Gene Hunting: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
The protagonist has been happily living with his or her family until one day, out of the blue, they learn that the people who raised them are not in fact their biological 'rents, either by adoption or by infidelity. There begins the gene hunt, to find their genetic parents. Expect lots of [[Freudian Excuse
There are a few different ways this can play out: firstly, they [[Changeling Fantasy|find their genetic parents and discover happiness]] (this only works if the old parents are distant or [[Abusive Parents|abusive]]). Secondly, they can find their genetic parents, only to find they are more distant or jerky than their adoptive ones (expect lots of Prodigal Son-style making up at the end). Thirdly, they can ''locate'' their biological parents, only to realize that they'd rather not confront them and risk disrupting everyone's lives. Finally, they can fail altogether to find their parents (a real [[Downer Ending]] will have the character give up ''just before'' they would have found their parents).
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* Lyra Belacqua in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' was always told that her parents were the Count and Countess Belacqua, who had died in an airship accident; she later discovers that they were actually her aunt and uncle, and her real parents are (this is despoilered halfway through the first book) {{spoiler|Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter. }} Lyra reacts ''both'' ways to the news: while her mother's identity comes as a nasty shock, she couldn't be happier to learn of her father and delights in hearing how he murdered her mother's legal spouse when Lyra was a newborn.
* The young adult novel ''[[Janie|The Girl on the Milk Carton]]'' is about a teen girl that sees a picture of a missing girl on her milk carton and realizes it's her. She spends the rest of the book wrestling with the knowledge that her parents aren't her true parents, that she might have even been kidnapped by them, and that she has another set of parents that are looking for her desperately.
* Inverted in ''[[Fingersmith]]'': Mrs. Sucksby tries to exchange her adoptive daughter for her biological daughter who's been raised by a rich family (she thinks the girl will love her just by virtue of being her biological
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* On ''[[True Blood]]'' Sam was adopted and then abandoned when his adoptive family found out that {{spoiler|he was a shapeshifter}}. When he finds his biological parents and his younger brother Tommy, they turn out to be trailer trash who support themselves by {{spoiler|having Tommy shapeshift into a dog and fight in illegal dogfights}}. When his parents abuse his hospitality he throws them out and wants nothing to do with them. He tries to build a relationship with Tommy but the kid is so messed up things quickly take a dark turn.
* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Shawn gets a letter from his [[Missing Mom]] in which she reveals that she is not his real mother. He proceeds to try to track his real mother, and is unsucessful in doing so. His dead father later appears to him in a vision and says that his biological mom was a stripper who took off after giving birth to him, though it's unclear if this vision was real or all in Shawn's head.
* In an early episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', orphaned Richie Ryan does this, to no
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' has a girl come into Luke's diner saying that she's doing a DNA test for her sicence fair to find out who her father is.
* On ''[[CSI New York]]'', the son Mac's late wife gave up for adoption as a teenager comes searching for her, only to learn that she'd died on 9/11. Although his
* ''[[Chico and The Man]]'' has a Japanese young man come and claim Ed Brown as his father, stemming from a tryst after [[WW 2]], and how he elaborates on how he and his mother plan to move to LA to spend their lives with him. Turns out {{spoiler|Ed's not the bio-father, it had been an Army buddy of his.}} Chico saves the day by {{spoiler|falsely claiming that Ed's also his father and had been caring for him as well}}, letting the Japanese decide it's wiser for them to go back to Japan.
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Peter goes to Ireland to find his real father.
** And when Stewie hunts down someone he believes to be his real father {{spoiler|who turns out to be himself}}.
* Fran was adopted by a Chinese couple in ''[[American Dad]]''. After Stan gets annoyed by their lack of assimilation, insistence on tradition, and refusal to treat him as "the man of the house" in his own home (they were pretty obnoxious and rude to him), he goes on a search for her ''real'' parents who turn out to be a pair of [[Complete Monster
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' once parodied this in the episode where Heifer found out he was adopted. To clarify, Heifer is a steer who was literally raised by wolves. Ultimately, Heifer has a dream where {{spoiler|his father informs him that he was abandoned at birth for being too much of a sissy. And that his mother's a car seat somewhere.}}
* ''[[CatDog]]'' went looking for their parents, and believed they found their relatives in a little town in the mountains where cats and dogs get along. {{spoiler|1=They're wrong, and also discover that the peace between cats and dogs is apparently really, ''really'' fragile. They eventually find out their real parents were (if I recall correctly, since the CatDog page doesn't say) ''a female yeti and a fish''. Considering this probably isn't the strangest thing they've ever seen, they're very accepting.}}
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