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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Grandma's Secrets.
Giphy"My dad and his 2 siblings found out they all have different fathers. One other brother has already passed so we'll never know if there was a 4th baby daddy or not. My dad is a junior and named his son the third after a man who it turns out is no relation. Our last name is an Irish name and we're 0% Irish as his bio father was likely 100% German. My grandmother was a quiet, devout Catholic woman as far as I always knew, so it's been wild finding out she had some major secrets." goodnightrose
Half Brothers.
"My mom took a DNA test, and she chose the option that allowed her to be connected with family members."
"She has a half brother, who was put up for adoption as he was the result of a fling her father had with an old girlfriend. The two were forced to break up because she was heavily religious and teen pregnancy was frowned upon, so she also had to give up the baby. My mother's side of the family never knew about him before last year. My grandfather also managed to keep the secret for 60+ years, which is kind of impressive."
"He's a pretty cool dude, and he looks and acts almost exactly like my grandfather did. I'm so glad that my mother and him found each other, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to miss out on growing up with one of your siblings. I'm also happy for him for being able to find his biological family. Turns out he lived 20 minutes away from us for his whole life, and we had no idea. We even went to the same family doctor."
"We also ended up helping him find and contact his mother who gave him up, and everything turned out pretty good."
"The only downside is, after finding out about the whole thing, his wife got jealous of him spending time with all of his long lost siblings and they ended up getting divorced. But he seems happier without her, and he just recently started dating another woman." eggiestnerd
23andMe....
"My life wasn't changed, but I was contacted by someone on 23andMe wondering how we were connected since he thought he knew all his second cousins in the area."
"I recognized the surname as that of my biological grandfather. I answered this man's question by detailing how my grandfather had gotten my grandmother pregnant out of wedlock, then it turned out he was already married with a family, forcing my father to be put up for adoption."
"I guess the guy didn't like that story and blocked me." Sully1102
It was the 60s...
"I was adopted at birth back in the 1960s. I had a happy childhood but both of my adoptive parents died of cancer in the early 1990s. I sent my DNA in to Ancestry in the hope that I'd make contact with one or both of my birth parents. Literally all I had was my mother's name on the birth certificate and my father's name on a photocopied set of adoption paperwork. When I first checked the result I was disappointed to find only a few third and fourth cousins. I emailed the ones who looked as if they visited the site regularly. It turned out they were all related to my birth father. He had also died sometime in the early 1990s."
"Then one day I logged back onto the site and found that I'd matched with a first cousin. I sent a tentative email saying that I'd been given up as a baby and appreciated that it was a sensitive family matter and that if he didn't want to get involved I was fine with that, but could he give me some more information about my family. He replied the next day and told me he was my uncle, and that my mother was still alive. She had given birth to me as a teenager, but had reluctantly had to give me up as her family was religious and birth dad was a deadbeat (he sent her a card saying sorry and a £20 note when he heard she'd had me, then married someone else). I made contact with her by email earlier this year. It turns out I have a half brother and sister, as well a nieces and nephews. We are taking things slowly at the moment, but after so many years it's amazing to have a mother again. We have the same likes, dislikes and politics. I'm hoping to meet up with her next year." wombat1800
The Kids are Alright.
Giphy"I ordered one of the earlier versions of 23andMe back in 2013. Looked through some fun generic traits and ancestral history, then forgot about it for a few years."
"Until one day in 2017 when I received an email that a close relative was discovered. The connection listed them as a first cousin, which was weird because I thought that I had no immediate cousins and no one in my family recognized the name. A few months later, another one was added and finally a third a couple of months after that."
"Turns out my uncle has multiple illegitimate children and they all took DNA tests around the same time. All three of them found out that he was their dad thanks to my initial result connecting them and working together to compare family history. They're older (30s to 40s) so it's more of a peace of mind at this point in their lives, but I'm glad that they were able to find their real dad through the experience." schmooby
Tom Thompson does exist....
"My life wasn't changed, but it was made a little more complete. Found out, along with my dad, when I was a teenager that my grandpa wasn't my real grandpa. My grandma, who survived her husband back in early 90's, told us late in her life in the mid 2000's that her husband was sterile so she slept with this other guy, let's call him Tom Thompson. My dad had no idea, and was in his late 40's when this news came to us. For 5 years off and on I searched all public records to find any trace of this Tom Thompson and found nothing."
"My grandma was going senile so although I believe she had an affair, I didn't believe all the info she spewed out about Tom being a war pilot and having done amazing adventures. Did my DNA test just for the hell of it last year and found out that Tom Thompson does exist, and he was a war pilot and everything else she said about him checked out. I'm now connected to my cousins on my dad's side, and it's been really warming to get closer to a family I never knew." the70sdiscoking
Cystic Fibrosis.
"Both my partner and I tested positive as Cystic Fibrosis carriers. I don't know the exact chances of this, but its low-- none of our family members have CF. This was after we had our first child (who luckily does not have CF) but has really changed how we feel about any more children." renseigner_enseigner
He Lives.
Giphy"My friend did a test to see what her ancestry is recently. She ended up discovering who her dad actually is and learning that her dad is still alive, not dead like her mother said."
"So that's something." RevMen
Cancer Free.
"I had a very rare cancer as a child. I was always worried that any children I might have would suffer the same fate. When my wife and I got serious about parenthood, I learned that there was a genetic test for the type of cancer I had. I submitted a sample and it came back completely negative for any cancer markers meaning my kids would have essentially no chance of developing the same disease. This was a huge relief, but at the same time it meant that my cancer was completely spontaneous which changed an incredibly rare cancer into an almost impossible cancer. This profoundly illustrated just how little control we humans have over our fate." Noctudeit
Soooo many cousins.
"I was adopted, and received a connection to my birth mother's brother through ancestry.com. I was hesitant to reach out because of all the reunion horror stories I've heard throughout my life, but I ended up doing it anyway. My uncle asked me to call him right away, and now I have three siblings who want me in their life, aunts, uncles and gagillion cousins who threw a big welcome home party for me this summer. My birth mom's cousin told me she had been looking for me, but didn't know how to go about it because of her age and lack of ability to use the internet. However, she never told her children I existed - I guess something that generation just didn't do. But anyway, happy story!" MadMomma85
Genetic testing can bring people comfort and sometimes it can bring deep pain and medical conditions you had no idea about.
Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments.
