Idk who I am - help a kid out
Donation protected
WHAT THE HECKING HECK I MADE GOAL? You guyyyysssss thank you so so so so much!!!! I'm so humbled and appreciative of everything! Thank you!
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This isn't typical of me to do, but I'm going to try. Feel free to ignore or scroll by. Zero hard feelings.
Growing up, I always assumed I looked like my dad. Same hair colour, same blue eyes, same sense of humour. When he died ten years ago, one of my biggest sources of comfort was looking into the mirror and seeing his features looking back at me. Despite this, my mother always insisted I looked like her, which was honestly baffling. Her eyes were brown and her hair was dark, but I guess we had the same nose?
A couple of years ago when I was 25 or 26, my mum invited my brother and I over to share some news. What we were told was the most insane story I've ever heard and nothing will ever top it; Dad wasn't our dad. It wasn't even that Dad wasn't our biological father, it's that nobody would ever actually know. It came to light that Dad couldn't actually have kids of his own, so he teamed up with Mum to make the best decision anyone could ever make - to start a family through anonymous sperm donation. Say what?!
This news was mind-blowing. It had been kept a complete secret that not even my grandparents knew. My brother and I weren't even full-blooded siblings - the donor who provided in 1985 for my brother hadn't been available for me in 1987. Dad will always be 100% my dad, and this news really changed nothing for me, only now I really didn't know where I came from. Our mum tried for years to get information for us before sharing this news, but donor records weren't kept on file until 1992. All we would know is that both donors were med students at the University of Saskatchewan. My great-grandmother on my mum's side had been dumped on a doorstep in Scotland, so not knowing fully where I can from was nothing new.
Years have passed and this story has become a really decent ice-breaker when meeting new people. I hold no resentment to any parties involved, and if the consequence of my existence is having no idea where I came from, then I can live with that. I don't want to ever know who donated to create me, as his involvement ended after his donation. He's a free man off doing whatever he needs to do (if he's still around), and if I could tell him anything it would be thank you and nothing more.
It's now 2017 and while the shock has worn off, the curiosity hasn't. It's only gotten worse as new doctors ask my family medical history and I have nothing to offer. Ancestry.ca is a huge deal, and commercials blaze across the TV and internet encouraging users to sign up for free to discover where they came from and who they're related to. Friends and family create intricate family trees to share with future generations and proudly share their heritage with the world. I visited Pier 22 in Halifax, which had a huge library of resources for tracing where ancestors immigrated to Canada and when they arrived. People take DNA tests to confirm what they already know, with a few bits and bobs thrown in. While I can exist just fine without being able to take part in these activities, that it's a privilege and not a right, it's something I've wanted to know as I've gotten older and as resources have become more available. I begin to feel frustrated and hurt and dehumanised that I have nothing to go on. No threads to grasp. No clues to follow.
I'm privileged myself in a lot of ways - I know my mum's grandfather emigrated from the Ukraine, and that her grandmother came from Scotland (albeit dumped on a doorstep with no family history). Everything about me screams white girl. There are adopted children who know nothing of either side and victims of residential schools who were forcibly taken from their families. I'm not completely in the dark and I'm very fortunate to know what I do.
As I mentioned earlier, my doctors ask a about my medical history. I recently started seeing a new psychiatrist who was particularly interested in my family's history of mental health and illnesses, and it stressed me out not having an answer to give. This is where I ask for help.
23andMe is a website that provides an amazing service to people like me who know nothing. They provide information on over 70 health conditions and traits, and how genetics can affect your health in the future. Obviously this information is to be taken with a grain of salt, but that's not all they provide - using your DNA, 23andMe will trace your lineage and search for DNA relatives, and maybe even provide answers to questions I don't even know how to ask.
I can't begin to describe what an incredible gift and resource this would be to me. I've looked into this testing before but the price tag is $249 CAD, and I've never been able to come up with the lump sum to cover it. Bills, unexpected expenses, and the day-to-day cost of living puts it on the back burner. I've reached a point in my life where I just want to know who I am, where the stress of not knowing is making me miserable, and where I know this information would be useful and provide peace of mind, and maybe some other interesting tidbits.
Most people would love to have this testing done, so I know asking for donations may not be the answer. Why should anyone pay for a service for someone else that they'd rather have for themselves? There is no reason. I cannot offer you anything in return, other than sharing some of my results on this page. If this is something that's maybe made you curious like I am and you have a couple of extra bucks kicking around, I would be fifty shades of forever grateful for your support. $249 (+$20-$30 shipping) seems like something I should be able to throw together pretty easily, but I'm clearly incapable if I still haven't done it.
If all you did was read this and leave or if you stopped to donate, I genuinely thank you for your time either way <3
Britt
TL;DR - I learned as an adult that my biological dad was an anonymous sperm donor and would like to use 23andMe to gain insight to who I am/my predisposed medical conditions lest I go crazy not knowing.


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This isn't typical of me to do, but I'm going to try. Feel free to ignore or scroll by. Zero hard feelings.
Growing up, I always assumed I looked like my dad. Same hair colour, same blue eyes, same sense of humour. When he died ten years ago, one of my biggest sources of comfort was looking into the mirror and seeing his features looking back at me. Despite this, my mother always insisted I looked like her, which was honestly baffling. Her eyes were brown and her hair was dark, but I guess we had the same nose?
A couple of years ago when I was 25 or 26, my mum invited my brother and I over to share some news. What we were told was the most insane story I've ever heard and nothing will ever top it; Dad wasn't our dad. It wasn't even that Dad wasn't our biological father, it's that nobody would ever actually know. It came to light that Dad couldn't actually have kids of his own, so he teamed up with Mum to make the best decision anyone could ever make - to start a family through anonymous sperm donation. Say what?!
This news was mind-blowing. It had been kept a complete secret that not even my grandparents knew. My brother and I weren't even full-blooded siblings - the donor who provided in 1985 for my brother hadn't been available for me in 1987. Dad will always be 100% my dad, and this news really changed nothing for me, only now I really didn't know where I came from. Our mum tried for years to get information for us before sharing this news, but donor records weren't kept on file until 1992. All we would know is that both donors were med students at the University of Saskatchewan. My great-grandmother on my mum's side had been dumped on a doorstep in Scotland, so not knowing fully where I can from was nothing new.
Years have passed and this story has become a really decent ice-breaker when meeting new people. I hold no resentment to any parties involved, and if the consequence of my existence is having no idea where I came from, then I can live with that. I don't want to ever know who donated to create me, as his involvement ended after his donation. He's a free man off doing whatever he needs to do (if he's still around), and if I could tell him anything it would be thank you and nothing more.
It's now 2017 and while the shock has worn off, the curiosity hasn't. It's only gotten worse as new doctors ask my family medical history and I have nothing to offer. Ancestry.ca is a huge deal, and commercials blaze across the TV and internet encouraging users to sign up for free to discover where they came from and who they're related to. Friends and family create intricate family trees to share with future generations and proudly share their heritage with the world. I visited Pier 22 in Halifax, which had a huge library of resources for tracing where ancestors immigrated to Canada and when they arrived. People take DNA tests to confirm what they already know, with a few bits and bobs thrown in. While I can exist just fine without being able to take part in these activities, that it's a privilege and not a right, it's something I've wanted to know as I've gotten older and as resources have become more available. I begin to feel frustrated and hurt and dehumanised that I have nothing to go on. No threads to grasp. No clues to follow.
I'm privileged myself in a lot of ways - I know my mum's grandfather emigrated from the Ukraine, and that her grandmother came from Scotland (albeit dumped on a doorstep with no family history). Everything about me screams white girl. There are adopted children who know nothing of either side and victims of residential schools who were forcibly taken from their families. I'm not completely in the dark and I'm very fortunate to know what I do.
As I mentioned earlier, my doctors ask a about my medical history. I recently started seeing a new psychiatrist who was particularly interested in my family's history of mental health and illnesses, and it stressed me out not having an answer to give. This is where I ask for help.
23andMe is a website that provides an amazing service to people like me who know nothing. They provide information on over 70 health conditions and traits, and how genetics can affect your health in the future. Obviously this information is to be taken with a grain of salt, but that's not all they provide - using your DNA, 23andMe will trace your lineage and search for DNA relatives, and maybe even provide answers to questions I don't even know how to ask.
I can't begin to describe what an incredible gift and resource this would be to me. I've looked into this testing before but the price tag is $249 CAD, and I've never been able to come up with the lump sum to cover it. Bills, unexpected expenses, and the day-to-day cost of living puts it on the back burner. I've reached a point in my life where I just want to know who I am, where the stress of not knowing is making me miserable, and where I know this information would be useful and provide peace of mind, and maybe some other interesting tidbits.
Most people would love to have this testing done, so I know asking for donations may not be the answer. Why should anyone pay for a service for someone else that they'd rather have for themselves? There is no reason. I cannot offer you anything in return, other than sharing some of my results on this page. If this is something that's maybe made you curious like I am and you have a couple of extra bucks kicking around, I would be fifty shades of forever grateful for your support. $249 (+$20-$30 shipping) seems like something I should be able to throw together pretty easily, but I'm clearly incapable if I still haven't done it.
If all you did was read this and leave or if you stopped to donate, I genuinely thank you for your time either way <3
Britt
TL;DR - I learned as an adult that my biological dad was an anonymous sperm donor and would like to use 23andMe to gain insight to who I am/my predisposed medical conditions lest I go crazy not knowing.
Organizer
Brittany Ford
Organizer
Saskatoon, SK
