A man makes a shocking discovery after DNA test
A man who took a DNA test found an uncomfortable truth in his genes that makes a long-running family joke much more awkward.
The man posted his story anonymously on Reddit, sharing his desire to bust the family joke his father would make that the family was related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who penned Sherlock Holmes.
The 27-year-old, whose parents divorced when he was only one year old, was discouraged from taking a DNA test to look into his family history by his mother.
Assuming she merely did not want him wasting money on a potentially inaccurate test, he took one anyway.
“This isn’t too far from expected for her, she’s a very financially conscious person and said that I shouldn’t waste my money on something silly like a DNA test,” he wrote in the post.
When he got the results, he said they “shook [him] to my core”.
The man discovered his biological father was not who raised him, but his ‘dad’s’ best friend.
On his mother’s side, the family tree was as he expected, writing, “I saw cousins, aunts, and uncles who all had used the same DNA service that I had.”
When he looked at his father’s side, he saw a list of names he recognised but were “just not my family as I had known it”.
Bringing up the discovery with his father, the man said he “took it in his stride” and “immediately averted his worst fear” by assuring him it would not affect their relationship.
“This man has paid child support, invested his efforts and time, and worked multiple jobs at a time to afford me the best life he could aadn biologically I’m not even his,” he said.
The discovery of his mother’s affair instead proved to be the “real twist”.
“I grew up with this other guy’s daughters (my apparent half-sisters) and wife as close family friends,” he continued.
Now facing “a quandary” of whether to reach out to his “apparent biological father”, the man explained his biological dad has been married for 26 years.
He even noted that the pair shared similar physical characteristics.
“Fun family anecdote has always been that he ‘rubbed off on me’ because we share a cleft chin,” the Redditor explained.
“Makes sense now.”