27 DNA Test Horror Stories

By:
27 DNA Test Horror Stories

What was once a hot-button topic reserved for Maury guests has become commodified in recent years, thanks to the likes of 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Now, you can spit in a tube from the comfort of your own home and ship it off to a stranger in a remote location to find out your ethnic background down to the decimal. 

As positively enlightening as this information can be, you can naturally open yourself up to some hard truths and hellish nightmares in the process. Like the Redditor, who took a DNA test and found out that their dead grandfather was actually 100 percent alive and had faked his death, moved 1,000 miles away with his16-year-old bride and had seven more children. 

Other Redditors have also shared the horrors that were revealed after dabbling in genetic testing, and boy is there a lot of incest going on. 

theloneliestdonkey. . 23d My grandfather did not die when my dad was 4 like we always thought. Instead, he faked his death, walked 1500km to the other end of the country, married a sixteen old girl and had 7 more children. All the while leaving my grandmother to bring up the 6 children he had with her and his 2 children from an earlier marriage. Worst part was that he used the same names for the second batch of kids as his first lot. ... Reply 23.6k

Soggy_Butterscotch66.2 23d My best friends Father is my Father. We were 40 when we found out. We were born seven months apart meaning her Mother (my Mom's best friend) was very very pregnant when I was conceived. ... Reply 555

Monkeyswine . 23d One of my cousins was not really my cousin. My cousin died in vietnam and this guy that was in his platoon or whatever took his identity. Edit: This happened years ago and the cousin is much older than me. After some clarification from older relatives, it was my cousin that disappeared and took someone's identity. Не was then located by a dna test his kids took and was reunited with our family. Lucky us. ... Reply 657

KratomHelpsMyPain . 3 39d When my wife told her mother she was taking a 23 and Me test her mother said I guess you'll find out who your real father is now and laughed. She wasn't joking. Reply 3k

Evil_Weevil_Knievel . 23d 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.

Mollyranda . 23d Found out that I'm married to my cousin. ... Reply 249

mybabylasko. 23d 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. ... Reply 2.9k

cgtdream e 23d 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. ... Reply 2.5k

Wonderful-Image669 . 2 23d 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 23 & me test to find out that our maternal grandfather is also her dad :/

PotatoPuzzled2782 . 23d 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 about him if you've never heard about him) ... Reply 10.3k

Lennyotter 23d 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

henlogreeting . 24d 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. ... Reply 3.4k

Whythen 24d Grew up pretty normal for the most part, divorced parents but happy life. Wanted to know how my ancestry since I don't know past my paternal great grandmothers maiden name. Got the results this past Christmas Eve. Found a half sister (along with 2 other half siblings) that is too old to be my dads (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

agrajag159 . . 3y I found out that my dad is not my biological father. Turns out the family friend I grew up calling 'grandpa' is. Oh yea, and he was also my mom's bariatric surgeon. Felt weird man. ... 7k

EmergencyBrief5677 .2 24d My maiden name is extremely German sounding but I have not a trace of German blood. I match with people with my maiden name so my paternity is not in question but somewhere something is amiss. I have my family tree documented back to the 1500s in Germany so maybe someone was adopted or illegitimate and it's just not documented. ... Reply 538

valeyard89 . 3 3y My wife is adopted (but found her bio mom) and did one of the genetic tests. Someone matched with her and asked if she knew such and such a name. She found out her bio mom's husband wasn't the bio dad, it was the bio mom's boss. oops. ... 9.8k

Swarley_S . . 24d My cousin trying to scam the government claiming minuscule percentage Native American submitted a sample. What did happen was four children he fathered with four women other than current wives found him. ... Reply 5.7k

Kristen242008 . 2 24d 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. Не looks EXACTLY like his brothers, and the Doc use 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. ... Reply 5.2k

Missus_Aitch_99 . 2 23d My mother was one of seven children of an abusive mother and beloved father. Twenty grandchildren (my cousins, my brother and me). Through testing some cousins have determined that at least three of the seven children were not the biological offspring of my grandmother's husband. We aren't telling all the other cousins until the last uncle dies (he's 93). ... Reply 900

EuphoricRealist . Зу My Uncle did his and found some family in Alabama. Не reached out to the closest relative and they communicated for a while and talked about meeting up. Until the relative figured out we were black. Apparently, they were high standing members with their local KKK and it wouldn't look right to meet their black yankee cousins. Our family (like most black people) knew we had white ancestry and probably not by choice lol. This guy was in complete denial and told my Uncle if he would sue if he contacted him again. ... 21

Eponarose . 24d All my life, I was told my maternal Great-Grandfather was 1/2 Cherokee, he had blue-black hair, tawny skin & sky-high cheekbones. Even in his 89s his hair was gray, not white. On my Father's side, there was a take where one of the sons took an African woman as his wife... My result 97% Irish, Scotch & English, 2.3% Scandinavian. I'm so WHITE, I glow in the dark! (the remaining .7% was Inconclusive.) ... Reply 678

Benevolent_Burrito . 3y Found out I have a different father. My dad also took a DNA test at the same time and found out his father, of 52 years, was not his biological father either. As it turns out, I come from a line of bastards. ... 22.5k

endedjustaslovers 23d 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

jait 24d 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 subpoena'd 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. Не wasn't ever a suspect before the DNA match. ... Reply 6.6k

OrangeTree81 . Зу My male cousin did one and found a female cousin we did not know about. Не reached out to her and apparently our deceased uncle was good friends with her mother. Mom wanted a baby so uncle got her pregnant simply as a sperm donor. Female cousin lived a few blocks away from my grandmother. She had met her a few times going around selling Girl Scout cookies or something. My grandmother had no idea that she was buying cookies from her granddaughter. ... 18.2k

faye_okay_. 3y My ex-husband's family were proud of their Dutch heritage and claimed to be one of the founding families of the historically Dutch Holland, MI. His ancestry results didn't show any Dutch ancestry. Instead, he had primarily English/Irish ancestry. ... 8.6k

90212Poor. 24d one of my best friends called me one day in a panic. she did one 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. ... Reply 4.8k

Tags

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

MUST READ

Forgot Password?