Ancestry DNA and heritage investigation

I'm wondering how many members here have investigated their heritage through Ancestry or one of the other companies that use DNA to investigate your heritage. I had never considered it, but a few months ago, I found myself involved in a personal situation which led to me becoming involved.

In late September, I was contacted through Facebook by a fellow from Washington state. His wife, who was adopted in 1978 in Ganges, Salt Spring island, just a few miles from here, had spent many years trying to find out who her birth family was. He told me that his wife had done the Ancestry DNA analysis and when her results came back, it turned out that she was a close DNA match to one of my grand-daughters. They corresponded, and based on the time his wife, Grace, was adopted, I was a likely candidate to have been his wife's birth-father. He offered me the option of contact, but was prepared to give me privacy if I wished. I communicated with Grace and over the next couple of months, we became close and I began to consider her as my daughter. Eventually, I decided to have my DNA analyzed by Ancestry. The results came back to me just before Christmas, and were surprising.

What the DNA shows is that I'm not biologically related to Grace, my new-found daughter, or to my grand-daughter (the younger of two kids born to my daughter from my first marriage). It makes little difference to me.....I regard Tanya, my daughter from my first marriage and her two daughters as my family, and I love them whether we're biologically related or not. And, I had told Grace, my new-found daughter from Washington state, that whether DNA linked us, I will continue to think of her as my daughter, because she's a half-sister to my daughter Tanya. More recently, I bought Tanya a DNA analysis kit from Ancestry, and she'll be tested to confirm what we know so far.

I guess, if there's something to draw from this experience, it's that doing the Ancestry DNA analysis may bring out things about your family that are totally unexpected. It's up to you whether you want to open that can of worms, and it's a very personal choice how you decide to deal what comes out of it. I have no regrets, and in my case, it won't negatively impact my relationship with the people I regard as family. If anything, it's been beneficial in the sense that I've grown to regard Grace, her husband, and her two children as a new part of my family, so it's enriched my life.