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<h2>Taking a DNA test can be an illuminating experience to help you learn more about your family and genetic makeup, but sometimes the results can reveal a lot more than what percentage of Irish you are, or how likely you are to have dimples...</h2><p>Family secrets, spicy affairs, or long lost siblings can be revealed simply by spitting into a tube and shipping it to a lab. While most people have a vague understanding of where their ancestors came from and at least who their immediate family members are, secrets can&#39;t hide for long when your genes uncover the fact that you&#39;re not at all related to the person you thought was your parent. Connecting with distant cousins, learning about your health risks, or discovering fun facts about your physical traits can all be explored from an at-home DNA test. However, the answers are not always as simple as &quot;you have blue eyes and have a predisposition for hating cilantro.&quot;</p><p>So, when a recent <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/kzwvgo/people_who_have_taken_an_ancestry_dna_test_and/">Reddit </a>user asked, &quot;People who have taken an ancestry DNA test and accidentally uncovered a family secret, what was it?&quot; family sleuths were ready to reveal their genetic mysteries.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>1.</h2><blockquote> <p>My bio-dad left his family and two daughters in Washington and married my mom in Los Angeles 5 weeks later. I found his first marriage certificate but nothing about a divorce. - khegiobridge</p> </blockquote><h2>2.</h2><blockquote> <p>My aunt discovered that her mother cheated on her father and she was a product of that affair, meaning she was actually only half-siblings with her 4 siblings.</p> <p>The rub was that my aunt&rsquo;s husband was married before he married her. The woman he was married to is the daughter of the man involved in the affair. So no one knew this, but my uncle got divorced and then married his ex-wife&rsquo;s half-sister. I guess he has a type. - herd_that</p> </blockquote><h2>3.</h2><blockquote> <p>I found out that my dad is not my biological father. Turns out the family friend I grew up calling &lsquo;grandpa&rsquo; is. - agrajag159</p> </blockquote><h2>4.</h2><blockquote> <p>My wife is adopted (but found her bio mom) and did one of the genetic tests. Someone matched with her and asked if she knew such and such a name. She found out her bio mom&#39;s husband wasn&#39;t the bio dad, it was the bio mom&#39;s boss. - valeyard89</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>5.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was adopted and always knew I was adopted. My parents told me that I came from a family that had already had all of their kids. They lived several towns over. I was a surprise.</p> <p>Three years ago my wife decided to take some DNA tests. I figured what the heck? Maybe I&#39;m part Zulu warrior. That&#39;d be cool. When the tests came back, I found out I had a first cousin. They had listed a public email. I emailed them, started comparing notes, and wham! I was in for quite a surprise.</p> <p>First, I was not born into a traditional family. Instead, my bio mom was single. Second, I was not a late addition. I had four sisters and one brother. I was the baby, but only by a couple of years. Third, most all of them lived nearby. Finally, nobody knew I was alive! My biological mom had passed. She had kept the pregnancy secret from everybody else. Before she died, she had confided in one of my bio sisters that she had a baby a long time ago, and she had put the baby up for adoption. She told nobody else.</p> <p>When my sister told the rest of the family? They didn&#39;t believe her! So when I finally looked them up, she was like &quot;See! All those years! I told you so! We have a baby brother!&quot; It was an amazing experience. I had no idea what I was getting into when I sent that DNA test off. - ExistentialismFTW</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>6.</h2><blockquote> <p>I have an uncle that was put up for adoption. He contacted my grandma and she thought he was going to extort her (they&rsquo;re well off). Turns out he&rsquo;s a multi, multi millionaire on his own. - RolandDPlaneswalker</p> </blockquote><h2>7.</h2><blockquote> <p>My male cousin did one and found a female cousin we did not know about. He reached out to her and apparently our deceased uncle was good friends with her mother. Mom wanted a baby so uncle got her pregnant simply as a sperm donor.</p> <p>Female cousin lived a few blocks away from my grandmother. She had met her a few times going around selling Girl Scout cookies or something. My grandmother had no idea that she was buying cookies from her granddaughter. - OrangeTree81</p> </blockquote><h2>8.</h2><blockquote> <p>Found out I have a different father. My dad also took a DNA test at the same time and found out his father, of 52 years, was not his biological father either. - Benevolent_Burrito</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>9.</h2><blockquote> <p>I am the family secret, family discovered their brother/cousin/son and his wife had 3 children and gave them all up for adoption - after matching with me through a DNA test.</p> <p>They were shocked to say the least, but we&#39;re all pretty close now. - _orange-soda</p> </blockquote><h2>10.</h2><blockquote> <p>My real father and 3 half siblings&mdash;it ended up being a really good discovery. - CatMakes3</p> </blockquote><h2>11.</h2><blockquote> <p>Not me, but a friend never knew who his father was (mom had a weekend fling in college and never contacted the guy after) and his wife helped him use ancestry.com to try and track him down. My friend reached out and the guy was obviously surprised, but flew across the country to meet him. They have a great relationship now, the dad attended his wedding, and they try to get their families together a couple times a year or so - djsquidnasty</p> </blockquote><h2>12.</h2><blockquote> <p>I found a half sister that none of my siblings or mother knew about. My dad had an affair 50 years ago (he&#39;s dead now). For us it wasn&#39;t really a surprise, we already have a half-sister from another affair but for the newly discovered one answered a lot of questions and gave her some needed closure. We all met a few times, it was pleasant. - AztecWheels</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>13.</h2><blockquote> <p>A full 100% older brother. My mother got pregnant by my father before the were married. Scandalous in 1960. So, with my father&#39;s knowledge of the situation, mom left town, and lived with my aunt until the birth. Mom gave the baby up for adoption, and then returned home. A couple years later, she married my dad and had three more children together, including me. Fifty five years later, after both my parents had died, my aunt let it slip that me and my siblings that were not the only children of our parents. To paraphrase from Star Wars, there is another. My sister took a DNA test, and a couple of year later she got a hit. Soon thereafter, we met our new big brother and his family (wife, kids) and have become quite close. - Freeaegent</p> </blockquote><h2>14.</h2><blockquote> <p>My cousin took a test and goes on and on about how she&#39;s almost completely Irish. Our grandpa was German. I&#39;d heard from my mom as a kid that my aunt&#39;s biological father was probably her friend&#39;s father. I&#39;ve looked the family up on Facebook and my aunt looks just that friend. My cousin seems to have no idea of any of this. I don&#39;t think my aunt does either. - jelly-8</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>15.</h2><blockquote> <p>A few years ago my wife and I both took the 23 and me test. One of her matches came back with 23% which is high for someone non-family. She messaged him and they started talking. He was about 10 years older, said he was adopted and the only thing he knew was some basic biological info. From his age that would have put her mom at 14 but her mom never said anything about it. So the two options were her mom got pregnant young or Grandma had a secret love child.</p> <p>So she asked her youngest Uncle who said when he was a kid he remembered his sister going away for a few months because she was &quot;sick&quot; and the family just pretended it never happened. He also said that before his mom (my wives Grandmother) passed she told him all about it.</p> <p>So my wife now has a Brother, a sister in law and nieces and nephews. - last_to_know42</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>16.</h2><blockquote> <p>Always thought my grandfather on my father&#39;s side was adopted and thought our last name was just of the family that adopted him. One DNA test later and the family figures out that my great grandparents got pregnant out of marriage and ran away. They came back with a child saying it was adopted so they wouldn&#39;t be shamed for him. That&#39;s how we figured out that my last name is for sure from blood - LooseContact8110</p> </blockquote><h2>17.</h2><blockquote> <p>That my grandmother was biracial. She was abandoned shortly after birth at a church by an older white lady, adopted by a white farmer with 11 kids, stopped talking to most of that family due to nondescript unpleasantness as an older teen. She died 20 years before I was born and looks like Maya Rudolph in the few photos I&rsquo;ve seen but insisted she was part-Sicilian. My father and his brother both look more white than not; my father worshipped the ground she walked on and never questioned her ancestry, my uncle was always pretty sure she was Black and argued with her a lot (both dad and uncle ended up being super active in the civil rights movement and still are devoted to antiracism work nearly 60 years on, which largely stemmed from these discussions growing up).</p> <p>Anyway, my mom (divorced from my dad) got me a DNA test a few years ago. My grandmother was definitely half-Black, I have no Sicilian or Italian DNA. I&rsquo;ve connected with a few Black distant cousins over email and zoom, am waiting for the pandemic to mostly end to talk to my dad about it and introduce him to more family. - ReddishWedding2018</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>18.</h2><blockquote> <p>My son is my 4th cousin. (We adopted him as an infant from an agency.) Fun to find that we are <em>actually</em> related! - iawegian</p> </blockquote><h2>19.</h2><blockquote> <p>My friend (34F) decided to get her twin sister and parents a DNA testing kit for Christmas. When her parents opened the gift they looked at each other and said &ldquo;Oh...thanks.&rdquo; They quickly tried to move on to other presents. My friend was slightly confused, but dropped it.</p> <p>Later they went for their Christmas Day walk. The mom and sister were walking ahead while she walked with her dad. Her dad spilled the beans! Her and her sister were adopted. The mother looked back and started crying - she couldn&rsquo;t believe her husband told her daughter without them talking about it first. They were going to keep it a secret forever.</p> <p>She had never suspected she or her sister were adopted because they look a lot like their parents. They are also very short, as are their parents. - hyggelady</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>20.</h2><blockquote> <p>So, I did the health DNA one 18 months ago because I wanted to see if I had the breast cancer gene, as there is several incidences on both sides of my family. Got my results and became very confused, it claimed I had no Italian despite my father&#39;s grandma literally coming over from Sicily in 1920. It took me a few minutes to realize what that actually meant. My parents have been together since my mother was 14, I was born when she was 17, and my father joined the military and married my mother. Called my mom and she literally said &quot;that&#39;s interesting.&quot; Then she asked me not to talk to my father and she would explain everything the next time I visited. She did not, and just refused I talk about it. Honestly, I was just shook. I did not see it coming and it was never even presented to be a possibility to me. My sister ended up doing a DNA test and it showed that we were half siblings. I went no contact with my mother 4 months ago, due to this incident and several others. I haven&#39;t told my dad but I realize at some point the truth is going to come out, my sister matched with some of my fathers relatives while I did not so if anyone checks, they&#39;re gonna be asking questions. - sunshineykris</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

20 people reveal the family secrets they discovered after taking a DNA test.

Taking a DNA test can be an illuminating experience to help you learn more about your family and genetic makeup, but sometimes the results can reveal a lot more than what percentage of Irish you are, or how likely you are to have dimples...Family secrets, spicy affairs, or long lost siblings can be revealed simply by spitting into a tube and shipping it to a lab. While most people have a vague understanding of where their ancestors came from and at least who their immediate family members are, secrets can&#39;t hide for long when your genes uncover the fact that you&#39;re not at all related to the person you thought was your parent. Connecting with distant cousins, learning about your health risks, or discovering fun facts about your physical traits can all be explored from an at-home DNA test. However, the answers are not always as simple as &quot;you have blue eyes and have a predisposition for hating cilantro.&quot;So, when a recent Reddit user asked, &quot;People who have taken an ancestry DNA test and accidentally uncovered a family secret, what was it?&quot; family sleuths were ready to reveal their genetic mysteries.1. My bio-dad left his family and two daughters in Washington and married my mom in Los Angeles 5 weeks later. I found his first marriage certificate but nothing about a divorce. - khegiobridge 2. My aunt discovered that her mother cheated on her father and she was a product of that affair, meaning she was actually only half-siblings with her 4 siblings. The rub was that my aunt&rsquo;s husband was married before he married her. The woman he was married to is the daughter of the man involved in the affair. So no one knew this, but my uncle got divorced and then married his ex-wife&rsquo;s half-sister. I guess he has a type. - herd_that 3. I found out that my dad is not my biological father. Turns out the family friend I grew up calling &lsquo;grandpa&rsquo; is. - agrajag159 4. My wife is adopted (but found her bio mom) and did one of the genetic tests. Someone matched with her and asked if she knew such and such a name. She found out her bio mom&#39;s husband wasn&#39;t the bio dad, it was the bio mom&#39;s boss. - valeyard89 5. I was adopted and always knew I was adopted. My parents told me that I came from a family that had already had all of their kids. They lived several towns over. I was a surprise. Three years ago my wife decided to take some DNA tests. I figured what the heck? Maybe I&#39;m part Zulu warrior. That&#39;d be cool. When the tests came back, I found out I had a first cousin. They had listed a public email. I emailed them, started comparing notes, and wham! I was in for quite a surprise. First, I was not born into a traditional family. Instead, my bio mom was single. Second, I was not a late addition. I had four sisters and one brother. I was the baby, but only by a couple of years. Third, most all of them lived nearby. Finally, nobody knew I was alive! My biological mom had passed. She had kept the pregnancy secret from everybody else. Before she died, she had confided in one of my bio sisters that she had a baby a long time ago, and she had put the baby up for adoption. She told nobody else. When my sister told the rest of the family? They didn&#39;t believe her! So when I finally looked them up, she was like &quot;See! All those years! I told you so! We have a baby brother!&quot; It was an amazing experience. I had no idea what I was getting into when I sent that DNA test off. - ExistentialismFTW 6. I have an uncle that was put up for adoption. He contacted my grandma and she thought he was going to extort her (they&rsquo;re well off). Turns out he&rsquo;s a multi, multi millionaire on his own. - RolandDPlaneswalker 7. My male cousin did one and found a female cousin we did not know about. He reached out to her and apparently our deceased uncle was good friends with her mother. Mom wanted a baby so uncle got her pregnant simply as a sperm donor. Female cousin lived a few blocks away from my grandmother. She had met her a few times going around selling Girl Scout cookies or something. My grandmother had no idea that she was buying cookies from her granddaughter. - OrangeTree81 8. Found out I have a different father. My dad also took a DNA test at the same time and found out his father, of 52 years, was not his biological father either. - Benevolent_Burrito 9. I am the family secret, family discovered their brother/cousin/son and his wife had 3 children and gave them all up for adoption - after matching with me through a DNA test. They were shocked to say the least, but we&#39;re all pretty close now. - _orange-soda 10. My real father and 3 half siblings&mdash;it ended up being a really good discovery. - CatMakes3 11. Not me, but a friend never knew who his father was (mom had a weekend fling in college and never contacted the guy after) and his wife helped him use ancestry.com to try and track him down. My friend reached out and the guy was obviously surprised, but flew across the country to meet him. They have a great relationship now, the dad attended his wedding, and they try to get their families together a couple times a year or so - djsquidnasty 12. I found a half sister that none of my siblings or mother knew about. My dad had an affair 50 years ago (he&#39;s dead now). For us it wasn&#39;t really a surprise, we already have a half-sister from another affair but for the newly discovered one answered a lot of questions and gave her some needed closure. We all met a few times, it was pleasant. - AztecWheels 13. A full 100% older brother. My mother got pregnant by my father before the were married. Scandalous in 1960. So, with my father&#39;s knowledge of the situation, mom left town, and lived with my aunt until the birth. Mom gave the baby up for adoption, and then returned home. A couple years later, she married my dad and had three more children together, including me. Fifty five years later, after both my parents had died, my aunt let it slip that me and my siblings that were not the only children of our parents. To paraphrase from Star Wars, there is another. My sister took a DNA test, and a couple of year later she got a hit. Soon thereafter, we met our new big brother and his family (wife, kids) and have become quite close. - Freeaegent 14. My cousin took a test and goes on and on about how she&#39;s almost completely Irish. Our grandpa was German. I&#39;d heard from my mom as a kid that my aunt&#39;s biological father was probably her friend&#39;s father. I&#39;ve looked the family up on Facebook and my aunt looks just that friend. My cousin seems to have no idea of any of this. I don&#39;t think my aunt does either. - jelly-8 15. A few years ago my wife and I both took the 23 and me test. One of her matches came back with 23% which is high for someone non-family. She messaged him and they started talking. He was about 10 years older, said he was adopted and the only thing he knew was some basic biological info. From his age that would have put her mom at 14 but her mom never said anything about it. So the two options were her mom got pregnant young or Grandma had a secret love child. So she asked her youngest Uncle who said when he was a kid he remembered his sister going away for a few months because she was &quot;sick&quot; and the family just pretended it never happened. He also said that before his mom (my wives Grandmother) passed she told him all about it. So my wife now has a Brother, a sister in law and nieces and nephews. - last_to_know42 16. Always thought my grandfather on my father&#39;s side was adopted and thought our last name was just of the family that adopted him. One DNA test later and the family figures out that my great grandparents got pregnant out of marriage and ran away. They came back with a child saying it was adopted so they wouldn&#39;t be shamed for him. That&#39;s how we figured out that my last name is for sure from blood - LooseContact8110 17. That my grandmother was biracial. She was abandoned shortly after birth at a church by an older white lady, adopted by a white farmer with 11 kids, stopped talking to most of that family due to nondescript unpleasantness as an older teen. She died 20 years before I was born and looks like Maya Rudolph in the few photos I&rsquo;ve seen but insisted she was part-Sicilian. My father and his brother both look more white than not; my father worshipped the ground she walked on and never questioned her ancestry, my uncle was always pretty sure she was Black and argued with her a lot (both dad and uncle ended up being super active in the civil rights movement and still are devoted to antiracism work nearly 60 years on, which largely stemmed from these discussions growing up). Anyway, my mom (divorced from my dad) got me a DNA test a few years ago. My grandmother was definitely half-Black, I have no Sicilian or Italian DNA. I&rsquo;ve connected with a few Black distant cousins over email and zoom, am waiting for the pandemic to mostly end to talk to my dad about it and introduce him to more family. - ReddishWedding2018 18. My son is my 4th cousin. (We adopted him as an infant from an agency.) Fun to find that we are actually related! - iawegian 19. My friend (34F) decided to get her twin sister and parents a DNA testing kit for Christmas. When her parents opened the gift they looked at each other and said &ldquo;Oh...thanks.&rdquo; They quickly tried to move on to other presents. My friend was slightly confused, but dropped it. Later they went for their Christmas Day walk. The mom and sister were walking ahead while she walked with her dad. Her dad spilled the beans! Her and her sister were adopted. The mother looked back and started crying - she couldn&rsquo;t believe her husband told her daughter without them talking about it first. They were going to keep it a secret forever. She had never suspected she or her sister were adopted because they look a lot like their parents. They are also very short, as are their parents. - hyggelady 20. So, I did the health DNA one 18 months ago because I wanted to see if I had the breast cancer gene, as there is several incidences on both sides of my family. Got my results and became very confused, it claimed I had no Italian despite my father&#39;s grandma literally coming over from Sicily in 1920. It took me a few minutes to realize what that actually meant. My parents have been together since my mother was 14, I was born when she was 17, and my father joined the military and married my mother. Called my mom and she literally said &quot;that&#39;s interesting.&quot; Then she asked me not to talk to my father and she would explain everything the next time I visited. She did not, and just refused I talk about it. Honestly, I was just shook. I did not see it coming and it was never even presented to be a possibility to me. My sister ended up doing a DNA test and it showed that we were half siblings. I went no contact with my mother 4 months ago, due to this incident and several others. I haven&#39;t told my dad but I realize at some point the truth is going to come out, my sister matched with some of my fathers relatives while I did not so if anyone checks, they&#39;re gonna be asking questions. - sunshineykris 

Taking a DNA test can be an illuminating experience to help you learn more about your family and genetic makeup, but sometimes the results can reveal a lot more than what percentage of Irish you are, or how likely you are to have...