DNA tracing sites can reveal dark family secrets — as well as your genetic background - ABC News

Now that he was in his 40s, Mark* didn't think too much could still shock him to the core — until a recent Facebook message pinged through.

"I think I'm your mum," it read.

"I stopped posting holiday snaps and removed all posts," he says.

It's one of two major DNA and family tree platforms in Australia — the other being 23andMe (named after our 23 pairs of chromosomes,) which has 12 million global users and launched in Australia in 2013. .

"I wasn't at all prepared for how open it'd be" he told the ABC. "Shit got real, real quick.".

"There's been a big increase during lockdown in people coming to the site from Australia and the amount of time they spend on it," says Brad Argent, director of international programming at Ancestry.

"I said I didn't think that was the appropriate first time to meet.".

"I think they should de-identify that information until you're ready," he says.

"I think she was embarrassed because he was an American soldier and she was married at the time.

"I was really heartbroken — even though I didn't know him, I felt I was grieving for him.

He didn't know I existed and his family said he'd always wanted a daughter," she says.

"I was a secret from the past, a skeleton in the closet," he says.

"I don't think he knows I exist," Mark says.

"I haven't told her I'm gay," he says.

"They treat DNA matching as a straightforward scientific event," says Fiona Cameron from The Benevolent Society's Post Adoption Resource Centre.

She says that contacting people on these sorts of platforms is a "big risk" because "they suddenly become gatekeeper to the relationships".

"Everyone gets excited but then the adoptee says, this is too much for me, I just wanted to know my medical history," she says.

"Meanwhile, the adoptee will wait patiently," she adds — something these platforms bypass altogether.

"Mothers were told: don't tell anyone, not even new partners — this is your shame to bear," Fiona says.

Fiona is dubious about the platforms taking responsibility: "I don't think any database can offer that level of support," she says.

But Damon says that alone wouldn't resolve all his concerns.

Birth fathers aren't named on 95 per cent of these birth certificates, Damon says, and sometimes old records are falsified

"So DNA platforms give these adoptees another viable avenue to search and give them some hope," he says

But Fiona says it would be difficult for companies to employ people "with enough knowledge to cover all the communities they serve"

For Fiona, the bottom line about DNA tracing platforms is clear

"People today talk about contacting relatives as if it's end point," she says