[SPEAKER_00]: What is your horror story from DNA tests like 23 in me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Story one, my parents and I all did DNA tests and I managed their profiles.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had their done before mine was even available.
[SPEAKER_00]: One day, they both got a worried message from a woman living on the other side of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had been told by the testing site that she was their daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was heartbroken, believing her own parents had kept a huge secret from her for her entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I log into my account, I noticed something strange.
[SPEAKER_00]: It showed that I had no DNA connection to my parents, which I knew was impossible.
[SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, the timeline didn't even make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom was a young child when this woman was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was clear the company had mixed up our results.
[SPEAKER_00]: I contacted customer service, but their response was disappointing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just said, oh well, and offered to send me a new test.
[SPEAKER_00]: My family thought it was a funny mistake, but I felt terrible for the woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had spent several days in shock, truly believing her whole life story was false.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until I finally saw her messages and explained the error, story 2, my mom's side of the family has always been really into tracing our family tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Along the way, we found out that my grandpa had two families, and they lived as a few houses apart from each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd think that Discovery would have been enough for everyone to stop digging.
[SPEAKER_00]: But nope, a few years later, one of my cousins took a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when we learn something even more shocking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our grandfather turned out to be her biological father too.
[SPEAKER_00]: To explain, that cousin is actually the daughter of my mom's sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since both my grandpa and my aunt have passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll never know exactly what happened, but left a family with some very unsettling questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up with a pretty normal childhood overall.
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents were divorced, but I had a happy life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never knew much about my ancestry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only detail I had was my great-grandmother's maiden name on my dad's side.
[SPEAKER_00]: This past Christmas Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: I decided to take a DNA test to finally learn more.
[SPEAKER_00]: The results were way more surprising than I ever expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: I discovered I had a half sister, along with two other half siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the twist.
[SPEAKER_00]: The oldest one was way too old to possibly be my dad's child.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would have been a literal kid at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when it hit me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man I grew up calling my dad isn't actually my biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom has passed away, so I can't ask her about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: My biological father is also no longer living, and no one in the family seems to know anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only information I have is his name and his mom's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: and she's gone to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, I uncovered this massive family secret all at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only to hit a dead end right after.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a shocking Christmas gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the bright side, I did learn something unexpected.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out I'm 55% Swiss.
[SPEAKER_00]: story four.
[SPEAKER_00]: About three years ago, I decided to take a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: For a long time, I had wondered, or maybe even hoped that my sister's dad was also my dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in my life from the very beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since the man I grew up believing was my father wasn't really around.
[SPEAKER_00]: The results were surprising.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turned out that neither of those men was actually my biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister-in-law did some research and tracked down the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon after, my real biological father reached out to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took a DNA test, wanted to meet me and my kids, and even introduced me to my siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, I wasn't sure what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything felt overwhelming, and it all seemed to be moving so fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: But about four months later, I finally agreed to meet him.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I did, I was welcome with open arms by everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though I felt nervous and it still seemed a little strange,
[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, only eight months after we discovered the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He passed away from health complications related to the global illness.
[SPEAKER_00]: story five, through Ancestry DNA.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found out a huge family secret.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad's mother had a relationship with her family doctor, who was also married at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of that, my dad discovered he actually as brothers and a sister that he never knew about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looking back, it seems like the doctor must have known all along.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad looks almost identical to his half-brothers.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the doctor would always call him son when every came in for appointments.
[SPEAKER_00]: It also seems likely that the man who raised my dad's suspected something too.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't treat my dad very kindly and often made subtle comments that, now that we know the truth, make a lot more sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: story 6.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got two wild DNA test stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is about my friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: She always knew she was a result of a donor, out of curiosity.
[SPEAKER_00]: She signed up for 23 and me, not long after.
[SPEAKER_00]: She found out she had a half sister, then another and another and another and another.
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, she's connected with more than two dozen half siblings, and most of them are girls who all look strikingly alike.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, they track down their biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out he had donated in multiple states over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't trying to create that many children, but because of how donation rules work back then, and the fact he kept moving states.
[SPEAKER_00]: The system never kept the numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second story is closer to home.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my own relatives took a DNA test and found a cousin they had never heard of.
[SPEAKER_00]: This cousin had a single mom and was born out in California while the rest of us are from the Midwest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody knows what the father was.
[SPEAKER_00]: But chances are it may have been one of my uncles who has since passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, based on my family history, I've decided not to take a test myself,
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been plenty of drama, people sneaking around, surprise babies, kids not knowing who their real fathers are, and kids raised by grandparents when their sister was actually their mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like if I took a test, I'd just open a whole new can of worms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, not knowing really is easier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 7 My husband's mom had a relationship outside her marriage after a second child, and she became pregnant with her third.
[SPEAKER_00]: because of that, her husband, the man who raised him, didn't bond with that child the same way he did with the older siblings, or even the three kids from his previous relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It became more obvious as time went on.
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband looked different.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blonde hair blew eyes very thin and focused on academics, while his five older siblings all had darker hair brown eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: where heavier set and not as interested in school, when his dad passed away about 15 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their relationship had never been strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just had invested much in my husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since he believed, he wasn't really his son.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then last December, while I was pregnant, we decided it was time for my husband to take a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: The plan was to get solid proof before reaching out to the man who was thought to be his biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank goodness he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turned out the story everyone believed wasn't true.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man who raised the siblings was actually his real father all along.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes genetics can play tricks and the whole affair was just a distraction from the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 8
[SPEAKER_00]: I once found out that my ex-girlfriend was actually my cousin, back in college.
[SPEAKER_00]: I worked as a DJ at the Student Radio Station.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I met her.
[SPEAKER_00]: We clicked right away, became close friends, and a few months later she asked me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we started dating and shared more about our lives, we kept discovering strange coincidences.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was born in the same small town.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandmother was from.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her middle name was the same as my grandmother's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first I thought, wow, what a cool coincidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also both had similar health conditions in our family.
[SPEAKER_00]: We even compare our arms one day and noticed how like they looked.
[SPEAKER_00]: I joked.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like we were made for each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: After about a month, she invited me overhang out of her apartment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things out flirty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while we were making out, we both had this odd moment of day Jivu, like we've done this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: We stopped there because she had to go pick up a roommate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day, out of nowhere, she sent me a bunch of angry messages, blocked me on everything and completely disappear from my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was hurt and confused, but she'd always been a little inconsistent.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I figured maybe it was the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: Months later, right before Christmas, I was talking with my uncle who's really into genealogy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He started telling me about my grandmother and her siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when everything clicked and my stomach dropped.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out, my grandmother and her grandmother were sisters, which makes her my cousin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly, all those coincidences, the name, the town, the medical history,
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the bone structure made sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never told her and I'll never tell my family.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how do you even bring that up?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, remember when we dated?
[SPEAKER_00]: Funny story turns out we're cousins.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the kind of secret I'll keep to myself forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: TLDR, my grandmother and my ex-girlfriend's grandmother were sisters, which makes my ex-actually my cousin, story nine.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my personal story, but it's one that's fairly well known in Ireland.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back in the 1980s, a baby was discovered on a beach in South Carry, the case shocked the whole country and sparked a massive investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Ireland was a very difficult place for unmarried mothers, and women were often treated harshly if they had children outside of marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Police ended up accusing a woman from the opposite side of the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had recently lost her own baby, who had been still born and buried on her family's land.
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite there being no clear evidence, the police pressured her and her family into signing statements suggesting she was responsible for the baby found and carry.
[SPEAKER_00]: even though she wasn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: This miscarriage of justice haunted her for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to 2022 when the case suddenly resurfaced.
[SPEAKER_00]: A middle-aged couple from South carry were arrested in connection with the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: What changed everything was her own child, now an adult, who had submitted DNA to an ancestry site.
[SPEAKER_00]: That DNA matched with the baby from decades ago, reopening
[SPEAKER_00]: The case is still ongoing and no conviction has been made yet, but it shows how modern DNA technology is finally uncovering long hidden truths from Ireland's past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom grew up as an orphan, and when she took a DNA test, we discovered something unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: She comes from five generations
[SPEAKER_00]: great-grandmother and even great-great-grandmother all lost their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Digging deeper, we found even more dramatic history.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her maternal grandfather actually went to prison in the 1930s during the Great Depression for sitting his own house on fire to collect insurance money.
[SPEAKER_00]: On her paternal side, the story is just as wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her grandfather was killed on a bridge in Kentucky while running whiskey during prohibition.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the case even ended up being used as a precedent in Kentucky's Court of Appeals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of these events happened less than a decade apart, and only one stayed away from each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it all makes sense if you knew my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 1970s, she once stabbed my dad in the chest with fork during an argument, and another time tried to run him over with her dodged art demon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now, looking back on all the wild choices I've made in my own life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't even be surprised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genetic, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 11.
[SPEAKER_00]: My cousin's kids bought her a DNA kit for Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as a fun gift, she did a test.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the results turned her world upside down.
[SPEAKER_00]: She discovered she had a half-sister living in the very same town.
[SPEAKER_00]: The results showed they shared the same biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when the truth came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man who raised my cousin who loved her deeply and left everything to her when he passed from illness was not actually her biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, another man who had been in the picture when my aunt was younger, turned out to be her real dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: The complication is that my aunt,
[SPEAKER_00]: who divorced my cousin's dad, when my cousin was still little, now suffers from severe dementia.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing she seems to remember about this other man is that he used to give her jukebox money when they were teenagers.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, either my aunt once knew the truth but has since forgotten because of her condition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or she never realized he was my cousin's real father in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hardest part is that almost everyone involved has either passed away or can no longer share the full story, which means my cousin may never truly get all the answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 12 A few years ago, I decided to do 23 and me just for fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Half-Philipina and Half-White.
[SPEAKER_00]: While I think I have some of my mom's features, I never really look like my dad, my younger brother on the other hand, looks like the perfect mix of both of our parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part of me wondered if maybe I had a different biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't get along with my dad growing up because of the way he treated me, so I thought it would actually be kind of funny if the test revealed that I had some totally different background, but when the results came in, they showed exactly what I expected half
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of European and Irish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing unusual.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got matched with lots of distant relatives who shared less than 1% DNA with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that didn't mean much, so I moved on with life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then a couple of years later, I got a message through the site.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was from a woman who matched 28% DNA with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: After we compared information, we realized that we shared the same biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's only one month younger than me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her story was even more surprising.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had been adopted as a toddler from the Philippines.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only information she ever got from the orphanage was that her father had been in the U.S., military, and her mother was a very young bar hostess.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad was in the Navy until I was a baby, and my parents actually split up when I was a teenager because he cheated and got another woman pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I told my family about this half-sister, I had just discovered, my brother was shocked but excited.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom, though, wasn't surprised at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: She just shook her head and said, honestly, you might have dozens of half siblings all over the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 13, a friend of mine once took a 23-ME test and found out something life-changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Years earlier, before he joined the Navy, he had a briefling.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never knew it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that relationship led to a daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: who was now 23 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: This discovery came around Halloween.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was thrilled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I'd never seen him so happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all thought maybe this was going to be a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: A chance for him to reconnect with family.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never knew he had.
[SPEAKER_00]: They started talking every day, trying to build a relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: But pretty quickly, things got complicated.
[SPEAKER_00]: His daughter shared that she had a rough life.
[SPEAKER_00]: with past struggles and a rocky relationship with her mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said her mom had even told her he had died overseas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wanted to help, he offered to have her stay with him for a couple of weeks, especially to get her away from drama at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: She showed up right before Thanksgiving, but she brought her boyfriend with her.
[SPEAKER_00]: That immediately created tension.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, he tried to go along with it, but problems started stacking up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Money went missing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things disappeared from house.
[SPEAKER_00]: fights broke out.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he finally confronted them, it turned into a major blow-up, her boyfriend got aggressive, and my friend ended up kicking them both out.
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, she cut off contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was devastated.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me he'd spent thousands trying to make her feel welcome, and most it was just gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, he said he didn't regret trying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after, her mom came back into the picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: This time asking for back child support.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't too worried at first because he had a good job and said he could handle it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then she got a lawyer involved and pushed for a huge settlement.
[SPEAKER_00]: He eventually agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was about a week before Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all the hope, all the excitement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything seemed to collapse at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: He completely shut down emotionally the day after Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took his own life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had one struggle with addiction but had been clean for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was smart-talented.
[SPEAKER_00]: He even worked at NASA, losing him was heartbreaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still miss him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is exactly a horror story, but it's one of those wild family DNA stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: My end is really into ancestry and DNA testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last year, she got a message to one of the websites from a young woman who thought my
[SPEAKER_00]: Naturally, the whole family jumped in, trying to figure out who the father could be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since my grandparents had eight kids, we had a few options to work with.
[SPEAKER_00]: We eventually narrowed it down to one of my uncles.
[SPEAKER_00]: The adventurous one who was always disappearing on trips and hard to get a hold of, everyone kind of laughed about it and waited until he finally checked in a few weeks later.
[SPEAKER_00]: He reached out and we told him he had a daughter, but then, over the next few months, even more kids started showing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when the truth came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Years ago, my uncle had been a sperm donor and had no idea that any of the donations had resulted in children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that those kids are becoming adults, they're using DNA sites to find family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And who knows?
[SPEAKER_00]: There could still be more relatives out there waiting to pop up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got two DNA test stories from people I know personally.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is pretty rough.
[SPEAKER_00]: My anon uncle were married for over 25 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: and had multiple kids together.
[SPEAKER_00]: After my uncle passed away, a few years went by, then out of nowhere, my aunt received a Facebook message from a young woman who said a DNA test show they were related.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turned out that during the marriage, my uncle had been unfaithful, and this young woman was actually as biological daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: My aunt was devastated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine finding out that the person you were married to for decades had been living a double life the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second story is much more positive.
[SPEAKER_00]: A friend of mine discovered through a DNA test that she had actually been adopted, growing up, she was always told she was a twin.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had a sister the same age, and while they didn't look identical, it was close enough to be believable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her adoptive parents never told her the truth, and she only found out years later when both parents had already passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: she did the test and discovered her biological father, who never even knew she existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best part?
[SPEAKER_00]: He had always wanted a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she gained an extra parent figure who truly wanted her in his life, and he gained the daughter he had always hoped for.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an unusual story.
[SPEAKER_00]: but had a really heartwarming ending.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 16, not sure if this counts as a horror story.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had been with a girl for about two years when she got pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Around that time, there were little things that didn't feel right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this gut feeling something was off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I talked to close friend about it, and he insisted I get a DNA test done.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said he'd seen too many guys discover years later that the child they thought was there's actually wasn't, and by then it was too late because they were already attached.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even with my doubts, I supported her through the pregnancy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the baby was born, that gut feeling only got stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to the long process of ordering a DNA test, waiting for the samples, sending him in, and then waiting again for results.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, I spent six months caring for that baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the while, I had to keep up the act.
[SPEAKER_00]: being the good partner, the good dad, smiling like everything was fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though inside I was unsure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, the results came back.
[SPEAKER_00]: The child was a mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was over three years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And still, not a day goes by that I don't think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister did a DNA test and found out she had a half brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: right away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this gut feeling that our debt might not actually be our biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: She thought I was just being paranoid, but something didn't sit right with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We looked into this half-brother more closely and realized he was a son of a long time family friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when it all clicked, this family friend was actually her biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rest of us siblings decided to get tested one by one, and each result came back the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of us shared DNA with a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had always believed was our dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: About six months later, after going through therapy, we confronted our mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: But...
[SPEAKER_00]: We never really got any clear answers from her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two of my siblings cut off contact completely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another still talks to her, but the relationship is strained.
[SPEAKER_00]: And two of us live several plain rides away, so we barely see her anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been five years since we found out, and I won't lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was incredibly difficult to process, but time, therapy, and support of others have made it easier to live with.
[SPEAKER_00]: For anyone go through something similar, there are groups out there like MP Gateway on Facebook, where people with these experiences can connect in a safe, private space.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to go through it alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not really a horror story, but it did make me sad to realize I've been lied to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Growing up, I was always told I had a very diverse background.
[SPEAKER_00]: Family members would point out certain features and say they came from a specific heritage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent a lot of time researching and trying to connect with different cultures.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was told I had Native American roots from different tribes, Asian heritage from multiple nations, and that most of my ancestry was Eastern European.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I did a DNA test,
[SPEAKER_00]: The results said I was 99.9% northwestern European.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first I thought maybe it was just the limitations of the science.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after doing my own research into my family history, I realized a truth was probably something else.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like my family, sadly, came from a long line of people with very extreme views.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last couple of generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: They basically invented a fake ancestry story, saying distant female relatives had children outside their marriages, just a distance themselves from their past or to make themselves feel unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I just wish they had focused on unlearning the toxic ideas instead of making up stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one bit of good news is that I didn't uncover any surprise siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have expected to, because my father was unfaithful, and I thought there was a real chance he might have children we didn't know about.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was actually the main reason I took the test in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't through 23 and me, but when I was 11 years old, my oldest cousin showed up unexpectedly at Thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in his early 20s.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked me if I knew who he was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, yeah, you're my cousin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he shook his head and said, no, I'm actually your older brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: That moment turned everything upside down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanksgiving was canceled on the spot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we didn't hear from that side of the family again until I was 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: What had happened was this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Back in his early 20s, my cousin, or who I thought was my cousin, took a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: It proved that my father was actually his biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, years earlier, my parents, my dad's brother and his wife had been in some kind of relationship swap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both women became pregnant during that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: That meant the cousin I grew up with was actually my half-brother, and it also raised serious doubts about whether my older sister was really my sister, or actually my cousin, that was just a first of many lies.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ended up uncovering about my parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over time, I realized they were not good people at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've now been no contact with my entire family for eight years, and honestly,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the best decision I could have made for myself, story 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: My uncle has always looked very different from the rest of his siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: For years, the family joke that he must be the neighbor's kid, or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well...
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out he actually is, according to that neighbor, whom my grandparents don't live near anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: There have been some kind of a range between the families.
[SPEAKER_00]: And during that time, my grandmother became pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone involved just quietly agreed, not a question it.
[SPEAKER_00]: even though they knew it was a real possibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: The funny part is, my grandfather's always been the type of person you describe as very traditional and proper, so the story doesn't really fit how most people see him, but no one in the family wants to bring it up with him directly, and unfortunately my grandmother has passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll probably never know the full truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still,
[SPEAKER_00]: It definitely explains why my uncle always looks so different from the rest of siblings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 21, not exactly a horror story, but definitely a big surprise that turned into something wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always been interested in genealogy, so about 10 years ago I did a DNA test and found out we had Scottish roots.
[SPEAKER_00]: That discovery got my uncle, my mom's brother, curious.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he decided to take a test, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even convince my grandpa to do one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then out of nowhere, we got a notification of a close match, a woman in her late 40s.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out she was my mom and uncle's half sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had been searching for her dad for most of her life.
[SPEAKER_00]: She remembered him from when she was little, up until around age eight, but she didn't know his last name.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she turned DNA testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: hoping it would one day give her the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were floored.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandpa was always known as a man of integrity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this revelation didn't fit the picture we had of him, but he was still alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he owned up to it immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were able to meet and build a relationship until he passed away two years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm genuinely glad she found him and got that chance after all those years.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's an amazing person who's gone through a lot in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: While my mom has struggled to fully accept her as a sister, I've embraced her as my surprise aunt.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not every day your family tree grows in such an unexpected way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel lucky to have her in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 22, not exactly a horror story.
[SPEAKER_00]: But definitely a sad one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm usually a very private person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And never thought I'd take one of those DNA tests.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only reason I did was because I have a half-sister who was adopted out before I was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was hoping the test might help me find her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now my DNA is permanently in a database, which makes me feel uneasy.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's even harder is that I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know she was adopted.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a close adoption back in the early 1960s, and secrets like that were common at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also know someone born in 2001 whose parents didn't tell her she was adopted until she was almost 20, even though she had already found out that her brother was adopted.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really made me think, in today's world.
[SPEAKER_00]: with DNA testing so accessible, adoption is not something that can stay secret forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Personally, I believe children should have the right to know by the time they turn 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: That way, they can decide for themselves how to handle it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if they don't find out from their parents, chances of the truth will come out another way, and it's often harder to process when it comes to late.
[SPEAKER_00]: story 23, not really a horrible story, but definitely an interesting one.
[SPEAKER_00]: My cousin took a DNA test and found a very close match.
[SPEAKER_00]: The person had been born in the same city where my dad went to university.
[SPEAKER_00]: During the time he was living there and was given up for adoption.
[SPEAKER_00]: She never knew who her biological parents were.
[SPEAKER_00]: I decided to take the test myself and sure enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: It confirmed that this woman is most likely my half-sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's about 10 years older than me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We exchange a few messages, but that's about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as I know, she hasn't tried to contact my hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dad directly and honestly, I don't think he's interested in talking about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: To be fair, I don't think he even knew she existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he did, he'd probably prefer not to revisit it.
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents didn't even meet until several years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, this is just an interesting twist in the family tree, not really scandalous or dramatic.
[SPEAKER_00]: The more dramatic possibility, though, is that she could actually be my aunt instead of my half-sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would mean she's my dad's half-cipling.
[SPEAKER_00]: which would point to my grandfather getting into some questionable business during visits to my dad's college.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it wouldn't be impossible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 24.
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents divorced when I was six.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad was not a good person at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was cruel to my mom and sister, and he cheated on my mom during their marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point, he even asked her to raise a child that wasn't hers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story of how he came into the world was very dark, and his mother wanted nothing to do with my dad, for very good reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: She cut off all contact and raised her son on her own.
[SPEAKER_00]: I finally met my brother in 2021 at my nieces wedding.
[SPEAKER_00]: He turned out to be a great person, kind, successful, and even a doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He looks so much like our dad, though thankfully his personality is nothing like his.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does out a bit of a temper, but overall he's a good man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I'm just relieved he wasn't raised by our father, because that could have ruined him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meeting him really made me reflect on my own childhood.
[SPEAKER_00]: I often wonder what life would have been like if I had grown up without my father in the picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: I truly believe I would have been a better person and achieve more.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the day, me and my siblings may have a terrible father, but we're stronger
[SPEAKER_00]: And in some ways, I think we're better off without him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 25.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember back in fourth grade, my great grandma walked me to class one morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as we got to my classroom, all the kids stared, and later at lunch I kept getting asked, why do you have a white grandma?
[SPEAKER_00]: My great grandma had really light skin, straight reddish blonde hair, and bright blue eyes, but she was black.
[SPEAKER_00]: All eight of her kids also had blue, green, or hazel eyes, and a good number of grandkids inherited those eye colors too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever we asked about it, the family explanation was always, oh, that comes from Native American ancestry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward about 15 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I finally took a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the results floored me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out I'm 17% Irish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of my parents are black.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of my grandparents were black.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I always believed both of my great grandparents were black too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the truth was different.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great grandma was raised by a black family.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was where her story started.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was actually mixed race.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her biological mother was white.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when she was born, her birth family left her at a black church where she was taken in and raised.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one DNA test unraveled a mystery my family had carry for generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: I recently found a cousin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never knew existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: When my grade-in was 18, she became pregnant outside of marriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her family at the time was very traditional, old-money Catholic, and the baby's father was Jewish.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great-grandparents weren't supportive of a situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the baby was placed for adoption.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, she ended up with a wonderful family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from what I know, my great grandparents at least made sure she'd be well cared for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward today, and that child, now grown, reached out to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was shocked when I realized who her biological mother was.
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes it more complicated is that my grade aunt later married and had three daughters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if any of them know about their older half sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: The oldest of the three is only about seven years younger than her.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's possible they have no idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's asked me if her sister's know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I had to be honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to be truthful, I'm a little afraid to bring it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked another one of my grade aunt's for advice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she said she looked into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing I did make sure to tell my cousin, though, was something on my grandmother's behalf that she always loved her and thought about her, story 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad walked out on my sister me when I was three years old and he basically never looked back.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the last 50 years, I've only seen him a handful of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could count them on my fingers when he found out I was doing a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: He called me before the results came in.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I should probably tell you something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out, he had a brother none of us ever knew about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back when my grandfather was in Korea, he got sick with malaria and was cared for by a nurse.
[SPEAKER_00]: She ended up pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead of stepping up, my grandfather walked away and never really had a relationship with a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only time that ever met was once when that son was already in his 30s.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, apparently being a lousy father runs in the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sure enough, when my DNA results came back, I saw matches from that man's kids and grandkids.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if that wasn't enough, I got a two-for-one surprise.
[SPEAKER_00]: On my mom's side, I had an uncle who struggled with serious mental illness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He always told us he had six kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: we only knew about one for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, when I was in my 20s, another one found him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And recently, DNA testing confirmed yet another, at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have expected to find all six before I die.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's starting to feel like collecting cousins.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hardest part is being the person who has
[SPEAKER_00]: that their dad was really troubled on some level.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their mom's probably hinted at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's another thing entirely when I confirm it to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 28.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to 23 and me, I found out a family secret that completely flipped my world upside down.
[SPEAKER_00]: It started with my stepsister.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out, she was actually the result of an affair between my dad and my step mom back when they were both still married to other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had been neighbors at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom didn't know about the pregnancy, but she eventually left my dad when she found out about his cheating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the next five years, he bounced between engagements until finally marrying my stepmom.
[SPEAKER_00]: My stepsister grew up thinking her dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: My stepmom's husband at the time was her miracle child.
[SPEAKER_00]: He raised her loved her and believed she was his.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, my dad and Stepmom knew the truth, but hit it.
[SPEAKER_00]: To make matters worse, they treated that man terribly in court, trying to take as much as they could from him, all while badmouting him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then my stepsister took a DNA test, and everything came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: They tried to deny it first, but there was no hiding anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: My Stepmom still won't fully take responsibility, and apparently when my stepsister had doubts as a teenager,
[SPEAKER_00]: But the test proved otherwise, so suddenly I gained a half-sister, but then just a few weeks later, another truth dropped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found out that I was adopted, which meant I wasn't really gaining a half-sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: because I wasn't biologically related at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was the adopted daughter and a lot of the treatment I had received growing up suddenly started to make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of this came out just last June while I was living overseas.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, my dad was starting treatment for a very treatable cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is now using as a way to avoid accountability for everything that came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a complete mess of emotions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 29.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found two, actually three, things through DNA testing that I think are pretty interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, my family has always been really proud of being Italian.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad grew up in an area full of Italian immigrants and their kids, so that identity was a big part of our family culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister wanted someone to take a DNA test.
[SPEAKER_00]: partly because she thought she might be able to use it on school applications.
[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't want to do it herself.
[SPEAKER_00]: So during COVID, I decided to step up the results were a shock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out I'm not Italian at all, not even a little.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm about 30% Irish, 15% German, and the rest is a mix of Scottish, French, and other European backgrounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi.
[SPEAKER_00]: Haven't told anyone except my mom, since my sister lost interest, as soon as I mentioned, we were 100% European.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second, I got matched with someone listed as a first cousin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That led me to discover the real story of my father's birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had been adopted, but I never knew the details.
[SPEAKER_00]: The truth was that he was a result of a relationship between a married doctor and a nurse.
[SPEAKER_00]: They chose adoption and that's how my dad and eventually me came into existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And lastly, I dug into my mom's side of the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great aunt always used to say we had English nobility in our line.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was as a family myth, but my research proved it true.
[SPEAKER_00]: I even learned that our family emigrated Pennsylvania as wealthy Quakers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of them fought in the American Revolution, and later, for the Union during the Civil War.
[SPEAKER_00]: That part of the discovery was actually pretty amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: My father was adopted after the fair between a doctor and a nurse, and my mom's family has a prizingly deep historical roots, story 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't really call this a horror story, but it's definitely unsettling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I took a DNA test about 10 years ago, and later uploaded the data to another site.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm from U.S.
[SPEAKER_00]: But these days I work overseas and Montenegro.
[SPEAKER_00]: Funny enough, Montenegro doesn't extradite to US.
[SPEAKER_00]: About a year ago, two detectives showed up in my parents' house.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said that through DNA testing, they connected a close relative of mine to an unsolved crime from the 1990s.
[SPEAKER_00]: They specifically called in the salt case.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom explained I couldn't have been involved, but the detectives asked of a male relative on either my mom's or dad's side will be willing to provide DNA to help narrow it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm 100% sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't do anything like that in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, I doubt anyone of my family did either.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, part of me wondered if maybe it wasn't really about what they said, I can't help but think they were actually trying to close a more serious case, like a homicide, and just use different wording to get cooperation.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all,
[SPEAKER_00]: People might be more willing to hand over DNA if they thought it was for one type of case rather than another.
[SPEAKER_00]: For what it's worth, I also work for the federal government overseas.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I were truly the person they were after, it wouldn't be that hard to get me back to the U.S.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not worried about being accused personally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, it left me with the strange feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: The nineies were a wild time and there's no telling what secrets are still buried there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I connected with a bunch of half ants and half uncles and discovered something huge.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandpa wasn't actually my dad's biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandpa passed away before I was born and my dad and grandma are both gone to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to piece everything together on my own by talking with one of my half uncles.
[SPEAKER_00]: I learned that my biological grandfather had been in the air force.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, he was not a good man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Several siblings said to mothers had gone through traumatic experiences with him, and I fear that might also have been the case for my grandma.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out he had children scattered all over the United States, and I've even found two in Europe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, I've counted nine siblings, including my dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just from people who happen to be on ancestry sites.
[SPEAKER_00]: Realistically, there are probably more out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've spoken to a few of them, but I don't really have an interest in building relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, there's strangers, and there are also a reminder of something deeply painful for me and my real aunt.
[SPEAKER_00]: who was my grandma's daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad I know the truth now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, part of me wishes I didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 32.
[SPEAKER_00]: My ex used to swear up and down that his younger siblings were from a sperm donor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He couldn't see what was obvious to everyone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: His sister looked just like him, and both of them looked like they're dad, while his brother looked like their mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he painted himself as a victim and complained about it constantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, he also had a son he placed for adoption when he was 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something he never told anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He only told me once I was already pregnant with our first child together.
[SPEAKER_00]: One Christmas, my cousin, who's really into genealogy.
[SPEAKER_00]: sent me some 23 and me kits for fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: My extra fuse do it, but my kids did.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the results came back, his sister showed up in their matches as their aunt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I checked the connections and sure enough, both as parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Showed up in the system as their biological parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of his siblings were listed under them as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So much for the sperm donor story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's son he plays for adoption.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also showed up in the results as a half sibling to my kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning he can't really keep that secret from the rest of the family anymore either.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 33.
[SPEAKER_00]: This just happened to my best friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole thing unfolded like a soap opera.
[SPEAKER_00]: His partner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's call our Deb.
[SPEAKER_00]: is really into ancestry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her birthday was coming up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as gift to her was a 23-M.E.
[SPEAKER_00]: kit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deb was excited and told her parents about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon after her dad texted her and said she was going to find out some things.
[SPEAKER_00]: specifically, he revealed that he wasn't actually her biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turned out Deb was conceived through a donor because her dad was infertile.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deb couldn't understand why her parents had never told her this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deb's mom wanted to share the news with Deb together.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a united front, but her dad jumped a gun and told her first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he asked her pretend she hadn't been told yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: so she could act surprised when it all sat down for the official family talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deb agreed, even though it made her uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the three of them had a conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deb attended to be shocked and everything seemed fine until her dad left his phone on the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was unlocked and the text messages were asked,
[SPEAKER_00]: surprised were still open.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her mom saw them immediately after the conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That moment combined with other issues it already been having pushed Debbs mom to file for divorce.
[SPEAKER_00]: TLDR, my best friend bought his partner DNA kit as a birthday gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: It led her finding out her dad wasn't her biological father and also led her parents getting divorced.
[SPEAKER_00]: story 34.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom got pregnant with me while she was in college.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think she ever told my biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it may have been a one-time thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I was in middle school, I asked her about it and she gave me a name.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my early 20s, I searched for him online and eventually tracked him down years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't remember my mom, but since it had been so long,
[SPEAKER_00]: The results came back negative.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom had truly believed he was my father, and she judged herself harshly for having been with two people so close together in time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't care about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What hurt was realizing I might never know who my real dad was, because she didn't remember any other name, fast forward a few years.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my late 20s, I decided to do a 23 in me test.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't expecting to find anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to know more about my heritage.
[SPEAKER_00]: For years, no close matches came up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then in my early 30s, I matched with a great ant from a side of the family that was in my moms.
[SPEAKER_00]: we talked, and eventually pieced together who my biological father was.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when another twist came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great-an't shared that my grandma herself was a child and a fair my great-grandfather had.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never acknowledged her or had a relationship with her.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great-an't and her siblings didn't even learn about my grandma until they were in their 70s.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the end,
[SPEAKER_00]: I found my biological father, but he doesn't want anything to do with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have half siblings who may or may not know I exist.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my grandma doesn't want to stir things up even though we look almost identical.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have connected with a couple cousins and two aunts on Facebook.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they've told me my bio-dad is extremely private.
[SPEAKER_00]: To this day, I've never even seen a photo of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 35.
[SPEAKER_00]: I recently had a second cousin reach out to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Asking if I knew anything about her father, as we talked, I started a piece of things together and realized that her father's father was actually my uncle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now,
[SPEAKER_00]: This particular uncle, who has since passed away, was a pastor of a holiness church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went to college to study ministry, became the first in our family to graduate, and serve it that same church until the day he died.
[SPEAKER_00]: My whole family was very proud of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a big dog at every family event.
[SPEAKER_00]: Weddings?
[SPEAKER_00]: He officiated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Funerals?
[SPEAKER_00]: He presided.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the one everyone turned to.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I went to visit my aunt and told her that our uncle had a child outside his marriage, she knew exactly who I was talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out he had been involved with women from his.
[SPEAKER_00]: Congregation.
[SPEAKER_00]: My cousin's father had even attended the very church my uncle led, but was never acknowledged as a son.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he looked exactly like him, the wildest part?
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone in the family seemed to know, but no one ever said a word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, my uncle kept right on preaching, condemning people for the very things he was secretly doing himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 36.
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't from a DNA test, but from old fashioned genealogy.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandfather got really into building our family tree and actually traced our paternal line all the way back to the 1400s along the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made a shocking discovery.
[SPEAKER_00]: My great-great-grandfather, my grand-grandfather, was not we claimed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had abandoned his first family, stolen his boss's identity, naming all, and then ran off at the boss's daughter,
[SPEAKER_00]: He ended up having children with her daughter from a previous relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how my direct line continued.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all so unbelievable that my grand was mortified and we never brought up around her.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the family, we ended up nicknaming him the scoundrel.
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes it even crazier is that one of my mom's second cousins, who's actually a minor celebrity, comes from that same family line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I'd love for her to go on who do you think you are?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that episode would be pure chaos.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never tried to confirm any of this with DNA testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because unless other relatives tested too, I'm not sure it would prove much anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 37.
[SPEAKER_00]: In early 2023, my mom got me an ancestry test.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I could finally learn more about my origins.
[SPEAKER_00]: We never knew who my father was.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few weeks later,
[SPEAKER_00]: The results came in while I was on the phone with my mom, and just like that, my biological father popped up a 100% match.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out I'm basically as mirror image.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom was shocked because it turned out to be the man she had a one-time fling with years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried reaching out, but got no response.
[SPEAKER_00]: After some searching online, I came across as LinkedIn, then found his Facebook, looking
[SPEAKER_00]: I could see his progression to the years, and I realized I also had siblings, an older sister, a younger sister, and a much younger brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: I message him again nothing, but I did connect with my older sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had a few video calls, and I even got to meet my nieces and nephews virtually.
[SPEAKER_00]: She eventually convinced him to send me a short message on ancestry.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a small paragraph giving a little history and a quick apology about my birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: After I responded, he blocked me everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister told me to give him time, but then she stopped replying to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later, my mom told me more about the backstory.
[SPEAKER_00]: They met in the military when she told him she was pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave her a fake last name and immediately changed duty stations.
[SPEAKER_00]: disappearing from her life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knew I might be his, but he ran.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ironically, he had joined ancestry himself to learn more about his own past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet when I found him, he shut me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I even reached out to his sister, my aunt, but she blocked me without a word as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, the rejection hurt badly.
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter how old you are, being cut off by apparent stillstings.
[SPEAKER_00]: But over time, I've made peace with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful for the knowledge I now have, and I'm content with the family who is in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 38.
[SPEAKER_00]: When my granny visited Portugal, she was surprised by how many people approached her speaking Portuguese.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later we found out why she's about 8% Iberian and apparently that was enough for her to blend in as a local.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her DNA results came back showing she's 70% Native American, 20% Irish, 8% Iberian.
[SPEAKER_00]: with a small trace of English.
[SPEAKER_00]: My grandfather filled in the other side of the picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welsh, French, and Scandinavian.
[SPEAKER_00]: On my dad's side, the family is almost entirely native of American, Ojibwe and Woodland's Cree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our ancestors lived in the Great Lakes in Hudson's Bay Region for countless generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's possible there's been a French or English mixed in, but overwhelmingly, that side is indigenous.
[SPEAKER_00]: We also confirmed that my granny's grandmother was Irish.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had been dropped off on a reserve as an infant after a parent's passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was pale, freckled with fiery red hair, but her first language became Ojibwe, later in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: She learned English, but only for heartbreaking reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: After my granny was taking the residential school, they told her that if she ever spoke Ojibwe to her children.
[SPEAKER_00]: they would never be returned.
[SPEAKER_00]: So she forced herself to use English to protect her family.
[SPEAKER_00]: To this day, my granny still dreams and Ojibwe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes I wonder,
[SPEAKER_00]: Did my great-great-grandmother dream in Irish?
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 39.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my background.
[SPEAKER_00]: My birth mother left me with social services when I was six years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, it was the best decision she ever made because she wasn't a good parent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ended up moving through more than 20 foster homes between the ages of six and 11 before I was finally adopted since my birth mother herself had also been adopted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never thought I'd know anything about my heritage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to just call myself a mutt and laugh it off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then one year, a friend gave me my heritage DNA kit for my birthday.
[SPEAKER_00]: I took the test and sure enough, my birth mother's profile popped up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool, but I didn't really care.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, it gave me the courage to message her and ask who my birth father was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, she didn't know, no name, no location, nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I decided to try Ancestry since they have a bigger database.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where you popped up.
[SPEAKER_00]: my biological father.
[SPEAKER_00]: I waited to see if he'd respond, and he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out he had no idea existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back then, he was drinking heavily and cheating on his wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he didn't even remember my birth mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me he had five kids, and that there was nothing in his medical history, I needed to worry about, then he dropped a bomb.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked me to delete my profile.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of his kids had recently gotten interested in ancestry testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't want them finding out about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was worried it would upset his wife and children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that his whole life would unravel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just told him, Fine, have a good life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The silver lining?
[SPEAKER_00]: At least now I know my roots.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm 56% Scandinavian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 40.
[SPEAKER_00]: I decided to go all in and take all three of the big DNA tests.
[SPEAKER_00]: Family Treaty in A, ancestry DNA, and 23 in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just say, be careful what you ask for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm adopted.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had no clue what I'd find.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I ended up discovering was more than 15 siblings on my biological father's side.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just the people who tested, who knows how many more out there, who haven't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the siblings who reached out to me had heartbreaking stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few of the women told me that the man they grew up believing was their father had been abusive.
[SPEAKER_00]: For them, the DNA results came with a small sense of relief.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least they learned that man wasn't their biological father after all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over time, I kept getting more and more matches.
[SPEAKER_00]: A younger woman reached out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it turned out we were actually half sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through her, I learned the full picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our biological father was a serial womanizer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had abandoned multiple families and left behind many children.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never even met, let alone supported.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I did the math, I realized something even harder to accept.
[SPEAKER_00]: My biological mother was only 14 when my father, who was 27 at the time, got her pregnant.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've stopped digging for more surprises.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing my full biological history isn't high on my list anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'd rather focus on the family who truly raised me.
[SPEAKER_00]: My adoptive parents, the wonderful couple who gave me the love and stability I needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story 41 A branch of my family has always struggled with infertility.
[SPEAKER_00]: Often connected to endometriosis, it's been really sad to watch, because some of the girls who followed strict advice from the Catholic Church, avoiding birth control even when it might have helped medically.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ended up never being able to have kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, some of their sisters and cousins who use it to regulate their cycles or adjoined different churches went on to have healthy biological children.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, there's definitely some family drama there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, the ones who couldn't have biological kids didn't give up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They adopted, and when DNA kids became popular, they were all about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Genetic conditions are serious.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said, you deserve and know your full medical history.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they got test of themselves and for their adopted kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not going where you think it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to understand, ours is a huge family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Big, loud, close-knit.
[SPEAKER_00]: the type that takes over hotel ball rooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's even this legendary story about one of the U.S.
[SPEAKER_00]: Political parties booking a fundraiser at the same hotel where we had a wedding.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our party ended up being bigger and better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of their guests actually ditch their event to come to ours.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are photos of politicians and tuxedo squeeze into our family albums alongside cousins
[SPEAKER_00]: Nana looking regal and silver, and our chaos uncle grinning, because he's the one who invited them after hitting the open bar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's my family, there are lots of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, here's the twist.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single one of the adopted kids has eventually turned out to be biologically related to us somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single one, usually the connection is through someone who married in.
[SPEAKER_00]: The genealogist ants are thrilled about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They consider divine intervention.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll tell total strangers and grocery stores about how the saints clearly had a
[SPEAKER_00]: Once through a newly discovered relative of a married in, another time through a lady whose husband was the best plumber of the Cleveland cousins ever hired, and another time through gossip about a 23-and-me hack.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the family heard about that hack, the reaction was first panic.
[SPEAKER_00]: then a collective shrug.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because honestly, after the things that have happened with that time of Brian, and oh God, remember Mary Caitlyn's ex, we figured there's not much the world can throw at us that we haven't already tangled with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sooner or later, we'll end up related to it, working with it, marrying it, or adopting it.
[SPEAKER_00]: formerly or informally, we're not quite infinite, we're not quite legion but we are fun, and we always, always, put out the best cookie table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and my husband, who barely has two living relatives his own, thinks this is hilarious.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes starcraft jokes constantly and calls us the caragon swarm.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, he's not wrong.