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.

A previous poster has already replied to you about why you are wrong on both counts, but I would just like to expand on

"...how can you possibly find out you have half siblings or that your dad isn't your dad through this?"

It is done through a process called "autosomal DNA testing".

An autosomal DNA test measures your autosomal chromosomes, which make up the majority of your DNA. You inherit these chromosomes equally from both of your biological parents.

DNA comes in long stretches called chromosomes. Humans typically have 23 pairs of chromosomes for a total of 46. There are two broad categories of chromosomes, autosomal and sex chromosomes.

• Autosomal chromosomes, 22 matching pairs, make up the bulk of your DNA. Almost everyone has a complete set of them. An autosomal DNA test looks at the DNA from these 22 chromosome pairs.

• Sex chromosomes are made up of X and Y chromosomes, which differ in size and function. People usually have either a pair of X chromosomes or X and Y chromosomes.

Companies like Ancestry will look at around 700,000 DNA markers across all 22 pairs of chromosomes.

They will then look for large areas of shared DNA (where the DNA markers are the same in both people) between you and other people in their database. The greater amount of DNA shared between you and another person, measured in units of centimorgans (cM), the more closely you are related.

"...how can you possibly find out you have half siblings or that your dad isn't your dad through this?"

If your dad is your dad then he will typically share around 3,500 cM of DNA with you. If he is not your dad then you will not share any DNA at all.

However, if you don't have the father's DNA then it's slightly more complicated with half-siblings as there can be an overlap between the typical values found for a full-sibling and a half-sibling. Unless the amount of DNA shared is particularly low or particularly high then it could be either.

So, if the amount of DNA shared is between 1,600 cM and 2,400 cM then the other person could be either a half or full sibling.

You would then need to look at more distant relationships.

If both of the siblings are related to other people on the father's side of the family (I'm assuming here that they have the same mother) then that would indicate that they are full siblings.

If one sibling is related to other people on the father's side of the family but the other sibling is not, then that would indicate that they are half-siblings.

OP this is a shock and there is no right way to feel. My family is full of adoption and grandparents bringing up grandchildren as children and absent fathers replaced quietly by other men. Lots only came out years later. Personally while I have no dna match to my dad - quite obvious if you put us side by side - he is t the man who raised me, he is still my dad. My half sister I did t meet until we were both adults and he is actually now a sister but had we not got on could have stayed a stranger - there are other people on her side I don’t see. Basically those who brought me up - so my dna does t make me not theirs - love and familiarity makes family. For the half relations I found later - that only remained friends if they were people I would have liked anyway and I was blessed to get a sister from it. I will never know my birth dad - no big matches on that side and that is ok. I am absolutely me it have had much longer to be at peace with it all. Don’t let the shock take anything away from your feelings and love for your brother and sisters then in the longer term try and let any future matches can bring you extra but recognise it’s all drama and excitement at first but can burn out quickly like any overly intense relationship.

I am wondering what you think the dna used by the police to secure convictions is testing? It’s an amazing and complex subject.

Also you clearly don’t understand how recessive genes work. For example blue eyes are recessive and need two blue eye genes to pair and create . Each parent passes one gene down. Brown eyes are dominant so the passing down can be Br / /Br - brown eyes Br/bl - brown eyes bl/Br - brown eyes bl/bl - blue eyes so two brown eyed parents Br/bl bl/Br can absolutely have a blue eyed child.

Likewise the red hair gene is recessive so two brown-haired parents could both pass down a recessive red hair gene, and their child would have red hair.

Are you really this ill-informed, or are you just stirring the pot? 5-minutes with google would explain how this works.

The tests are fine. I used to fantasise that my parents weren't my parents.

they’re Either thick or a tee roll or both

Sorry for your shock and hope you get support processing it. I listen to a wonderful podcast called “DNA Surprises”. It covers all sorts of stories (like yours) and includes frequent issues/ experiences around it. It’s very supportive and inclusive.

This has to be a troll. There can't be any adult in 2026 who's never heard of paternity testing, or of crimes being solved by DNA evidence.

I'm not sure about this. Thousands of non Japanese people like sushi, Pokemon (which is after all a modern thing) & anime. Sumo a bit more niche but then karate & judo have heaps of non Japanese fans.

In the 1990s the Japanese government started a push to promote their culture abroad, and the South Korean government are now doing similar..and as a fan of both, I'm glad they did. I don't think it means that there's loads of secretly half-Japanese or half-Koreans worldwide!

Burgers are hardly the best example either given the global success of McDonald's.

"not sure"= Mahoosive understatement. I like sushi and my sibling does not. Does this mean we have different parents?

"The only conclusive answer might be impossible to recover since you’d need a dna test on the person you think was your father."

That's not necessarily the case. I found my husband's biological father for him, with minimal prior knowledge of anything about him, other than what continent he met his mother, using Ancestry DNA, despite the closest relative to have done a DNA test being one of his bio father's cousins' daughter.

Hey - this happened to me. Similar situation in that my parents had passed away. I went into detective mode and via other matches I had, I worked out who my bio father had been. I reached out to my half siblings and they were incredibly welcoming, kind and understanding. I’m not sure this is hugely common however - I’ve been lucky. Without a doubt, this has been one of the hardest, most painful things I’ve endured in my life - too much background to go into here and it would be outing, but OP, if you want to talk about it more, please feel free to drop me a DM. I’m about 5 years post discovery and in a better place about it now, but it was utterly devastating at the time - I felt like my entire identity was ripped from me and I wondered what else in my childhood was a lie. Be kind to yourself.

Thanks for the lovely reply. Im off on holiday for a week today, but would love to get in touch with you when I return .

We had moved house a week or so before we went to the US, we went to the Family Search centre and we were welcomed and able to look around. The were huge books of bound OS maps and one was open on a table, when I looked at it I got such a shock, one of the staff asked what was wrong. I pointed to the map and said We moved into that village 10 days ago and that's our house! I think they thought I was joking at first until I showed them the photo on my phone, now just a house rather than it's original purpose as shown on the map. It felt so weird.

Can I ask what test this was? I only know one side of my family and feel so much is missing. I’m so sorry for your shock op, sending love

You can eventually piece it together from 2nd cousin matches - you have to build their tree back into the past and see if you can identify the link.. 2nd cousin matches means your parents were cousins and your grandparents were siblings.

One question; are you absolutely sure this is a paternal match not a maternal one?

Yes definitely paternal, because my sisters who have previously tested on ancestry have come up as my half sisters

Ancestry

And bang! Just three days after I posted this, they appeared on ancestry, they very much exist and we are in contact!

@RosePippi Sometimes the family can be very obvious - no matches to the family of a supposed relative but a lot of "unexplained" matches to another family. Not always easy to be sure if there is more than one son which one is guilty. You dont know until you try.

Yes, but they will be half sisters regardless which side it is - you could (for example) technically have two half sisters who are not related to each other - lets say if your father had a daughter with another woman, and your mother had a daughter with another man, you would come up as half sister to both, but they equally wouldn't be related to each other.

This is just an example - both sisters in your family will be presumably 100% sisters to each other and already know this. They are half sisters to you, but it could be through either your father or your mother (unless there is another match that is telling you it is maternal, or one of your siblings can remember your birth an know it was your mother who gave birth? I wouldn't assume)

We definitely share the same mother, my oldest brother came to the hospital the day I was born, I was born on his birthday, he was most put out that this baby had ruined his special daywe share a birthday just born different years

If you have matches to people who share a mother with you they are maternal matches. You need to look at those who are not shared matches with your mother's other children.