an amazing adoptive family and had had a really happy life and had no bad feelings towards them. That was a HUGE relief for my aunt, because she had always worried about that. The two of them have built a great relationship now and see each other often. I haven't met him in person yet, but several of my family members have including my dad. My aunt and dad and grandma have all become close to his adoptive parents too, as well as our cousin's wife and kids. His birthday was actually day before yesterday - I'm Facebook friends with him and saw it there.
My cousin took a test and goes on and on about how she's almost completely Irish. Our grandpa was German. I'd heard from my mom as a kid that my aunt's biological father was probably her friend's father. I've looked the family up on Facebook and my aunt looks just that friend. My cousin seems to have no idea of any of this. I don't think my aunt does either.
I always thought I was half-Greek, half-Lebanese until I took the test and found out I was 75% Lebanese. What made this crazy was that when my parents first started dating, my "Greek" mother's family were initially reluctant that my mother was dating someone of Lebanese descent.
My mom found out her father wasn’t her biological father. She looked at close relatives and realized she recognized the last name of one of them- family friends. Oh, but this wasn’t your standard mom-cheated-and-didn’t-tell-dad story.
She always suspected she wasn’t actually her father’s daughter because he told her he wasn’t. Legit. But her mom and aunt and grandma held true to the story.
With the DNA test, Mom got out of her mom the truth. The other man, my mom’s true biological father and their family friend, was considered “uncouth” by the family. So instead of marrying him, my grandma married this other guy who was considered much more societally appealing. He knew, and agreed to raise the baby as his own.
The sad part is, he was a s**t dad. Total [jerk]. My mom met the other guy, her biological father, about 3 years ago and they have had an amazing relationship so far. She feels like she missed out on her “good dad” for so long, but is happy to have it now. She also gained a half-sister, which is cool because they’ve known each other since they were little and used to call each other sisters without knowing the truth.
PS- Her bio dad didn’t know the truth, but had some suspicions. But he couldn’t very well have come out to his family friends and been like “that’s my daughter!” because it would’ve been super rude and crazy if untrue.
My dad's side of the family is from the American Southwest, and is of purely Mexican heritage, but one of my cousins has deep blue eyes. The joke was always that her father "wasn't really her father", as nobody on that side has anything other than dark eyes. She looked enough like her father, though, that it was just a joke, but still nobody could explain it.
We had a family reunion a few years back, and it was discovered that she had some German ancestry...which was quite a shock, because as far as we knew there were no Germans in our family history that we'd known about.
It wasn't until watching the Selena series on Netflix that my wife said that Tejano music sounded a lot like Polka. I looked into it, and come to find out, in the 1800's some Polish and German folks emigrated to the Northern Mexico/Texas area, and brought a lot of their music with them! Not saying this is why, necessarily, but it does explain why there might be some German in a purely Mexican family's genes.
I have Mexican relatives throughout my family even though both my parents aren't. Blue eyed blond haired aunts and uncles. Not all Spanish people are dark skinned dark eyes and hair. In school we learned the Huns invaded Europe a long time ago raping all the women and killing all the men. They stayed the longest in Spain and Italy. Before both areas had fair complexions. I have nephews born with Asian eyes and blue birthmarks on their rears. My own son did as my first husband was Spanish. As they grew older their eyes became more regular. The birthmarks look like bruises but fade quickly within a few weeks. More than one Asian or Spanish mom has been accused of beating their infant. Even charged with child abuse over it.
"I found out that my dad is not my biological father. Turns out my dad is the family friend I grew up calling ‘grandpa.' And he was also my mom’s bariatric surgeon
A woman over in Chicago decided to find out who her real parents were. She was getting close to 60 and realized that there may not be much time left to find her father. So through the magic of ancestry she was matched to my grandfather.
She seached out to him and told him who her mother was. He didn't recognize the name but dug up his little black book and lo and behold...there she was.
So now I've got a new aunt!
Always thought my grandfather on my father's side was adopted and thought our last name was just of the family that adopted him. One DNA test later and the family figures out that my great grandparents got pregnant out of marriage and ran away. They came back with a child saying it was adopted so they wouldn't be shamed for him. That's how we figured out that my last name is for sure from blood
My friend was adopted through a closed private adoption. Her adopted parents got her an Ancestry test for Christmas a few years ago. She matched with her birth mom and half sister then made contact through Facebook. After trying to get basic family info and medical history (my friend has lots of health problems including cancer) it became clear that her birth mom was keeping secrets.
Another friend of my friend did some searching online and found the birth dad and made contact against my friends wishes. Turns out the birth mom had slept with her brother-in-law and gotten pregnant. My friend was given up for adoption to hide the secret. It caused some scandal in their family and my friend no longer talks to them.
She did meet her birth dad and he was a nice guy. Turns out he and his wife wanted to keep my friend but the mother didn't give him a choice.
My great gran (who I knew) was an orphaned live in servant in Greenock, Scotland in 1900, got pregnant by her employer, kicked out, ended up in the poorhouse where she abandoned the baby. DNA turned up the granddaughter of the baby. Met her in Glasgow a couple of years ago. She turned up as a cousin via DNA.
I was adopted as a baby and was looking for my birth family. I ended up connecting with a lady who similarly in the dark and was also looking to connect with her father's family. Apparently her father hated his father for unknown reasons. But she did know her grandfather's name and through that I was able to do some research and was able to find my birth mother. Talking to my birth aunt, who keeps track of all the family records, that lady's unfamiliar grandfather was my great grandfather. But my aunt/grandmother/pretty much everyone else in the family had no memory of these other people. Turns out that the families were living just a few blocks away from each other at the same time. THE GUY HAD A WHOLE OTHER FAMILY HE KEPT SECRET.
TLDR; went looking for my birth family and discovered that my birth great grandfather had a second family down the street and they didn't know about each other.
My dad and Aunt found out they had an older brother!
Long story, my grandfather had a fling before he met my grandmother, never even knew he had a son, went and lived his life and some near 60 years later, BOOM! Ancestry test, here you go!
So another really good story from this one.
My father in law had a child back In the 60s. He was a really nice guy. Didn’t want any money or anything, just wanted to say thanks for putting him up for adoption instead of abortion. He had a good foster family and turned out well rounded. Also it turned out he lived a few miles from my in laws yearly vacation spot. They met up and had a few beers and caught up. The birth mother wasn’t as cool. She was a grandma and didn’t want to spoil her identity. To each their own.
I found out the person who I thought was my father was not. This is something I long suspected, which is why I took the test. I exchanged messages with my newly discovered Uncle or half sibling for awhile. I was unable to determine our exact relation. They didn’t want to pursue a relationship and didn’t pass my information on, so the mystery of who my father is ended there. I did a bit of Facebook stalking and found probable suspects but I never reached out. On the plus side, even though the person who I believed to be my father was not, I grew a new appreciation for him. He was a terrible father, but treated me the same as his bio kids.
My mother found out that she had another brother through one of the ancestry sites.
My mother received a letter in the mail from a man claiming to be her brother. He attached a copy of his birth certificate and a picture of himself as a child. At first my parents, my mom’s brother and the rest of our family didn’t know what to make of the letter. The birth certificate had both my (deceased) grandparents name and signatures from a hospital in a state that we don’t live in and the photo of him as a child bared striking family resemblance. At first they thought it was maybe a possible scam?
My mom and uncle ended up agreeing to meet this man and he explained that he had been adopted at birth and lived in that state ever since. He did one of the ancestry sites since his birth parents always interested him but he never had the resources to track them down. Overall my mom and uncle said he was a nice guy and he had his own family now and I think it provided a good amount of closure for him.
However, I’m not sure how it affected my mom and uncle that they found out that their parents took this secret with them to their grave.
My family discovered that we should have a different last name.
We did the ancestry DNA test and found we had cousins with a last name we had never heard of, even with our extensive ancestry research in the past.
We found that it had to do with my great great grandmother. She was married to a farmer (with my last name). There was a socialite family, a doctor and his wealthy daughters, living a mile away from her. They happened to have this new last name!
So, my great great grandmother kept a secret from everyone that she got pregnant from this wealthy doctor and had a boy, my great grandfather.
Absolutely no one in my family knew until we took this DNA test. It blew our minds!
My stepmom was very proud of being Spanish and Catholic. Turns out she’s just Catholic.
I found out my grandpa isn't my grandpa. I was showing my Mom my ancestry results and we were scrolling through the DNA relative list and a woman who did not share any family names with me popped up as most related to me. My Mom saw the woman's last name and burst into tears. Apparently this woman shared the last name of my grandma's former boss... my mom turned out to be the result of an affair and it is unclear whether my "grandpa" knows. My mom always suspected something like this to be true as she didn't look like any of her "dads" family but this was confirmation and she took it rather hard :(
I found out my paternal grandfather was not my real grandfather and that my father was the product of an affair or [something else]. I found the entire family I am related to, my last name isn't really accurate and I was told I was an ethnic group I always thought I never looked like. I think my father's sister KNEW just looking back but that he NEVER DID. I found cousins on that side but sadly due to my age in my 50s, most relatives had died off, real grandfather died in 1969. This explains why I never met any great uncles or aunts on my father's side of the family, they basically had nothing to do with us.
I found evidence in newspaper articles that my grandmother [real] knew and step/adoptive grandfather's family knew the family I would be related to. They were all from the same town. I am no contact from my family so no one found out. What is weird is I thought I was adopted for years. I joined ancestry to find out if I was, and always thought my last name was "wrong".
Real grandfather was a very busy man.....I had relatives all over the place. One grew up in foster care and knew nothing of her real parents. He would have been her real father.
I (34) found out that my dad (78) is not my biological father. He learned that I was awaiting results of the test, which was an innocent birthday gift from my wife, and broke the news to me over a beer in an awkwardly crowded bar (about a week before quarantine started).
My parents used a donor that was selected from a local medical school by their fertility doctor, the only basis seeming to be that this student “looked like” my parents. I haven’t been able to find any useful leads on who my biological father might be, just distant family relations.
Oh, well that would be when I brilliantly gave everyone ancestry tests for xmas and my husband subsequently learned that his beloved upstanding Jewish grandfather had fathered a secret child with a lovely black woman back in the sixties—times were different!—and he has a whole set of cousins and so on who look SO much like him, all of which then surfaced some repressed memories about being taken to a house when he was a kid and having to wait around while grandad went off with this woman, etc etc.
So THEN, we had to run super quick over to his mothers house and secretly steal the test she fortunately hadn’t done yet, because that would prob kill her, and so now that’s a huge secret too.
Great gift, 10/10.
It turns out I'm the result of an affair between my mother and (who I thought was) my uncle (dad's brother), and my mother and father (technically uncle...?) had a son who was stillborn that they told nobody about right before I was born. Luckily I found this out after I already yeeted the whole family, so haven't really had to deal with it - but they don't know that I know, so that might be a good one for a funeral or a surprise visit.
My grandpa knew he was adopted, but didn't know much about his bio family. He did have a few very specific details (there was a set of twin girls, for example, one redhead, and one blonde, and he knew the names of one of their adoptive parents). His adoptive parents knew the other adoptive family, and he even met one of his biological brothers briefly when he was very young.
I tracked down one of the twins through her adoptive parents' names, and slowly pieced together other siblings. 14 in total. At least 4 were adopted out, but many were kept by the bio parents. My grandpa isn't one of them. My DNA doesn't match these siblings DNA.
So, it's anyone's guess where he came from, or why his parents lied about who his biological mother was. MY guess is that they were protecting some woman who got pregnant and needed to keep it a secret (it was the late 1920's), and since they knew this other woman had had many children, and had given some of them up for adoption, they used her as a scapegoat. But until I can find a DNA match, it's impossible to say!
My father was Sicilian, my mom was Ukrainian.
I’m not Italian, not even half a percent.
Called my elderly aunt, then my mom’s childhood friend, both in their seventies. Before I even finished the question they each said “Yes, I know.”
Did a test as a teenager with my boyfriend just for s**ts and gigs. We got extra curious and looked into the meaning behind my family’s last name and found my father’s marriage certificates for two marriages prior to my mother. Asked my mom about it and she had no idea so that was super fun.
Turns out, my parents are VERY distant cousins like 12 generations back... still pretty wild though
That my dog is apparently related to royalty.
I didn't trust that these ancestry DNA tests were accurate, so I paid for one, but instead of sending in my DNA, I sent in my dog's DNA. I filled out the written part of the test with a bunch of lies about "family heritage" and "family history."
Not only did they not detect that the DNA was not human, the information they claimed they learned from the DNA matched the written information very closely.
In other words, they didn't bother to test the DNA at all and are making up stuff that will sound exciting to people who are willing to pay the $99 for lies.
But, chances are, they are keeping the DNA and building a DNA data base for use by organizations (both government and corporate) that they shouldn't be using it for.
A lot of these seem like secrets better left buried. And a memorial to the horrible effects social conservatism ( racism, prejudice against single mothers, unwed couples etc) has on families
Not really a scandal, I found out I have a second cousin who was born out of wedlock while his father was working on the railroad (all the livelong day). The father (my great-uncle) wasn’t married at the time, but this was like in the 50s so that’s juicy. Also for a not scandal, I did ancestry dna and proved I’m my father’s daughter lmao. He insisted I wasn’t his like right before I was born - rude - and a nurse said I looked just like him when I was born, and now I have the dna evidence lol. He’s never messaged me, and that’s fine. D**k.
I am always torn with these stories. I mean, what right do you have to mess with other people's lives? Is it worth it destroying other's marriages? If it's your parents, it's one thing. It directly affects you if you dad is not your bio dad. But messing with your grandparents' long buried secrets, ripping open old wounds, retraumatizing raped or abused family members... I don't know.
This is why I've decided not to do one of these tests. My idle curiosity isn't enough of a reason to potentially expose extended family to distress.
Load More Replies...
Not that I'm lazy but these kind of posts should be images or maps instead. I got bored and stop reading in the 3rd or 4th time I got lost into mother's uncle's second wife's 5th son's cat found out his cousin's math teacher's milkman best fiend turned out to be his grand grandson
Interesting how ancestry tests can show that your intuition that you're "different" may be super accurate, and that you may in fact be adopted or have been produced by different parent/s to those who you thought were your parents. I'm 100% confident about my own because we have such idiosyncratic features that they're unmistakably genetic. In fact if I see a photo of my dad from the 1970s it could easily be me now. But, on the racism thing- . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvS2gjMMXBQ
These DNA tests make companies rich and have access to your most private data and only open pandoras boxes for everyone particularly mothers. No mother is going to talk her kids she was raped or coerced 40 years ago so you have to pretend it was an affair. I don't see why everyone needs to know their distant relative who 9 times our of 10 will only ask you for money. Americans who want to pretend they're European by looking up their heritage. All these tests prove what we already knew, that blood is not thicker than water.
I'm actually rather glad that the whole 'hide the baby' portion of US history is pretty much impossible to continue. Trying to bury the family secret never works out well.
I can start with this: Found out that our "Welsh" ancestry was Native American. The Great-greats decided to pass their kids as white in a US Census to save them from the late 1800's US idea of morality...But I won't check for Lost Relatives. My late father was enough of a sh*t. I don't want to know if he cheated on my mom. That said, it's a non-secret secret that my dad's oldest brother has the same father on paper, but in reality, everyone knows it was someone else, and that's that. So technically the husband of my second cousin's mother is the father of my uncle. No, we're nto from Kentucky.
23 & Me tests over here. Found out my older brother is actually my half brother. We're not telling my dad. Mom's long dead so we can't ask her. I did speak to my mother's sister to see if she knew; my aunt said no, but that she & my grandmother always wondered. My brother has been contacted by his half sisters on the other side, but they won't let him contact his bio dad because apparently he's really sick & we don't know from what. My brother isn't pursuing this any further and, well, that's his choice and I support him.
Also I'm pretty sure that my 70 year old father isn't on Bored Panda since he only seems to use his computer for playing mah-jongg and watching metal detecting videos, otherwise I wouldn't have posted this.
Load More Replies...
When my (divorced) mother got really angry with us kids, she'd say something like, "I should have stayed with my first husband." Afterward she'd refuse to talk about it, so we didn't know if she'd really been married before or not. Needless to say, I didn't like her. Then my sister did a DNA test and discovered a half-sister. Yes, apparently mom had a daughter before she met our dad. I found it interesting, and was happy to get that mystery cleared up. Didn't like her before, didn't like her after. Catholism and the conservative 1950s probably caused part of it, so I'm happy these times are past.
It wasn't from a DNA test but my mother discovered some unexpected surprises. My grandma grew up in South Dakota and proudly told everyone that her grandfather, who she never met, was John Swift Fox, a Sioux Indian scout. When I was in HS, my mom got into genealogy and discovered a twist. He was an Irish immigrant who worked as a civilian scout with the US Army to find and kill the Sioux. His parents named him after the Irish Satirist, Johnathan Swift. When my mom confronted grandma, she was flabbergasted that anyone would think we had Indian blood. Grandma thought when she was bragging about her grandfather, everyone just knew he was helping kill the Indians because no one would admit to having non-White blood. My mom converted to the Society of Friends (Quakers) and had been a pastor for about a year when she picked up the genealogy hobby. Turns out we have a common ancestor with the founder of the faith, George Fox.
I'm never going to take a commercial DNA test: storing my information on some whacky server waiting to either be hacked, leaked or bought by God-knows-who (insurance companies would kill for this kind of data).
Growing up my father always said he was a mutt and acted proud of it. He said he was, English, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Russian, and Hungarian. I thought he was full of it. On my mom's side, I was told my grandfather was French (he was fluent) and my grandmother was Polish (she was fluent). Took a DNA test! Turns out my father wasn't kidding. Oddly though, there was no French in the test. Not sure what's going on there. Unrelated, when I was in my late 20's and after my mom had passed my dad started getting daily phone calls. He had no friends or living relatives I knew of so I grabbed the phone one day and demanded to know who it was. She responded she was his wife!!! After some probing, it turns out she was his FIRST wife! I never knew he had one. The interesting part? I have 2 older sisters and my oldest doesn't look like us two! I still don't know what to do with that info and I'm 60 now...
These tests cannot be absolute. I have read of identical twins (known form birth) that got different read outs. And at most these tests do NOT test for individuals, but actual 'race'.
Load More Replies...
I took a DNA test a year and a half ago. Saw 35% Swedish in my results and knew neither parent had any. Scrolled down to my matches and only saw my mom. I called her at two in the morning to ask who the heck my dad was. I knew they’d gone to a fertility clinic because my mom had several miscarriages. Never knew my dad’s swimmers had any issues. Back in those days they would mix donor sperm with the hopeful father’s so you could hope the kid was the father’s/ wouldn’t know for sure. My dad actually bought the DNA test for me and hoped he was actually my dad. Didn’t prepare me in the slightest for my shocking results. I also matched with three half siblings and ended up talking to one who lived nearby on the phone later that day. We ended up meeting like two days later and spent four hours just talking and staring at our matching dimples and smiles. We look a lot alike but the other siblings don’t, so she was equally as shocked to have a conversation/ meet someone who looked like her.
Ran out of space! Lol. In the last year and a half we’ve gotten risk I lose. Spent a week in an Airbnb at the halfway point of where we all live over the summer and celebrated our birthdays together twice. It’s literally been the greatest gift to find them, they’re like the piece of me I didn’t know what missing but I feel so complete now with them in my life.
Load More Replies...
There is a chart on the 23andMe site that lists the range of DNA percentages that you share with various relatives. There's a bit of overlap between many of the categories. __ https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170668-Average-percent-DNA-shared-between-relatives
Not sure why folks would pay good money to give their genomic sequence to a company who can use or sell it to whoever they wish, especially considering the above stories
About something claiming they are from a certain country and DNA shows otherwise... Your family can still have lived in that country for a /some generations. DNA doesn't show where someone has lived. When you are born in the Netherlands, Italian parents who moved there, you have the Dutch nationality / are Dutch. Same for the partner, so those two have no bloodlines from the Netherlands and have kids. Who feel totally Dutch.
I was contacted through Ancestory by a young man who thought I might be his aunt. I was actually noted as a 3rd or 4th cousin. He was looking for his biological father. I wracked my brain trying to help him. He looked more like the Spanish side of my family by marriage. I gave him some possible places to look. Then I heard nothing more from him. Made me feel sad that I couldn't help more, and he might never find out.
Ancestry.com is having a sale on their DNA kits, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get one. I'm adopted and know only my bio-mom's name. Not sure if it's her maiden or married name, but I've done some research on it and come up with nothing. It'd be cool to meet some close blood relatives, but OTOH I don't need any psycho or leechy relatives in my life. But OTOH, maybe I'd be the weird one in their life!
Just my humble opinion, Before you go looking, think about ALL of the consiquenses. How will your mom and dad feel about it? They might say one thing, but it might actually feel like a slap to them (they are the ones who truly love you). You might find that you are not a product of love, but of confusion or worse. It would be so cool to have a "family" of millionaires, or even cool people... but what if you found that your bloodline is criminals and drug addicts. I understand the need for medical information... but think long and hard before opening up that can of worms.
Load More Replies...
People who run DNA tests need to expect honesty and realize that family secrets and cover ups of information about the family can get blown out of the water. DNA searches can reveal things like: * Biological Parents and Siblings of people who were adopted or were in foster care * People born to others and that they were living with a step parent all their lives * Family branches that were severed due to past lovers * Parents of people switched at birth * Siblings of separated families * And a variety of other complicated family situations and secrets that may have been covered up.
My sister and I have only one first cousin on my dad's side. Many years ago, while both of us were in high school we met someone who looked like a carbon copy of our dad. We both were very scared about what that could mean but my sister, being the nosey brat she was (and still is), eventually just came right out and asked him who his dad was. We forget that my dad's brother looks exactly like him, just skinnier. My dad knows about his nephew and has apparently helped out when needed, but because my uncle is basically a deadbeat and my dad has very little contact with his brother (I think I last saw him well over ten years ago, I have no idea if he's even alive), it's been ruled by all parties involved not to tell my uncle about him, the kid would not have benefited having his father in his life. We know one day my uncle will probably find out. But it isn't up to us.
All I've learned from my test is that I have many third and fourth cousins. That means shared great-great-great grandparents. Don't even know who they were. No real connections. Not a problem.
Lucky you. I did a DNA test and found our exactly what I knew anyway! Interesting though because we always thought that my husband might be part Indian, (because his grandfather was Indian Army and he is swarthy and had been mistaken by Indians as Indian). Nup! Turns out he is mostly Scottish (which explains the bushy eyebrows) and English
My book club read "The Stranger in My Genes", which is the story of journalist Bill Griffeth making a discovery like this: his biological father was actually someone his mother worked for, not the man who raised him (and whom he idolized). He did a good job of discussing what it was like to find out about a secret like this. Our take away was: unless you are very, very sure about your family, it might be better to just skip that DNA test. You might be unpleasantly surprised.
My mom was adopted I did a DNA test and found out that her adopted parents were her grandparents. At least one is a grandparent and the other is a step grandparent.
I don’t think people should be doing this honestly. Let people have their secrets. Nothing is private anymore.
my Mom was adopted. After her Mom died she met a woman who traced biological parents/children who were adopted. We met my bio grandmother when my Mom was 50. She is a clone of her BioMother [other than Mom having Blue eyes] My Grandmothers' husband totally accepted all of us into his family, a truly Big Hearted Man. Grandma had gotten pregnant at 16 so was sent out of town to have my Mom. My family are truly the bastard relations but have been totally accepted and included into my Grandmothers family. Ours is a really wonderful experience and adventure. There are Happy Endings for some of these stories, we are one of them. Also, it turns out my BioGrandfather was making babies all over town. Five years ago we learned of his 13th and 14th bio children via DNA testing. My Mom who was raised with 1 brother [also adopted] now has 5 maternal siblings and 13 paternal siblings.
In biology class in the early seventies the teacher told us that two blue eyed parents could not produce a brown eyed child. One of my classmates challenged her and said that both of her parents had blue eyes. Stupid and insensitive teacher said to this fourteen year old girl "Then they are not your parents". The girl fainted and smashed her face on the corner of the stone lab counter on the way down. She was taken to hospital and never came back to the school, but I heard from one of her friends that her parents divorced. Hopefully this wouldn't happen now.
Think of what these tests could do to royalty. What if queen Elizabeth (or anyone in her past) had cheated and the crown passed along to people who were not part of the bloodline.
Royal have always lived in the glare of constant public attention. Kings and princes messed around and produced out-of-wedlock children all the time, but the women couldn't have done that and hidden it for long.
Load More Replies...
My brother and his wife gave my elderly mother one of these tests. Put a stop to that immediately knowing full well they were using her for their own benefit.
My biological mother had me when she was 14 after being…well you can guess. I was raised by my biological mothers aunt and uncle so grew up thinking of my biological mum and biological grandparents as cousin and aunt and uncle. I found out the truth via a slip of the tongue by a distant relative at a family wedding when I was 34 (just a few years ago) part of me wishes idve known sooner as although I was solved I never felt at home with my parents but always felt a pull towards my biological mum and her family. But another part of me feels ignorance is bliss, especially now that my children have three sets of grandparents, sometimes the mess created is bigger than the benefit gained
I know it is better to keep my mouth, but ❤.Life is tough.
Load More Replies...
There are some cool things that genetic testing has taught me and my family. First of all, that I'm half Viking, and it comes from both sides of my family. That was a joy, since I've been Viking-obsessed since I was a small child. I found a brother given up for adoption, but he wasn't interested, but I have a lovely relationship with his daughter, my niece. And lastly, I found out who my paternal grandfather was. Nobody could say. Nobody would say, but now I have a name and some other relatives.
This wasn't uncovered by an ancestry test, but is an interesting & related story nonetheless. My dad was raised by his single mom, and always knew growing up that his father (let's say Frank) had gone on to have another family. They didn't keep in touch, and Frank never told his kids about my dad so although my dad saw the family pop in the newspaper or whatever over the years, he didn't reach out because he didn't believe it was his place to spill the secret. Well, about a year ago Frank was in declining health and his (new) wife decided to tell the kids. I say kids, but they were all in their 50s and 60s. They tracked my dad down and reached out to him and everyone's been swapping stories and emails like crazy since then. Can you imagine being in your 60s and suddenly finding out you have a half-brother and half-nephews/nieces and just this whole hidden side of your dad. (Nobody knows why Frank wanted it kept secret. He and my grandma were married at the time, but very very young.)
We have always known my little sister didnt have the same dad, because my father was murdered when I was just a couple months old. She took a DNA test and it turns out the man that my mom had always thought was her dad was not in fact her dad. I guess my mom was dating the real dad and they split up and she meet the new guy she had always thought was my sisters father. Well my sister got connected to his family through the DNA test. He was surprised to find out about her and has refused any contact with her. I am not sure if he thinks she wants something from him but she is 42 years old and has a great life and I am very sad for her that he will never take the opportunity to see what an amazing person she is. We have a younger brother also with a different dad but we have and would never see each other as half siblings.
I keep getting notifications that they've found another 'close' relative, At first I contacted them but got no replay. Then I thought -- who cares! I don't keep in touch with my own cousins, or every niece and nephew etc. I was far more interested in my ancestors than my distant cousins.
Load More Replies...
Geez, I kinda accept what my parents told me as the Gospel Truth. (Pops is still alive at age 87.) I look like my maternal grandfather, and I've stood on our ancestral homeland in Manila. My son is adopted - and he's known since he was old enough to understand what "adopted" meant. Nevertheless - these are interesting stories.
The dark side of DNA testing :: An 85 year old man had his DNA done and contacted two distant cousins of mine that he was supposedly related to. My family (great aunts, first cousins, second cousins, etc.) set up a dinner to welcome this man who we had never met or heard of. He was impeccably dressed, carried himself well, drove a late model luxury car. He was adopted and was seeking his blood family. He and his wife had had foster children in their home. Sounded all good, altho I noticed a weird darkness in his eyes that I couldn't place. A couple weeks later, my cousin called me and said, "Look up _____________ on google. I'm not going to say why". Holy s**t...this man had recently been convicted of being a paedophile, of molesting young boys. WTF????? There he was, his photo, in prison orange. He'd been convicted of life in prison. At 85. When we had the dinner for him, he had already been convicted. He had a foster home. Do the math. Beyond horrible...those kids.
A man, 85 years old, had his dna done and found several members of my dad's side of the family were related to him. Turns out he was adopted and wanted to find his blood family. He contacted one of them, a distant cousin of mine, and my family set up a nice dinner to welcome him. He was impeccably dressed, drove a late model Infiniti. All good, we thought. (We, up to this point knew nothing of his past, except that he had brought foster children into his own immediate family.) The week after the dinner reunion, my cousin called me and said "Look up _________ on google". Wellll.......there he was. A paedophile sentenced to life in prison. And he had a foster home. Do the math. When we had the dinner, he had already been sentenced, but we didn't know. Looking back, he was closed-hearted and there was a creepy vibe when I looked in his eyes. We, the family, are horrified, naturally. Maybe, sometimes, you don't want to know.
Some lady in the air force got prego by my dad to get out of it. Never told him. 16 years later she hits him up for child support cause her husband divorced her. I have a little sister I've never met, my dad is keeping it that way till she wants to find him because he has no idea what this little girl has been told. I applaud him for that.
I once read news thats really blow ups in my country.. man about to be married.. when the family gather before the ceremony, they bring out old family photos. One old aunty recognize 1 of the old photo, and ask the groom, 'who is this.. he said it's his late grandfather - his mom mother.. but the aunty - his father's sister said, no! that's my father.. turns out his mother & father are half-siblings.. the grandfather who was a truck driver, got married while his away on he job and never tell anybody.. and then left that family.. the groom father & mother were so devastated.. coz they've been married for 24 years, and have 7 children together.. the ceremony got postponed...
A lot of these seem like secrets better left buried. And a memorial to the horrible effects social conservatism ( racism, prejudice against single mothers, unwed couples etc) has on families
Not really a scandal, I found out I have a second cousin who was born out of wedlock while his father was working on the railroad (all the livelong day). The father (my great-uncle) wasn’t married at the time, but this was like in the 50s so that’s juicy. Also for a not scandal, I did ancestry dna and proved I’m my father’s daughter lmao. He insisted I wasn’t his like right before I was born - rude - and a nurse said I looked just like him when I was born, and now I have the dna evidence lol. He’s never messaged me, and that’s fine. D**k.
I am always torn with these stories. I mean, what right do you have to mess with other people's lives? Is it worth it destroying other's marriages? If it's your parents, it's one thing. It directly affects you if you dad is not your bio dad. But messing with your grandparents' long buried secrets, ripping open old wounds, retraumatizing raped or abused family members... I don't know.
This is why I've decided not to do one of these tests. My idle curiosity isn't enough of a reason to potentially expose extended family to distress.
Load More Replies... Not that I'm lazy but these kind of posts should be images or maps instead. I got bored and stop reading in the 3rd or 4th time I got lost into mother's uncle's second wife's 5th son's cat found out his cousin's math teacher's milkman best fiend turned out to be his grand grandson
Interesting how ancestry tests can show that your intuition that you're "different" may be super accurate, and that you may in fact be adopted or have been produced by different parent/s to those who you thought were your parents. I'm 100% confident about my own because we have such idiosyncratic features that they're unmistakably genetic. In fact if I see a photo of my dad from the 1970s it could easily be me now. But, on the racism thing- . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvS2gjMMXBQ
These DNA tests make companies rich and have access to your most private data and only open pandoras boxes for everyone particularly mothers. No mother is going to talk her kids she was raped or coerced 40 years ago so you have to pretend it was an affair. I don't see why everyone needs to know their distant relative who 9 times our of 10 will only ask you for money. Americans who want to pretend they're European by looking up their heritage. All these tests prove what we already knew, that blood is not thicker than water.
I'm actually rather glad that the whole 'hide the baby' portion of US history is pretty much impossible to continue. Trying to bury the family secret never works out well.
I can start with this: Found out that our "Welsh" ancestry was Native American. The Great-greats decided to pass their kids as white in a US Census to save them from the late 1800's US idea of morality...But I won't check for Lost Relatives. My late father was enough of a sh*t. I don't want to know if he cheated on my mom. That said, it's a non-secret secret that my dad's oldest brother has the same father on paper, but in reality, everyone knows it was someone else, and that's that. So technically the husband of my second cousin's mother is the father of my uncle. No, we're nto from Kentucky.
23 & Me tests over here. Found out my older brother is actually my half brother. We're not telling my dad. Mom's long dead so we can't ask her. I did speak to my mother's sister to see if she knew; my aunt said no, but that she & my grandmother always wondered. My brother has been contacted by his half sisters on the other side, but they won't let him contact his bio dad because apparently he's really sick & we don't know from what. My brother isn't pursuing this any further and, well, that's his choice and I support him.
Also I'm pretty sure that my 70 year old father isn't on Bored Panda since he only seems to use his computer for playing mah-jongg and watching metal detecting videos, otherwise I wouldn't have posted this.
Load More Replies... When my (divorced) mother got really angry with us kids, she'd say something like, "I should have stayed with my first husband." Afterward she'd refuse to talk about it, so we didn't know if she'd really been married before or not. Needless to say, I didn't like her. Then my sister did a DNA test and discovered a half-sister. Yes, apparently mom had a daughter before she met our dad. I found it interesting, and was happy to get that mystery cleared up. Didn't like her before, didn't like her after. Catholism and the conservative 1950s probably caused part of it, so I'm happy these times are past.
It wasn't from a DNA test but my mother discovered some unexpected surprises. My grandma grew up in South Dakota and proudly told everyone that her grandfather, who she never met, was John Swift Fox, a Sioux Indian scout. When I was in HS, my mom got into genealogy and discovered a twist. He was an Irish immigrant who worked as a civilian scout with the US Army to find and kill the Sioux. His parents named him after the Irish Satirist, Johnathan Swift. When my mom confronted grandma, she was flabbergasted that anyone would think we had Indian blood. Grandma thought when she was bragging about her grandfather, everyone just knew he was helping kill the Indians because no one would admit to having non-White blood. My mom converted to the Society of Friends (Quakers) and had been a pastor for about a year when she picked up the genealogy hobby. Turns out we have a common ancestor with the founder of the faith, George Fox.
I'm never going to take a commercial DNA test: storing my information on some whacky server waiting to either be hacked, leaked or bought by God-knows-who (insurance companies would kill for this kind of data).
Growing up my father always said he was a mutt and acted proud of it. He said he was, English, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Russian, and Hungarian. I thought he was full of it. On my mom's side, I was told my grandfather was French (he was fluent) and my grandmother was Polish (she was fluent). Took a DNA test! Turns out my father wasn't kidding. Oddly though, there was no French in the test. Not sure what's going on there. Unrelated, when I was in my late 20's and after my mom had passed my dad started getting daily phone calls. He had no friends or living relatives I knew of so I grabbed the phone one day and demanded to know who it was. She responded she was his wife!!! After some probing, it turns out she was his FIRST wife! I never knew he had one. The interesting part? I have 2 older sisters and my oldest doesn't look like us two! I still don't know what to do with that info and I'm 60 now...
These tests cannot be absolute. I have read of identical twins (known form birth) that got different read outs. And at most these tests do NOT test for individuals, but actual 'race'.
Load More Replies... I took a DNA test a year and a half ago. Saw 35% Swedish in my results and knew neither parent had any. Scrolled down to my matches and only saw my mom. I called her at two in the morning to ask who the heck my dad was. I knew they’d gone to a fertility clinic because my mom had several miscarriages. Never knew my dad’s swimmers had any issues. Back in those days they would mix donor sperm with the hopeful father’s so you could hope the kid was the father’s/ wouldn’t know for sure. My dad actually bought the DNA test for me and hoped he was actually my dad. Didn’t prepare me in the slightest for my shocking results. I also matched with three half siblings and ended up talking to one who lived nearby on the phone later that day. We ended up meeting like two days later and spent four hours just talking and staring at our matching dimples and smiles. We look a lot alike but the other siblings don’t, so she was equally as shocked to have a conversation/ meet someone who looked like her.
Ran out of space! Lol. In the last year and a half we’ve gotten risk I lose. Spent a week in an Airbnb at the halfway point of where we all live over the summer and celebrated our birthdays together twice. It’s literally been the greatest gift to find them, they’re like the piece of me I didn’t know what missing but I feel so complete now with them in my life.
Load More Replies... There is a chart on the 23andMe site that lists the range of DNA percentages that you share with various relatives. There's a bit of overlap between many of the categories. __ https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170668-Average-percent-DNA-shared-between-relatives
Not sure why folks would pay good money to give their genomic sequence to a company who can use or sell it to whoever they wish, especially considering the above stories
About something claiming they are from a certain country and DNA shows otherwise... Your family can still have lived in that country for a /some generations. DNA doesn't show where someone has lived. When you are born in the Netherlands, Italian parents who moved there, you have the Dutch nationality / are Dutch. Same for the partner, so those two have no bloodlines from the Netherlands and have kids. Who feel totally Dutch.
I was contacted through Ancestory by a young man who thought I might be his aunt. I was actually noted as a 3rd or 4th cousin. He was looking for his biological father. I wracked my brain trying to help him. He looked more like the Spanish side of my family by marriage. I gave him some possible places to look. Then I heard nothing more from him. Made me feel sad that I couldn't help more, and he might never find out.
Ancestry.com is having a sale on their DNA kits, and I'm trying to decide if I want to get one. I'm adopted and know only my bio-mom's name. Not sure if it's her maiden or married name, but I've done some research on it and come up with nothing. It'd be cool to meet some close blood relatives, but OTOH I don't need any psycho or leechy relatives in my life. But OTOH, maybe I'd be the weird one in their life!
Just my humble opinion, Before you go looking, think about ALL of the consiquenses. How will your mom and dad feel about it? They might say one thing, but it might actually feel like a slap to them (they are the ones who truly love you). You might find that you are not a product of love, but of confusion or worse. It would be so cool to have a "family" of millionaires, or even cool people... but what if you found that your bloodline is criminals and drug addicts. I understand the need for medical information... but think long and hard before opening up that can of worms.
Load More Replies... People who run DNA tests need to expect honesty and realize that family secrets and cover ups of information about the family can get blown out of the water. DNA searches can reveal things like: * Biological Parents and Siblings of people who were adopted or were in foster care * People born to others and that they were living with a step parent all their lives * Family branches that were severed due to past lovers * Parents of people switched at birth * Siblings of separated families * And a variety of other complicated family situations and secrets that may have been covered up.
My sister and I have only one first cousin on my dad's side. Many years ago, while both of us were in high school we met someone who looked like a carbon copy of our dad. We both were very scared about what that could mean but my sister, being the nosey brat she was (and still is), eventually just came right out and asked him who his dad was. We forget that my dad's brother looks exactly like him, just skinnier. My dad knows about his nephew and has apparently helped out when needed, but because my uncle is basically a deadbeat and my dad has very little contact with his brother (I think I last saw him well over ten years ago, I have no idea if he's even alive), it's been ruled by all parties involved not to tell my uncle about him, the kid would not have benefited having his father in his life. We know one day my uncle will probably find out. But it isn't up to us.
All I've learned from my test is that I have many third and fourth cousins. That means shared great-great-great grandparents. Don't even know who they were. No real connections. Not a problem.
Lucky you. I did a DNA test and found our exactly what I knew anyway! Interesting though because we always thought that my husband might be part Indian, (because his grandfather was Indian Army and he is swarthy and had been mistaken by Indians as Indian). Nup! Turns out he is mostly Scottish (which explains the bushy eyebrows) and English
My book club read "The Stranger in My Genes", which is the story of journalist Bill Griffeth making a discovery like this: his biological father was actually someone his mother worked for, not the man who raised him (and whom he idolized). He did a good job of discussing what it was like to find out about a secret like this. Our take away was: unless you are very, very sure about your family, it might be better to just skip that DNA test. You might be unpleasantly surprised.
My mom was adopted I did a DNA test and found out that her adopted parents were her grandparents. At least one is a grandparent and the other is a step grandparent.
I don’t think people should be doing this honestly. Let people have their secrets. Nothing is private anymore.
my Mom was adopted. After her Mom died she met a woman who traced biological parents/children who were adopted. We met my bio grandmother when my Mom was 50. She is a clone of her BioMother [other than Mom having Blue eyes] My Grandmothers' husband totally accepted all of us into his family, a truly Big Hearted Man. Grandma had gotten pregnant at 16 so was sent out of town to have my Mom. My family are truly the bastard relations but have been totally accepted and included into my Grandmothers family. Ours is a really wonderful experience and adventure. There are Happy Endings for some of these stories, we are one of them. Also, it turns out my BioGrandfather was making babies all over town. Five years ago we learned of his 13th and 14th bio children via DNA testing. My Mom who was raised with 1 brother [also adopted] now has 5 maternal siblings and 13 paternal siblings.
In biology class in the early seventies the teacher told us that two blue eyed parents could not produce a brown eyed child. One of my classmates challenged her and said that both of her parents had blue eyes. Stupid and insensitive teacher said to this fourteen year old girl "Then they are not your parents". The girl fainted and smashed her face on the corner of the stone lab counter on the way down. She was taken to hospital and never came back to the school, but I heard from one of her friends that her parents divorced. Hopefully this wouldn't happen now.
Think of what these tests could do to royalty. What if queen Elizabeth (or anyone in her past) had cheated and the crown passed along to people who were not part of the bloodline.
Royal have always lived in the glare of constant public attention. Kings and princes messed around and produced out-of-wedlock children all the time, but the women couldn't have done that and hidden it for long.
Load More Replies... My brother and his wife gave my elderly mother one of these tests. Put a stop to that immediately knowing full well they were using her for their own benefit.
My biological mother had me when she was 14 after being…well you can guess. I was raised by my biological mothers aunt and uncle so grew up thinking of my biological mum and biological grandparents as cousin and aunt and uncle. I found out the truth via a slip of the tongue by a distant relative at a family wedding when I was 34 (just a few years ago) part of me wishes idve known sooner as although I was solved I never felt at home with my parents but always felt a pull towards my biological mum and her family. But another part of me feels ignorance is bliss, especially now that my children have three sets of grandparents, sometimes the mess created is bigger than the benefit gained
I know it is better to keep my mouth, but ❤.Life is tough.
Load More Replies... There are some cool things that genetic testing has taught me and my family. First of all, that I'm half Viking, and it comes from both sides of my family. That was a joy, since I've been Viking-obsessed since I was a small child. I found a brother given up for adoption, but he wasn't interested, but I have a lovely relationship with his daughter, my niece. And lastly, I found out who my paternal grandfather was. Nobody could say. Nobody would say, but now I have a name and some other relatives.
This wasn't uncovered by an ancestry test, but is an interesting & related story nonetheless. My dad was raised by his single mom, and always knew growing up that his father (let's say Frank) had gone on to have another family. They didn't keep in touch, and Frank never told his kids about my dad so although my dad saw the family pop in the newspaper or whatever over the years, he didn't reach out because he didn't believe it was his place to spill the secret. Well, about a year ago Frank was in declining health and his (new) wife decided to tell the kids. I say kids, but they were all in their 50s and 60s. They tracked my dad down and reached out to him and everyone's been swapping stories and emails like crazy since then. Can you imagine being in your 60s and suddenly finding out you have a half-brother and half-nephews/nieces and just this whole hidden side of your dad. (Nobody knows why Frank wanted it kept secret. He and my grandma were married at the time, but very very young.)
We have always known my little sister didnt have the same dad, because my father was murdered when I was just a couple months old. She took a DNA test and it turns out the man that my mom had always thought was her dad was not in fact her dad. I guess my mom was dating the real dad and they split up and she meet the new guy she had always thought was my sisters father. Well my sister got connected to his family through the DNA test. He was surprised to find out about her and has refused any contact with her. I am not sure if he thinks she wants something from him but she is 42 years old and has a great life and I am very sad for her that he will never take the opportunity to see what an amazing person she is. We have a younger brother also with a different dad but we have and would never see each other as half siblings.
I keep getting notifications that they've found another 'close' relative, At first I contacted them but got no replay. Then I thought -- who cares! I don't keep in touch with my own cousins, or every niece and nephew etc. I was far more interested in my ancestors than my distant cousins.
Load More Replies... Geez, I kinda accept what my parents told me as the Gospel Truth. (Pops is still alive at age 87.) I look like my maternal grandfather, and I've stood on our ancestral homeland in Manila. My son is adopted - and he's known since he was old enough to understand what "adopted" meant. Nevertheless - these are interesting stories.
The dark side of DNA testing :: An 85 year old man had his DNA done and contacted two distant cousins of mine that he was supposedly related to. My family (great aunts, first cousins, second cousins, etc.) set up a dinner to welcome this man who we had never met or heard of. He was impeccably dressed, carried himself well, drove a late model luxury car. He was adopted and was seeking his blood family. He and his wife had had foster children in their home. Sounded all good, altho I noticed a weird darkness in his eyes that I couldn't place. A couple weeks later, my cousin called me and said, "Look up _____________ on google. I'm not going to say why". Holy s**t...this man had recently been convicted of being a paedophile, of molesting young boys. WTF????? There he was, his photo, in prison orange. He'd been convicted of life in prison. At 85. When we had the dinner for him, he had already been convicted. He had a foster home. Do the math. Beyond horrible...those kids.
A man, 85 years old, had his dna done and found several members of my dad's side of the family were related to him. Turns out he was adopted and wanted to find his blood family. He contacted one of them, a distant cousin of mine, and my family set up a nice dinner to welcome him. He was impeccably dressed, drove a late model Infiniti. All good, we thought. (We, up to this point knew nothing of his past, except that he had brought foster children into his own immediate family.) The week after the dinner reunion, my cousin called me and said "Look up _________ on google". Wellll.......there he was. A paedophile sentenced to life in prison. And he had a foster home. Do the math. When we had the dinner, he had already been sentenced, but we didn't know. Looking back, he was closed-hearted and there was a creepy vibe when I looked in his eyes. We, the family, are horrified, naturally. Maybe, sometimes, you don't want to know.
Some lady in the air force got prego by my dad to get out of it. Never told him. 16 years later she hits him up for child support cause her husband divorced her. I have a little sister I've never met, my dad is keeping it that way till she wants to find him because he has no idea what this little girl has been told. I applaud him for that.
I once read news thats really blow ups in my country.. man about to be married.. when the family gather before the ceremony, they bring out old family photos. One old aunty recognize 1 of the old photo, and ask the groom, 'who is this.. he said it's his late grandfather - his mom mother.. but the aunty - his father's sister said, no! that's my father.. turns out his mother & father are half-siblings.. the grandfather who was a truck driver, got married while his away on he job and never tell anybody.. and then left that family.. the groom father & mother were so devastated.. coz they've been married for 24 years, and have 7 children together.. the ceremony got postponed...
