Before You Give That DNA Test for the Holidays

A DNA test is not a pair of socks.

A DNA test is not some coffee table book that will sit unopened gathering dust until your children clean out your house and donate it or throw it away.

Once taken and submitted for analysis, a DNA test has the potential to unlock some details about your family’s past and start a lifelong trek of wonderful discovery. For those with little interest, it may be a fifteen minute diversion.

Then there are other situations.

A DNA test also has the potential to create extreme family distress and discord if it turns out that “close” family members are not “family” after all or that there are some “close” family members that no one ever knew about. DNA test results can sometimes bring out details that living family members thought would never be discovered or that no one ever knew about. It’s possible you may have new family members for the next holiday season or awkward conversations with others.

Just something to think about.