History Main / GeneHunting

* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer's Paternity Coot", where Homer tries to track down a man who he suspects of being his real father.

* Fran was adopted by a Chinese couple in ''AmericanDad''. 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 [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] (they gave up their baby rather than downgrade to Coach seats on a flight).

* Rather amusingly done in ''CurbYourEnthusiasm'', where Larry finds his apparent birth parents, who are Christian (he is Jewish.) After getting over the initial shock, he decides that he likes them, and consequentially loses all of his stereotypically "Jewish" tendencies (as well as becoming a nice nice person.) After he finds out that they weren't his parents, and the people who raised him were, he reverts back to his old personality.

* Flinx and his search for his genetic father in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' book series. It's played for quite a bit of {{Wangst}} and at least two [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo Are You My Father]] moments, before being concluded in a fairly brutal fashion in the penultimate book, when he discovers that [[spoiler:he doesn't technically have one thanks to the wonders of [[GattacaBabies genetic engineering]]]].

Can lead to LukeIAmYourFather, LukeYouAreMyFather, AreYouMyMummy, TellMeAboutMyFather, or MysteriousParent situations. If this happens in a {{Sitcom}}, be wary when StatusQuoIsGod. Named for, but unrelated to, the character of Gene Hunt on ''LifeOnMars''.

* Flinx and his search for his genetic father in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' book series. It's played for quite a bit of {{Wangst}} and at least two [[AreYouMyMummy Are You My Father]] moments, before being concluded in a fairly brutal fashion in the penultimate book, when he discovers that [[spoiler:he doesn't technically have one thanks to the wonders of [[GattacaBabies genetic engineering]]]].

** That sort of thing has always upset this troper, who spent years looking for the son who was adopted out against her will. Fictional birth (biological) parents don't want their children back - '''real''' ones do!
*** That's unfortunately not always true some real life birth parents who give up their kids really do not want anything to do with their kids.
** They say "blood is thicker than water" but the truth is "family is thicker than blood". Giving birth doesn't make you a mother anymore than getting some woman pregnant makes you a father ("anyone can make a baby, but it takes a MAN to be a dad"). It's the relationship, the love shared, the care taken, that makes someone family (whether that's a parent, child, sibling, etc). Genetics help people identify their kin group through physical similarity and respond more favorably to new members on an instinctive level, but you don't have to be blood relations to be family and being a blood relation won't in and of itself make you family.

* Lyra Belacqua in ''HisDarkMaterials'' 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:[[ChaoticGood Lord Asriel]] and [[LawfulEvil 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.

* DC Comics: Damage. For a while there it was canon that he was genetically the child of ''the entire JSA''. This has since been retconned.

* "[[DoctorWho Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?]]" Of course. It's not quite clear why this little boy is looking for his mummy, but the ''gene'' hunting does save humanity from [[TheVirus zombification]].

* Fran was adopted by a Chinese couple in ''AmericanDad''. 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 CompleteMonster (they gave up their baby rather than downgrade to Coach seats on a flight).

* One episode of ''DharmaAndGreg'' has an old friend of Dharma visit and spend a lot of time with Larry. It turns out that the friend has determined Larry ''may'' be her biological father, and though she doesn't want to bring this up and disrupt his life she wants to bond with him just in case. Dharma eventually discovers proof that Larry couldn't be the father, but chooses not to reveal it when the friend says Larry was her favorite out of all the potential candidates.

* Claire Bennet from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Eventually she finds her biological parents, and [[spoiler:her dad turns out to a be congressman and AloofBigBrother to the man who saved her life: Nathan Petrelli, destined to become President. Nice.]]

* The title character from British anthology comic strip ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishboy_%28comic%29 Fishboy]]'' (yes, I kid you not, he was raised by ''fish'') spends most of his time [[WalkingTheEarth swimming the Earth]] searching for his parents and helping people along the way. He didn't find them before the strip was cancelled.

* Flinx and his search for his genetic father in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' book series. It's played for quite a bit of {{Wangst}} and at least two [[AreYouMyMummy AreYouMyFather]] moments, before being concluded in a fairly brutal fashion in the penultimate book, when he discovers that [[spoiler:he doesn't technically have one thanks to the wonders of [[GattacaBabies genetic engineering]]]].

* Flinx and his search for his real father in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' book series.

* A common premise for ''PansLabyrinth'' fanfic.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]][[LifeOnMars Gene]][[AdamWesting Hunting]]

* Fran was adopted by a Chinese couple in ''AmericanDad''. After Stan gets annoyed by their tradition, he goes on a search for her ''real'' parents.

Should not be confused with StalkerWithATestTube, an entirely different form of gene hunting.

* Lyra Belacqua in ''[[HisDarkMaterials Northern Lights]]'' discovers that her parents are ''not'' the Count and Countess Belacqua who were conveniently killed in an airship accident. Actually, they are (and this is de-spoiled halfway through the book): [[spoiler: [[ChaoticGood Lord Asriel]] and [[ChaoticEvil Marisa Coulter.]] ]] Lyra reacts ''both'' ways to the news: while her [[spoiler: mother]]'s identity distresses and confuses her, she couldn't be happier to learn about her other parent and delights in hearing how [[spoiler: he]] murdered her [[spoiler: mother's]] legal spouse when Lyra was a newborn.

* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Homer's Paternity Coot", where Homer tries to track down a man who he suspects of being his real father.
* Claire Bennet from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Eventually she finds her biological parents, and [[spoiler:her dad turns out to a be congressman and AloofBigBrother to the man who saved her life: Nathan Petrelli, destined to become President. Nice.]]
* Rather amusingly done in ''CurbYourEnthusiasm'', where Larry finds his apparent birth parents, who are Christian (he is Jewish.) After getting over the initial shock, he decides that he likes them, and consequentially loses all of his stereotypically "Jewish" tendencies (as well as becoming a nice nice person.) After he finds out that they weren't his parents, and the people who raised him were, he reverts back to his old personality.
* Flinx and his search for his real father in AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' book series.

* ''Mamma Mia!'' Sophie, who has lived fatherless her whole life, finds an old journal of her mother's detailing three lovers she had around the time of Sophie's conception. So she invites the three men over, and instantly develops a rapport with one of them. Which one is her father? [[spoiler: No one ever knows.]]
** [[WordOfGod The creators have stated that]] [[spoiler: Bill is the father.]]
* Taran's search for his father in ''Taran Wanderer'', the penultimate book of ''{{The Chronicles of Prydain}}'' by Lloyd Alexander. [[spoiler: He never finds out, and realizes that it's not that important anyway]].

* ''FamilyGuy'': 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 ''AmericanDad''. After Stan gets annoyed by their tradition, he goes on a search for her ''real'' parents.
* The title character from British anthology comic strip ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishboy_%28comic%29 Fishboy]]'' (yes, I kid you not, he was raised by ''fish'') spends most of his time [[WalkingTheEarth swimming the Earth]] searching for his parents and helping people along the way. IIRC he didn't find them before the strip was cancelled.
* Lyra Belacqua in ''[[HisDarkMaterials Northern Lights]]'' discovers that her parents are ''not'' the Count and Countess Belacqua who were conveniently killed in an airship accident. Actually, they are (and this is de-spoiled halfway through the book): [[spoiler: [[ChaoticGood Lord Asriel]] and [[ChaoticEvil Marisa Coulter.]] ]] Lyra reacts ''both'' ways to the news: while her [[spoiler: mother]]'s identity distresses and confuses her, she couldn't be happier to learn about her other parent and delights in hearing how [[spoiler: he]] murdered her [[spoiler: mother's]] legal spouse when Lyra was a newborn.
* Somewhat subverted on VeronicaMars: after it's hinted that Veronica may not be Keith's child, she gets DNA results and then discards them without reading. Her father ''also'' got DNA results, but read his. Congratulations, V, your dad's still your dad!
--->[[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming Keith: You think that charm of yours is learned behaviour? That's genetics, baby!]]
** Also done with Trina Echols. The degree to how well that ended is up for debate.

* [[RockosModernLife 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.
* 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: 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.]]
** [[spoiler: He is a frog with a very long nose, not a fish.]]
** [[spoiler: They weren't even their ''biological'' parents. They [[DoorstopBaby were found outside their cave as babies and they took them in]]. Cat and dog are annoyed that they still don't know where they came from, but they knew who [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming cared for them when they were young and that was good enough for them]].]]
* Chuck does this in season 2 of PushingDaisies. Inverted with Emerson Codd, who tries to publish a book to lead his lost daughter to him.
* DC Comics: Damage. For a while there it was canon that he was genetically the child of ''the entire JSA''. This has since been retconned.
* The young adult novel ''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 daughter -- she's wrong).
* Inverted, somewhat, in ''FinalFantasyIV'': Orphan hero Cecil knows he's adopted, after a fashion, but his concern about his real parents is quite low-key. However, though he's not hunting genes, the genes are hunting him.

* A common premise for ''PansLabyrinth'' fanfic.
* Moses in both TheBible and the movie ThePrinceOfEgypt is shocked to find out he's not ''really'' a prince, but a Jew.
** Actually, he knew full well where he came from in TheBible. He murdered an Egyptian out of ethnic/nationalistic pride due to not wanting to see his own attacked by an Egyptian wrongly. ThePrinceOfEgypt merely tidies the story up for young viewers, by making that whole murder thing an accident. The idea that he didn't know who he was actually comes from the film TheTenCommandments.

*** That sort of thing has always upset this troper, who spent years looking for the son who was adopted out against her will. Fictional birth (biological) parents don't want their children back - '''real''' ones do! (Luckily, NZ changed the law in the late 1980s, so people separated by stranger adoption can find each other. This troper found her son, and they now have a reasonable relationship - all the better because the adoptive ''father'' is a not-very-nice person!
**** That's unfortunately not always true some real life birth parents who give up their kids really do not want anything to do with their kids.

* Zigzagged in season 2 of StationeryVoyagers.

* This is the backstory of Izzy Sinclair, from the ''DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic. In the end, she doesn't find her birth parents, but she does reconcile with her adoptive parents (making this a Type 3 with a happy ending).

* Taran's search for his father in ''Taran Wanderer'', the penultimate book of ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' by Lloyd Alexander. [[spoiler: He never finds out, and realizes that it's not that important anyway]].