A woman’s life has been turned upside down after taking a DNA test she received as a gift.
The 42-year-old, who admits she isn’t interested in her heritage or ancestors, took the at-home test just for fun. However, she was not prepared to uncover the shocking truths about her lineage.
She shared on Reddit: “I am already aware the man on my birth certificate is not my biological father. What I do know of my known ancestors is there are a whole lot of b******s and a lot of illegitimate children too. I got my results today and had an unexpected 27% match with someone I had never heard of, so called my mum and asked if she heard the name.
“At first, she said no, but then you could hear the cogs spin and she says, ‘well I dated a guy named…’ And I was like ‘It would appear who we thought was my father was not my father’. She insisted the timeline was wrong, so we spitballed some far-fetched alternatives, hung up in good humour, and my sister and I started laughing because we knew mum was doing some furious math.”
Her mum rang back later explaining how she was a “wild teenager” before she began praising her former lover for his personality. She continued: “I did some investigation on the closest relative match and found an obituary that linked her to my suspected father’s name as his sister (the match said aunt or half-sister). I also noticed in the obituary they were preceded in death by a grandchild, so I looked up that obituary too.
“I discovered I had a younger brother who tragically passed away from melanoma in 2011. Coincidentally, my own son’s brain cancer relapsed that same year, and we lost him in 2019, just before his 12th birthday. I was overcome with emotion.”
Nevertheless, the woman is now anxious her biological father’s sister might notice the new match and attempt to contact her to inquire about their connection. She expressed: “I can’t imagine the emotional roller coaster it would be to find out you had another child out there, only to discover that child lost her only child to cancer as well. It feels bad and cursed. I wish I’d never allowed matches.”
Uncertain about how to proceed, she asked Reddit users: “Has anyone else had something weird happen with Ancestry DNA that they wish they could undo? I really, really, really don’t want this poor guy to know I exist.”
Commenting on her post, one user said: “You can turn off matches if you don’t want him to know. I’ve matched with a cousin I knew I had but had never met. She contacted me but hasn’t responded since I messaged back but I gave her as much info I have on that branch. I found it crazy that she didn’t know we were cousins because I always knew she existed. Our dads were brothers and both are dead now, but I guess hers didn’t tell her much.”
Another user expressed their condolences, saying: “I’m so sorry for your loss and how digging into your Ancestry results made you relive that trauma as you learned about your brother. Your mum and sister sound like awesome people and I’m glad you have them.”
A third chimed in with empathy: “If I were this woman, I’d be happy to know that something of my brother is living out there.”