A lot people have unrealistic expectations in taking a DNA test. Understanding our family history needs to go beyond that. There’s really no “hands free" way to do it. You have to dig deeper and talk to people. One of my friends was adopted. She had a struggle finding out about her birth parents because her birth records were sealed. It took years, but she eventually uncovered the story, which is remarkable. She met her birth mother and a half-sister. She was the product of an affair her married mother had. When she was 18 months old, her mother’s husband refused to raise a child who wasn’t his. Since giving her up would be shocking to their relatives, they told them she had died and that they donated her body to science. The upside to this story is that my friend gained a new appreciation for how lucky she had been to have been raised by her adoptive parents rather than by people willing to give her up and burden their families with a cruel lie.