'DNA test shows my grandad might've been accidentally switched at birth'

18 June 2023 , 06:00

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He bought the DNA kit as a Father's Day gift (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A man has uncovered a 107-year-old 'secret' about his grandad after buying his dad a DNA test for Father's Day. He explained how he bought the at-home testing kit for fun - thinking they'd learn about their ancestors' movement from 1000-plus years ago.

But when his results came back, they hit a bit too close to home. Taking to Reddit, the son said: "We did a DNA test for my dad for Father’s Day. To our surprise - we thought we were mostly of Italian descent - we found out my dad is about 50 per cent Irish. [He was also] linked to an almost 100 per cent Irish first cousin."

Trying to make sense of the results, the family are now convinced there might have been an accidental switch at birth. "We now believe that [my grandad's] accidental swap was the results of poor accountability in hospital nurseries in 1916 New York," he added.

He contacted the other family to tell them what he found out (stock photo) (Getty)

After learning the truth, the family claim they got in touch with a family who the grandad matched with on the DNA site to tell them what they discovered.

"It seems that the other family had a birth at the same hospital," he added. "The family said they had several children that died at a young age.

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"Both families are amazed. We are 100 per cent sure [there was] no adoption and no visits from the milkman either.

"We're working on getting the actual birth certificate and death certificate from Brooklyn, New York."

Commenting on his post, one user said: "A much more common scenario than babies being accidentally switched at birth is that someone's birth parents simply aren't who records reflected them to be.

"An adoption might have been involved, or a mother may not have been married to the child's biological father.

"I'd encourage you to carefully investigate your father's DNA matches to see what connections you can find to other known relatives, and work your way from there.

"You can try a clustering technique such as the 'Leeds method' to group his relatives together."

Another user added : "If it was a switch, and it sounds like the other family had a lot of lost babies/children, then I have seen stories that seems to be a purposeful switch so that the family could have a healthy child."

Paige Freshwater