Discovering your roots has never been easier thanks to the trend for internet-based DNA testing kits – but those who want to trace their ancestors would be wise to think twice before sending off that swab.
Some people are getting more than they bargained for by inadvertently unearthing long-buried secrets, stumbling upon information that can tear families apart, as well unite them.
‘Complete surprise’
One British man in his sixties spoke to researchers about the painful experience of learning through DNA testing that his father was not his biological parent as he had always believed. The man, whose name has been kept private, told researchers of the sense of betrayal and confusion he felt upon learning the results.
“He grew up with two loving parents,” said Katy Barbier-Greenland of Australia’s Swinburne University. “Neither he nor his sister ever expected anything so this was a complete surprise to them.”
Loss of identity
The man experienced “significant distress and a deep sense of loss of identity” after his family’s secret was uncovered, according to Ms Barbier-Greenland.
“My sister and I are not who we thought we were – this was a secret held tightly for so many years,” the man said.
He added: “[I felt] so betrayed by the secret, not knowing the truth. I would have wanted to know my real grandparents and my actual father…I would’ve wanted to know from the very beginning, as a child.”
Ms Barbier-Greenland and her colleagues spoke with nearly two dozen people in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, US and the Netherlands. Today, Thursday, she will speak at a conference in Manchester hosted by European Sociological Association where she will highlight the unintended consequences genealogy research can have on ordinary people’s lives.
“All families have secrets, and it’s almost inevitable that when we undertake genealogical research, they can emerge,” she will tell attendees.
“There are so many types of family secrets to discover, and secrets about conception and birth are those with the greatest consequence on people’s lives.”
‘Lovely present’
Prue Heron, a British woman who received a DNA testing kit for her 70th birthday from her nieces and sister, thought it was a “lovely present”.
It was an “amazing shock” to learn that she and her sister did not share the same father as they’d always believed, Ms Heron told Channel 4 News, which has carried out its own investigation into the possible ramifications of taking a DNA test.
“We were very close, we loved each other and I really think we looked alike…It just didn’t occur to me that he wasn’t my dad,” said Ms Heron, who has begun connecting with other blood relatives since the revelation.
Case study: The search that unearthed a shocking truth
Jacoba Ballard: Child of fertility doctor Donald Cline
Jacoba Ballard, from Indiana, US, was told when she was 10 that her father had been a sperm donor
Jacoba Ballard joined an online forum when she started to search for half-sisters and half-brothers in 2014. She found another woman, conceived at the same clinic as her, with a strong family resemblance.
The women decided to do a DNA genealogy test along with two other possible half-siblings, and discovered they all shared the same father. Four more half-siblings were found during the testing process. After cross-checking public DNA databases, another woman who also shared their DNA said she had a cousin in Indianapolis. This led to the truth behind their conception.
Donald Cline, a fertility doctor who treated their mothers, is believed to have impregnated at least 50 women with his own sperm between 1979 and 1986.
Skeletons in the cupboard
“I think there’s about to be the biggest explosion in DNA testing and skeletons coming out of the cupboards,” Ms Heron predicted.
“Before, people could go to their graves with the secret but now the secret may come out.”
Antonio Renzullo, a British man who is visibly mixed-race, was also interviewed for the programme. Both of Mr Renzullo’s parents were Caucasian, but his mother’s family was Italian, and he attributed his skin tone to his Mediterranean roots.
“When people [told me] ‘that can’t be your dad’, I just ignored it,” he said.
It wasn’t until his daughter – who was desperate to find out more about her own ancestry – persuaded him to take a DNA test that Mr Renzullo learned that his biological father was West African.
“It’s nice to know that but at the same time… my dad was there for me when I was born…He was my dad, I don’t need to go and look for anyone else,” Mr Renzullo said.
