Ancestry DNA shock result

[rageagainstthemachine72]

My daughter did a dna test, results came back 25% Italian. I thought that's weird, that must mean one of her parents is half italian, so I did a test, yes you guessed it I'm 48% Italian and my two sisters who tested years ago came up as half sisters. Devastated, mum died two years ago and the man who I thought was my father died over 30 years ago. Not really sure what I'm looking for regarding this post, just some support and anyone out there with similar stories.

My aunty did it as my uncle got it her for a gift for her 60th and she has found about 7 half brothers and 6 half sisters. Her dad worked away in Italy (where he was from) A LOT and clearly enjoyed his time doing so. Her maiden name was his italian surname but it is very very rare and usually only found in Bergamo. She knew her dad was a ladies man but she didn't expect that.
It for cases like this i wish Who Do You Think You Are would help every day people and not just celebrities.

Hi ... a similar thing happened to me.
I was brought up being told my grandad was a Welsh miner. He died when I was a baby, but my mum was born in Wales so I always felt kinship with my Welsh heritage, and we visited Welsh relatives a lot.
It was all proved to be untrue when I did an Ancestry DNA test which revealed I was a quarter French Canadian. Not Welsh.
My sister got the same result, and persuaded our mum to do an Ancestry DNA test. It came back as 48% French Canadian.
So her father wasn't a Welsh miner.
Mum eventually told us that our Nan (her mum) had a lot of 'boyfriends' and one of them must've been her father. A Canadian soldier she thinks, stationed in Surrey where Nan was living, separated from her husband.
I felt shocked and a bit sideswiped. For over 50 years I had embraced my 'Welsh side' and it was all based on nothing. I felt a bit silly remembering all the leeks and daffodils and Max Boyce and Hymns & Arias of my childhood.
But I recovered quickly. Now I'd love to know my real grandfather's name and if he had a good life. My Mum is in her 80s now. I think she'd like to know who her real dad was. But I don't think we'll ever find out.
I hope you can come to terms with it like we have x

Lots of children are adopted with no 'blood family' yet they are loved.

I'm glad your experience was positive. Not everyone had the Walton family.

😆

This is a not-uncommon experience in families where someone does a DNA test. Anyone who decides to do this would be prudent to prepare themselves psychologically for receiving an unpleasant surprise.

Were you ever in Italy/other Southern European country & the locals took you for a local?

I think the genie is out of the bottle with DNA testing and ancestry and we aren't able to put the stopper back in so it doesn't really matter what we think about the concept of DNA testingdue ancestry purposes.

I am aware of scenarios from the 1980's where parentage was obscured, you could argue that was always wrong and maybe if there had been more honesty there would be fewer secrets. That's simplistic though....

absolutely agree!

If I got it for a gift I wouldn'r use it

I must add that we should also remember women don't always get pregnant of their own free will.

I've been on a variety of holidays in Europe and almost invariably the local people in shops and cafes etc will assume that I'm German rather than British, and they will try to talk to me in German rather than English.

Interesting though, as I've done some family tree research and have indeed found out that I'm one eighth German via both parents of my maternal great grandfather. I'm also one eighth Scottish but nobody has ever picked up on that!

Yes my friend had this, her and sister took a test and it turns out her dad is not her biological dad. She has decided to leave it well alone and not mention it to him (her mother is deceased - they were divorced many years ago). She is close to her dad and sister and was confused and upset to start with. Sorry op lots of questions must be going through your head.

No such thing as “half” siblings. They are your siblings.

"And no, the Police in this country will not come knocking as it is against the law in the UK to use commercial DNA databases to solve crimes."

But they can be used in civil cases.

There was a case in the High Court just last month. it concerned a Declaration of Paternity.

The Ancestry DNA wasn't used in court to prove he was the father, but rather to identify who the father might be so that he could then be required to provide a DNA sample.

The child's DNA was uploaded to Ancestry and, through matches on Ancestry, a possible father was identified.

The mother of the child then applied for a declaration of parentage under the Family Law Act 1986.

The court then gave directions for DNA testing to determine if this man was the father or not. It turned out that he was the father with a probability of over 99.9999999%.

As a result the father will now be responsible for child maintenance etc.

There is a thread about this on the Genealogy board here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/genealogy/5549437-ancestrycom-dna-used-to-find-unknown-father-and-led-to-a-legal-case-at-the-high-court

Genetically the distinction is important.

But that’s not what the previous poster was talking about when she mentioned true crime documentaries. This was a civil case not criminal.

I agree with this.
The conception could have been in a happy relationship, in a happy relationship but things went too far and in a relationship against the mother’s wishes or sexual assault by a friend or stranger.

I have met people who were adopted who did not want to know or have anything to do with their bio family. I have also met others who wanted to know and were blocked and refused by bio family from finding out names and heritage of parents and "banned" from contacting other bio family. It must be really hard for bio families if they prefer to keep secrets buried and I guess they have the right to not engage. But, it's such a primal need in many people to know where they come from, recent law changes have taken this into account making it legal to have records of egg and sperm donors should the child ever wish to know. I think this is the right thing to do. Heritage is massive for a lot of people.

I still believe that child has a right to know where they come from.

So when you give away your DNA to these companies, you are also giving away the DNA of any relatives without their consent, or future great, great, great grandchildren currently not born who obviously cannot consent.

I wouldn't denigrate anybody but you have to go into it knowing and ready to accept that what you find may not be what you expected. And yes for me the "long dead people" aspect does seem pointless. I am me, here and now. What people in other generations did is not relevant.

"No such thing as “half” siblings"

There most definitely is. The difference between half and full siblings sometimes matters very much indeed.

For example, if a person dies intestate (without making a will) then there is a defined order in which the estate will be distributed.

This is determined by Section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925

Where there is a surviving spouse and/or children then they will inherit first. If there is no spouse or children then the parents inherit if they are still alive.

If there are no parents alive then any full-siblings inherit next. If there are no full-siblings then any half-siblings will inherit:

Section 46(1)(v)

First, on the statutory trusts for the brothers and sisters of the whole blood of the intestate; but if no person takes an absolutely vested interest under such trusts, then

Secondly, on the statutory trusts for the brothers and sisters of the half blood of the intestate; but if no person takes an absolutely vested interest under such trusts;

How much older than you are your siblings. Is there a chance you could be the child of one of them? It was common for parents to take on their children's unexpected children so to speak. Could this be why your brother won't do a test?

Well I have a very Italian/ catholic first name so yeah it's always assumed I'm not fully English. Maybe the name I was given at birth was a clue. I just assumed I was given that name as the man who raised me was Irish Catholic but it's very different to my siblings names which are typically English.

"This was a civil case not criminal."

Yes, I totally agree. I was simply widening the discussion and said:

"But they can be used in civil cases."