When Ancestry first came out, just like lottery numbers, many people thought they’d send in their DNA and poof, they were going to find out they are related to someone famous.
I never thought I was related to someone famous and I’m not. I sent in my DNA for a personal reason.
It was interesting to find out that although my mom’s side of the family is 100% Polish and my dad’s side of the family is 100% German, I am not half Polish and half German.
Somewhere along the ancestral trail someone strayed…to the UK. I’m 25% British.
I found this out about six months before William and Catherine got married. I told anyone and everyone that since I am now British, I was expecting a wedding invitation…and shockingly it must have gotten lost in the mail.
I’m sure there have been many surprises in the last almost forty years that it’s been around. It’s made some people happy, sad, angry, caused fights, a few divorces, etc.
The one thing that I love about this world-wide DNA search tool is the number of cold cases it’s solved. Since I love watching true crime shows, I’m seeing more and more law enforcement agencies use this tool to solve new and old crimes.
Ancestry has not had any impact on me or anyone I know. Until two days ago.
I was on the phone with my oldest granddaughter discussing recipes. We both love spending a lot of time in the kitchen and we both bake in competitions.
During our conversation she blurted out, “Oh my.”
I asked what happened and she said that her husband’s DNA match results just came to light on Ancestry. Turns out his dad is not his biological dad.
He is an only child of a couple who did not have him until they were in mid-forties. He knew he was an invitro baby and was told by his parents that they went that route because of their age and that his mother had trouble conceiving naturally.
My granddaughters husband is in his early thirties and I’m sure this was a shock to find out.
Turns out that bio daddy is on Ancestry so they were able to look him up and see what he looks like. Also found out that he has at least two half-sisters.
Bio daddy might be a serial sperm donor. Time will tell if anyone else crawls out of the Ancestry woodwork.
So a day later he called his mom to tell him of this discovery. She didn’t deny it, explained that they used a sperm donor because of the reasons previously mentioned, and that they were hoping he would never find out.
It’s their choice how they handled it but I don’t know that I would have kept it a secret. He’s not mad but probably has a lot of thoughts running through his mind. Knowing him, I don’t believe this will affect his relationship with his parents.
Me, on the other hand, may never recover from that lost wedding invitation from Will and Kate
Back to Basics 