A Father's Day Story "Who Am I" Christian's Discovery

Since he was eleven years old, Christian had been searching for his father. His whole life, he'd been told by his mother that his father was a cabinet maker named Carl, and that she would introduce them, "one day," but she always had a reason why they couldn't meet yet. For years, he rode his bike up and down the street, imagining what his life would be like when they finally met.

When Christian was sixteen, he took matters into his own hands. He spoke with every shop owner on the street he'd been told the store was. Eventually, one remembered Carl, who had since moved about two hours away, and happened to have his business card.

Over the next month and a half, Christian saved every dime he could working at the local pizza parlor. He was saving for the trip, and for a paternity test that he hoped Carl would be willing to take. After sixteen years, he had to be sure. When he finally went to meet Carl, they were both overjoyed. Carl was thrilled that he could be Christian's father.

Unfortunately, the test was negative. Christian was crushed. He felt that he had been lied to his entire life. After confronting his mother, she came up with another possibility. This would be the second in the list of people Christian would eventually call his "suspects." The second suspect's story would have an even more shocking ending. Soon after finally agreeing to take the paternity test, the man was murdered in his driveway, the victim of a jealous lover in a love triangle. Christian saw the breaking news report on television, and raced to the crime scene to try and get some of the blood for a DNA test, but was unsuccessful. A few years later, the man's daughter finally agreed to take a DNA test to confirm whether or not Christian was her father's son, signing away all rights to any inheritance he might be entitled to, as an inducement, but she never took the test.

A third "suspect," living an ocean away in Hawaii, also turned out to be a letdown, and Christian was giving up hope. Over the next ten years, he would take every consumer DNA test on the market, without any luck. He did his own research, looking through birth records and scouring the internet for clues. He got married and had two kids. But the need to know who his father was, what his heritage was, never disappeared.

In 2017, three months before he turned 30, Christian decided to take a yDNA test, which explores the paternal line. The yDNA test is only available as a consumer test through Houston-based FamilyTreeDNA. When he logged into his FamilyTreeDNA account which had been set up when he took the FamilyFinder autosomal test, he was surprised to find a new match. A close match. An uncle.

When Christian reached out, the man had no idea how they could be related. He told Christian to talk to his sister, the family historian. Upon hearing the story, the woman told Christian that the person he needed to speak with was her mother. She would be able to explain.

The woman, now in her 70s, revealed that she had a baby when she was 17. She hadn't wanted to, but after several months, her parents finally forced her to give her infant son up for adoption. She never saw him again, and had no idea what had happened to him. Christian knew that this woman must be his grandmother, and the adopted son must be his

father. He found out the child's birth date, checked his records for any matches, and found that he'd had the answer all along.

Christian's mother had an ex-fiancé, Joe, a man she insisted couldn't be his father because the timing was wrong, who had the same birth date, and had been adopted as a baby. She couldn't believe it, and was overjoyed at the thought that he was Christian's father.

Christian sent Joe's adopted father an email, and then went away for a week with his family for their annual vacation. When he got back home, he waited for the call. Eventually, it came. He picked up the phone, and a man said, "Hey Christian, I guess I'm your dad."

This year, thanks to FamilyTreeDNA, the Houston-based pioneers in consumer DNA testing, Christian will celebrate his very first Father's Day with his dad.

Start your journey of discovery and unlock your origins today by visiting FamilytreeDNA .