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Home DNA test leads to family reunion, but experts still urge caution

For generations, photo albums shared family stories, but a mail-order DNA test could potentially reveal more.

Posted Updated

By
Monica Laliberte
, WRAL consumer reporter

For generations, photo albums shared family stories as a way of preserving a family's genealogy, but mail-order DNA tests could potentially reveal more.

The process is simple: collect saliva, usually by spitting into a tube or swabbing a cheek, then send the sample off in a sterile package.

“On all my medical records, I’ve always put ‘adopted,’ because I have no medical history,” said Leigh Owens, wife of WRAL News anchor Gerald Owens.

Owens went to Ancestry.com, one of many DNA companies, in an attempt to connect with her birth parents to get family health information.

The results of her test arrived within a few weeks.

“It gives you your ethnicity, your DNA matches and circles if people created family trees,” she said. “I have 868 fourth cousins.”

Dr. Jon Marks, who teaches genetics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that while DNA tests can make it much easier for adoptees to find family, he cautions that people shouldn’t read too much into their results.

“The numbers are usually reliable if they’re above 10 percent to 15 percent, but any number beneath that is probably within the range of error, so it’s probably equivalent to zero, statistically,” he said.

Marks is concerned about kits that claim to reveal whether a person is susceptible to specific genetic diseases, saying users need a professional to put the information into context.

The Federal Trade Commission also warns about privacy when using home DNA tests. Companies will hold on to the samples, some using them for research, unless a person opts out.

Most companies say they don’t share information with medical providers, insurance companies or employers, but people are encouraged to read the policies before sending a sample to the company. People should also go through the settings of their online account and select the information they’re willing to share with the company and their connections.

“It’s a little unnerving, because you’re sending in your DNA. You have to be prepared for whatever you get back,” Owens said.

Owens noted a friend who, at age 70, was curious about his ancestry. His DNA test revealed he had a child.

“He had no idea that he had a daughter and she’s 52. He was 18 when she was conceived on prom night,” Owens said.

Owens’ own test also revealed a bombshell discovery that sparked an emotional reunion.

When she received her results in the mail just weeks after taking the home DNA test, there were two people at the top of her list.

The first came up as a parent/child connection with extremely high confidence.

“It went from just being concerned about medical issues to ‘Wow’ within 20 minutes of getting my results. I could actually email this woman who could be my birth parent,” Leigh Owens said.

Owens, who was adopted at birth, sent an email, saying: “I don’t know how receptive you are to corresponding with me, but I want you to know I am so thankful to the two of you for choosing my parents in this adoption. I just wanted them to know that I thank you for that.”

The woman responded to Owens almost immediately, questioning how she knew she was her daughter.

After answering some more questions, the woman revealed she was, in fact, Owens’ birth mother, but the surprises did not end there.

“The next closest family member in that one category was my siste (and) she had been looking for me for over 20 years,” Owens said. “She had various agencies who had looked for me, well over two decades, and could not find me, and then we do a $79 DNA test and there you go.”

Owens exchanged photos with the two women in September.

“It was a 'Wow!' moment," Owens said. "I finally saw somebody who looked like me.”

In November, Owens, her sister and their birth mother were reunited at the airport.

“It was completely overwhelming. Tears, smiles for all of us,” Owens said. “It was amazing. It was something that, I guess, I never thought would happen because that’s not where I started. That was not my goal, but what an awesome beginning.”

Owens was encouraged by her adoptive parents to go through with the reunion, where she learned that she, her sister and her birth mother had all chosen careers in the science fields.

Owens still hopes to eventually connect with her birth father.

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