What if you were not who you thought you were?
By savypat
@savypat (20216)
United States
December 29, 2008 2:15pm CST
We are genealogist and have just started using DNA in some of the families we research. Well in one of the first families we did this for we found a identical match with another family. It means they have the DNA of another family. How would you feel about that? The family this happened to is very upset and doesn't want us to go any further, they don't want to know what generation this started in.
The more we test DNA the more families are going to find these troubling facts. How would you handle it?
3 responses
@1corner (744)
• Canada
29 Dec 08
Very interesting...For curiosity's sake, I'd like to keep going. However, if someone else would prefer to stop, that's fine with me. In such cases, it might open up family secrets no one ever wanted dug up. I doubt I'd find something like it in my own family, though.
1 person likes this
@dreamleaper17 (702)
• Philippines
29 Dec 08
hi there, savypat..
i'd say that's quite alarming though i guess i'll be taking it more positively than most everyone else..
since birth, i've always believed that everyone on earth is inter-related.. as i was growing up, that belief hasn't waned although to a much lesser degree, of course.
to make light of this seemingly serious issue, i'd say i'll be staying single for a little while longer. i have to make sure i'm not DNA-related (meaning, same genetic line, right?) to the person i'll be marrying (if ever i do get married.) 
happy myLotting!
happy myLotting!1 person likes this
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
30 Dec 08
Hi pat! That might be better news in my case! I might find
out that I have better genes then I thought! But, I'm
sure that won't happen! What do you mean? They have the DNA
of another family? I don't understand. Why would that be
upsetting? They are related to people that the don't know or
don't want to be related to? I once asked my mother if I
was adopted because I hate my father and was hoping that he
wasn't really my father after all. I was disappointed when
my mother said that he was!
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
30 Dec 08
Say the family thought they were from Mr Smith and they all knew they were Smiths from 200 years back, Then the DNA is run on Mr. Smith born in 1950 and he finds out he is really a Mr Jones. Ok where did Mr. Jones first show up? Was he the first Smith that's a Jones or what about his Dad, or his Grandpa? Now you get the picture. Draw it out on paper, remember we are only dealing with the male line.
It's possible that the one we thought was the original Mr. Smith was really a Mr. Jones all along. To me the basic thing to remember is that no matter what the name is the people are still the same. But many people get hung up on the fact that somewhere, sometime a Mr. Jones entered the picture and from then on all his male
relatives were really Jones not Smiths as they had thought. Change the names to Smith and Kennedy? See how this could really upset your family?
