Tuesday, May 19, 2020

DNA Test Reveals Crazy Family Secret


DNA tests would seem to have a knack for shining the light of truth on well hidden family secrets. In this case, the revelation was just a bit devastating for the dad considered. To live all those years being told one thing, while another was true. Well, we don't know the full story, but at the very least, from this, it doesn't sound like it was easy. 

1.

Text - r/tifu + Join u/wyczstarz • 2y TIFU by getting a DNA test and revealing a family secret M I've always been interested in doing one of those at- home kits that tell you your ethnicity estimates. My mother has, for many years, claimed that her own great-grandmother was completely Native American, and I recently learned that this is apparently something common for Southerners to claim, but that it is rarely true. I finally went ahead and bought one of the kits because there is nothing I enjo

2.

Text - Fast forward a few weeks. I get my results. I am 0% Native America, which isn't exactly shocking. The real surprise comes from the fact that I am also 0% Eastern European. This probably wouldn't mean much for most people, but I happen to be Polish. Or at least, I thought I was. I have an unpronounceable, very Polish last name. My great-grandparents were Polish-speaking immigrants. My paternal grandfather himself spoke Polish as a child. My first thought was that the test was a mistake. My

3.

Text - There were only two possible explanations: either my own dad was not my biological father, or my Polish grandfather was not the biological father of my dad. I look a lot like my father, so it seemed unlikely that we were not related. However, there was no strong family resemblance between my dad and his own father. In fact, my grandfather and many of his siblings had a (we'll call it) striking nose that my sister and I had often rejoiced in not inheriting. Also, my paternal grandparents h

4.

Text - My paternal grandfather died over ten years ago, but my paternal grandmother is still living and I gave her a call. It took a while for me to fully explain the DNA testing to her-she's 87, but we got there. She denied it and tried to explain the unexpected results with a long ramble about migrating European tribes before I was finally able to make her understand that I would be able to test relatives from the Polish side of the family and determine whether or not I was actually related to

5.

Text - So who is my actual paternal grandfather? TBD. My grandmother promised my sister that she will tell the two of everything when my sister gets into town for Christmas. She requested that we not tell anyone until then (it's too late, my sister already told everyone). TL;DR: Did an ethnicity test, found out my father was apparently the product of an extra-marital affair and never knew.

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Text - friend" that she had known even before my grandfather PG (to try and distinguish between the two men, I am going to refer to them as PG for Polish Grandpa and BG for Bio Grandpa). She and this friend maintained contact for years and years, all the way until both of their (second) spouses had died and they married each other. Their kids had grown up together even before they become step siblings as adults, and they are still part of my extended family as "aunts" and "uncles" even though BG

7.

Text - r/tifu + Join u/wyczstarz • 2y TIFUpdate: And the grandfather is.... M In my previous post, I said that my grandmother promised to tell all when my sister comes to town next week. Officially, that is still the plan, but my sister (who apparently missed her calling as a special prosecutor) got my grandmother to admit to her over the phone the story of what actually happened. And it is...interesting. Without going TOO much into my family history, when I first noticed the inconsistencies in

8.

Text - Telling this information to Grandma was what finally made her admit it--I was going to be matched as a cousin with my sister's best friend, who (although considered a part of my extended family) should have been of no biological relation to me. But here's where it gets a little confusing--my grandmother claims that PG was sterile as the result of something that happened to him in WW2. She says all three of her children are biologically from BG--but that it was all done intentionally throu

9.

Text - My dad and his siblings were born in the early 1950's. Does anyone know what the odds of this were? How common was artificial insemination back then? Would someone have really used a friend as a donor (more than three separate times--my grandmother had at least one miscarriage that I remember her telling me about at some point)? My grandmother has a known history of rewriting events in her favor. I guess it really does not matter at this point why BG was the father, but it is frustrating

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