So, I have definitely been getting more and more into my genealogy journey. There are always exciting things that come out. I also thought this would be a good break from talking about True Crime, Miraculous, or Fandom. The hours I can spend researching goes by so fast; one minute, it will be 5pm, and the next it will be past midnight! It’s just so easy to get sucked in, lol.

So, my whole life, I’ve been told that my twin sister and I were fraternal twins, by parents, by doctors, etc. Even though everyone else who had met us thought we were identical, so we had to explain that we genetically were the same as full-blooded siblings. We could look as alike or as different as any other siblings. Then explain that identical twins were born from the same egg and that we were born from separate eggs. Like we knew this forever, and I don’t remember a time that we didn’t know that we weren’t fraternal. When people would point out that we look way too similar to not be identical, we would point out that so did The Olsen Twins, and they were also fraternal twins. Either way, people thought that we were lying when we said that we weren’t identical, and people always confused us for each other.

So, a while back, I did a DNA test with ancestry because that is who I was doing my family tree with, and that has really helped my family tree research a lot. However, before that, my twin had done on with 23&Me. A while back, I uploaded my DNA to Gedmatch because more exciting things, and I can allow law enforcement to use it to help them solve cases, like with John and Jane Does. With Gedmatch, there are even more matches for the family tree and research for that. So, over a month ago, twin uploaded her DNA to Gedmatch also, since she had been wanting to do it for a while.

So, because of researching the whole family tree thing, I have an understanding of cMs (centimorgans), the measurement of DNA. It’s helpful when figuring out how people should theoretically be related to me. So, each DNA site has a different cap on cMs like I’m not sure what it is for Gedmatch, but the cut-off is about 3600, while Ancestry is 3475, & 23&Me is 7440. This is according to both Ancestry’s and 23&Me’s sites. The measurement seems to be the same. The way its weight is different, and I am not entirely sure what that means. That is my just my understanding of it.

It took Gedmatch less than 24 hours to add her to my match list. I knew that it should have labeled her a full sibling since genetically and scientifically, that is all a full sibling is, and the average for that is 2,400 — 2,800 cMS. It can be more or less like I know it can go as low as 2200 cMs and as high as 3000 cMs, but it usually does not. So, knowing this, I knew roughly what the results should have been, and I wasn’t expecting was to have the cMs so high. Gedmatch had them at 3570.8 cMs. That was too high to be both fraternal twins and full siblings. That left one possibility that we were actually identical twins.

Which led me to reach all the why, what, and how? Because how are two people told their whole lives that they are fraternal twins when they are actually identical twins? Apparently, the hospital I was born at was a teaching hospital, so that is one thing. Even today, after the name change, I know that they have students there. Back when I was born, it was believed that identical twins could not have separate amniotic sacs or separate placentas, which we now know isn’t true. There is also the possibility that the egg splits really early. This new information about twins only came out maybe 5-6 years ago. It is relatively new in the medical field, so new that many doctors don’t know about it, according to many mothers who are having twins in different twin communities. Apparently, about 30% of small-sex twins who were told they were fraternal twins at birth are actually identical twins.

Interestingly enough, my mom’s mother had always told us that fraternal twins ran in her family and that her sisters’ were fraternal twins. In my research of my family tree, I found out she is a fucking liar; none of her siblings were twins. The only fraternal twins I found there were from my mom’s dad’s side, and fraternal twins are always on the maternal side and are the only kind that runs in the family. So, it’s not possible, and I wonder what kind of sick fascination she got out of lying about something like that?

I have always felt like we looked more identical than people who said that they were identical twins. The Gedmatch cMs had us at 3570.8, and other people who said they were also identical had less centimorgans than we did. So, we both thought it would be fun to be tested with the companies that each other tested with, so I did 23&Me, and she did Ancestry.

So, 23&Me is faster than Ancestry because they have fewer users and less sales. Some people have said they are more accurate, but they are definitely a lot faster than Ancestry. So, I got my test results first, and it said that we share 100% of our DNA because we are identical, and it put at 7435 cMs. Twin’s friend called us doppelgangers lol, and I’ve heard we were each other clones, so lol. We were always very close and still are, so being identical just makes so much sense. I was told when we were younger that we lived in our own little world that it was hard for other people to join in, and I’ve always felt like we were closer than most twins who were fraternal.

Ancestry’s result for twin literally came back today. I really thought that it would be a little faster than it was. That could have been because of the recent sale they had, though. The max cMs is supposed to be 3475, twin’s, and my shared cMs is 3489, and it said we shared 100% of our DNA and put us in the self/twin category. So, more proof, lol.

Only four people in my real life know about this, the twin lol, my youngest little sister, my dad, and my friend who I went to school with. I don’t really tell the rest of the people in my real-life things, but I’m sure it will come up. I even told my friend from school, I told you but not my mom or older little sister, and she was just like, ‘well, that makes sense.’ She knows them, and she knows people like them. I’ll tell them eventually, but right now, I’m good. Then twin told a good friend, then I told Nine, lol. Now, anyone who reads my blog knows, lol.

Now, I brought up The Olsen Twin’s thing. I know their parents were told they were fraternal around the same time that twin’s and mine were. They were told that they might have been identical, but they said they wouldn’t get tested. There is a type of identical twin called mirrored twins, where one will be left-handed, the other will be right, and there will be other similar differences. They would basically start out in life being mirror opposites. However, this can also happen in fraternal twins, and remember, their sister Elizabeth also looks like she could be a triple, so they can look as alike or different as any siblings. So, while it is fun to think about, it doesn’t really matter. It’s interesting because I always felt like twin, and I looked as similar as they did.

So, that is my discovery, do you have any discoveries, or did one of your family member’s lie to your face like my mom’s mom did to twin and me? Let me know!