The humans that are alive today are lucky enough to see how incredibly far technology has come, especially when it comes to tracing back your family history. Thanks to advances in technology and a deeper understanding of DNA, people are able to truly find out where their family comes from. For most people, the results they receive are exactly what they were expecting. But for others, well, just keep reading the story because sometimes DNA tests cause a whole bunch of family drama.Also like others, he was expecting to hear the same thing that he had been hearing his entire life. And in this Reddit user’s life, he had been told that he was Italian for as long as he can remember.
He was taught to live, breathe, and think Italian. “I was raised in a big Italian family – Christmas dinner meant cannolis, pasta, and lots of red wine,” TheAtomicPlayboy explained. “In college, I even majored in Italian Studies, learned the language, and spent a summer in Desenzano del Garda “connecting with my roots.” So you see, being Italian was extremely important to the Reddit user and his family.
Even though he knew what the results were going to be, he decided to amuse his wife and take the test anyway. After all, it was a present from her.
“I spit in the plastic tube, and sent it in to back to the lab to be analyzed (fully expecting that she had just wasted $99 because, duh, Italian). The lab results came back unceremoniously today, with an email confirmation “A world of DNA discovery is waiting.” The Reddit user was about to find out how much discovery really was waiting for him.
But, boy, was he wrong! A few months prior, his grandfather also took a DNA test, which he was proud to boast, proved that he was 93.7% Italian. As it turns out, they have a lot less in common than they had once believed.
TheAtomicPlayoboy’s results showed him that he wasn’t Italian, at all, actually. Instead, the results said that he was Jewish! Whoa, someone definitely had a bit of explaining to do.
“He admitted that the rest of the family had teased him and called him a “bastard” growing up because all the other men in the family had straight black hair and he has tight, curly hair. He also told me that he discovered his mom had an affair with a Jewish man while married to my grandpa but he never believed it was really true,” he explained on Reddit.
“Now we’re trying to decide how to confront his mom (my grandma), and if we should share the news with the rest of the family. He’s taking it a lot harder than me. Understandably, he wants to know who his real father might be,” the Reddit user explained.
And people ate it right up. Some people told similar DNA testing stories. Others welcomed him to being Jewish! It may have come as a complete surprise, but the test provided answers to questions that the TheAtomicPlayboy didn’t even know that he had.
“Which meant the man I thought was my father, wasn’t. So I’m now searching for who he is. At 33 years old, it sucks but I’m glad to know now before I have kids and hope I can learn something about my new found heritage to pass along to them.” Another person wrote: “I work at AncestryDNA. This actually happens all the time.”
