Broken Tree: How DNA Exposed a Family's Secrets

In an effort to discover the truth about his family, the author uses DNA testing and interviews to learn the real story behind his paternity and that of his eight brothers and sisters. What the DNA reveals, and how the author and siblings handle it, serves as a lesson to anyone undertaking ancestry research.

Format: Hardback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 24 November 2019
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

All families have stories, and all families have secrets. Some stories can be hidden forever, while others come out over time or suddenly through revelation. With the advent of easy-to-obtain and cheap DNA kits, more and more people are stumbling across biological secrets they never suspected, sometimes with happy outcomes, but sometimes with shocking results. In this book, the author provides a real-life example of the shocking revelations and aftermath of DNA investigation. Growing up as one of nine children, Stephen Anderson suspected from a young age that something was amiss. A chance accident and a small crack in the history of his family broke open, and more would come to be revealed as the author set out on a journey to find answers to his questions. Any reader wondering what a DNA test might reveal will find here one extreme example of family secrets gone awry. As each member learns more about their own identity, new family members pop up, fade out, or pass away before relationships can be established or even revealed. More and more people are undergoing DNA tests and seeking to find long-lost relatives through ancestry searches. What they find might upturn all their shared assumptions about family, identity, belonging, and history. Join Stephen as he uncovers his own family's secrets, the impact they've had on his life and his family's, and what they are all doing now to heal fresh wounds.

Weight: 350g
Dimension: 218 x 150 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538127421