MEET THE AUTHOR

In The Milkman’s Son RANDY LINDSAY explains what happened when a DNA test revealed the unexpected truth about his family

How did you come to write this book?

I’ve been into family history since 2005, so I’ve been doing it for a long time now. A big part of it is what I call my ‘Great Lindsay Quest’ to find the Lindsays in Ireland. But I’ve not had much luck doing that, because our Lindsays are Protestant and the records in Ireland are really not good if you were Protestant in around 1800. So I took a DNA test, and I found out that I’m not a Lindsay! I was 57 when that happened. It was a horrible shock, and as I was telling people about it my writer friends were like, “You’ve got to write about it. You have to get out there and write this story, because other people are going to be in the same situation, and since you write a lot, you’ll be able to write it in a way that will make it very accessible. That way when other people are experiencing this situation, they can read your book and maybe not feel like they’re all alone.”

Your book is very positive – despite the difficult situation, you write very touchingly about your relationships with both families.

I had a lot of support. My family here in Arizona that I was raised with, they were great about it. They were like, “This just means you have more family – you should look on the positive side of everything.” Then my new family in New Jersey were amazing. As soon as they found out that I was their brother and their son, they just accepted it. They immediately accepted me, and it was great. I made a trip out there to visit them within the year that I found out. I got the news in November, and then I went out the following September and met everybody.

What advice would you give to someone else who has found out something unexpected from the results of a DNA test?

I would suggest that they pursue it. I’ve had a chance to think about this a lot, and I learnt a lot about who I am by learning who the other part of my family is – just a tremendous amount. I recognise that a lot of these situations arise and things don’t always come out well, but you can’t live in fear. You have to go and make that effort and see, because if it does work out, it’s one of the most amazing things in the world to be able to meet more of your family. If for no other reason than that people should want try to reach out to their family, because knowing your family helps you to know yourself better.