A TikToker is sharing the story of a family secret that remained hidden for decades before an Ancestry test helped reveal the truth. TikTok user @briellehardman, who goes by Brielle, recently retold the story in a “get ready with me” video. The video has garnered more than 1.2 million views and 370 comments.
Brielle says the secret wasn't discovered until years after her grandmother's death, but the story actually began with her grandfather. “When he was on his deathbed, my family asked if there was any information that, like, he was hiding. And he said, not from me, but I don't know about your mother,” she explains.
According to Brielle, her grandfather was referring to her grandmother when he gave that response to his children. “I don't really know what happened after that, but I guess they never found out that information,” she says. Brielle was around 5 years old when her grandmother died. At the time, nobody apparently revisited what her grandfather had said.
Years later, however, a family member's Ancestry test brought the mystery back.
Brielle says that when she was around 13, one of her aunts signed up for Ancestry. At first, nothing particularly surprising came from the test because her aunt already knew most of the family's relatives.
Then, years later, Brielle's mother received a call from her sister.
“My aunt calls my mom one day and she's like, I just got a match from Ancestry. For someone that could be our sister,” Brielle recalls. The family initially assumed the match could mean that Brielle's grandfather had an affair and secretly had another child. But according to Brielle, that wasn't what happened. “Little do we know that this was actually my grandma's child,” she says.
The family began trying to piece together the connection and realized the woman was considerably older than Brielle's siblings. “So we're like, this was before her marriage? It wasn't just before her marriage,” Brielle explains. “She had this kid in high school.”
According to Brielle, her grandmother became pregnant while she was in high school, gave birth, and placed the child for adoption without telling the rest of the family. Brielle says the woman who had been adopted did not learn that she was adopted until she was 45 years old. “I don't know how this was kept a huge secret,” Brielle says.
@briellehardman Grwm|| The family secret my grandma took to her grave #fyp#trending#grwmroutine#getreadywithme#grwm#storytime#familysecrets#grwmstorytime
♬ original sound - Brielle?
Viewers shared their own family secrets
The story prompted viewers to share their own experiences with unexpected family discoveries, including stories involving DNA tests and previously unknown relatives.
“I wanna believe your grandpa knew and kept her secret even at death,” one commenter wrote.
Another user shared a similar experience, writing that their mother and aunt took DNA tests and discovered that they were half-sisters.
A third commenter said their family had an almost identical experience after an Ancestry test revealed that their grandmother had given birth to a child in high school and placed her for adoption without telling anyone.
The comments showed that Brielle's story resonated with other people who had discovered previously unknown relatives or family histories through DNA testing.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the family history described in the video, which is based solely on TikTok user @briellehardman’s account of her family’s discovery.
