Recently, Reddit user stephanieslotus posed the intriguing question, "What is your horror story from DNA tests like 23andMe?" to the good people of AskReddit. And, let's just say the results were shocking, dark, and truly WILD. Check it out:
1. "My grandfather did not die when my dad was four like we always thought. Instead, he faked his death, walked 1500km to the other end of the country, married a 16-year-old girl, and had seven more children. All the while leaving my grandmother to bring up the six children he had with her and his two children from an earlier marriage. The worst part was that he used the same names for the second batch of kids as his first lot."
2. "Had something similar. My grandfather was always told that his grandfather died in the war. DNA matched me with some distant cousins who all descended from a man with the same date of birth, job, and birthplace but a different surname. After years of digging, it turns out he had five wives — divorcing none of them. He had about three sons called John from different marriages, a couple of Williams, and a couple of Mary's. He died in 1949 and I managed to get in touch with who I believe is the only person alive to have met him. I got a very sharp response telling me how awful he was and to never mention his name again. Must have been quite the man to leave an impression that strong for over half a century..."
3. "Not me but my coworker found out his bio dad was not who he thought he was. Turns out he is one of the many many children of fertility doctor Donald Cline (there’s a Netflix doc, Our Father, about him if you’ve never heard about him)."
4. "My parents and I all did DNA tests and I manage their profiles — theirs were done before mine was available. They each got a panicked message from a woman on the other side of the world who had matched as their daughter. She was distraught, thinking her parents had lied to her for her entire life. When I logged in to my account, it showed that I had no DNA matches with my parents which I knew to be wrong, plus the fact my mum was a young child when this woman was born made it clear the company had swapped our results. Customer service just said, ‘Oh well’ and offered a new test. My family found it funny but that poor woman who had spent several days freaking out thinking her life was a lie before I got her messages and responded."
5. "My mom's generation has been really big into tracing our family tree. Turns out grandpa had two families (that we know of) that lived down the street from each other. If that wasn't enough to discourage my family from uncovering skeletons, a few years later one of my cousins took a 23andMe test to find out that our maternal grandfather is also her dad :/ The cousin in question is the daughter of my mother's sister... So we're thinking some downright unholy things went on. Unclear as my grandfather and aunt are both dead now."
6. "Grew up pretty normal for the most part, divorced parents but happy life. Wanted to know my ancestry since I don’t know past my paternal great-grandmother's maiden name. Got the results this past Christmas Eve. Found a half-sister (along with 2 other half-siblings) who is too old to be my dad's (he’d have been a literal child) and put 2 and 2 together and it turns out my dad is not my father. Can’t ask my mom, she’s dead. My bio father is dead and no one knows anything and the people I have told (no one on my dad’s side, too scared to break that news) are shocked. I know nothing about this man but his name and his mom’s name, who is also gone, I believe. I just found out this big ol bombshell so suddenly and then hit a dead end just as quickly. It was an interesting and juicy Christmas for sure."
7. "Well, it's not my horror story. But...police arrested the guy who murdered my mother — decades ago — because someone in the killer's family used one of those tests. The submitted DNA allowed them to get a match on a grandparent and a couple of years later, when they subpoenaed his DNA to corroborate their other police work, he confessed. It took 40 years, but I imagine this is a hell of a horror story for him. He wasn't ever a suspect before the DNA match."
—jait
8. "My cousin tried to scam the government claiming a minuscule percentage of Native American heritage via a submitted sample. It didn't work. But what did happen was four children he fathered with four women other than his current wife found him."
9. "About three years ago, I took a 23andMe test because I always had suspected (or maybe hoped) that my sister’s dad was also my dad — he was in my life from the beginning because my 'bio' dad was a piece of work. Well, he isn’t my father, and neither is the man who I grew up believing was my dad. My sister-in-law did some digging and found my real biological father. He’s the one who reached out; did a DNA test, wanted to meet me and my children, and introduce me to my siblings. For a while, I held off because it was such a shock and I felt like it was moving quickly. Four months after we had first started talking, we met and I was welcomed with open arms by EVERYONE. And even though it was still a little weird and I was super nervous, I am glad I took the chance to meet him. He died from COVID complications just eight months after we found out he was my real dad."
10. "Found out (doing the Ancestry DNA) that my paternal grandmother cheated on her husband with her (also married) family doctor. My dad has brothers and a sister that he never knew about. Dad says that the doctor must have known. He looks EXACTLY like his brothers, and the Doc used to always call him 'son' during his appointments. His dad (that raised him) also must have known, cause he treated him like crap, and made backhanded comments that, knowing what we know now, tell us he knew. Or suspected at the very least."
11. "One of my best friends called me one day in a panic. She did a DNA test with her father for fun. He is not her father. Turns out mummy has many skeletons in the closet. Bio dad never knew she existed and was SO happy to find her. We now doubt her sister’s father is her father. Just a gigantic domino effect of not good."
12. "Someone in my grandparent’s generation gave up a baby for adoption 60 years ago and our family still doesn’t know/won’t admit who it was. She only joined 23andMe because her daughters encouraged her to find out more about her birth family for health reasons. We now have family members who won’t take the test."
13. "My father is from a country that is literally split in half. Half the country is ethnically Greek and the other half is ethnically Turkish. There is a long history of bad blood and our capital is split down the middle. We are culturally Greek but thanks to my brother's impulse-decision DNA test, we learned that we are ethnically more Turkish. Not really a horror story, but goes to show how stupid war is."
14. "Found out my Dad isn’t my biological father. My Dad’s sister gave me a DNA test for the holidays. I ended up taking it and discovered I wasn’t related to my aunt, aka not related to my Dad. But I have 10+ half-siblings with whoever my sperm donor dad is. They gaslit me for months saying the results were inaccurate, called me a liar to my sister, all this garbage. Then finally admitted it was true after 6+ months of lying. We now have a terrible relationship."
15. "My sister found out that half our mom's side of the family, are products of incest. Up and until, a few great aunts and uncles."
16. "I've got Two: My friend knew that she was the result of a sperm donor. She signed up for 23andMe and ended up finding that she has a half-sister! Then another. And another. And another. I think she is up to over two dozen now, and almost all of them are half-sisters, and they all look so much alike. They have tracked down their biological father, and I guess he donated sperm in multiple states over the course of some years. He wasn't intentionally trying to have dozens of kids out there, but the rules of capping-out didn't really catch him because of moving states."
"The other one is more direct — one of my family members got tested and found a cousin. But that cousin had a single mother, born out in California (we live in the Midwest) and nobody has any idea who their father is. Probably one of my uncles that passed away, or something along those lines.
Based on my family history (everybody cheating on everybody, tons of babies in high school, kids not knowing that their fathers are not their real fathers, or kids being raised by their grandparents when their 'sister' is really their mom) — I refuse to sign up. I just don't want to know, it would just stir up crap. Ignorance is bliss."
17. "I actually found out I have the cancer gene from one of these tests (BRCA1) and my whole family was tested as well — my sister, brother, and dad all have it too. We now get preventative cancer testing, but who knows, it could have very well saved one of our lives down the road — not really a horror story overall, but when I first found out it was extremely scary as I was just expecting to get some entertaining report back and instead found out I had a serious health condition."
18. "I'm adopted and was hoping to find out family info and hopefully who my birth parents were. Found out my birth father sexually abused the kids of one of his girlfriends and is currently serving 45 years. Also, he committed multiple armed robberies in the past. That whole side of my gene pool is into weird religious stuff. Plus the guy he thought was his father isn't. His mom had an affair and his real dad/my grandfather had recently also just gotten out of prison for attempted murder and then died from COVID. Safe to say I want zero contact from anyone on that side. My other half is Native and the horror stories are just all the things they went through in residential schools and literally being moved to Indian territory and being given the last name 'orphan' because all their family died. Also, my birth mother was basically stolen from her family and given to a white family and none of her siblings even know she exists."
19. "My kid took the test, and 8 years later, introduced me to a half-sister I never knew I had. My father had remarried and had a son I knew about, but this younger sister took us both by surprise. And the father in all this has passed on, so... I got a sister now!
20. Found out that my (ex) girlfriend was actually my cousin. In college I became a DJ at the student radio station and ended up meeting her through that. We became close friends almost instantly, and after a few months, she built up the courage to ask me out. When we started seriously talking and learning about each other, we kept finding more and more things we had in common. She was born in the same small town (~4k people) as my grandmother and her middle name is my grandmother’s name. 'Wow, cool coincidence!' We both have a family history of BPD and Raynaud’s. 'Hey, we’ll know how to take care of each other!' Laying our arms next to each other they looked nearly identical. 'It’s like we were made for each other!'
After about a month of talking, she invited me to her apartment to cuddle and talk while she did some schoolwork. Things got heated and we were making out when we both had this moment of shared deja vu like this had happened before. We made out some more but didn’t do anything further before she had to leave to pick up her roommate.
The next day she blew up on me over text, blocked me on everything, basically just gone from my life, and I was so hurt and confused because I really liked her, but she’d been pretty inconsistent (BPD) and it ended up for the best.
A few months later I’m talking to my uncle before Christmas dinner. He’s a big genealogy nerd and has hundreds of years of our family tree plotted out on Ancestry. When I joined the conversation he was talking about a gravesite he visited from some relative in the 1700s. At this point, I’m not really paying attention and just sipping my drink while everyone else talks, but eventually he started talking about my grandmother and her siblings.
I’m learning about my great-aunt and suddenly I feel sick because it all slides into place. My great-aunt is my ex’s grandmother. My ex is named after MY grandmother, who is her grandmother’s sister. We have the same bone structure and our families have the same predisposed medical conditions because they’re the same family. I haven’t contacted her to tell her, because how do you tell someone that kind of news? 'Heyyy, you know how we were dating and almost had sex? Well, I’m glad we didn’t because you’re my cousin haha!' And I’m absolutely never telling my family because it just feels like the kind of thing I should take to the grave; but hey, Reddit can know.
TL;DR: My grandmother and my ex-girlfriend’s grandmother were sisters.
21. Finally, one that's not so much a "horrror" story, but actually quite amusing: "The wife and I both got tested. She had an incredible background. North American First Nations. South American. Portugal and all over Europe. It was so cool! When I got mine back it said, 'You’re Scottish mate.' I just found it hilarious if you compared the findings."
"My mum was super excited to do one; wanted to know all the exotic places she might be from. The answer? You’re from where you currently live. 100%. Her family are clearly not very adventurous. 😂"
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.