'I took DNA test for fun – but I ended up in floods of tears and now live in fear'

A woman's entire world has been shattered after taking a test she received as a present.

While the 42-year-old admits she isn't interested in her heritage or ancestors, she took the at-home test simply for fun. However, she did not at all expect to come face-to-face with the tragedies in her bloodline.

She said on : "I am already aware the man on my birth certificate is not my biological father. What I do know of my known ancestors is there are a whole lot of b******s and a lot of illegitimate children too. I got my results today and had an unexpected 27% match with someone I had never heard of, so called my mum and asked if she heard the name.

"At first, she said no, but then you could hear the cogs spin and she says, "well I dated a guy named..." And I was like "It would appear who we thought was my father was not my father". She insisted the timeline was wrong, so we spitballed some far-fetched alternatives, hung up in good humour, and my sister and I started laughing because we knew mum was doing some furious math."

Her mum phoned back later explaining how she was a "wild teenager" before she started complimenting her past lover for his personality. She added: "I did some investigation on the closest relative match and found an obituary that linked her to my suspected father's name as his sister (the match said aunt or half-sister). I also noticed in the obituary that they were preceded in death by a grandchild, so I looked up that obituary too.

READ MORE:

"It turns out I had a little brother who died at 20 of melanoma in 2011. In 2011, my own son relapsed with brain cancer and we lost him in 2019, right before his 12th birthday. I just burst into tears." However, the woman is now worried her biological father's sister will notice the new match and will try to get in touch with her in search of answers about their connection.

She said: "I can't imagine the emotional roller coaster it would be to find out you had another child out there, only to discover that child lost her only child to cancer as well. It feels bad and cursed. I wish I'd never allowed matches." Unsure about what to do, she asked Reddit users: "Has anyone else had something happen with Ancestry DNA that they wish they could undo? I really, really, really don't want this poor guy to know I exist."

Commenting on her post, one user said: "You can turn off matches if you don't want him to know. I've matched with a cousin I knew I had but had never met. She contacted me but hasn't responded since I messaged back but I gave her as much info I have on that branch. I found it crazy that she didn't know we were cousins because I always knew she existed. Our dads were brothers and both are dead now, but I guess hers didn't tell her much."

Another user added: "I’m so sorry for your loss and how digging into your Ancestry results made you relive that trauma as you learned about your brother. Your mum and sister sound like awesome people and I’m glad you have them." A third user said: "If I were this woman, I'd be happy to know that something of my brother is living out there..."