Scandal! Kerry Washington discovered her father is not her biological father late in life

[afeelingunacted]

Woke up today sooooooo thankful to my beautiful parents for encouraging me (albeit sometimes reluctantly 🤣) on this journey of self discovery. Our shared truth has allowed us to cultivate more FREEDOM and a deeper love with each other. I am forever changed. And NOW, I’m super… pic.twitter.com/aqGihiryZb
- kerry washington (@kerrywashington)

Comments

[3ris352]

I found out last year (at 33 yesterday old) that my older sister is actually my half sister and my biological dad adopted her when she was 12.
And that my mom actually had her at 16 years old, then a son at 18 who I never knew about who had been passed around her siblings while she told everyone she only had 2 children--my sister and I (my parents had me in their 40s).

Icing on the cake my mom had changed her name 9 years before I was born -- she maintained the lie she was given her current name by her mom at birth. So my half siblings and I don't even have the same parent names AT ALL on our birth certificates.

My whole life was a lie.🫠🙃

🤷🏽‍♀️

[evillemmons]

[theactualworst]

Kids are more emotionally intelligent than adults give them credit for. Kids are diligent observers and pick up on everything.

[evillemmons]

[theactualworst]

My parents always tried to gaslight us that we had the perfect family meanwhile my mother was extremely mentally ill and abusive. My dad was also the guy still threatening his kids with belts in the 90s cause that’s how he was raised. Now I’m an adult with crippling anxiety because my life never felt stable. We also weren’t allowed to be upset about our parents screaming and throwing shit at each other because ~that’s just marriage and totally fine. I don’t know why parents think kids will just believe what they tell them and not what they see/feel.

[craww]

My dad found out about a year before he passed. I felt bad for pushing the Ancestry test when we always sort of suspected? There was a photo of a man that looked like my dad in the back of one of his baby photos, so we wondered, but Dad didn't really think it was true til the test confirmed.

[itscaelsday]

So I did DNA testing a couple years ago and this year I bit the bullet and paid for an Ancestry membership.

The bombshells I found were not expected at all.

One of my cousins might be half lol. My grandmother's side of the family were married multiple times, had children with different people, didn't spell names the same.

Then it's like another 10 years before the 1960 census is available.

I need more immediate family to do tests because I can barely get anywhere with people who are 4th-6th cousins and can't get anywhere with people they list as 5th-8th cousins.

Debating on if I want to do 23 and me and see who used that service instead of ancestry

[yonkers]

are the people you're looking for centred in north america? if so myheritage or familysearch might be better for research. if you are looking globally, geni seems to be the most popular outside of north america and english speaking places.

i also joined geneaology pages related to what i was looking for (ie. my lithuanian ancestors are german lutherans so i'm in the german lutheran fb groups) because people LOVE to do research on literally anyone and there's so many people who are excellent at research who will help you for free

[itscaelsday]

Yep I'm focusing on just north America. I will look into myheritage and familysearch. Thanks!

[yonkers]

i cannot stress this enough, do not give up. you will hit hundreds of walls but don't stop. take a break for a few months, new documents are being uploaded monthly on these sites.

anecdotally - i only started with geneaology because i didn't know anything, one single thing, about my paternal great grandfather. i started this fuckin journey in 2015, trying to find any one thing about this dude. it was like he randomly apparated in canada one day.

THIS YEAR a man messaged me on ancestry and gave me what i was looking for - this is your great grandfather, this is where he's from, these are his parents names, his sibling names... i was absolutely weeping reading this message.

now i am experiencing road blocks again (this time in german!!!) but the fact that i got that after like, 8 years of research was insane.

sorry for this long-ass comment but i have a lot of feelings. i hope you are successful in your searches and if you need a hand let me know <3

[afeelingunacted]

Also I keep forgetting about this but through marriage and affairs I am technically "related" to Elizabeth Wurtzel.

I figured this out when she wrote an article on her bio dad and was like "weird" and then like 5 years later my sister was like "OMG I think we're related to Elizabeth Wurtzel" and I was like "Yeah, I know". She was so disappointed I was unimpressed and she told my mom and my mom also didn't care.

(it's a really loose unhappy connection, her bio dad was married to my mom's relative and cheated on her with Wurtzel's mom).