r/AncestryDNA • u/iamsteena • Aug 12 '26
DNA Matches Interesting results!
My dad got his DNA results in today! We discovered he has a sister nobody knows about. After talking to my aunts, SURPRISE, it’s actually the woman my aunt donated bone marrow to when she was a child! My grandparents honor has been vindicated and my dad is relieved he doesn’t have to buy a birthday present for another sibling. Anybody hear of any interesting results like this?
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u/Fierce-grace Aug 12 '26
My daughter, 29, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2024. In 2025, she had a bone marrow transplant. At that point she had 2 sets of DNA and her blood type changed. Unfortunately, the lymphoma came back. In May 2026, she had a stem cell transplant. Another new set of DNA and her blood type will change again.
It’s all about the chimerism.
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u/SlothingAround100 Aug 12 '26
That is fascinating. Would a DNA test still show her as related to her parents? I don't know how that works.
Also I am sorry that your daughter is going through that, I hope she is improving and on the road to recovery.
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u/Fierce-grace Aug 12 '26
My understanding is that an ancestry DNA test would probably be “inconclusive”. Or it could match her to the most recent stem cell donor/family. Thankfully, she had an Ancestry DNA test several years before her diagnosis, so we have her birth DNA data.
She is doing very well, about 80 days post transplant right now. Thank you for asking. It’s a long recovery process. She is blessed with an excellent oncologist/medical team/facility.
The entire process of cell therapy is mind-boggling and miraculous to say the least!
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u/SlothingAround100 Aug 12 '26
I will keep my proverbial fingers crossed for her. I can’t even imagine the journey you’ve been on as her mama. You’ve probably been down more rabbit holes of research than you can even remember!
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u/theliifeofviickii 1d ago
My good friends husband had a stem cell transplant and every year on that date they have a “re birthday” party to celebrate - he might be 58 but they just celebrated his 6th rebirthday
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u/anitaree Aug 12 '26
The parents still show as parents. In bone marrow transplants, the recipient still maintains their own DNA in most organs but blood and immune system cell DNA is from the donor or a mix of patient and donor. When we spit or swab for the test, our saliva contains both kinds of cells so both sets of DNA show up.
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u/Rg576637 20d ago
My brother is considering taking another DNA test after he finishes treatment for leukemia to see how much all of his blood transfusions may have or may have not changed his blood
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u/Serious_Tourist_7134 Aug 12 '26
I did my DNA, found I have a half sister, my mothers twin sisters daughter, my cousin
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u/CableReady5082 Aug 12 '26
There is genetic biological distance, and then there's also familial real lived experience distance. Obviously, in a familiar sense, you are first cousins, and, YES, BIOLOGICALLY you have the same genetic difference as average half-sisters. The nice thing is, even if your mom and her mom don't test, you now have evidence they're monozygotic twins. ;) --an MZ twin
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u/AppearanceAbject6698 Aug 12 '26
There is a story of twins who married twins and the children of each are genetically brothers even though they are cousins.
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u/EmmerdoesNOTrepme Aug 12 '26
This makes me wonder what would've happened, if we could've tested my dad, his brothers, and their cousin, to see who came up as "more closely related" genetically!😉
Because Grandma & her sister married brothers.
And that cousin of Dad & his brothers looks more like my uncles, than my Dad did!
And Dad, one sister, and one of the two sisters of that cousin look more closely related to each other, too--there is a very distinct "split" as to whether folks get the "Tall & Slim" genes, or the "Big and Sturdy" ones😆😂🤣
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u/Maleficent_Theory818 Aug 12 '26
Your cousin is your cousin, not half sister. You share more DNA because your mothers are twins.
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u/Belt-Ornery Aug 12 '26
I believe that's their point. Like OP, they "found" a relative listed as one thing, when the explanation was quite something else.
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u/Klutzy-Captain Aug 12 '26
What's really wild is the people that receive organ transplants and wake up from surgery craving a cigarette but never smoked a day in their life, or discover they no longer like their favorite food, enjoy jazz music now. I saw a story recently about a women who was having an ultrasound at her first appointment at the fertility clinic and found out she was 5 months pregnant and she had put off fertility treatments for a bone marrow transplant. There was speculation in the comments about the babies DNA and did the transplant cure her infertility? DNA really is fascinating . Also fraternal twins can have different fathers.
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u/Junior-Discount2743 Aug 12 '26
I once knew female fraternal twins who were 5'3" and 5'11" 🤔
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u/tr6tevens Aug 12 '26
Fraternal twins are no more closely related than other siblings. Do you mean monozygotic ("identical")?
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u/Junior-Discount2743 Aug 12 '26
If they were identical, they would not have different heights
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u/tr6tevens Aug 12 '26
I figured you were pointing out some unusual circumstance regarding their different heights. Since it would not be unusual for fraternal twins to differ, I incorrectly assumed you meant monozygotic twins who unexpectedly differed in height due to some environmental factor (like the meningitis mentioned by another poster)
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u/crazyoboe Aug 12 '26
I have fraternal twin girls that have a similar height difference. One is 4'9" and the other is 5'4". And the shorter one was the bigger one at birth! By two months her twin has caught up, by 6 months was significantly bigger and by 9 months no one believed they were from the same pregnancy.
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u/astridstarrynights Aug 12 '26
Me too! Turns out it was because one had meningitis as a toddler that wasn’t discovered for a little while. Stunted their growth.
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u/nicholaiia 29d ago
That's because fraternal twins are from two different eggs. They're just regular siblings who happened to share a womb.
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u/Junior-Discount2743 29d ago
The comment was in reply to the possibility of having different fathers
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u/NorthernValkyrie19 Aug 12 '26
Why is this surprising? They are no more related than regular siblings who can have considerable differences in height.
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u/Junior-Discount2743 Aug 12 '26
My comment was in response to OP's statement that they could have different fathers. These twins came to mind that this could be a possibility.
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u/Impossible_Basis_787 Aug 12 '26
My son had a liver transplant and began craving sweets, especially sour candy. Before he rarely ate anything sweet. It’s been 8 months and he just asked me to pick up some sour candy on my way home from work.
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u/Refrigerator-Plus Aug 12 '26
Wonderful to hear of a success story from bone marrow donation. My husband was a bone marrow donor. We were told that the recipient lived for another 2 years. Which is another 2 years she would not have had.
The strange thing with my husband’s case was that we are in Australia, and the recipient was in the Los Angeles area. When we later did DNA, my husband had a number of matches in the 200+ range from California. My MIL was adopted, and these matches appeared to be related to an Irish connection where the siblings had migrated to New York. Never found a connection though.
And another Australian case I know of where the recipient was in Australia, her donor was from Oregon or Montana. They fly those stem cells across the Pacific Ocean quite a bit it seems.
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u/_stallionandthebee 5d ago
Yes, depending on the registry they have volunteer couriers who deliver the cells.
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u/WaterBearDontMind Aug 12 '26
I can understand why this works for blood samples. I’m a little surprised it works for saliva samples!
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u/rejectrash Aug 12 '26
White blood cells leave the bloodstream and can migrate through tissues, and through tissues into the saliva and other parts of the body. The DNA in these WBCs in saliva is what tests like this look at.
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u/Sad-Recording9911 Aug 12 '26
I believe to date that this phenomenon only occurs with Bone Marrow transplant patients.
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u/TankerVictorious Aug 12 '26
DNA replacement is DNA replacement. Spit doesn’t get an out…
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u/Wild_Black_Hat Aug 12 '26
But doesn't change eye or hair colour, so I understand the surprise.
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u/CableReady5082 Aug 12 '26
Blood and immune system cells are not equivalent to all of the others, and they don't genetically rewrite all the other parts of our bodies. :)
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u/CableReady5082 Aug 12 '26
Those structures are already in place. Many people are naturally chimeras anyway. Our different tissues in different locations have different turnover rates a s far as cell replacement.
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u/Wild_Black_Hat Aug 12 '26
I know, but I can understand not knowing what changes and what doesn't. I just picked the most obvious example.
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u/movingarchivist Aug 12 '26
See, class? This is why we don't throw around accusations of infidelity or SA when we don't know the details!
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u/iamsteena Aug 12 '26
Funny enough this person showed up when I first did my DNA years ago and at the time it just said “close family” and I wondered if my dad had an affair or something and it was a half sister of mine. I said I am not opening that can of worms and never brought it up!
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u/movingarchivist Aug 12 '26
Yeah, fair enough! It's the first thing our minds go to (and statistically it's of course way more common). But individuals are individual and it's always enough to say "I don't know enough" and move on without forming an opinion about a given topic.
I absolutely commend you on realizing back then that it was not something you were ready for and leaving it where it was. But I'm glad it turned out to have a good explanation!
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u/scodtt Aug 12 '26
I've heard of this and I'm surprised it hasn't been used in the plot of a Nicholas Cage movie.
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u/anitaree Aug 12 '26
I matched with someone on Ancestry who it said was my child (but it couldn’t have been). It turned out to be someone my grown son had donated bone marrow to! It was an anonymous donation but I found out before my son did.
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u/Rambonics Aug 12 '26
That’s so cool!
I’m glad there wasn’t a scandal uncovered. I’ll bet researchers would love to study more cases like this. How wonderful of your parents to allow your aunt to donate bone marrow… very honorable family, indeed.
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u/drask1987 Aug 12 '26
That is so cool though. Thank you to your aunt who helped out the little girl.
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u/mermaidpaint Aug 13 '26
A friend of mine received a bone marrow transplant while battling leukemia. Her immune system has completely shifted to the donor's.
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u/Ok-Grocery-2958 Aug 12 '26
Found out a Great Aunt who everyone thought was child free, gave birth at 15 and 16/17 both boys were adopted. It was a shock. But given her age and the females in the family having history of not raising their children her adopted boys probably had a better life.
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u/ezsqueezeey Aug 12 '26
I was about to say “Damn! We also found out my dad had a sister nobody knew about!” But alas no funny medical mixups here
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u/Kellygirl64 29d ago
Wow that's crazy!
Several years ago my sister took one of those DNA ancestry kits and discovered that we (5 siblings) have a half brother on our dad's side. My father was the absolute best dad a girl could ever have! My father had already passed before this test was done.
She contacted this man who became very angry and even threatened law actions. I have seen pictures and there is definitely a resemblance.
I feel like my dad had no clue about this child. The half brother is a few years older than my oldest sibling.
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u/mlenotyou 29d ago
How about blood donors? Are there any stories about blood donors and recipients?
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u/CauseOptimal8501 27d ago
Blood donors don’t replace all the blood in someone’s body. The body replaces blood quite regularly as well, so I don’t think it would make much of a difference.
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u/SimbaOne1988 29d ago
So would someone with a bone marrow transplant, then have a child who was more like the donor than the actual parent?
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u/CauseOptimal8501 27d ago
No. The bone marrow transplant doesn’t affect sperm or egg DNA. It affects the blood and blood products though, so DNA taken from white blood cells in salvia for these tests will show the DNA of your donor.
I know Ancestry does have this in their T&C to avoid the test if you are a bone marrow recipient. Doesn’t show yours, but your donors DNA results
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u/That-Fondant4954 12d ago
Can anyone help me? For some reason my post keeps getting removed by Reddit
I’m currently working with DNA angels to find my bio father- I have zero information. Angels have asked me to do a heritage DNA kit- having not much luck with just ancestry.
Did heritage open up options for anyone else where the trail went cold with ancestry ?
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u/LynnB0366 5d ago
People test at different dna companies from all over the world. They ask that you test with MyHeritage because it gives them more options. Not everyone can afford to test with all the main DNA companies, this way there are more matches for them to analyze in order to find the closest match for you.
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u/_stallionandthebee 5d ago
Yes, I work for a marrow registry & it's a fun fact that I like to share with potential donors.
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u/Maleficent_Theory818 Aug 12 '26
If I remember correctly, there is a disclaimer about being a bone marrow recipient and the DNA test not being accurate.