A woman was delighted when she received an Ancestry DNA test kit as a gift from her beloved daughter. After sending her samples for testing, she had to wait three weeks. And when the results finally arrived, it was nothing she imagined!
Believe it or not, the genetic genealogy testing system has been used since the 1960s. However, back then, the accuracy of results was only 80 percent, and tracing blood relatives could be daunting. Later, in the 70s and 80s, more efficient testing techniques were introduced.
Using DNA kits to complete family trees has increased since 2017. In 2019 alone, almost 26 million people in the US turned to genetic testing to discover their close relatives or find information about their lineage.
In 2017, a woman received an unusual present from her daughter, Shelby. Since DNA testing was on the rise in America then, the gift didn’t seem so unlikely.
Those were the missing pieces she would forever carry with her.
The woman (we’re calling Susan for anonymity) was thrilled to use the genetic kit to explore her ancestral roots. Seeing her mom’s reaction, Shelby was over the moon and felt proud of herself for coming up with such an epic gift idea.
After the initial excitement subsided, Susan took the test and sent her samples in early 2018. With fingers crossed, she anxiously awaited the report, which arrived after three weeks.
Holding her breath, she opened the results and was astounded to learn she wasn’t 100 percent American. Per the report, Susan was half-Italian, which was mind-boggling because she had no Italians in her family.
At first, she thought the results were erroneous because none of it added up. But then, her facial expressions were a mix of shock and confusion as it dawned upon her that maybe, she was missing something substantial.
Soon afterward, Susan mustered up the strength to search the online database using her maiden name. Sadly, she didn’t find any matches, which made her more anxious. To help her mom, Shelby also searched online to find any possible close relatives on the database.
Eventually, the mother-daughter duo narrowed their search, but what they learned proved life-altering. The results were so shocking that poor Susan was left with countless questions and self-doubt.
Her self-identity became so blurry that she had to seek therapy to heal. While a part of her would never forget what she experienced, Shelby said her mom decided to use her story to help others in similar circumstances.
Shelby shared the incredibly mind-blowing story on TikTok in 2020 and noted how she unintentionally ruined her family in one day. Although she had no part to play in her mom’s soul-crushing story, she wished she had been more mindful before buying the DNA kit as a gift.
The TikToker admitted to having no regrets, but she warned people using genealogy testing to be prepared for the outcomes. You might be wondering what Susan and Shelby discovered in the results.
It turned out Susan’s birth father was the man who often came to her house in her childhood. He worked on her grandfather’s cars and happened to be her grandparents’ landlord in the mid-1960s.
Susan was so appalled by the information that she wanted to confirm its authenticity. But who could she reach out to? After much thought, she called her mom and told her everything.
As was expected, her mother denied any knowledge concerning the results but called back a few weeks later with a probable explanation. Sadly, there was no way Susan could confirm her mom’s version of the story because her birth father had died in 2014.
Even more unfortunate was that his kids were uninterested in talking to Susan. She was on the brink of hopelessness when a first cousin contacted her and helped answer some of her queries.
Through their conversations, Susan learned her biological dad had three kids. But she had no way of discovering how much she resembled her father or the kind of person he was. Those were the missing pieces she would forever carry with her.
Susan and Shelby’s story was reported by Newsweek, which also shared shocking stories of two more women and their experience using DNA testing.
Baelee was 32 and a mother of two when she gave her father a DNA kit for Christmas in 2020. A month later, she received the report and was stunned to learn her 70-year-old dad wasn’t her birth father. She was flabbergasted to know her biological dad and mother had a short fling in the 1980s, after which he went to Arizona. Per Baelee, he didn’t even know of her existence.
Eventually, Baelee found her 65-year-old biological dad on Facebook and met him in person. She described him as a welcoming man but didn’t feel ready to build a relationship with him. But what she gained out of the whole fiasco was a sister.
Baelee forged a strong connection with her birth dad’s daughter, 25-year-old Lauren, and they became best friends. The pair stayed connected over the phone and through texts and even visited each other.
Baelee also confronted her mom, who eventually came clean. Although her dad (we’re calling him Steve for anonymity) was deeply hurt, he didn’t seem astonished by the shocking news. The entire episode was appalling for Baelee, but it blessed her with a new sister and best buddy.
In another related story, Bethany Bolton, 22, from Surrey, UK, saw her life change because of an ancestral kit. She was raised by a single mother and never had her dad around. But when she reached her teens, she began wondering about her father and decided to dig for information.
She reached out to her mother, who told her everything that had gone awry in their relationship. Bolton began looking for him, hoping her father might have changed over the years.
On Christmas 2021, her sister gifted her a DNA kit, and the results led her to her biological dad’s blood relative. When Bolton talked to her relative, she learned that her dad was no more. Still, she kept an open mind, hoping the news was untrue.
Through a Facebook DNA group, Bolton reportedly found her birth parent later and that he had seven kids. But she noted how the people who knew her potential biological dad didn’t wish to reopen old wounds. While she didn’t meet her dad, she hoped he had evolved into a good man.
