Lynn Scott’s husband (whose name was not mentioned in the story) was adopted at birth. After he passed away, Lynn wanted to help their son find his paternal biological grandparents. She and her son then sent test tubes, on which they spat into, to FamilyTreeDNA. They then found a match with a second cousin which eventually led them to her son’s paternal grandfather and a half-aunt. However, unknown to Lynn, what seemed to be an innocent search would turn out to be something else.
… several other matches popped up that weren’t from her husband’s side, but Scott didn’t recognize them from her family either. “I thought, ‘I know all my second cousins, and I don’t know who these people are,’” she says. “I started putting together bits and pieces and realized there was something I was missing.”
Scott’s brother had tested his DNA separately through AncestryDNA, so the family compared their results to figure out what was going on. They discovered that Scott and her brother were actually half-siblings.
It turns out that the man who raised Scott — who passed away in 2003 — was not her biological father. Finding out she wasn’t genetically related to her father was heartbreaking, she says. “It felt like I lost him all over again.”
More DNA sleuthing led Scott to the man she believes to be her biological father — a former co-worker of her mother’s — although her mother denies it. That man passed away in 1999, so Scott never got the chance to meet him, but she has connected with his grandchildren and she hopes to meet a half-brother soon.
Scott has begun to accept her new family tree, but at the outset she really struggled with the results. “I felt so alone when I first found out,” she says. “Who do you talk to about this? Is there anybody out there who’s going through the same thing?”
Fortunately, Lynn found out there was when she came across an online support group run by Brianne Kirkpatrick, a genetic counselor who specializes in unexpected family discoveries from at-home DNA tests. There Lynn found comfort and she no longer felt alone.
More details of the story on Medium.com.
(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)
Adoption is awesome. It's much better to be in a family that wants you than one that doesn't.
Besides, it's not the kid's fault they were born with unexpected family histories.