The most shocking secrets uncovered by DNA ancestry tests
Popular genetic test kits
Genetic test kits have been raising in popularity for years, with plenty of companies making an appearance and a profit, such as 23andMe, MyHeritage and Ancestry among others.
Over 40 million people have tested their DNA
Since the year 2000, more than 40 million people worldwide are thought to have tested their DNA ancestry via one of those companies, according to a report by The Guardian.
Exploring heritage and connecting with relatives
While some people use the DNA test to know more about their origins and heritage, others are hoping to find parents, siblings or relatives they didn’t know they had.
Wild outcomes from DNA mail-in tests
But what happens when a DNA test comes back with information that could potentially change a person’s life forever? These are some of the wildest stories that have resulted from DNA ancestry tests:
An abducted boy found alive more than 70 years later
Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old when he was abducted from a park in Oakland where he had been playing with his older brother in 1951. Now, more than 70 years later, he was found living on the East Coast, according to the LA Times.
Photo: Aaron Burden/Unsplash
Her niece found him through a DNA test
In 2020, his niece did a DNA ancestry test “just for fun” and, with the help of the FBI, ended up finding her long-lost uncle. According to The Guardian, the boy was abducted by a woman who sold him to a couple in the East Coast that raised him as their child.
A man raised 3 kids he thought were his, but none of them were
“All three of my kids had 23andMe DNA tests taken at the end of 2023. They are all in their 30s now. The tests showed that they are all only half-siblings, and each one has a different biological father (spoiler alert: not me),” a user named Mark H. wrote on a Quora forum.
A secret that was “taken to the grave”
He went on to explain that his ex and mother of those children died ten years ago, so the mystery of the biological fathers “went to the grave with her”, leaving all the family “shocked and betrayed.”
Photo: Sandy Millar/Unsplash
Her brother died in the 80’s and years later she learned he had a daughter
Beth M. Wrote on Quora that her brother died in an accident in the 80’s. At the time he died he had a girlfriend who after the death, moved away and lost contact with the family. As it turned out, she was three months pregnant by then, but they never knew.
“She was a replica of my late brother”
Years later, Beth’s family did a DNA test with Ancestry and found her brother’s daughter and her family. “When we met in person, I almost fainted. She was a female replica of my late brother, and she had two kids of her own, the youngest of whom looked just like my brother’s twin,” she wrote.
A single 70 year-old found out he was a great-grandfather
Kathleen C. told the story of her 70 year-old single friend who found out he was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather overnight, after his daughter and his brother took DNA mail-in tests.
A daughter he never knew he had
According to Kathleen, her friend had impregnated his high school girlfriend who never told him about the pregnancy and gave the baby up for adoption. Fifty years later, that grown up baby did a DNA test and had a match with her uncle, leading her to her father soon after, who is now “delighted to have new family in his life.”
A woman discovered her dad was switched at birth
As reported by The Washington Post, Alice Collins Plebuch, who identified as Irish American, was shocked to find a mix of European Jewish, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European genes when she did a DNA ancestry test.
Mystery solved
After further family-wide DNA testing, she learned that her father was not the biological son of her grandparents. After even more digging, Plebuch finally got to the bottom of the story: Her father had been sent home with the wrong family.
Two childhood friends learned they were actually half-brothers
At the age of 74, Walter McFarlane decided to take an AncestryDNA test to learn more about his biological family. He had been raised by his grandmother, but the details of his biological family were hazy.
One of them had been given up for adoption
According to a CNN report, McFarlane learned that his long-time friend who grew up down the street was actually his half-brother, Alan Robinson, who had been adopted.
Two British sisters discovered an unusual Native American heritage
Two white British women were shocked to learn that their ancestry revealed a Native American bloodline, especially considering their ancestors hadn’t even been to America, according to a BBC report.
Native Americans were brought to the UK centuries ago
Historians then explained that although unusual, some Native Americans were brought to the United Kingdom centuries ago, possibly as slaves, translators, or tribal representatives, who then stayed in Britain and married into local communities, according to the report.
Two sisters from China reunited in the US
According to a People magazine report, a family adopted a 10 year-old girl from China who had been diagnosed with a brain disorder.
They had the same genetic brain condition
They later learned that a family in their church group had also adopted a girl from China who had the same brain disorder. The families decided to test the girls’ DNA, only to learn that they had a 99.9 percent match of being sisters.
A woman didn’t know she was mixed race
According to a Reader’s Digest report, a woman from Virginia, who identified as African-American, given she had Black parents (or so she thought), used a company called Kin Finder, LLC to learn more about her background.
When interracial marriages were illegal in the US
The test showed she was 70% white. Turns out the man she thought was her father, was actually her stepdad. Her biological father was white and he didn’t marry her mother because interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia at that time.
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