What I learned from this experience is to keep an open mind about my family. She had grown up not knowing who her biological father was, and we were able to figure out pretty quickly which one of my parent’s uncles was her father. I sent her a message with the surname that I thought she shared with my parent, and within minutes, I received a reply. This year, I figured out for sure that she was a first cousin to my parent, and a first cousin once-removed to me. I asked some of my other family members to do a DNA test – like aunts, uncles, and cousins – so I could narrow down the line of the family that my mystery cousin was on. Over the course of a few years, I figured out that she was not anyone that I already knew from my family. She showed up as a 1st-2nd cousin, but I had no idea who she was. When I first did my DNA test, my top match was a mystery match. I have changed and learned, and I thought by putting together this post, I could share with you what I learned during a year of (obsessively) checking my DNA matches every day.
![my dna matches dimmitt my dna matches dimmitt](https://originsintl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grandparents-may-have-misbehaved-as-a-cause-of-unexpected-DNA-matches-1-300x180.jpg)
![my dna matches dimmitt my dna matches dimmitt](https://familysearch.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/285c595/2147483647/strip/true/crop/600x315+0+143/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffamilysearch-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F59%2F5e%2Ff49a6d92248019c4971044c456e9%2Fdna-match-connecting-with-cousins.jpg)
Yeah, so that thing about me being the same person? I don’t think so. I checked my DNA while in the drive-thru at Starbucks, while on a tour at Colonial Williamsburg, at the airport in Montreal, while waiting for my kids to be done at their music lessons, while on the phone (sorry, mom!), and before I checked my e-mail most days.