Milwaukee woman's at-home DNA test reveals shocking discovery

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- "I'll get through this," Lisa Pampel says as she wipes tears from her eyes. 

She is trying to get through, learning the life she knew for 48 years, had been turned upside down. 

"It changes who you are," she said, "You have a sense of loss, like you've lost something cause you've lost your family, that you were raised with."

Lisa was born in Wisconsin and lived here until she was about ten when her parents got divorced. 

"We moved to Illinois and Indiana, Michigan. Decided to move back here, because this was the family I knew, this was the family that I spent all my summers with, this is what I called home," she said. 

A home, a family, she'd hoped to learn more about through an Ancestry DNA test she took last year. She was hoping to learn more about her mother's side, specifically that she could be part Native American. 

"When the results came back there was no Cherokee Indian, but there was another surprise. I found out there was someone showing up as my biological father," Pampel said. 

On her Ancestry profile, a parent/child relationship popped up. 

"It was confusing just because I don’t have any children and I thought I knew who my father was," she said. 

But the site was telling her someone else was her father. 

"I couldn’t really even ascertain what was going on, because when you’re born into this world thinking you know who your family is and then something on the computer is saying no that’s not true," Pampel said. 

The truth came, after she messaged the person connected to the account. 

"We were able to determine that this was a person my mother was engaged to before she had met my dad and he had gone off into the war. She didn’t know that she was pregnant with his child," Pampel said. 

News that was difficult for her, and her mom to comprehend. 

"She was shocked that I found out, but she was also shocked to find out that he was the father," she asid. 

Lisa has been able to meet her biological father in person. She went to visit him last August. 

"It was wonderful and he was very welcoming and so was his wife. They both just welcomed me with open arms into their family. They both had their first child at the age of 48," she said as she laughed. 

She sees similarities in him. 

"I was able to able to see a lot of physical features and resemblances right away when I saw him and spending time with him, I was also able to tell a lot of my personality traits were from him, also." 

While she says this has helped put some closure to some of the questions she's had in her head all along, there have been difficulties. 

"I'm still processing it. It's day-by-day. It really is a lot of crying."

One of the hardest parts about the discovery, was telling the news to the dad who raised her. She said he took the news well, but that he wanted to continue life as it was, with her as his only daughter. 

She said she's also struggled with the loss of identity. 

"The sense of the loss of the identity of who I thought I was. Not knowing who I am, and not knowing how the rest of life will work now."

Lisa is a member of a Facebook group called that helps people who experience DNA NPE, non-paternal event. According to the group's website, the Facebook page that started with two members, now has more than 5,000. 

"It's been very helpful being a part of the group. A lot of us are on that support group quite a bit," said Pampel, "A lot of us are in different stages with all of this finding out and so there's some people that are just going through the shock of, 'Oh my gosh, my fathers not my father,' and there's those of us who have been in this place now for a year that can help them understand. It will get better, it gets easier."

She hopes by sharing her story, she will help people realize this is something people are experiencing. 

"There's a lot of us going through this and we're just asking for some understanding. Allow us to get through this."