Ancestry DNA testing

[catandcandle]

I am thinking of doing one, but don't want it to cause me or anyone else any upset, in my situation does anyone see any problem?

My situation is: I do not know who my biological father is/was, and my mother and stepfather (who adopted me when I was 3) never told me that he is not in fact my father. They don't know that I know and I don't want them to know. They themselves would definitely never have done DNA testing so will not be on any of the sites.

I have a name for a man who my mother told the social worker at the time of my adoption was my father, but I have no idea if she told the truth, she is a chronic liar (she also said that the man had "left the country", which sounds like a load of rubbish to me). I did track down that man (several years ago now) and wrote him a letter, but he never replied and I left it alone after that.

Do people think it is a good idea for me to do the testing? What are the potential pitfalls? I am curious about my genetic heritage.

Yes I agree, it might not all be positive, I know. I have first cousins who are complete dicks, so who knows what I might find in unknown cousins! And my mother is completely cut off from all of her family apart from her brother (the father of the dick cousins), for reasons I don't really understand, so I would probably tread carefully there too, as well as with anyone I might find from my biological father's side.

In my case my primary interest is not in connecting with relatives (I already have plenty that I know who they are but don't have any contact with them). It is more out of curiosity as to ethnic origins etc (for example, I believe I am partly Jewish but that is not mentioned in my nuclear family, I would be very interested to see if that comes up).