DNA tests

[iris lilies]

Oy.

don’t do them if you are not prepared to accept some results that may be an unwelcome surprise.


Maybe I have a half brother. I’m in the process of doing further investigation. Consensus of everyone who has seen three photos of this guy is he looks like my dad. I concur.

More to follow.

[catherine]

Holy cow, IL, yes, keep us posted! Have a glass of wine first!!

[razz]

I read and hear of so many who have taken this DNA tests with some surprises arising. Some discoveries were welcome, some not by any of the parties. Since I am part-mutt with some of mother's side foundling infants left at a church during a war, I don't want to be surprised or know.

Not knowing how accurate these tests really are, it it possible that the mystery sibling might be a cousin rather than a half-brother?

[JaneV2.0]

What do they say--one quarter of people who take a DNA test get a startling result? I forget the exact figure.
But how interesting...

[ApatheticNoMore]

I found out recently through mere family history tracing on Ancestry (not DNA) that my aunt was my grandmother. I knew this person and saw them fairly regularly growing up as they were local, but never knew them as grandmother. They took it to THEIR grave. My dad took it to HIS grave. And this in a family where I knew my history (though not going back forever, with immigrants from many places you CAN'T trace that far back) and was raised deeply in what I thought was my history. Who knows and when did they know? Not always I don't think.

I always sensed secrets though, so many secrets, so many of the endless dark corners that are childhood. I'd imagine affairs and so on that probably DID NOT happen (though one never knows for sure, until they find a half brother I guess) just out of sensing a secrecy I could never penetrate. I'd get so far in asking questions and hit the wall of secrets beyond which one could not go.

I'd love to find half siblings at this point though, it would be cool to have more relatives out there (ha maybe even if I met them and didn't even like them).

I thought the problem might be DNA and finding health issues, yea that's what I'm curious about and what I would fear.

[catherine]

When I did my DNA, what struck me was who they identified as "1st cousins." One was my brother, who was orphaned at 6 y.o. when my dad's brother died (his wife/my brother's mother died in childbirth) and he was subsequently adopted by my parents. Blood-wise, he is my 1st cousin.

The other was a real 1st cousin, who doesn't have a tree on Ancestry, so I was surprised to see him pop up.

So I do think the DNA results tend to be a accurate, although I'm sure there are flaws and mistakes.

[KayLR]

ANM, so...was your aunt/grandmother your dad's mother? Maybe I'm dense, but I'm not getting it. Feel for you, getting such a shock. That would be shaking.

[ApatheticNoMore]

ANM, so...was your aunt/grandmother your dad's mother? Maybe I'm dense, but I'm not getting it. Feel for you, getting such a shock. That would be shaking.

yes his mother, out of wedlock, old b*st*rd that my dad was . And who my dad's father was maybe noone knows or noone tells if they do, he disappeared I suppose. She had no more kids and didn't marry anyone until 40 something, and no there is no chance the man she married decades later was the father. My ethnic make up is probably not changed.

I think she might have been sent away when pregnant, it was rumored she spent time in a mental institution when young, which I've told shrinks when they asked about family history (even though it was just run of the mill anxiety or depression), but I'm thinking more like she was never mentally ill at all, she was hiding a pregnancy.

[catherine]

yes his mother, out of wedlock, old b*st*rd that my dad was . And who my dad's father was maybe noone knows or noone tells if they do, he disappeared I suppose. She had no more kids and didn't marry anyone until 40 something, someone who was certainly not the father. My ethnic make up is probably not changed.

I think she might have been sent away when pregnant, it was rumored she spent time in a mental institution when young, which I've told shrinks when they asked about family history (even though it was just run of the mill anxiety or depression), but I'm thinking more like she was never mentally ill at all, she was hiding a pregnancy.

That's some story, ANM.. I feel so bad for the women who were sent away in shame.

[Teacher Terry]

Ann, that’s sad. IL, sounds like you might have joined the club. Hope it works out better for you than me.