Sioux Falls Family Secrets Exposed

I did an Ancestry DNA test a while back and the results were a bit surprising.

My whole life I was told I was German, but Germanic Europe was only 17% and I was mostly England and Northwestern Europe. I was 2% Irish and was so excited to wear a custom-made shirt for St. Patrick's Day.

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Then, I check my Ancestry profile yesterday just for fun and almost everything looked different! I understand as more people get their DNA tested, the more data there is to learn from and percentages can change and technology and science are changing all the time. Now, Germanic Europe is only 2%! England and Northwestern Europe were still number one, but Irish was totally gone and now I'm 3% Baltic and 3% French!

My St. Patrick's Day shirt is a lie!

I don't know who I am anymore!

These new results really threw me for a loop! So, I figured other people have probably been shook due to DNA results or family secrets being revealed. Obviously, my issues are small potatoes compared to some of these stories.

• I found out when I was like 13 that my brother is technically my half-brother lol. I was just confused on how I didn't know.
• Discovered I had a different dad than all of my siblings.
• My dad's mom (my grandma) abandoned my grandpa and their 7 kids to run off with some other guy. So my dad has a bunch of half brothers and sisters out there that he doesn't even know.
• My whole life I was told my blood type was A positive. Last year I had my blood typed, I'm O positive.
• My grandparents were very proper god-fearing people all of my life. They were prudish. One year while celebrating their anniversary I realized my dad was born 8 months after their wedding in the 40s. He was always at the top of growth charts as a baby. Nobody has ever asked them about it.
• Up until I was 16, I thought my "dad" was my real dad until I went to the DMV and had to see my birth certificate in order to get my license. Needless to say, he wasn't actually my dad.
• My mom told me a week ago I was diagnosed with mild autism and ADHD when I was little but they had decided to not medicate me or really do anything about it. Thanks for the struggle mom. That's the 90s for you I guess.
• My dad found out he had a daughter he knew nothing about
• My maternal uncle's brother slept around back in the day with someone on my paternal side had a child. Told no one until the child's son did DNA.
• I bought my daughter's dad a DNA test as a present and he found out he has a son he never knew about.
• My grandpa was adopted out in the dirty 30s and we found his entire side of the family with ancestry DNA.
• My biological father was adopted so he did ancestry and found out his dad went on tour with Elvis and he has a few dozen siblings from all over (he laid up with anyone apparently lol).
• My dad's first wife was married 5 times after my dad. She doesn't have the greatest track record. My full siblings and I had talked a couple of times about how we didn't think our half-brother could possibly be our dad's (physical traits that didn't line up), but we obviously had no way to prove that. Turns out, we were right all along! Lol! Sad story. But, yes, my dad will always be his dad. Family isn't always blood.
• While doing a project for one of my classes I found out that my grandpa on my mom's side apparently had a second wife (after my grandma and him divorced) that no one liked. I don't know how long they were together but they did also get divorced. I had no idea and just learned about this a couple of years ago.
• I was adopted as a baby and I knew my birth mother was Danish. I recently found her on adopted.com with a very welcoming, friendly message. I sent her a message with our match, I was so excited. 3 days later her account was deleted and the message was never read. The moral of the story, never trust the Dutch.

I think we should all just take a collective deep breath after all of that. We're all going to be ok. Family is what we make it. DNA is just part of the story.