Genetic Genealogist Pro

I was approached by a young man who said there was a family secret about him. When I inquired he said that he was probably NOT the child of the man who was on his birth certificate and was possible another man’s child who has passed away back a few years. He was thinking of having a paternity test done.

He was thinking of having a paternity test done. The cost would be $179 for both the child and the man he thought was his father. The reason so high I am sure, is because two people would have to have their cheek swabbed. I thought about his dilemma, and asked if any of the Father’s siblings had done a DNA test.  The answer was yes, with Ancestry.com.  A Paternity test will only tell if this person IS or IS NOT the Father. If the answer is yes he is, then it worked, but if it is NO, then the question still remains, is it this other person you thought might be the Father and he is deceased. I suggested that the best way to approach it was to have the $69 Ancestry.com  test and the reasons are numerous:

If the young man comes up as a relative of the siblings of the Father who signed his birth certificate, case over, home free. That man is his father…but…

If the young man shows up with no relation to the other siblings, then there is another father out there and by doing the Ancestry.com test, some of the relatives of the TRUE Father may have had their DNA tested and he may find he has half-siblings he knew nothing about.  Or if not, he may have all the way up to 5th cousins show up on his results of people he doesn’t really know, but would offer some clues that could be very useful.

That will be where the research comes in …  checking these out to see if you can find the ancestor you have in common.

Glad to say that he has ordered his Ancestry.com report and I have offered to help him analyze the results and guide him through it.

When you take that first step, you have taken the steps to FREE yourself from the baggage you have carried around since the first time you heard the rumor. “The Truth Will Set You Free.”

Upon receiving the DNA report, I logged into the client’s account and sure enough the man he had been raised to think was his father, was in fact not his biological father.  It takes more than DNA to be a father, as we all know.   There had been a name that had been talked about in the family as a possible suspect to be his father and the DNA test proved out to be that person.  While I went about doing my reverse engineering of the family tree, I had found two half-siblings.  I told him to go on facebook and see if he could get in touch with either of them.  He reached out to them and  the result was not as you would want it to be. The father had been deceased for a few years.  I always warn people that it might be that the person you are wanting so fiercely to find, may want nothing to do with you.  This can happen as well with any half-siblings you may find.  Perhaps they are afraid of the repercussions of a cheating spouse on their Mother or concerns over inheritance.  The issues can be many.  Be willing to accept the things you cannot change. But also realize there will be no more wondering, and you can go on living your best life.   Happy to say that after much consideration over the “KNOWING” the real truth and confronting his Mother with the issue (not an easy task for sure), he has finally learned to accept it and go on with his life, knowing that HE was always loved by the man who raised him and the large extended family that it brought him also love him very much.