bin_tenn
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I grew up with three siblings, and we all share and were raised by the same biological parents. When I was younger, I had this idea that my family was sort of the picture perfect family, loving, supportive, full of humor, etc. It wasn't until I was quite a bit older, I think when I was into my 20s, that I learned that the family (including extended family) wasn't as "perfect" as it once seemed. There were no huge "OMG the family is ruined" secrets, just your typical "holy crap, I had no idea so and so had a shady past" kinda thing. Haha.
Anyhow, love the fam. I still enjoy visiting extended family for gatherings and other family events. All is ultimately well. My brother has done a ton of research into our ancestry using the Ancestry site. He has the paid subscription which provided access to a lot of great documents, photos, etc. The family tree he has on there is quite extensive, particularly on Dad's side because Mom's side is much more unknown to us. We were pretty much always around Dad's family growing up, and much less around Mom's.
After Dad passed in 2014 my brother and I learned a lot of the shady things in his past. Again, nothing that was Earth shattering, but still completely unknown to us - and quite surprising. We learned, for example, that he was married once or twice before he met our mother. No kids from those marriages, and they didn't last more than a year or two. He was in a really bad place at the time.
Fast forward to this morning. My brother calls me and informs me that someone reached out to him on Ancestry who has no obvious link to us. The guy said he was seeking information on his biological parents, particularly father (he's found out his mother at this point). Come to find out, through Ancestry DNA, this guy has quite a DNA match to my brother's DNA profile. 25% ... Twenty. Five. Percent. This percentage is very common in half siblings. The guy fairly closely resembles the other men in dad's side, including my brother and myself (there are strong genetics here, we've already noticed that).
Our dad and this guy's biological mother went to the same high school. They were both about 17 years old at the time. He's been told that his "parents were teenagers and had no choice" (but to put him up for adoption). If our dad was indeed this guy's father, he may not have even known before he passed. There is no father on his birth certificate.
This is just nuts! My brother is trying to gather some more info and hopefully connect with the guy via phone. This is not confirmed yet, but all signs point to this being the case. Wow... :O
Our half sibling, if it's true, was born in 1970, roughly a decade before our mom and dad met. And he's 12 years older than my brother.
Anyhow, love the fam. I still enjoy visiting extended family for gatherings and other family events. All is ultimately well. My brother has done a ton of research into our ancestry using the Ancestry site. He has the paid subscription which provided access to a lot of great documents, photos, etc. The family tree he has on there is quite extensive, particularly on Dad's side because Mom's side is much more unknown to us. We were pretty much always around Dad's family growing up, and much less around Mom's.
After Dad passed in 2014 my brother and I learned a lot of the shady things in his past. Again, nothing that was Earth shattering, but still completely unknown to us - and quite surprising. We learned, for example, that he was married once or twice before he met our mother. No kids from those marriages, and they didn't last more than a year or two. He was in a really bad place at the time.
Fast forward to this morning. My brother calls me and informs me that someone reached out to him on Ancestry who has no obvious link to us. The guy said he was seeking information on his biological parents, particularly father (he's found out his mother at this point). Come to find out, through Ancestry DNA, this guy has quite a DNA match to my brother's DNA profile. 25% ... Twenty. Five. Percent. This percentage is very common in half siblings. The guy fairly closely resembles the other men in dad's side, including my brother and myself (there are strong genetics here, we've already noticed that).
Our dad and this guy's biological mother went to the same high school. They were both about 17 years old at the time. He's been told that his "parents were teenagers and had no choice" (but to put him up for adoption). If our dad was indeed this guy's father, he may not have even known before he passed. There is no father on his birth certificate.
This is just nuts! My brother is trying to gather some more info and hopefully connect with the guy via phone. This is not confirmed yet, but all signs point to this being the case. Wow... :O
Our half sibling, if it's true, was born in 1970, roughly a decade before our mom and dad met. And he's 12 years older than my brother.