DNA testing.

What a beautiful guitar!

Tom, you would just need double beer goggles. Unless there is a horse kick in the nether regions as a young aspiring rider you haven't shared with us.

Genghis Khan rode horses.

"Since a 2003 study found evidence that Genghis Khan's DNA is present in about 16 million men alive today, the Mongolian ruler's genetic prowess has stood as an unparalleled accomplishment."

But wait, can it be true? Can about 1 in 200 men in the world (ca 2003) be descendants of the great Khan?

https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/genealogy/descendants-of-genghis-khan.htm

I am adopted.
Found out who my bio parents are from Ancestry and that I have three full younger siblings.
None of them are on Ancestry. A gracious biocousin who is a dna match helped me figure it out.
My bio parents rudely declined contact with me, using belittling and demeaning language. I had requested contact in a respectful email and told them I would respect their wishes. I am thankful they confirmed it was them, though.
Still, out of respect for their “secret”, which they never told anyone about, I won’t contact my siblings, though I can see them on Fbook and would love to meet them. I look more like my one sister than my other sister and brother do!!
Been very self controlled about that for two years now but at some point, seeing as how we are all middle aged, I think they can handle it. But I don’t wanna be that guy that possibly throws a family into upheaval.
PS- my moms sister has come up as a match for me. I wonder if she is talking to bio mom about it or got wind of it somehow tested herself to verify.
PPS-my biouncle was a semi-pro bassist and my dad plays guitar!!!

GAD said:

What a beautiful guitar!

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Agreed, I thought the same the first time I saw footage of him playing it. Sounds even better!

lungimsam said:

I am adopted.
Found out who my bio parents are from Ancestry and that I have three full younger siblings.
None of them are on Ancestry. A gracious biocousin who is a dna match helped me figure it out.
My bio parents rudely declined contact with me, using belittling and demeaning language. I had requested contact in a respectful email and told them I would respect their wishes. I am thankful they confirmed it was them, though.
Still, out of respect for their “secret”, which they never told anyone about, I won’t contact my siblings, though I can see them on Fbook and would love to meet them. I look more like my one sister than my other sister and brother do!!
Been very self controlled about that for two years now but at some point, seeing as how we are all middle aged, I think they can handle it. But I don’t wanna be that guy that possibly throws a family into upheaval.
PS- my moms sister has come up as a match for me. I wonder if she is talking to bio mom about it or got wind of it somehow tested herself to verify.
PPS-my biouncle was a semi-pro bassist and my dad plays guitar!!!

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Hey friend. My ex-step mom... (a bit of a misnomer because she married my dad when I was in my mid 20's) is only 3 or 4 years older than me, is a nice lady. We're still in touch even though my evil dad died almost 10 years ago. She's adopted and my dad (who worked for a think tank, RAND corporation for many years) did some things to help her find her birth parents and siblings. It was a mixed bag. Parents, not so happy. Siblings way more accepting. She knew it was a crap shoot, but mostly she got some idea why and also some genetic history she didn't have before. So now she' okay with what happened. I can sorta understand the wanting to know the genetic history. Having had abusive genetic parents (both) and knowing how horrible they both were, I have a different view of adoptive parents. Of course, not all adoptive parents are wonderful, either. It's a mixed bag. That music is in the family is a cool link!!

On a strange and weird family thing, our niece Lori and husband had one kid, then couldn't have another. Too many losses and awful things. So they went for in vitro fertilization. Didn't use her eggs (couldn't) or his sperm (couldn't) and they implanted two fertilized eggs thinking hopefully one would take. They BOTH did!! The twin boys are adorable. Look nothing like each other and they're not related to each other in any way. So they're not related to their dad or mom or related to each other. Such a weird story, but they're both ADORABLE and they are loved so much by everyone in the family. You couldn't ask for two more amazing kids. But i wonder what happens when they start to wonder about their genetic history. I'm related to my whole family, and it's not brought me a whole lot of joy either way.

Three full bio siblings? Yeah.... I'd wanna know too. Sending my best.....

"Care to elaborate? If not, that's fine also!"

I did the ancestry thing and part of the report is identifying people who have a strong likelihood of being a relative. I reached out to several who were probably first cousins and told them my birth name and date/location of birth, etc. One wrote back and said he had a cousin who had the last name and if I wanted, he'd write to her and see if she wanted to respond. She did and we wrote back and forth filling out some history. Then she wrote and said, "you'd better be sitting down while you read this". She was my mother. She'd long prayed I had lived a good life, always sad that she hadn't known. We write regularly and I met her for a few hours. Plans were in the works to go out to California to visit (I'd even bought the tickets) when COVID hit. They just moved to Tennessee, so a road trip is happening soon. My brother lives a couple hours away so we keep in touch and see each other occasionally, and I've spoken to my sister a few times and we can't wait to meet in person. (my mother always wrote my name on her calendar on my birthday, but nobody knew what it was all about... My siblings say she has been much more at peace since finding me.

Through her, I also found out my father was alive and lives here in Connecticut (I had been told he died in the Korean War). I also wrote to him, not saying I was his child, but basically that I was adopted and was led to believe we were related. I never got a response, but that's what I'd expect from a guy who's main offer to take care of me, when he found out my mother was pregnant, was to give my mother an envelope of cash to "get rid of the problem".

gibsonjunkie said:

"Care to elaborate? If not, that's fine also!"

I did the ancestry thing and part of the report is identifying people who have a strong likelihood of being a relative. I reached out to several who were probably first cousins and told them my birth name and date/location of birth, etc. One wrote back and said he had a cousin who had the last name and if I wanted, he'd write to her and see if she wanted to respond. She did and we wrote back and forth filling out some history. Then she wrote and said, "you'd better be sitting down while you read this". She was my mother. She'd long prayed I had lived a good life, always sad that she hadn't known. We write regularly and I met her for a few hours. Plans were in the works to go out to California to visit (I'd even bought the tickets) when COVID hit. They just moved to Tennessee, so a road trip is happening soon. My brother lives a couple hours away so we keep in touch and see each other occasionally, and I've spoken to my sister a few times and we don't wait to meet in person. (she always wrote my name on her calendar on my birthday, but nobody knew what it was all about... My siblings say she has been much more at peace since finding me.

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Thanks

Very interesting Thread going here. Hits way to close to home. I really appreciate those of you for being willing to share your personal stories.

What an interesting subject!

Talk about opening a Pandora's Box... I can't speak for anyone else, but I come from a really small family and that's a boat I don't want to have rocked. I certainly understand why some of you have gone through this, especially those of you who didn't known your close relatives. Maybe I'm just too old to find out any secrets that my progenitors had.

Just a view from the other side.

I grew up in a great family, as did my wife. Lucky. Both of my parents are gone but my only and older brother lives two streets away. We get along great.

After biologically having my oldest son, with some medical help, we decided to adopt. In 1996 we brought home a 2 1/2 year old boy from Lithuania. Took him from an orphanage where it was difficult to not take all of the children there home. All beautiful and all hoping for a family. Very emotional. But that is another story. Bottom line is he is now 27, engaged, and doing well. Clearly had a slow start in school, but made up for it with hard work and a lot of support from us - graduated from college, etc.

We have a letter from his birth mother, written in 1993 when he was born, and we know the story of why she gave him up. But although we have asked, he has no interest in returning to Lithuania and/or finding his birth family. I imagine it would be difficult as it is another country, but it is a moot point. Whether we should or not, we feel sort of proud that he feels he has one family, and it is us. There is much more to being a parent than giving birth.

walrus

This is a veer that went deeper than expected.

walrus said:

There is much more to being a parent than giving birth.

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Ain’t that the truth! I have a great family who adopted me. (BTW, Adoptive Dad’s side is from Lithuania). Haha!

They are the only family I have ever known.
They are my family, not my bio relatives.
I am fine with the bioparents wanting no contact.
I mainly wanted to find out who my bio relatives were just so I could know what kinda people they are.

@davismanLV,
Yeah. Genetics doesn’t always mean good parenting. I am sorry for what you went through but happy that your family now sounds so healed!! God bless you and your family!!

A friend of mine, when he heard about my bio parents’ callous response, told me not to be upset and told me to be happy I had loving parents of any kind because he did not have a loving family at all.

I was 65 before I even thought about it. I also grew up knowing a pair of loving parents. In fact, my mother (adoptive) encouraged me to look but I wasn't interested. Later I figured they must be dead by now, but that I might have siblings. That was what started my search. It was amazing that my mother was still alive. In my case, she really got closure which is wonderful. It was also good from a health standpoint because for years my liver tested really high for bilirubin and they couldn't find the cause. Turns out there is a disease called Gilbert's Disease that is in our family and causes it. That was good to know.

There is so much, that I'm just not willing to share here, except for one fairly recent development.
My son and a group of close friends have a weekend getaway an hour's journey up North of me, that they call "The Shack". It's an old homestead basically in the middle of nowhere, and is quite nice, with lots of acreage. I've been starting to go up there more often lately.
Turns out, the guy living in a cabin on the property right next door, is my half brother. He's a couple years younger.
I have yet to meet him. I imagine it will happen one of these days. My son has told him of me. He is also related to my son's best friends.
How weird is that!?

Oh, and one more tidbit. My bio-father (and also illegitimate half brother above), who had refused to ever acknowledge me, lived in town, right next door to my brother-in-law, up until his death a few years ago.

My mother-in-law will be 90 next thursday - her husband died two years ago - they have two girls - my wife and her sister. PLUS - there is another child - a baby boy who came to this world @ 16 12 52 - and was adopted to USA @ 14 01 54

We know of this because of for certain purposes over here we need some certificates where some of these things pop up. Problem is that my mother-in-law has never ever spoken about this - and who knows if she ever will before she dies.

So my wife and her sister have a big brother somewhere - and they have been aware of it ever since they were teenagers.

Anybody in LTG have birthday @ 16th december 1952 ?

Wow, I don't know whether I want a DNA test or not...

rampside said:

Very interesting Thread going here. Hits way to close to home. I really appreciate those of you for being willing to share your personal stories.

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Terry, just noted a new avatar. You haven't shaved since the start of the pandemic, have you?

@rampside, Terry, I noticed the new photo as well. I like your style!!