Of interest

[Gadget]

Just read this article in The Guardian.

https://tinyurl.com/y9vmt6sd

Roots shrink link not working.

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The Gift, Jenny Kleeman’s six-part series on the unexpected truths revealed by at-home DNA testing, launches on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Monday 11 September.

[Biggles50]

Wow.

I literary have tears in my eyes after reading that story.

Many thank Garget for posting it.

DNA is a double edged sword, one needs to be very aware of what it might reveal.

[sandiep]

Wow.

I literary have tears in my eyes after reading that story.

Many thank Garget for posting it.

DNA is a double edged sword, one needs to be very aware of what it might reveal.

My thoughts exactly Biggles

[aspin]

Very interesting to read
Elizabeth

[Gadget]

A reminder of the programme on unexpected DNA results starts today:

The Gift, Jenny Kleeman’s six-part series on the unexpected truths revealed by at-home DNA testing, launches on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Monday 11 September.

[Gadget]

Just found it was on live at 11am.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qdm5

It will be available for 'over a year'

[coombs]

The Gift sounds interesting.

My uncle born Sep 1944 is a possible NPE. Grandads army records hint at this.

Not sure of the true percentage of overall NPE's (children born in marriage but the father was another man) or informal adoptions that took place. I say about 2 to 3%.

An NPE can also mean an illegitimate birth that is recorded as such, rather than a child born in marriage but the blood father was not the mothers husband.

[TonyV]

Thanks for the heads-up Gadget. I've only just seen it, so missed the initial broadcast, but will catch up. I am the product of an NPE and still searching. I imagine that the programme will cover this increasingly common, entirely unexpected (in my case) and discombobulating potential.

Tony 

[TonyV]

I listened to the broadcast yesterday evening. It was well worth it and I look forward to later episodes when they are released.

Biggles commented above that you need to be wary of what you might find when testing. But it isn't in the testing companies' interests to advise customers to maybe think again before going ahead with a test. The people on last night's broadcast took their tests innocently and in at least one case, quite casually, thinking that it might reveal another branch of their known family, or to see what part of the world they might be associated with, or for similar reasons. But what they got was life-changing for them personally and it also revealed fraudulent activities in some so-called birth clinics.

It was striking that an elderly man had been given the test as a Christmas present and took it quite casually, only to find out that he had a child he knew nothing about. He and his wife's reaction was along the lines of "Oh well, never mind". whereas the child, now grown up, was devastated.

I can attest to the emotional upheaval of such a discovery. It was unlike anything I had experienced before in my longish life. I have devoted a lot of time since, trying to find out more, so far without success, and not all of my family is supportive. Many people have commented in forums like this along the lines of "Your family is the one that you were brought up in. You may be genetically linked elsewhere, but that's not your real family".  I agree with that, but it doesn't stop the powerful need to find out where your genes came from.

I suspect that there will be much more of this kind of emotional stuff as the series progresses.

Tony