23 & Us: Family Ties, Family Lies

What’s in a [family] name? That which we call a Trumbull by any other surname would feel as sweet? Or would it?

Or how about Murphy?

Or how about going from thinking your family’s heritage is Spanish to learning that the heritage is Pakistani? And how reliable is that information, anyway?

The two youngest Trumbull siblings take us through the journey of their lives as the “mistakes” of the family – though mistakes of a different kind than what they had thought all their lives. What they discover late in their lives is that lifelong family friends were intertwined in ways they had never anticipated. They will explore the nature of “family,” of genetics, of identity, in a world that changed for them a few years ago from the results of DNA testing.

What is the significance of our family name? And why does it seem important to us? What influence does it have on our identity? What’s in your name? What difference does biology make?

And who, by the way, owns the truth about one’s own self?

And what do so many people with “genetic identity issues” mean for the society at large? for the social work community? for the scientific community? for politics and education, finance and social services, etc.?