TIFU by responding to someone on Ancestry.

A few years ago I took an Ancestry DNA test kit because I wanted to know my different ethnicities. I didn't take it to find any relatives or missing family, because my family is already pretty big and we keep in touch with just about everyone. I'm also not adopted, and my biological parents are still together.

I don't frequent the website much, however, they will still send updates to my email about new ethnicity results and messages that I get on my account. I opened my email and had a message from someone who I didn't recognize. She didn't have any last names that would indicate that she is apart of my close or more extended family. For the sake of this story, I will call her Claire.

Claire didn't take her ancestry test until February of this year, so I'm guessing that she was still navigating the website until she found me and my dad. My dad and I share the same last name, which is one that Claire didn't recognize from any of her close or more extended family either. According to the ancestry website, Claire shares enough DNA with my dad to be his second cousin, and she shares enough DNA with me to be my second or third cousin. When Claire messaged us, she told us that she was trying to find out who her grandpa on her father's side was, because her dad never knew his dad. I will call Claire's dad Tom. Upon looking at Claire's profile further, I found out that she and I have shared DNA with people whose last names are the same as my grandmother on my father's side maiden name.

As I began researching further, Claire told me that Tom's mother, who I will call Maxine, traveled in my home state for a bit in 1950. Claire told me that Maxine liked to mess around with navy men, but during her travels she fell pregnant and went back to her home state. She wouldn't tell anyone who the father was, and she also never told the father that she was pregnant. Through my grandmother on my father's side, I found out that my great grandfather (my grandmother's father) was in the navy in 1950 while in our home state. My great grandfather went out with his navy friends and they drank a lot. During this time, my great grandfather was also two years into his marriage with my great grandmother.

Looking at the timelines that we have and the DNA and shared matches as well, Claire and I highly suspect that my great grandfather had a child with Maxine, and that that child was Tom. Because Maxine never told my great grandfather, he had no part in Tom's life and couldn't have known anything about this, which explains why no one in my family knows about Maxine at all. Apparently, both of my great grandparents were alcoholics and were not always aware of what they were doing. Both my grandmother and her cousin said that they wouldn't be surprised if my great grandfather cheated on my great grandmother. My great grandmother had also once said that even she wouldn't have been surprised if he cheated on her while in the navy. We also compared a picture of my great grandfather with Tom, and they have similar features, as well as features that other people in my family share with him.

Although it could have been one of my great grandfather's brothers who slept with Maxine, the DNA that Claire shares with my father and I seems too close for any other possibility. Everyone's ages in the stories match up (Claire is only two years younger than my parents.) My grandmother is now keen that she had a half brother. Unfortunately Tom passed away over a decade ago so she can't meet him, but luckily enough we have Claire to talk to.

So, how did I FU? Well, now that I have uncovered this discovery with Claire, people on my father's side of the family are pissed off now knowing that my great grandfather had an affair only two years into his marriage with my great grandmother. He went on to have five kids with her, and now we are finding out that he had a whole other child with another woman. Claire mentioned to me that she would like to travel to come and meet us since her father, Tom, was so keen on meeting his biological dad and his side of the family, but when I mentioned this to my family they seemed very indifferent on that idea. To sum things up, some of my family is now pissed off and doesn't want to believe what may be true. I now feel like I am going to be blamed for uncovering my great grandfather's scandalous past, even though he is the one at fault for cheating. I already had one family member tell me to stop talking to Claire and leave it alone, but at this point I am too far in and want to know everything that I can.

TL;DR: I messaged someone back on ancestry about her dad who never knew his own dad, and I most likely uncovered an affair that my great grandfather had two years into his marriage with my great grandmother. Woman wants to meet my family, but now my family is indifferent and most likely are upset.

Edit: I forgot to add that Tom's birthday is in February of 1951, so conception checks out as well.