S1E39 – Unraveling Bill & Priscilla - This episode is a testament to persistence. Sometimes the truth takes decades, thousands of names, and one final piece of evidence to uncover—but being able to say “I know” instead of “I wonder” can bring a profound sense of peace. Bill was one of the earliest people to take a Y-DNA test, but for more than 20 years, one question remained unanswered: why didn’t he match anyone from the Sharp family whose name he carried?
The answer arrived when his brother tested. At 72 years old, Bill learned they were half-siblings and that the man he had known as his father was not his genetic father. But identifying the truth would take another decade of research.
Fortunately, Bill was married to Priscilla—a genealogist, search angel, author, and adoption advocate who has helped solve more than 2,000 cases. By tracing generations of DNA matches, abandoned marriages, military records, name changes, and a divorce filed in the right place at the right time, Priscilla finally uncovered the identity of Bill’s genetic father.
SHOW NOTES
In this thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation, Kara, Bill, and Priscilla discuss:
• Recognizing that Bill’s Y-DNA did not match the Sharp family line
• Growing up feeling like a guest in his own family
• Carrying the name “Junior” after learning he was not genetically related to the man he was named after
• How small clues—and a genealogist’s eye for detail—can unlock long-buried answers
• Finally seeing yourself reflected in family photographs
• The medical consequences of relying on the wrong family health history
• Family estrangement and losing the opportunity to ask his mother what happened
• Finding compassion for a parent’s trauma without excusing secrecy
• Why people deserve the truth about their origins much earlier in life
Priscilla also shares her own experience as a mother who relinquished a daughter during the Baby Scoop Era. She describes being told to hide the truth, being misled by an adoption agency, searching through newspaper archives before the internet existed, and reuniting with her daughter nearly 40 years ago.
Together, Bill and Priscilla’s stories reveal how the loss of genetic continuity can ripple through adoptees, parents, siblings, and people with misattributed parentage. Their journeys are different, but both are shaped by secrecy, separation, unanswered questions, and the enduring need to know.
Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.
At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.
For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.