People Who've Taken Ancestry DNA Tests Explain Which Secrets They Uncovered About Their Family
Blood Ties....
Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. That is one of the wisdoms of life that people are always throwing around. It can be especially true when meeting your idols, finding your dream job and searching down blood relatives you knew nothing about.
Redditor u/VideoFork wanted to know who would be willing to give up some salacious tea about their blood tie discoveries by asking..... People who have taken an ancestry DNA test and accidentally uncovered a family secret, what was it?It's Me!
"I am the family secret, family discovered their brother/cousin/son and his wife had 3 children and gave them all up for adoption - after matching with me through a DNA test. They were shocked to say the least, but we're all pretty close now."
_orange-soda__
GiphyThat Type of Guy
"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 4 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."
Herd_That
Zulu Forever
"I was adopted and always knew I was adopted. My parents told me that I came from a family that had already had all of their kids. They lived several towns over. I was a surprise. Three years ago my wife decided to take some DNA tests. I figured what the heck? Maybe I'm part Zulu warrior. That'd be cool."
"When the tests came back, I found out I had a first cousin. They had listed a public email. I emailed them, started comparing notes, and wham! I was in for quite a surprise. First, I was not born into a traditional family. Instead, my bio 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 had confided in one of my bio 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. I had no idea what I was getting into when I sent that DNA test off."
The Line
"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 b**tards."
Benevolent_Burrito
GiphyBad Mom
"I was given up for adoption by my bio mom and none of her family knew about me. However, i was not her first or last child. I was her second of 4 kids. My older half brother (we all have different dads. I don't know who mine is and i don't think bio mom does either) was adopted by my bio moms parents. Her whole family found out about me when i found her when i was 19 and went to visit."
"It was pretty weird. I feel like the lucky one who got out. I don't talk to my bio mom. She is not a good parent to my 2 younger brothers and i hate that she pretends to know me or be my parent."
mladyKarmaB**ch
That one time....
"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."
djsquidnasty
What a Man....
"My FIL was married to at least 2 women at a time. Nice guy but a man wh*re, and I think he just didn't want to let each woman down when she got pregnant and/or started bringing up marriage. My MIL says that he was already married when they got married, but we also know that he has a child 3 months younger than my husband and the woman and child both go by FIL's last name (and that's NOT the woman MIL claims he was married to when he married her). So he might possibly have had 3 wives at the same time. My husband has upwards of 10 half siblings from his dad."
You're Fired....
"My wife is adopted (but found her bio 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 bio dad wasn't married to the bio mom.... it was her boss. oops."
valeyard89
GiphyA Favor
"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."
OrangeTree81
The 3
"On the flip side - my dad used to say my mom slept around and none of the 3 of us were his kids. Welp, thanks to the test, we know all 3 of us are!"
sparklypiggy
GiphySiblings...
"Not my story, but someone very close to me discovered that none of the ethnic background that they were expecting was present in the results. This person, whose father was deceased at the time, questioned their mother. The mother admitted that the person's father was not biological as they believed their entire life (they were older than 40)."
"The mother gave the name of the biological father. My friend then found the biological father, contacted him, and then discovered that they had several 1/2 siblings. The biological father was unaware he had another child and accepted my friend into his family as did the siblings." ~ galtsgulch232
Family Affairs...
"My bio-dad left his family and two daughters in Washington and married my mom in Los Angeles 5 weeks later. I found his first marriage certificate but nothing about a divorce. I'm pretty sure he was a bigamist." ~ khegiobridge
"My grandfather (mom's dad) had a second family living down the street. It was apparently an open secret and my mom and her sisters talk about their half siblings occasionally. My mom refuses to speak to us about it though, so I only have the bits and pieces mentioned here and there." ~ ladyinthemoor
DNA is WILD
"I exported my raw DNA from 23andme and threw it through promethease to find out why I have porphyria, which is supposed to be hereditary. My mom and dad are definitely my mom and dad, but neither of them have this, which means it was environmental exposure that caused it. Discovered a rare AMPD enzyme deficiency in mom, found out dad carried a recessive LUPUS gene and gave it to my sister. DNA is WILD." ~ djspacebunny
Lineage
My son is my 4th cousin. (We adopted him as an infant from an agency.) Fun to find that we are actually related!" ~ iawegian
Family GIFGiphyExtortion
"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)." ~ RolandDPlaneswalke
In Chicago
"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!" ~ dazeyd
he's dead now...
"I found a half sister that none of my siblings or mother knew about. My dad had an affair 50 years ago (he's 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 her some needed closure. We all met a few times, it was pleasant." ~ AztecWheels
Facebook Finds
"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." ~ jelly-8
'grandpa’
"I found out that my dad is not my biological father. Turns out the family friend I grew up calling ‘grandpa’ is. Oh yea, and he was also my mom’s bariatric surgeon. Felt weird man." ~ agrajag159
Wrong Turn Oops GIFGiphyBOOM!!
"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." ~ Leighmer
The DNA discovery craze has been all the rage the past decade or so.
Everyone is running around contacting family they never knew they had.
That can be quite the Pandora's box of family secrets and scandal.The outcomes have been all over the place.
Though one of the best led to the discovery of the Golden State killer so that's a win.
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Person Thought They Ruined Christmas After Gifting Family Members DNA Kits—But There's A Twist 😮
Poking around for information about your family's heritage is as innocent as researching historical facts on Wikipedia.
Home DNA kits are even available for added convenience in the hopes that curious customers can discover more about their ancestry and therefore form stronger connections with relatives.
However, Bored Panda mentioned the pitfalls of digging too deep into the secrets of a family's past. Some family mysteries are better left buried.
Subreddit group TIFU featured a post by u/Snorkels721 about a botched Christmas because of an ancestry DNA kit.
"Earlier this year, AncestryDNA had a sale on their kit. I thought it would be a great gift idea so I bought 6 of them for Christmas presents. Today my family got together to exchange presents for our Christmas Eve tradition, and I gave my mom, dad, brother, and 2 sisters each a kit."
The mother became unnerved for fear that the kits contained "unsafe chemicals." Even after the kids assured her that the kits were safe, she remained anxious.
As a compromise, the mother then suggested that only one of her kids should take the test and resell the remaining kits to save money.
But the drama was just getting started.
Soon, the morning festivities dissolved to a Christmas fracas as the user discovered the possibility that his father might not be who he thought he was.
"Fast forward: Our parents have been fighting upstairs for the past hour, and we are downstairs trying to figure out who has a different dad."
"TL;DR I bought everyone in my family AncestryDNA kit for Christmas. My mom started freaking. Now our parents are fighting and my dad might not be my dad."
The user updated the post and the siblings still had not chose whether to partake in the test.
"Update: Thank you so much for all the love and support. My sisters, brother and I have not yet decided yet if we are going to take the test. No matter what the results are, we will still love each other, and our parents no matter what."
Fortunately, the situation turned positive. Despite initial concerns over taking the DNA test, the truth prevailed and Christmas cheer was restored to the family.
"Update 2: CHRISTMAS ISN'T RUINED! My FU actually turned into a Christmas miracle. Turns out my sisters father passed away shortly after she was born. A good friend of my moms was able to help her through the darkest time in her life, and they went on to fall in love and create the rest of our family. They never told us because of how hard it was for my mom."
"Last night she was strong enough to share stories and photos with us for the first time, and it truly brought us even closer together as a family. This is a Christmas we will never forget. And yes, we are all excited to get our test results. Merry Christmas everyone!"
The thread became engaging with other users sharing their own unique family histories; some good, and some not so good.
"I was adopted by my grandparents and didn't know until I was older. The person I grew up with as an older sister was actually my biological mother. I think the same thing happened to Jack Nicholson." - hisnameisanthony
A new secret relative was uncovered.
"My uncle took one of those tests and had a few people show up as distant relatives, like less than 15% match (we're all 100% positive he has a different father than the other 4 siblings)."
"Well, then my dad takes the test, it returns saying that someone his brother (my uncle) matched with also matches him, but it's like a 30% match."
"Eventually this lady messages my dad and after talking they figure out she must be a distant cousin somehow."
"Dad wants to get more info from my grandma (his mother) who, upon mentioning the DNA tests and this lady's name, my grandma goes 'Oh her? Yeah I already know about her.'"
"what?"
"My sweet, sweet grandmother then explains to my father how, when she was about 12, her mother had an affair, got pregnant, somehow hid it from everyone but her and then gave the baby to her neighbors down the street."
"Turns out I have a secret great-aunt." - NeonSwank
This user's experience had the reverse effect that revealed a father's truth about his daughter.
"I had the opposite thing happen. I did 23 & Me and found out that my first cousins, who I'm not close with (they were estranged for a long time from my dad's brother), also had done 23 & Me because it matched us as first cousins."
"I told my dad this and he was like wait, it said that Karen is your first cousin? And I was like yeah? And he asked to see it and then he said, I have to call my brother."
"Turned out that my uncle has been convinced for decades that his ex-wife had an affair and his youngest daughter, Karen, wasn't really his."
"Turns out she has been this whole time." - ebroms
Someone who works for AncestryDNA shared their insight.
"I work at AncestryDNA. This actually happens all the time."
"Edit: Wow! Didn't expect this much attention! I will gladly do an AMA here soon, as I finish out the holidays. Merry Christmas!" – Secstornado
Unfortunately, things do not always end favorably – a reminder that ignorance is bliss.
"This actually just happened to some non-direct relatives of mine, essentially my uncle's in-laws."
"His brother-in-law and the wife have three kids who all did 23AndMe, and found out the oldest girl is not his daughter, but some other guy that his wife slept with early on in their marriage, got pregnant and thought she'd be able to hide it forever (the daughters like 32 now so they didn't have at home DNA tests back then and she probably never foresaw that being a thing)."
"Long story short we kind of always knew because she didn't look like anyone else in that family but when they found out they all flipped on their mom about it and now the parents are getting divorced."
"Merry f***ing Christmas." – thundergun661
Sometimes, this is code for "don't go looking around where you should."
"Shit, now I'm remembering how my mom didn't want me to get a 23 and me kit last Christmas. Her reasoning was that it was a waste of 99 dollars and I could just average the results from her and my father's exams..." – ohboycookies
These comments pretty much summed up the fact that giving fruitcake is the lesser of two evils.
"Feliz Not-Your-Dad."
– Barjack521
"People who were just banging away in the 80s and 90s didn't see this one coming. Damn."
– NixonCarmichael
There is a time and a place for things, and unearthing skeletons from the proverbial closet on Christmas is definitely not one of them.