At-home DNA ancestry kits are nowadays being advertised everywhere, playing on people’s natural curiosity about themselves while promising closer connections with family as they learn of their shared connections. That knowledge can quite easily turn out to be a curse, though, as skeletons in the closet can emerge to tear families apart. Some secrets are kept secret for a good reason.
The following story shared on the subreddit TIFU is a perfect paradigm of why gifting DNA kits to your family is probably a terrible idea. I mean, 99 percent of the time the most groundbreaking thing you are likely to find out is some fascinating Lithuanian heritage, but what if you were to discover something that you weren’t supposed to find out accidentally? There are a time and a place for those inconvenient truths, and it's certainly not around the family Christmas tree!
This time, there was a happy ending for the family. But let that be a warning as to what could happen! By all means, you can treat yourself to a DNA kit and enjoy exploring your ancestry and heritage. But perhaps stick to books and socks for the fam?
Here is how people reacted to the cautionary tale, some shared stories of their own:
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