30 Family Secrets People Anonymously Shared Online Because They Just Had To Tell Someone

My mom's grandfather or great-grandfather invented a new identity for himself between New York and Phoenix. DNA found relatives on the east coast that carry the same male line and they have one last name. Relatives in the west have a totally different name. .

My maternal uncle was only a half-sibling to my mom and her twin, my aunt found out in their 70s. My mom was dying of cancer and their older brother had already passed away 10 years prior so we never told my mom because it wouldn't have changed how my mom loved/thought about her brother so we didn't see the point of it.

My mom is related to a bootlegger, a horse thief, and someone named Dorkus.

My mom found out that her dad wasn’t her bio dad and it explained A LOT. Funny that my grandmother was SUPER religious, (no cards allowed in her house!) but when her non-bio dad worked for an older man, they lived just down the street from each other. My mom did a dna test that popped up several half siblings and her older sister remembered that last name from when they were kids and living down the street from them and that’s how they made the connection. She reached out to her new found half siblings and they confirmed their dad was her non-bio-dad’s boss and that bosses son was her bio dad.

The dark side is her non-bio dad always treated her so badly, yelled at her at 1AM for not doing dishes when her siblings didn’t have to do dishes at all or get yelled at. When she was 15, he kicked her until she was under the kitchen table and later peed blood; she married my dad shortly after turning 16 to get away from it and they were married for 25 years having me and my four siblings and, despite the trauma and stunted emotional maturity, cared for and loved us deeply even if they weren’t perfect.

By the time she found out her bio dad had passed, her non-bio dad (whom she knew as dad) had passed, and her mom (my grandmother) had dementia and was in no state to talk about any of this.

But it makes me angry that my grandmother never stuck up for my mom, that she didn’t protect her from my non-bio grandfather. It’s obvious to us now that my mom, the youngest, wasn’t supposed to be and they knew the whole time. It definitely fundamentally alters how I think about my grandfather and grandmother now. I mean, even me, I always felt like my cousins got tons of lap time and loving from my grandfather yet one time I criticized or did something to them (who knows what) and he stabbed me in the neck with a plastic fork but fortunately it broke. He made me apologize to light fixtures for leaving them on (nobody else had to) and it was my grandmother who carried me on trips and to baseball games, never him.

My mom is very close with her oldest sister and they know all of this and that is a great relationship. Her other two half siblings deny she was ever a***ed and would never accept their super religious mom would have an illegitimate child.

Ironically, in some of her final dementia-ridden days, my grandmother would exclaim “Why would [mom’s non bio dad] leave me?!?” And my aunts/uncles,cousins would be like “what is she talking about? He’s been dead 10 years.” While me, my mom, my siblings, and my aunt (her oldest sister) knew exactly what she was talking about but my mom never said a word. It’s my mom’s news to tell and she chooses to say nothing and that’s her choice which we all respect.

She now has a very good relationship with the half siblings she met through 23&me and sits on her porch most nights talking to them and that’s super good, makes my heart happy.

A (now ex so there's that) friend found out from a DNA test she had no Maori blood. Being in NZ this is significant and making that part of her identity- she was gutted. Got the test as a birthday present- from her now ex- girlfriend. At least she knows abit of teo reo now. (Maori language skills).

Turns out we have the Olympic long distance running gene in our family. It allows you to run farther than a majority of the population for longer.

My paternal grandmother’s family.

The story my dad has been fed his whole life is that his parents divorced when he was young and his dad took the two boys before family courts were really a thing. He knew he had a half sister who would call the house occasionally and he refused to talk to her.

Turns out my grandmother more than likely was put into Witness Protection and no one heard from her since 1970. I met several of my second cousins through Ancestry, though I still haven’t found my dad’s living half sister even though I’d love to connect.

Aunt Diane if you’re out there, I’m ready to talk.

That my dad isn't my biological dad. My mom was born and raised in Oklahoma and my dad was born and raised in Michigan. I currently live in Michigan so I was anticipating seeing at least half my relatives on the DNA website from there. Nope, everyone was from Oklahoma or Texas.

Turns out my dad didn't come into my life until I was 2 years old, moved me from Oklahoma to Michigan where all of his family (now my family) obviously knew I wasn't his, including my older 2 brothers and sister, and kept the secret until I found out from Ancestry 30 years later.

Before I confronted my parents I actually tracked down who my biological dad was. He had no idea about me but did remember my mom. He was a regular customer at her bar. Last year I actually got to meet him, my biological grandpa (which was so cool because I thought all my grandparents were dead), all my aunts and uncles... It turns out I also have a younger sister but I didn't get to meet her because she was feeling very anxious about it.

I have a new uncle now. Turns out my grandpa had an affair with the neighbour’s wife 65 years ago. My mom grew up living next door to her brother and never knew it until she took the test at age 73.

My great grandfather hooked up with a married woman, who had a child. I found that child's child through DNA and from the looks of their tree, they don't know.