At-Home DNA Testing Exposes Family Secrets | NBC10 Philadelphia

this is a story that begins and ends at the ocean why did you want to do ancestry.com well I like I said I've always been interested in learning more it was a home DNA test that launched a journey that changed this Delaware woman's life so this is my my own brother so look I have 40% he has 4% hmm pretty weird right the results merely confusing at first as Anna Marie tried to understand her family's heritage he had the European I guess the Russian 31% I had zero nearly 400 miles away in Virginia more puzzling clues began to pile up as a nurse named Tina tried to make sense of her own DNA testing results and messaged the stranger back in Delaware not anybody you knew no I just said I don't know how we're coming up as first cousins can you explain this to me because none of the names make sense familiar to me what is the secret you've been keeping for 50 years I became pregnant at the age of 16 her parents were determined to keep the pregnancy hidden even sending her away to a home for unwed mothers it's it strange to come back here at all I think about it all the time about the past it all started during the summer of 1969 here just beyond the Delaware border in Ocean City Maryland this is a picture of me getting ready to go to work candy kitchen Hannah's spent that summer living with her parents at the beach a summer of new friendships including a lifeguard named Cecil and you'd see him on his lifeguard stand yes yes every day I would you know talk go and talk to him and you know he seemed interested in me so we just had a you know nice relationship but as the summer ended the friendship went the way of the ocean breeze you never got an address from him never promised to write each other wasn't that kind of a romance no Anna always told her daughter she graduated high school got married gave birth to her and then two sons and worked for the government that was Anna's life story but she knew a different truth about her daughter she was never told who her father was no so this man is the man you always thought was your father yes I always thought he was my dad from his actions in his heart I would never have known in fact Anna's husband adopted Anna Marie as a toddler and raised her as his own you always think you're who you are and who your parents are but this year the ancestry connections changed everything this is the name your mother saw that freaked her out yes and then she sent it to me and I saw his name I said she's got to find out so what did you do I took her to lunch here you know one of the restaurants by the ocean and I told her I was just numb and the truth was that Cecil was my biological father Cecil the lifeguard from Ocean City I was so frightened my whole life of what to do what was the right thing to do for her and now I feel like all I've done is hurt her what happened to him he had a heart attack and sick five he was alone and died in his house so you never got to meet him no no I found out five years after he died the truth finally so this year on the anniversary of Cecil's death Annamarie felt the pull of the ocean a need to come to the spot where her mother met her biological dad back in the summer of 1969 I just came out by myself and just sat in his lifeguard stand and just looked out over the ocean so that's how it's changed for me you know that just that connection you feel it here I do I do you you

Channel: NBC10 Philadelphia

Views: 804,488

Rating: 4.8633504 out of 5

Keywords: DNA Testing, family secrets, unknown parents, genealogy, 23andme, ancestry

Id: 0LyrWogERZs

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 26 2019