The Strangest Family Stories Ever Brought To Light By DNA Testing

One day, completely out of the blue, Neil Schwartzman received an email from someone he didn’t know. Its message was simple but confusing. “Hey,” the correspondence began, “I think you’re my brother.” Maybe on another day, Neil would’ve ignored this email and consigned it to the spam bin. But he’d recently taken an at-home DNA test, so maybe this was for real? Intrigued, Neil replied to the woman who’d sent the email.

This lady was Jolie Pearl, who’d recently taken a DNA test herself. Her results had pointed her toward Neil, as he appeared to be a very close relative. And sure enough, after a little digging, she discovered that her mother had given birth to a baby boy long ago. Not many people knew about the birth but now the secret was out. So Jolie had managed to make contact with her long-lost brother.

Actor Sean Astin had a true Hollywood upbringing. His mother, Patty Duke, was an acclaimed actress and his stepfather, John Astin, was famous for his lead part in The Addams Family. But what of Sean’s biological father? Well, that’s where it gets complicated. Growing up, Sean was unsure of his real dad’s identity — and so was his mother.

There were actually three different men who could potentially have been Sean’s dad. That meant there was only one thing for it: they’d all have to take a DNA test to see if they matched with Sean. Thankfully, everyone was sporting about it and the men were happy to undergo the analysis. And soon the results were in. Sean’s father was a guy called Michael Tell, who, until this point, had never known the The Lord of the Rings star.

Jessica Allen agreed to undergo a life-changing experience: she offered to become a surrogate. A man and a woman of Chinese heritage wanted to have a baby but their options were limited. So, they went down the IVF route with Jessica, who ended up becoming pregnant with twins. Everything went well and the two infants arrived in good health.

But something was off. The babies were doing well, yes, but they didn’t really resemble each other at all. One of the kids looked like the couple who’d wanted a child in the first place. The other one looked uncannily like a mix of Jessica and her spouse Wardell. A DNA test soon confirmed the seemingly impossible: Jessica had been carrying both the couple’s baby and her own one at the same time. So these twins weren’t blood relatives.

In a column for MSN, a guy wrote about his life-changing experiences with DNA testing. This man had grown up with a very rich uncle, who’d always taken care of him and his sibling financially. Between the pair, this uncle had gifted the two boys hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. But why so generous?

As this guy explained in the column, “After taking a 23andMe DNA test, I believe I am his biological son. This was a shock to me. My brother is his son, too. This explains why ‘Uncle Harry’ was so generous to us over the years.” It turns out this guy’s mom had been unfaithful to the man he thought was his father.

Alice Collins Plebuch had always thought her heritage was Irish through and through, with her mom and her dad’s families each having come from the island. But when she took an at-home DNA test to confirm this, the story became more complicated. She discovered a whole range of different ethnicities in her bloodline, with Irish just making up a small part. So how’d she gotten it so wrong?

After some investigating, Alice learned the truth. She looked into her dad’s side of the family and discovered something odd: it appeared her father wasn’t related to his own sister. How could this be? Well, it turned out that when he was a baby, he’d been accidentally switched with a baby of a different ethnicity. And two families had gone home with a child who wasn’t biologically theirs.

Richard Bodager was told he was adopted at a very young age. There’d be no shock revelation about that when he was older; it was something he’d always known. But still, he was curious about his origins, so as a grownup he decided to take a DNA test. The outcome, he’d soon learn, would be surprising. According to the testing service, Richard had a granddaughter — but that was impossible.

Richard had to get to the bottom of this. So he reached out to the lady the DNA service said may have been his granddaughter. He wrote to her, “I’m fairly sure you’re not my granddaughter but we must be related because of the match.” He soon received a reply. It read, “I’m not your granddaughter. I’m your sister.”

Molly Sinert had a shock when her DNA test results came through. They pointed her towards a person she didn’t know, stating, “You share 49.96 percent DNA with this person. We predict that she’s your daughter.” Molly was pretty sure she’d never given birth to a child — that isn’t something a person tends to forget. But what was going on?

This other lady, Emily Bushnell, wasn’t Molly’s daughter. No, she was her sister. Well, her identical twin, to be exact. The two ladies established contact and got to know each other. It must’ve been strange coming face to face with their respective doppelgängers, of course, but they were happy in the end. As Emily told Good Morning America, “A hole was immediately filled in my heart.”

Liane Kupferberg Carter had been happily married to her spouse Marc for almost four decades. After all that time, they surely presumed they knew everything there was to know about each other. What could they possibly learn now that’d be genuinely shocking? Well, it started with a DNA test.

The couple sent off their DNA samples and waited for the results. And when the findings finally came back, the pair were left flabbergasted. The tests had identified genetic matches for both Liane and Marc. And to cut a long story short, they’d matched with each other. Yes, not only were they husband and wife, but they were also third cousins!

Whit Johnson’s a news correspondent for ABC and one day he found himself telling his own story. Wanting to know a little more about his background, Whit sent off his DNA for analysis. Though he wasn’t expecting to learn anything especially dramatic, that’s what ended up happening. Whit’s dad, it turned out, was in for a surprise.

The DNA test had pointed out a man who, it stated, was Whit’s dad’s cousin. But when Whit clicked on this guy’s photo, he sensed that this wasn’t a cousin: it was seemingly his dad’s brother. They looked so alike that Whit felt this had to be the case. He reached out to the man and they all arranged to meet. And Whit’s dad soon met the brother he never knew he had.

At-home DNA testing kits can make for a good stocking filler at Christmas — so long as the results aren’t troublesome. Unfortunately for Joseph Cartellone, though, they were. After taking a test during the Holidays, Joseph learned the terrible truth: the girl he’d raised wasn’t his child. Had his wife cheated? Well, that wouldn’t explain it, either, because his kid Rebecca had come about as a result of IVF treatment.

Joseph and his wife naturally presumed that Jennifer had been created thanks to a combination of both their genetic material. But they were wrong. It turns out someone else is Jennifer’s biological dad, though at this point nobody knows who for sure. And the leading theory’s a disturbing one. The family believe it’s probable that the father’s someone who used to be employed at the hospital where the IVF treatment was administered. It may even have been a doctor.

Young twins Sang-Ae and Sang-Hee were out one day with their grandma, exploring a bustling marketplace. Then, the unimaginable happened: the two kids vanished. Days passed and still nobody could locate the pair. But eventually Sang-Hee was spotted and reunited with her family. What of her sister, though? Well, Sang-Ae remained missing.

Sang-Ae was located in the end but rather than being returned home, she was sent to an orphanage instead. She was later adopted by a new family, losing all memory of her very own twin in the process. It was only many years later, thanks to DNA analysis, that an adult Sang-Ae — now named Denise McCarty — was able to locate her biological family and learn about her twin sister.

A mother to triplets, Audrey Bell was keen to learn about her kids’ genetic composition. So she took a DNA test — and got more than she bargained for after the results came back. When Audrey and her sister started looking at their genetic matches on the DNA database, they came across some guy called Tom Martin. While neither Audrey nor her sister had ever met this man, it turned out that he was important.

Tom was on the DNA database because he was looking for someone. Many, many years ago, back when he was still a kid, Tom’s three-year-old brother had gone missing — and he was never found again. His family had searched and searched but to no avail. Now, though, decades later, he was in contact with his little brother’s daughters. Though his brother had since passed away, at least he was talking to Audrey and her sister. And he now had the chance to learn about the life his brother had led.

Kate from California had never had any reason to doubt that her dad was actually her biological father. But when she took an at-home DNA test, all presumptions went out the window. The results claimed she had no less than ten brothers and sisters she’d never known about. How did that happen?

Kate logged onto reddit to see if any users had any theories — which, of course, they did. The responses were all pretty much in the same vein: her mother must have conceived her with help from a sperm bank. And as it turned out, those internet users were right on the money.

Telling her story to The Guardian, a woman explained that she’d never known her dad growing up. Her mom had told her it was a certain man but the woman never bought this story. She later confirmed via DNA analysis that this guy wasn’t her dad, so she set out to find her real dad. And eventually, with a little help from a volunteer, she tracked him down.

DNA tests confirmed this man was the woman’s father, even if her mother was reluctant to believe it. She claimed she couldn’t even remember meeting this guy. But the woman accepted this was her dad and he did, too. The two established a connection with each other — and not just a superficial one, either. They became the best of pals, even moving in together.

When Lydia Fairchild got her DNA test results back, she was left baffled. Because according to the analysis, she wasn’t related to her own two children. That was weird, because she could certainly remember delivering these kids. So, how’d this happened? Had both her babies been switched at birth? Well, the answer was even weirder.

It took a while to get to the bottom of things but eventually the mystery was resolved. Basically, it all started when Lydia was developing inside her mother’s womb. It turns out that Lydia had originally been in there with a twin yet this other fetus had then become absorbed into Lydia. She took on some of the other fetus’ cells in the process, meaning she now possesses her own genetic material and that of her twin. The small number of people alive who’ve experienced this are known as “chimeras.”

Scottish pop star KT Tunstall was adopted at a young age and her connection to her biological family was nonexistent for a long time. When she got older, though, she wanted to find that family. She managed to track down her biological mom but not her father. And by the time she finally figured out who he was, he’d already passed away.

While that was surely a sad discovery, there was a silver lining. This man also had two other girls and now KT was going to get the chance to meet them. Appearing on a TV show called Long, Lost Family, KT expressed how happy she was with this development. “I was so nervous,” she admitted. “I’ve never had sisters — it’s a beautiful surprise.”

Jessica Chambless knew she’d been conceived thanks to her mother’s trip to the sperm bank. And if anything, she liked the story, because it proved how much her mom had really wanted to have her. But still, she always wondered about her biological father, the man whose DNA was within her. In particular, she thought about whether this guy had ever had any other kids.

So Jessica did her research and soon she was reaping the rewards. She found some people who were genetic matches: one half-brother and a pair of half-sisters. Jessica reached out to one of the girls, who then dropped a bombshell. Their father, it seems, had actually been their mother’s fertility doctor.

Andrew from New Jersey had always been close with his father’s pal — he even referred to him as an uncle. Andrew was also friends with this guy’s kid, so it was a close-knit group. One day, though, Andrew decided to do a DNA test for fun. But from doing that, he soon discovered something weird: he and the son of his dad’s friend seemed to be related.

It turned out that Andrew’s mom had cheated on her husband with his very own friend. This man, it became clear, was actually Andrew’s real dad. It was a devastating blow for everyone but especially for the man who’d raised him. As Andrew wrote for the website Mel, “My dad turned purple.”

Steve Carter was adopted very early in life but he always knew something was a bit off about the whole situation. So, when he was older, he set out to find out what’d happened to him when he was a kid. And his research led to an incredible revelation: he was a missing person.

Steve learned that he and his mom had vanished in Hawaii while he was still a young infant. Steve’s dad had informed the police but neither mom nor baby was found. In reality, Steve’s mom had handed him to some strangers. The baby boy was taken into care after that, while his mother disappeared and was never seen again. Steve then grew up without knowing any of this.

The Dahm triplets are celebrities, of a sort. People seem to have taken an interest in the sisters, as they’re all identical and very striking in their appearances. They’ve shown up on TV and in magazines because of all this — but one particular television appearance really made waves. The sisters agreed to take a DNA test — and the results were bizarre.

Despite the fact the sisters were clearly identical, the DNA suggested otherwise. For some reason, each of the girls seemed to each have a different ancestry. How could this be? Well, the answer is quite simple: DNA tests are not infallible. They can be great indicators, but the results should always be taken with a grain of salt.