My results had also listed a first cousin who was unfamiliar to me. There he was, a blue icon like one that might be found on the door to a men’s room, identified only by his initials. This—Michael will later tell me—set off loud, clanging warning bells for him. But not for me. Obviously I knew all my first cousins.
This is so relatable to me, re-reading this book now. Last fall, I got a message on 23andMe from a man who’d recently gotten his results and said, “Hm, this is curious - you show up as a first cousin, and I thought I knew all my first cousins!”
I had not previously known who my birth father was, and this new connection was the puzzle piece that led to me getting a delightful answer to that question.
