Tag: #dnadetective

Happy Beginnings

Finally, my client’s DNA was ready, and we were both excited!  She was adopted at birth and was interested in learning about her biological family.  I began looking at her DNA matches and immediately discovered her closest matches were to two individuals listed by Ancestry as “Close Match or First Cousin.”  I was able to ascertain that the two individuals were not related to one another, so I knew she had close matches on both her maternal and paternal lines.  I spent a few minutes and figured out that she was somehow related to a woman with the last name of Greene.  I took a break and returned several hours later.  After looking closer, I realized the match I thought was a first cousin, was closer.  I checked the centimorgans and compared it to the chart.  Astoundingly, she was quite possibly, a half-sister because they shared 1600 centimorgans.  I never dreamed I would find her half-sister so quickly.  We knew her mother had later married and had four children.  The match was one child of six, although four were relatively close in age, and then two additional children came later.  I began researching the family and found a photograph of the woman from her High School Yearbook.  I snapped a copy of the photo and sent it to my client.  Her response, “OMG, she looks just like I did when I was younger!”

Fast forward to the next day.  I sent an email to this match.  I received an immediate response.   She was interested in talking to me about her half-sister.  She replied, ” I have known about a half-sister all of my life and is why I have taken a DNA test, in hopes of finding her.”  This email spurred a rush of emotion.  I was holding back tears of joy!  My client thought she was never a second thought in her biological family.  Not only was she thought about, but her sister was also looking for her.   They spoke on the phone for the first time today, apprehension and uncertainty, ended with acceptance, love, and the possibility of a new, extended family.

Every time I take on a new endeavor, I become emotionally attached to the outcome.  A purpose in life for me, using technology to help reunite families in a new way.   Satisfying.  Now, her father’s side.  Happy Beginnings Part II

Deep Kentucky Roots

Yesterday, I wrapped up a project for a woman who was adopted as a child.  She was looking for her biological father.  My research began a month ago and mainly involved the state of Kentucky.  She had a person in mind whom she considered a possibility but wanted verification.

I began my research with an empty palette.  My goal was to come to a conclusion by following the DNA.  I didn’t want to begin my research with the suspected individual.

After gaining access to profile on Ancestry.com, I was able to link her DNA to her tree and started building a tree.  I began with her mother (whom she identified several years ago) and developed a comprehensive tree on her maternal side.  Her grandfather’s name was Maxwell, a very common name in Kentucky. This Maxwell line has been traced to Herbert Maxwell (1382-1454), in Lancashire, Scotland.

One of her DNA cousins was a direct descendant of her great-grandfather.  I clicked on this individual’s profile and sorted by shared matches.  I then highlighted the star on the left, next to every match.  This helped me to sort her matches (highlighted stars) were her maternal matches.  The remainder of her matches, who did not have highlighted stars, were more likely to be on her paternal (father’s) side.

I then began the painstaking process of building family trees for all of the people who were suspected to be on her father’s side.  I looked for common surnames and eventually, tied all of these trees together.  This process can take weeks or even months.  As I constructed each tree, I looked at the person with whom she shared DNA.  I looked at the centimorgans and then looked at the probable relationship.  One of her matches was someone named Larry Webster.  He shared 874 centimorgans across 41 DNA segments with my client.  The above chart shows the possible relationships based on centimorgans.  Based on my client’s year of birth and Mr. Webster’s year of birth, I knew he had to be her cousin.  He was too old to be her brother’s son/grandson.  With this information, I began looking at all of the male siblings in both his mother’s and father’s families.  At this point, I had to expand the tree and develop a tree for Larry’s mother’s side of the family.  As I began to do this, the DNA trees I had developed, started falling into place.

The final step was to connect my client (in her tree) as a daughter to one of Larry’s uncles, on his mother’s side.  We chose the gentleman whose age was the closest to my client’s mother.   As it turns out, this was the individual she suspected to be her father.  In order to be completely certain, we must reach out to one of her half-siblings and see if they are interested in submitting their DNA.  If so, their centimorgans will tell us if our hypothesis is correct.  If it is not, we will likely move to one of this gentleman’s brothers.

Because we linked my client’s DNA to her tree as we began this project, Ancestry.com was able to sort through the tree and identify matches in my client’s tree with the trees of her DNA matches.  When Ancestry finished this process, we had identified 186 shared hints.  The photo on the left shows the number of shared hints.  The image on the right shows exactly who the shared ancestor is and the relationship of the “cousins.”  The image shown is one of my shared matches with a cousin.  We share great-grandparents.