The drama and trauma of 23andMe
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How did Hannah find her long-lost father without a DNA test?
Hey, it's Hannah. My question is... How do you find a lost relative?
That definitely got my antenna up, so we gave her a call. It turns out she was looking for her dad. I always knew my dad was out there somewhere. When she first reached out to us, she'd never met him.
So I was raised by my mom. She was a single mom. It was pretty much just us two for a lot of my childhood. For a while, we lived with my grandparents, my aunt, uncle, and a couple of cousins. I knew my dad was out there somewhere, but I never really gave too much thought about it because I did have like a pretty full just like home life, I guess.
What did you know about your dad growing up? Did you know him at all?
I only have like one memory of him, honestly. I think I was six and I was riding my bicycle outside and he drove down the street and I didn't know who he was. And he said, hey, Hannah. My mom was like, that's your dad. Come inside. And that was kind of the first time she kind of told me the story. She kind of just explained it to me that, you know, they were young when they had me and they had a lot of differences. And she just... Thought she was making the right decision to kind of do it on her own. But she never intended for it to be like a permanent thing that I would never know him.
How did you feel about that growing up? I mean, knowing that you had your dad out there, but not really having that relationship with him.
It always kind of felt like a mystery. And I think it's kind of a funny feeling to feel like there's this mystery about yourself. Like, I don't quite look like my mom's side of the family. I have curly hair. I have, like, different color eyes. So I was kind of just wondered, like, who do I really look like if I don't look like my mom's family? I knew my dad is from the Dominican Republic. So I always, like, you know, just growing up in New York City, such a vibrant culture here. And I'm like... Wow. I wonder, like, I just have questions like, where in DR is my family from? Just questions about that. And the other thing I knew is that I had two half-brothers from my dad. So just wondering, like, wow, what are my brothers like? What it would be like to have siblings?
Or just, yeah, wondering about them. When you were growing up, did you look for your dad at all? Yeah. So, you know, I came of age along with social media, I guess. So once Facebook came out, that was probably one of the first things I did was like, I'm going to look up my dad's name. There's a lot of people with his name. So that didn't really take me anywhere.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Hannah find her long-lost father without a DNA test?
1:53–9:09
2
What are common feelings and challenges when reconnecting with a lost parent?
9:09–14:32
3
How can you approach new family members respectfully after finding them?
14:32–19:37
4
What is the history and impact of at-home DNA testing companies like 23andMe?
19:37–24:00
5
How much genetic information about Americans is already in DNA databases?
24:00–27:03
6
Why did 23andMe file for bankruptcy despite its popularity?
27:03–28:28
7
What happens to your DNA data after 23andMe's bankruptcy?
28:28–32:58