In doing my daily DNA searches, I came across this last night – DNA Test Results Life-Changing for Enfield Man: https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/investigations/dna-test-results-life-changing-for-enfield-man/2223459/.
By Caitlin Burchill
At-home DNA test kits are helping people understand their roots, but they’re also uncovering shocking, decades-old family secrets.
Enfield resident Ryan Simpson said he bought a DNA test kit when it was on sale.
“Everybody was doing it,” Simpson said. “(I) was not expecting to find anything other am I really Irish? Or am I really German? Or something like that.”
–snip–
His parents told Simpson the–snip–y used a sperm donor to help them get pregnant when they were struggling to have him, their second child.
–snip–
Discoveries like Simpson’s are not as shocking to Dr. Mary Casey Jacob, an emeritus professor at UConn Health and at the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services in Farmington. Jacob, a psychologist, advises her patients to tell their children the truth about how they were conceived.
–snip–
Not all DNA discoveries play out as positively as Simpson’s.
–snip–
I always tell people in my DNA presentations to come clean if there is something that will reveal a Not the Parent(s) Expected (NPE) result. With over 30 million tested worldwide, it doesn’t take you or a parent testing to reveal the secret. I mentioned my friend uncovering a bio niece (his words) due to his brother selling to the local sperm bank. It was strange he didn’t consider the possibility as his brother made numerous contributions to the sperm bank. It’s probably not going to be the only niece or nephew my friend will uncover as more people continue to test.
Same goes for adoptions and any other family secrets – once the child is old enough, best to tell them about adoptions, sperm donors, egg donors, and any other thing that may impact a family secret.
Ups Downs Family History 
I agree. What people assumed would be a secret forever no longer is. Fascinating for writers, but devastating for some. I have always thought it a terrible lie to tell your children and a risk people will fall in love with an unknown sibling.
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It can happen. Between the various sperm donors who were guaranteed being anonymous forever and those who had affairs, were raped, or had a one-night or more relationship with a hooker, the odds of being revealed are pretty high. Think I saw an article where enough Americans have DNA tested there’s a 60% chance of revealing a family secret if one exists.
I posted a story about a stud muffin hired by a female British doctor after World War I to help women get pregnant whose husbands had issues related to the war. He fathered over 480 children through this program. The couples agreed not to reveal the secret of Who’s the Daddy to those children. His last child was fathered sometime in the early 1950s.
In Iceland, someone developed an app that lets potential dating partners if they are related to close to date.
There was a hoax a few years back where some hoax site mentioned adopted siblings who got married. had problems conceiving, and a lab DNA tested the couple to find out they were twins. The hoax was revealed by other sites who spilled the beans, but not before it was picked up by more reputable news sites.
That’s not including those back alley adoptions where a doctor claimed the woman’s baby died, but was actually sold to a couple willing to pay big money.
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