Question of the Week: What surprises did you find from DNA testing?

Question

Did a DNA test reveal any surprises for you or your family? 

Tell us about them with an answer below! You could also answer on Facebook or use the question image to share your answer with friends and family on social media.

Answer 1

I found out shortly after DNA testing that I have a 1st cousin on my maternal side who is presumably the child of one of my mother's brothers.  All of them are now deceased and none of them had other known children.  She and I do not share any family names in our trees.

When I contacted her on the DNA site, she confirmed that she knew 3 of the brothers living in her area and that the family was very close to one of them.  She said there were some rumors within the family. . Her daughter was in contact with my sister on another site and she confirmed some facts that led us all to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, communication came to a halt at that point.

Following some independent research I found that my cousin and I, (now in our 70's) were born within a year of each other in the same area, but my family moved to another state shortly after. I do wish I had a cousin, but apparently the revelations from DNA were not welcomed on the other end so we remain strangers.

Answer 2

Many surprises, in part because we now have so many AncestryDNA tests in the older generations of our family. The biggest surprise is that a single cousin who didn't know he had a child discovered he had a granddaughter.

Answer 3

I found two first cousins that I hadn't known existed, both on my mother's side of the family. I was able to find contact addresses for both. The son of one of the cousins has become a good friend. The found children of the other cousin have not responded, and evidently do not want any contact or exchange of information

Answer 4

I knew my dad was adopted and we had his birth parents names. But, way to many Jim Jones in his hometown that were possibilities. Narrowed it down to 2  I thought I had the right one but DNA said it was the other one. A second cousin got in contact and gave me info and pictures of my birth grandfather, his father and his grandfather. Also, got contacted by the family of a half-sister of my dad. I was able to share all the info about our shared birth grandfather that was given to me with them.

Answer 5

On my right hand I have I have the so called "mark of the viking", my dna supported my background in Scandavian countries and out of curiosity I posted to a seventh cousin that I have that mark and he replied that he and his brother both have it, his brothers ring finger is significantly and permanently pulled down in a curve. I

Answer 6

I found a woman who was a 4% match on MyHeritage that didn't make sense in my family tree. Her mother had been adopted and since passed away. They didn't know the mother's parents. I figured a 4 % match was 2nd cousins and by a process of elimination, narrowed the mother's parents down to either my Mom's uncle Howard or aunt Doris.  My DNA match wrote to the place where the adoption happened in Kansas City, Missouri and found out that the mother of the adopted child was not related to me but the father was not named.  This proved that the father was my mom's uncle Howard and the adopted child was my Mom's cousin that she never knew she had. When I showed my Mom the picture of the adoptee, she said, she looks like me!

The relationship was confirmed by a number of other matches on 23andMe.  

I felt very proud that I had figured out this woman's grandparents. But in the end, none of her family cared.

Answer 7

I originally got into genealogy to find out who my father was and where I belong. It took 50 years and a DNA test to find out. The first big shock for me came from ethnicity. I know it  isn't 100% but I always thought that I was a bitzer (bit of this, bit of that). Ancestry DNA came up with me being half Scottish traced directly to Argyll and Bute - the heart of Campbell Clan country. It was a huge surprise as I knew my maternal side Campbell came from Ireland - the amount was so great that it had to come from my father. Which indeed is what it turned out to be.

Answer 8

I convinced my husband to have a DNA test because we couldn't find his mother's parents and siblings. We were surprised when nothing popped up after several years of searching, however, a year ago someone enquired about a strong DNA connection and I thought who in my family could this be?  I went back to ask more questions and found that my deceased husband's sister had a child while in college and gave him up for adoption.  This was a real shocker since she was so religious and had married the man that had fathered her first child.  After waiting 4 months, I wanted to delicately tell her that a son was trying to connect with her but I learned that she died from Covid before I got the chance.  Her son and this  DNA  child discovery have connected and have turned this story into a happy ending.

Answer 9

First, I discovered that one of my cousins had a baby at a young age and gave it up. Then I discovered the identity of the man who fathered my grandfather and wouldn't put his name on the birth certificate. He was a French-speaking Swiss man who married a Swedish immigrant who had also abandoned her child. Everything worked out because they ended up living dull lives in a dull town while my grandfather was surrounded by loving family, married a fabulous woman and started a successful business.

Answer 10

I was amazed to find that I have DNA matches to descendants of Thomas Dewey the Settler (Dewey-54) born 1606.  My paternal uncle, my son and I have all taken the Ancestry DNA test; we all live in England and are descended from the Wiltshire Dewey line.  I  searched for ‘Dewey’ & ‘Windsor’ within Ancestry’s ‘DNA hits’ results data (about 30,000 matches) for all 3 tests and we have a combined total of just over 40 hits.  This is only made possible by the endogamy genetic effect.  I believe this proves we 3 are descended from The Settler’s parents, Thomas Dewey Snr and Mary Moore; the details of my research and basis of my conclusions can be found on my website www.deweywiltshireroots.org.uk.

In the last few days I have been researching Abigail Dewey-88, a disputed child of The Settler.  Yesterday I found 2 DNA matches on Ancestry, me to ‘K.W.’ and to ‘janetlynn66’,  both are managed by halvo110 and linked to the Halvorson tree.  This tree goes back a bit further than the marriage of Abigail Dewey to Thomas Cutler.  I think these 2 items of DNA evidence strongly suggest that Abigail Dewey existed.

It concerns me that WT standards seem to set the bar too high to allow the full benefits of DNA to family history research; from their wiki/Help:DNA_Confirmation page on acceptability:- “If the DNA testing company has predicted that you and your match are third cousins or closer and this corresponds with your genealogically-known relationship, continue“.

Answer 11

In her final years and months my mother told my older sister that I had a different father to both her and my younger sister. DNA results prove that her husband was in fact my biological father and not some other bloke she had a fling with (as my older sister thought). They also suggest that my older sister is only my half sister - I have Irish ancestry and she doesn't. Interesting to note is that the person she considers her cousin has come up as a half sister according to DNA. It's a puzzle still to be resolved. But I am content knowing that my father was my actual father. I also look incredibly much like him.

Answer 12

When agreeing to do a yDNA test in 2015, had no clue that mine would come back showing a different paternal path than I thought!  There has always been a mystery in our paternal line about who my 4th great-grandfather was, as my third great is mentioned by name in his grandfather's will.  There is no reason to think that the switch in paternity occurred at that generation or the one before it.  Since then, have been working to find the Anderson line that one whole segment of the Carruth family descends from.

Answer 13

That my ancestors, came from Ostfriesland Germany, and some of them were actually English and Irish, not much of a surprise, but a little.

Answer 14

I have a new 45 year old son and he found his father. So far, so good. We get along great and are making up for lost time.

Answer 15

Many Surprises.... my surname is not my blood name. I have a half-aunt we did not know about until dna matching. I am matched in my paternal direct line, with an individual from Puerto Rico, who has traced his family back to Portugal, c.1300-1400. and our haplo group split from it's parent branch, an estimated "...4000 years ago" and "...the branch belonging to the two of you broke off from all other [testers] just before the ancient Brits began building Stonehenge."

The more questions/connections DNA has helped solve, the more questions it has shed light on.

Answer 16

Reason I did DNA was trying to find missing link on family tree on my Mother's maiden name.

I did not do my DNA to find out the Man I called Dad for 63 years, was not my biological father.  Quite taken aback, to say the least.  Wish I could talk to my Mom and ask her what she was doing! LOL.  It originally took my breath away, have accepted it now, but is was a shock.

Afterthought, I did find the missing link on my Abraham Sayles. :)  Happy trails...or should I say Sayles.

Answer 17

Big Surprise!! Found Our family's biological family, who we'd been searching for many years, so found  many, many bio cousins who all live in the same area in California! We also found that the paternal line is Portuguese from the Azores Islands to California, originally Portugal. 

And we found we're related to the Chiquita Banana Girl aka the Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda, born Maria do Carmo (daCunha) Miranda.. 

Connected with another cousin, born in Argentina, now living in the US.

Answer 18

I found out I was Irish/British/Scotish/Welsh with 34%+ depending on where tested. My Maternal Grandmother was adopted, no information ever given and we thought she was German like her adopted parents. All my cousins said NO that has to be on your paternal side. Haha they took the test and found out they are the same !  Funniest thing was about fifty years ago I worked a catering part with my Mother and two inebriated guests got into a fist fight arguing as to what part of Ireland my Mother was from and she kept hollering that she was German and Italian and was from Wisconsin !

Answer 19

I discovered that my dad's paternal grandma's (my great-grandma) older brother had two children before he got married. One was born and adopted in 1914 from a mother's home and the other was born out of an affair in about 1919 in NYC. Both were males. I've met one of the daughters of the boys born in New York. We are meeting up again in a couple of weeks. :)
I also discovered that my paternal grandpa's paternal grandpa (my 2nd great-grandpa) had an affair in the mid to late 1920s that produced three children. I learned all of that thanks to getting my paternal grandpa's sister's DNA tested.

My grand-aunt's half-aunt is still alive too, but I will not be meeting her as she has dementia and I don't want to upset her. I might meet one of her nieces (half). I did tell my half great grand aunt's other niece, whose mom I'm related to directly that her grandma had an affair in the 20s.

EDIT: I found that my 2nd great-grandparents and my great-granduncle lived in the same small town as the lady my 2nd great-grandpa had the affair with. They probably all played cards together. Thanks to me for looking for a specific last name in a specific area and finding a particular census for that made it all come together. I'm sad about the events concerning it. Also one of his sons did the same thing later to his wife, but didn't have any children with the lady that he cheated on. But did divorce his wife to marry this other lady.
As I know Ancestry DNA does warn you that you may get surprising results. In that case, yes.

Answer 20

Growing up, I always thought I knew who all my relatives were for at least 4-5 generations on both sides.  I got heavily into family genealogy after retiring. Cliff notes story:  Prior to COVID, I discovered, via DNA Matches, and research, my Bio paternal grandfather isn't who I knew it to be.  My dad passed away quite a while ago and I was pretty sure he didn't know but maybe he did.  My paternal grandmother and who I thought was my grandfather had a nasty divorce when my dad was 10.  I obtained a copy of the divorce and newspaper articles.  My dad's biological father's name was in a newspaper article about the divorce.  My grandmother and newly discovered grandfather married other people.  I discovered my dad had another sister who grew up about 25 miles from him/us.  After COVID, my brother and I enjoyed meeting his half sister (our Aunt) and her husband.