10 Times People Were Surprised To See The Results Of Their Online DNA Tests

Nowadays, DNA testing is no longer is no longer something you only see used in court cases and sci-fi movie. In fact, you can now simply order a DNA kit online and do one from the comfort of your own couch! It seems like finding out about your family’s origins or connecting with long-lost relatives has never been easier, however, to quote Uncle Ben from Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. And sometimes you end up finding out little more than you were hoping for.

#1

Image source: CNN

Two men living in Honolulu, Hawaii, Walter Macfarlane and Alan Robinson, have known each other for over 60 years, and even went on vacations together with their families. When they were both in their 70s, they decided to do DNA tests to find out more about their family histories. However, what they ended up finding out was that they actually had the same birth mother!

#2

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Throughout her life, Alice Collins Plebuch identified as Irish American. However, after she did a DNA test, it showed her that her genes are actually a mix of European Jewish, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European. She ended up ordering some tests for her family and found out that her father wasn’t the biological child of her grandparents. Some additional research later, Alice found out that her father was sent home from the hospital with the wrong family.

#3

Image source: Washington Post

When he was a teenager, Steve Dennis found out that he was adopted. Back in the mid-50s, two men had discovered him inside a phone booth, put in a cardboard box, with blankets wrapped around him, and a milk bottle nearby. 6 decades later, the man’s kids started looking into their heritage and submitted Steve’s DNA to the Ancestry.com website, where they were able to track Steve’s cousin, and his half-sister. The half-sister ended up telling the family about Steve’s mother – and that she was still living in Baltimore, Maryland! When contacted, the 85-year-old woman recalled giving birth at 18, and being convinced by Steve’s father to abandon him with promises of marrying her. However, not long after she did, the father left her and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

#4

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After the Maneages family adopted a 10-year-old girl named Elliana from China, the girl was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder. The family ended up sharing their story with the Galbierz family, who had also adopted a girl from China who had the same brain disorder. One DNA test later, the families found out that the two girls have a 99.9% match of being sisters.

#5

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Lydia Fairchild, a single mother of two, ran into some financial problems and applied for government assistance which required to prove that the children were hers by taking a DNA test. Imagine the woman’s shock when the results came back and showed that she wasn’t the mother of her own children, and that they were actually her nephews! She ended up repeating the DNA test in front of a government witness but the test still showed the same result. Eventually, scientists figured out that Lydia was a chimera who absorbed her twin while she was still in the womb, making her sister’s DNA show up in the results.

#6

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Kelli Rowlette knew she wasn’t related to her father as her parents used a sperm bank to conceive her. But when she did a DNA test, the result ended up shocking the whole family – turns out the fertility doctor that her parents worked with, Gerald Mortimer, had used his own semen to impregnate Kelli’s mother. The woman ended up filing a lawsuit against the doctor, his wife, and his former medical group alleging “medical negligence, failure to obtain informed consent, fraud, battery, emotional distress, and breach of contract.”

#7

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Two British women, Doreen Isherwood and Anne Hall, were surprised when their DNA test results showed they had Native American genes, despite no one from their family ever having visited USA. Eventually, the two found out they were the descendants of Native Americans who were brought to the United Kingdom as either slaves, translators, or tribal representatives over a hundred years ago.

#8

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Las Vegas resident Rich Bodager was adopted back in 1968, and wanted to learn more information about his biological parents. The man submitted his DNA to the 23andMe website and found someone related to him – a granddaughter, something that the man knew was not possible. Eventually, the man’s “granddaughter” reached out to him, and it turned out that it was his half-sister who had been looking for Rich for the past 15 years.

#9

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Andrea Ramirez wanted to learn more about her Mexican ancestry, and ended up using a DNA kit. However, what she found out was that she wasn’t Mexican at all – and that her father wasn’t her father either! Andrea ended up finding a possible match for a half-brother and half-sister in the 23andMe database, and later learned that her parents used a sperm donor to conceive her. The woman eventually reconnected with her half-sister, Jennifer Rose Jones, and the two are now looking for their biological father.

#10

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One family was surprised when the doctors told them that blood type of their son didn’t match their own. The couple had used a fertility clinic to conceive, so the child’s genetic material had to match the parents’. The couple ended going through genetic genealogy testing by 23andMe, and found out that the father is actually their son’s uncle! It was later found out that the father was a chimera who had absorbed his brother in the womb.