History Main / GeneHunting

* The Creator/BenStiller film ''Flirting with Disaster''.

* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'': Skye got involved with Rising Tide (and agreed to join SHIELD) partly so she could search various databases for clues about her parents. She knows only that she was dropped off at an orphanage by a SHIELD agent. Coulson and May know more, but are protecting her from the truth.

* Lyra Belacqua in ''Literature/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: 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.

* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'': Skye got involved with Rising Tide (and agreed to join SHIELD) partly so she could search for her parents. She knows only that she was dropped off at an orphanage by a SHIELD agent. Coulson and May know more, but are protecting her from the truth.

Has nothing to do with ''that'' [[LifeOnMars Gene]] [[AshesToAshes Hunt]].

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

* On ''Series/CSINewYork'', 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 GeneHunting was a failure, Mac sympathizes with his could-have-been-stepson, and strikes up a friendship to tell him about his late mother.

There are a few different ways this can play out: firstly, they [[ChangelingFantasy find their genetic parents and discover happiness]] (this only works if the old parents are distant or [[AbusiveParents 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 DownerEnding will have the character give up ''just before'' they would have found their parents).

Should not be confused with StalkerWithATestTube, an entirely different form of gene hunting. When handled poorly, this can carry a great deal of UnfortunateImplications in regards to relationships between adopted children and the parents who raised them (ie, no blood relation = no love/not family).

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] [[Series/LifeOnMars2006 Gene]] [[AdamWesting Hunting]]

* DC Comics: Damage. Thanks to genetic engineering, he was genetically the child of ''the entire JSA''. His birth father was the Atom (Al Pratt).

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

* The Creator/BenStiller film ''FlirtingWithDisaster''.
* The entire premise of ''JoeDirt'', minus the part where he was adopted. Result: His blood relatives are jackasses, but the friends he's collected along his search end up a loving family for him.
* The title character in Astrid Lindgren's ''Mio my Mio''.

* ''{{Secrets and Lies}}'' is all about somebody looking for her birth mother, though she knew she was adopted all along, the death of her adoptive mother triggers the search.

* Flinx and his search for his genetic father in Creator/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 [[DesignerBabies genetic engineering]]]].
* 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]].
* 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: 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.

* 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.
* 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!

* 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.

* ''FamilyTies'': In one episode Alex's friend Skippy goes through this, and is hurt when he goes to meet his birth mother and discovers she doesn't ''want'' to have a relationship. Alex finally says, essentially, "Look, the people who changed your diapers and have raised you all this time? Those ''are'' your real parents," and Skippy decides he's right.
* 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.
* The KoreanDrama ''WinterSonata'': Joon Sang is a high schooler checking school records for who his father might be.
* On ''TrueBlood'' 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 ''BoyMeetsWorld'', Shawn gets a letter from his MissingMom in which she reveals that she is not his real mother. He proceeds to try to track his real mother, and is unsuccessful 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 ''HighlanderTheSeries'', orphaned Richie Ryan does this, to no success--the man claiming to be his father is a con man, and the woman he'd always believed to be his birth mother turned out to have been fostering him. This turns out to be foreshadowing, as Richie is later revealed to be an Immortal, all of whom are foundlings.
* ''GilmoreGirls'' has a girl come into Luke's diner saying that she's doing a DNA test for her science fair to find out who her father is.
* On ''CSINewYork'', 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 GeneHunting was a failure, Mac sympathizes with his could-have-been-stepson, and strikes up a friendship to tell him about his late mother.
* ''ChicoAndTheMan'' has a Japanese young man come and claim Ed Brown as his father, stemming from a tryst after WW2, 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.
* In one episode of ''{{NCIS}}'', Abby learns that she's adopted - and that her biological family lives within easy travel distance of the Navy Yard. She meets the brother she never knew she had, but never tells him they're related, never even sees her birth parents, and the whole matter is never brought up again after the end of the episode.
* In SingleFather, Lucy always knew Dave wasn't her real father but it wasn't until her mother died that she felt compelled to find him. The "hunt" is cut shot, however, when Dave discovers that [[spoiler: Rita always knew who the father was, having asked him specifically to help her have a baby (she told her family it was a one-night stand) and had kept in contact with him.]]
* The plot of [[Series/OnceUponATime Once Upon A Time]] kicks off when Henry seeks and finds his biological mother, Emma.

* ''MammaMia'': 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.]]

* ''FamilyGuy'': Peter goes to Ireland to find his real father.

* ''[[RockosModernLife Rocko's Modern Life]]'' once parodied this in the episode where Heifer found out he was adopted. Heifer is a steer who was 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: 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 ''a female yeti and a frog with a very long nose''. Considering this probably isn't the strangest thing they've ever seen, they're very accepting.]]

* Leela's personal plot in early ''{{Futurama}}'' episodes is this, though played with. As she belives she's an alien, she's looking for her entire race, not just her parents, and she doesn't have adoptive parents, she was raised in the orphanarim from childhood. She belives she finds the only other cyclops, but he turns out to be a shape shifting alien who only wants her to take care of one of his castles. She eventually discovers that she's not an alien, but a sewer mutant who looks mostly normal. Her parents left her on the orphanarium's doorstep because they wanted her to have a normal life and watched over her from the shadows her entire life. She vists them often in later episodes and tries to go back and have a life with them after being returned to a teen, but returns to normal.

* The BenStiller film ''FlirtingWithDisaster''.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Zigzagged in season 2 of ''StationeryVoyagers''.
** Would have been inverted, since Neone's biological parents were interested in knowing what happened to her first.
*** But the inversion is subverted in that they were originally fully content to leave Neone to her ignorance to protect her from Intimidator Irendus.
*** However, they decided to make peace with their past and meet her anyway; since Friar Rubberion had confirmed Neone was Neotondo and Jante's daughter through a paternity test and wanted them to face their fears.
*** ''Then'', Neone double subvert-inverts the subverted inversion by actively seeking to meet with them only to end the tabloid buzz, and not because she's terribly interested in being a part of a royal family. [[MindScrew Does your head hurt yet]]?
[[/folder]]

** He knew full well where he came from in Literature/TheBible. He murdered an Egyptian out of ethnic/nationalistic pride due to not wanting to see his own attacked by an Egyptian wrongly. ''WesternAnimation/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''.

* 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 [[DesignerBabies genetic engineering]]]].

* Featured in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]", when Spike starts questioning his self-identity as a baby dragon raised by ponies. When [[ParentalSubstitute Twilight Sparkle's]] research fails to yield any information, he joins the Great Dragon Migration to learn more about his species. On discovering his parents aren't in the migration and the dragons close to his age are complete dicks, he goes home, deciding the ponies of Ponyville are as close to a real family as he needs.

* 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).

* Featured in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest Dragon Quest]]", when Spike starts questioning his self-identity as a baby dragon raised by ponies. When [[ParentalSubstitute Twilight Sparkle's]] research fails to yield any information, he joins the Great Dragon Migration to learn more about his species.

* 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.

* Moses in the movie ''ThePrinceOfEgypt'' is shocked to find out he's not ''really'' a prince, but a Jew.
** He knew full well where he came from in Literature/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''.

Can lead to LukeIAmYourFather, LukeYouAreMyFather, FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo, 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''.

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

* In an early episode of ''HighlanderTheSeries'', orphaned Richie Ryan does this, to no success--the man claiming to be his father is a con man, and the woman he'd always believed to be his birth mother turned out to have been fostering him.

* The driving plot of the movie ''{{Twins}}'' has the main character leaving his island to search for his family, finding a brother, maybe a father, and finally a mother in the process.