A woman has uncovered secrets about her family history after a stranger sent her a mysterious text message urging her to get a DNA test.
TikTok user Lane went viral this week when she recalled how she received an anonymous message from an unknown cell phone number encouraging her to conduct an Ancestry.com test. The Brooklyn-based TikToker begins her story by saying: “This f**king text message right here changed my life forever.”
In a screenshot from the exchange, the stranger’s text message read: “Hi Lane. This is not a spam message. I think it’s really important that you take a DNA test from Ancestry.com and review your DNA matches. Good luck.”
At first, Lane explained how she thought the text message was fake, so she FaceTimed her friend to get her opinion. But her friend decided that the message was real and suggested Lane respond to the stranger.
“So I respond, and then they write me back,” she said, as she pointed to the text message which read: “Who is this?”
The stranger replied, “I wish I could say, but it’s best to just let you do the test. Were you able to do it yet?
In their text messages, Lane tells the stranger that she’s already done 23andMe, which prompts the stranger to explain how Ancestry.com has a different database than 23andMe.
“I was shook that they responded, and I let them know I had already done 23andMe the year before because it was on sale,” she said. “I was hoping I was gonna find that I was secretly exotic or related to royalty, but I’m just English and Irish like I thought I was.”
After a line of questioning from Lane, the stranger told her that she has “other family you might not be aware of”. Lane even added that the anonymous person made a “burner account on Facebook” to message her and her husband about the DNA test.
“They would not provide me with any sort of proof that this was real, and, obviously, I called my mom immediately, saying, ‘What the f**k,’” she continued.
Lane’s mother ultimately confessed that she had an affair with a man while she was in college at 35 years old receiving her degree in education, and the man who raised her was not her father.
“I almost fell off my f**king chair,” Lane said in the video. “She had an affair with a guy ten years younger than her when she was in college. It was a one-time thing, but he even saw her on campus and said, ‘Is that mine?’ and she denied it.”
Lane went on to say that she ordered “an Ancestry test immediately” and took the test. Six weeks later, she received her results.
“I find out that, yes, this man is my father,” she revealed. “So I message him immediately, and he lives in California. He’s British. He said my mom sent him a Christmas card when I was two years old, saying my name in it and that he’s Googled my name ever since.”
In 2007, Lane’s name finally popped up on the internet and her biological father “knew immediately that I was his daughter.”
When he emailed Lane’s mom trying to get in contact with his daughter, her mother “threatened him” and said to “leave them alone” and never contact them again.
“So what does he do?” Lane asked in the TikTok. “He followed me on social media my entire life. He watched me date my boyfriend, get married, have babies, everything – all from the outside, not able to know me.”
Then, TikTok viewers were shocked when Lane posted a side-by-side image comparing herself to her biological dad.
“I’m telling you this picture freaked me the fuck out,” she said, pointing to the two smiling selfies.
Since it was posted on 29 November, Lane’s TikTok has been viewed 8.4m times. The viral video left TikTok users heartwarmed by how her biological father tried to remain close to his daughter through social media. Others were simply shocked by how closely the two resembled each other.
“His automatic instinct was to be with his daughter, and he couldn’t be, so he did whatever he could to be in your life,” one person commented. “I feel tears in my eyes.”
“Awwwwww,” another user wrote. “He watched over you the only way he could.”
“You look so much like your bio dad,” someone else said. “You are beautiful. I’m glad he found you, he must have a great heart.”
However, there was one question that persisted in the comments section: “Was it your dad who sent the texts??”
Surprisingly, Lane revealed in a follow-up video that it was actually her paternal cousin who sent her the anonymous text message.
“It was actually his brother’s son, who has a similar story to me,” she explained, adding that he “didn’t want me to go through” the same things that he did.
As for her relationship with her biological father, Lane said that she finally met her dad in California and learned that he has two young daughters – her sisters.
