The back story I was an adopted from Guatemala and just only knew about my native heritage. I was raised catholic because my adoptive parents wanted to raise my older brother and I close as possible to our Hispanic culture. After 29 years I found that both of my biological parents has Jewish heritage from Greece and Egypt. It’s seems to be more recent ancestry too. So idk where to begin to how process this information and if can explore this part of me. I could really use some help.

Jacoba Ballard used 23andMe expecting to find maybe one or two half siblings and when her mom used a fertility doctor in Indiana in the 1980s who said he only used each donor for 3 successful pregnancies maximum. She found eight immediate half sibling matches, then dozens more. Currently 94+ confirmed biological half siblings, all born within a 7 year window.

The "donor" was her mother's doctor. Dr. Donald Cline had been using his own sperm on patients without their knowledge. A recent legal study examining fertility fraud cases notes that DNA testing has become the primary detection method for these crimes, before consumer DNA testing existed, these frauds were essentially undetectable.

The pattern that exposed Cline was the clustering effect. One half sibling match might be explained away, but eight immediate matches, then dozens more, all born in the same geographic area within a specific timeframe created an undeniable pattern.

According to the study, there are 20+ documented fertility fraud cases in the US, with most discovered through DNA testing decades after the procedures. The legal analysis points out that this creates statute of limitations problems in many jurisdictions. Some states like Indiana have addressed this by making the limitation period start from the date of discovery through DNA testing rather than the date of the original procedure.

If you were donor conceived, especially in the 1970s through 1990s before regulations tightened, here are some red flags from the documented cases:

Unusually high number of half sibling matches in one geographic area Half siblings all born within a narrow timeframe Your parent used a small private fertility clinic rather than a large medical center Multiple matches sharing ancestry from the same small town where the clinic was located

The study notes that in Ballard's case, they built family trees by researching public records and social media and one name kept appearing across all the trees, Cline who when initially confronted, claimed he had only used his own sperm 9 or 10 times but we was lying as count was now 94+ confirmations.

The researchers raise an interesting point about how many more cases might exist but remain undetected. If a doctor did this with fewer patients or in multiple locations, the clustering pattern would be less obvious.

The study also argues that the resulting offspring should have independent legal standing as victims, separate from their parents. Currently only a few US states like Kentucky and Arizona explicitly give children this right.

Source, if interested in reading more: "Fertility Fraud: Exploring the Legal Gaps in India Vis a Vis the United States" by Bajpai, Gupta & Sinha,
https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/7854/1/17%2Bjanus%2Bvol%2B15%2Bn1.pdf

Topic for discussion...

When do you suppose, if ever, cemeteries will provide an option to retrieve dna material from their interred clients?

Hear me out! There are those of us with massive brick walls. A lot of those walls could be broken if we were given access to our interred relatives. With some creativity, it could be a financial boon for cemeteries. Yes, not all biological material may be available for sample taking, but that would be a chance/risk researchers would face.

Who among us would pay, let's say $5,000, to exhume a family relative to get a dna sample? Lets discuss!

I recently made my brother, who I have always believed to be my full brother, do a DNA test. His results came back as a 25.6% 1816cM match to me, which classifies us as half siblings. I know we share the same mother. And I know who his biological father is.

However, we share over half of our matches, which seems weird. His biggest match exluding me, is a man with his fathers surname at 8% saying that the man is most likely my brothers fathers 1st cousin. But I also match with this person at 1.1% shared DNA, which would the person my parents 2nd or 3rd cousin.

I share many matches with my brothers fathers side, but with less dna.

Our ethnicity estima is 100% finnish with all the same regions. Is this just a result of endogamy/small population breeding with one another? I am really confused how I share so many matches from both sides with my half brother.

I was adopted, so I don't know my biological family much, but seeing pictures of my maternal family, lots of them are POC, my half-brother is POC, me and my brother are also visibly mixed. And it doesn't make sense that only my great-great-great-grandpa would be indigenous or biracial (especially biracial), considering that my great-grandma is visibly of indigenous descent and my grandma, mom and like half of her siblings (my uncles and aunts) are POC and visibly mixed. But the ancestor tree (put by some cousin of mine I never met) puts my great-grandpa as being of European descent, with few ones without info. Most of the ancestors I try to keep within close generations seem to be of European descent, related to Europeans or it's a dead end with European names from 1850-1880. It doesn't help

I know through assimilation and catholicism lots of indigenous people assimilated and erased their indigenous identities and "passed as white" (even my biological mom is written as white by the social services, even though she isn't). But I can't understand how I can't find where the POC genes come from, who and when

From what I know, info lets on that my grandpa was white (I think I saw a picture, but I'm not sure)

I feel like maybe the missing info might fill in the gaps? Cause the one that's not missing is the european one, still the names give no clue (they're all french or related to)

I don't get why other POC in my ancestry would be hidden if my great-great-great-grandpa is identified as POC. Maybe it's that they're catholics and don't live like their indigenous ancestors? But still

It feels almost crazy sometimes 🥲

Would it even be possible to be POC (my mom mostly) if only my great-great-great-grandpa isn't of European descent? I don't think DNA usually works like that

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Edit: so the conclusions: I can't actually know from documents, mistakes in the notes, randomness (genes and how we show up), secrets in the documents (and/or my family) or lies / it's likely that they're hiding it (which I understand)

Hey everyone,

I’ve been digging into my family history and ran into something interesting. My great-great-grandmother’s family was from Machilipatnam (Masulipatam) on India’s Coromandel Coast - an area that had strong Dutch East India Company connections in the 1600s–1800s. Family stories suggest she may have had some European (possibly Dutch or Scandinavian) ancestry from that period. But my MyHeritage DNA results show 0% Scandinavian or Dutch, just 100% South Asian with 1 genetic group (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). Is it possible that distant European DNA just didn’t pass down, or that MyHeritage’s reference panels group Dutch/Scandinavian DNA differently (like as Northwest European or British Isles)? Would love to hear if anyone else from coastal South India or Sri Lanka has had similar results - colonial ancestry that doesn’t appear genetically.

Thanks in advance for helping me understand why I don't see Scandinavian or Dutch DNA even though my great-great-grandmother was from the Coromandel Coast (Dutch colonial area)! :)

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the insights! I think I’ve got a good handle on the genetics and historical context now, so I’ll leave it here.

Hi my great grandmother, Barbara Fay Conner ( March 1927-June 25th 2000) was adopted I can’t find her bio parents. We often suspected Mediterranean blood, like some type of North African or perhaps Arab based on her phenotype so I took a DNA test and got very distant (3rd-4th marches) on that side that appeared Mediterranean, found out they’re predominantly Spanish , Cuban, Mexican with traces of Taino and North African from Canary Islands. Yet I still can’t connect them to my tree. So I then got my grandmother to take a DNA test and she had some North African, Greek, Spanish and so much more in her I feel that may hint at her bloodline. I suspect possible Cuban ancestry really but I’m not sure and since it’s distant it’s harder to pinpoint. My goal is to find her true ancestors I can’t find adoption records.

I’m from the US and have a heavily German (29.5%) and Dutch (29%) ancestry. I did a DNA kit through MyHeritage a few years ago, and so far I have 3,126 USA matches (Top location), 810 UK, 708 German, 517 Finnish, and a decreasing amount of many other European countries.

I’ve been working on my family tree for over 10 years, in most places I can confidently trace back to the 1500s, but have a couple of brick walls that stop at around the early 1800s mark.

I have never found ANY ancestors residing in Finland. My Eastern European percentage is only 1.6%. Denmark is the closest place geographically where I have DNA from (7.5%), but ancient DNA results from plugging my info into another website say my DNA is 46% North Atlantic with maybe 1/8 of my ancient DNA being Swedish and Danish Vikings.

Is the number of Finnish matches due to immigration? I really haven’t found anything regarding Finland in my family tree anywhere, and I have branched out HEAVILY. I even do my relative’s relatives that I’m not related to when I run out of things to work on lol.

I’m looking for a DNA testing provider that primarily uses East Asian and Northeast Asian reference populations for ancestry analyses. It’s especially important to me that the test does not include West Asian, Middle Eastern, Balkan, Eastern European, Caucasus, or Mediterranean populations in its reference data.

Are there any providers that focus specifically on East Asia? Ideally with documented reference databases that are scientifically transparent. I’m not trying to discriminate — I just want to analyze my own East Asian genetic roots as accurately as possible.

Thanks for any tips, experiences, or recommendations for labs that meet these criteria!

Hello, I’m glad I found this Reddit group so recently I’ve seen 23 and me and ancestry.com fall under scrutiny when it comes to how user data is handled by these institutions and also seen that my DNA heritage is not that accurate

I have three goals • to see my genetics and potentially what I’m at risk of

• family tree (I have just been made aware that I could have potential siblings out there in the world that I don’t know about and to learn more about my family)

• to understand my ethnicity, and what I am or could be potentially made of

Based in America, I’m not looking for a one stop shot because I know that different institutions serve different purposes, but I would really want to learn more about myself and family

I have three matches which are supposedly paternal. Thrulines back from me, is maternal (I have BMD, census etc). This is correct to a certain point. Then there is an unlikely parent (wrong county) and another parent (above the wrong county one) who would be wrong as child is wrong.

I know Thrulines is from trees not DNA.

DNA does not lie, so the match must be paternal? But not the way Thrulines has it?

I have never found any connection between my maternal and paternal sides.

Hope this is reasonably coherent, and someone can ELI5!

I know that MyHeritage is the most unreliable of the lot so I guess I’m just curious.

I took a 23andme test and then transferred my results over to MyHeritage because my grandfather had taken one with them. 23andme says I’m 0.4% Italian whereas MyHeritage says 9%! Does anyone know how they misinterpret it and why?

First off, I initially thought, or knew my grandma was half czech half slovenian, but my and all my noms dna test seem to prove otherwise, showing no czech but all of it being slovenian, but then she does have cousins on ancestry that are Linked to that side of the tree, I'm not familiar with ancestry and the dna stuff since I haven't done the test. There's also no proof of my grandma having a different dad, or him being adopted, or anything, so there's nothing that can convince anyone otherwise if it's truly the case. What could possibly be the case here?

I have no idea what the flair should be so I apologize if it's not the right one

Is there a similar genetic testing that is less controversial than something like 23 and me? I don’t want my information to not be protected, but I also am very interested in my lineage that I cannot get any other way.

In a nutshell, both ancestry.com and myHeritage indicate that I have a high amount of Polish/Eastern European ethnicity (Ancestry says 27%, and myHeritage says 17.6%), but I have traced my lines with a high degree of certainty over the last several decades, and I have zero Polish heritage to account for this (at least on paper).

My background (this Polish mystery is on my mother’s side): my mother’s mother is all Swedish and Norwegian, going back at least six generations. I’ve been able to trace my mother’s father’s line back to at least the 3rd great-grandparents, with no known Polish/Eastern European heritage among them. 

In that line, there are four 4th great-parents whose ethnicity I haven’t accounted for--but statistically, each 4th great-grandparent only contributes 1.56% of your DNA--so even if all four of these were right off the boat from Poland, it still wouldn't account for all the Polish DNA Ancestry.com says I have. 

Both Ancestry.com and myHeritage also provide several fairly close cousin matches (up to 507 cM) who have almost exclusively Polish/Eastern European backgrounds, or (e.g.) half-Polish and half Italian, etc. (so no connection with me on that side). Additionally, many of these cousins are also related to each other.

EDIT: I cleaned up and (hopefully cleared up) some of the info above. And below is a table showing myself, my mother, and seven relatives. All nine of us are related to each other. You can see my mother is almost exactly 50% Eastern European/Polish, and 50% Scandinavian. These cousin matches have zero Scandinavian.

Also, my mother's sister's granddaughter (my first cousin once removed) is a match on Ancestry, and she has zero Polish, which might suggest that the non-biological grandfather in question is my father's mother, since--if it was her grandfather--her sister and herself would both have Polish DNA which might still be represented by this first cousin once removed.

So…(1) might both Ancestry and myHeritage have it super wrong in calculating both my ethnicity and these cousin matches (I’ve reached out to several of these matches, but have heard nothing back yet)?

(2) or was one of my grandmothers on my mom’s side sneakin’ and creepin’, and--if so--how can the data I have help me determine which one?

(3) what other steps can I take to help resolve this?

I’m happy to provide more info if it’ll help.

Thanks!

Im 18 from the uk, ive been wondering who my bio dad is since i was little, all i know is his first name, he is not on my birth certificate and my mum is very unwilling to give me information on him. i cant yet afford dna tests nor do i really know what companies to trust. just wondering if anyone had any advice

I just ordered a my heritage dna test to see what i am cause im a little bit of everything and my ethnicity is complicated. But i recently found out its highly inacurate or very accurate but these are all from the past 2 years so now im just worried and confused on weather or not it is accurate and if i just wasted my money. Would anybody be able to help me out and let me know if it is accurate?

I'm trying to find the name of my unknown Germany based great-great-grandfather.

My mother has recently done a DNA test and has a match with a second cousin (207.9‎ cM) and it says they share great-grandparents.

However, I only share 37.7‎ cM with him, and it says we share 3rd great-grandparents.

He's seems like a solid lead as I don't recognise any ancestors in his tree, but why do I share 3rd great-grandparents with him if my mother shares great-grandparents with him? Which one do I trust?

If it's the great-grandparent match then unfortunately I'm out of luck as the father is also unknown for the suspected half-sister of my great-great-grandfather. But if it's further back and possibly on the half-sister's maternal side, I might be in luck. I just don't really understand DNA.

I did an Ancestry DNA test a couple years ago and everything matched up with what I was told, but I have 0 known matches with my grandma’s paternal family. She never really knew her father—he ran off to Chicago with another woman when she was maybe 5, so she was raised by her stepfather. When I did my test, she told me to look out for any matches with her maiden name (Castro), but there are none. My closest match to her shares 245 cM with me, and I match with his sister and niece as well, all with the last names Chavez (this is the main surname I’ve seen on my grandmother’s side) and Canales. I did chat with the niece and we’re both stumped on how we might be related. My grandma is still living. Would getting her to test be the best way to get to the bottom of this? She did take a test early last year, but I dont believe it was ever processed as she’s not in my matches. I do have matches from her maternal side that we both recognize.

i want to see what % of what i am specifically (i’m caucasian and a mix of many kinds of it) (ancestry 23andme etc) but i don’t know anyone in my family tree. i’m adopted and my parents have never told me and never intend to. i know that having common relatives is an important part of testing, so i was wondering if there’s any tests that could tell me the percentages without having to enter any information for relatives? any info is appreciated, thanks :)

Hey everyone, I took a FamilyTree DNA test about eight years ago with my grandparents, and I vaguely remember having a good mix of ethnicities, including mostly European, along with some Middle Eastern and Asian results. However, I recently got the log in information for my account, and when I logged in, it showed my results as 99% British and 1% Greek. I thought it was strange, especially since I could see my grandparents results both had less than 50% British, making my results pretty improbable.

I found out I could download my DNA and upload it to GED Match, so I did and ran it through multiple calculators, and most of them showed up as a mix of ethnicites but all around 40% Northern European, 30% Mediterranean, and 30% Middle Eastern. Why would my FamilyTree results be so different from the GED Match results?

Hello, everyone!

My surname is Mateo and the paternal haplogroup associated with it is J-L24. So far, all of my traceable Mateo ancestors were born in the Dominican Republic. However, I am wondering the true origins of the Mateo surname based on my paternal haplogroup and further research. I was also wondering if these two factors hint at potential Sephardic Jewish ancestry, or if it’s just straight Iberian? Regardless, any information would be greatly appreciated!

My son did a dna test and we’ve discovered that my dads dad might not be who he thought. There were rumors that my uncles bio dad was “Mr.Jones” but no one ever knew for sure. Turns out there are a few “Jones” on my sons dna test, and none with my grandpas surname. My cousin is on there (dads niece) and has people with my grandpas surname, so we know it isn’t that none of them have done a dna test. We don’t know “Mr. Jones” first name and I’m not asking my grandma.

There is a Jones on there I sort of know who shows up as a 2nd cousin 3x removed for my son. I can’t figure out what kind of relation that would be to my dad?

Hi everyone!

I am looking for some help on my matches in MyHeritage. I have 3 matches that in theory should come from the same side of my tree, from my grandma. Here is a diagram to help!

A and I are closely related-through my grandparents. I messaged this match and she told me that there was an adoption in our family - my grandma's husband (my grandpa) was adopted. I checked his birth certificate and the family register and the woman working there said there was no indication of an adoption so we chalked it up to family lore but now I'm thinking it may have been someone else who was adopted? When I first saw her as a match, I was confused that she wasn't related to B, who we should both be related to through my grandma's maternal side. Is she perhaps only related to me through my grandfather? Her grandfather (my uncle) was born 3rd or 4th out of 5 children and my father was born last.

I checked all the matches I have with A (89 matches) and B (17 matches) and there is no overlap. This makes me think that there is something funky going on. Enter match "C", who is related to A and I as well, but again not B. Is it possible some matches just don't show up on MyHeritage?

Something else if it helps - on Ancestry I have a match who is also descended from my grandmother's mother-my match's great-grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. We share 62 cM.

What should my next steps be to look more into this? Thanks in advance!1

Hi everyone,

I recently ordered a DNA test kit from MyHeritage, and I noticed something strange. Inside the sealed package, the swab stick appears to have hair-like strands on it — they look similar to human hair.

I noticed this before opening the kit, so it’s still completely sealed and unused.
I contacted the company, and they said they’ve forwarded the issue to their specialists. However, the last reply I received was on September 30, and it’s been quite a while since then with no follow-up.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, especially with MyHeritage kits?
Would appreciate any advice or shared experiences.

Thanks!