In the summer of 2012, CNBC anchor Bill Griffeth took a simple DNA test, and the results changed his life.
The veteran journalist has been an avid amateur genealogist since 2003 and serves on the board of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. He and his wife have traveled through parts of Europe and the U.S. visiting places where their ancestors lived, and he wrote a book about his travels, "By Faith Alone: One Family's Epic Journey Through 400 Years of American Protestantism."
So when a cousin asked Bill to take a DNA test to help with his own genealogical research, he was happy to help out. The results that came back were not at all what was expected. Shockingly, they suggested that Bill's father was not his father. Chaos ensued.
Bill's new book, "The Stranger in My Genes," is the story about that DNA test's troubling impact on his life and his family, chronicling Bill's search for his biological father — and his real identity.
The following excerpt from the book tells how the story began, right in the CNBC newsroom.