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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Susan Matthews on Monday 16 October 23 13:37 BST (UK)
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I have been trying for 50 years to find my half sister born in 1938 to my father and his first wife. All I have is her birth certificate. There is no trace of her other than it is thought as a toddler she went to live with another family. She was not with anyone of her birth family. Her mother had 3 more children with another man. One dying at birth, one officially adopted and another with no trace. I have their birth certificates only
I appreciate she may be dead but would like to see if she had family. I have DNA on Ancestry, My Heritage and Living DNA. My parents DNA is split so I have been able to home in on my father’s side but apart from a few 2nd cousin matches they are all very distant.
I’m really not sure what I should be looking for to try and find any of her descendants and would be so grateful for any pointers.
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Hi Susan,
Welcome to Rootschat :) I'm certain you'll get many more responses from Chatters a good deal more knowledgeable than me - but to start...
* Where in the world does this take place?
* Confirming - of the 3 children listed - the half sister you seek is one of those 3?
* If you suspect not an official adoption - have you searched databases incl marriage & death records for matching names/ages?
* When you say, "not with anyone in her Birth Family" does that mean not with anyone in your father's first wife's side (the mother) and nor with "the other man's family (the father)?
Cheers
AMBLY
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You will know a half sibling almost straight away if they show up in any of the sites where you have your DNA listed.
A DNA match of about 1700-2000cM shared DNA is that of a half sibling.
A child of the half sibling would be about 800cM.
I have been in correspondence with two half siblings to each other and they share 1920cM between themselves.
DNA can be a waiting game as the %age of people on sites like Ancestry etc is still pretty low.
If you have any DNA matches over 500cM if you post the figures we can advise further.
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Hi Biggles50,
What would you say 400-450 centimorgan DNA match would possibly be ?
I do use DNA painter when I have new matches but would value your opinion.
Could it be a half first cousin ?
Many thanks in advance.
Helen.
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Hi Ambly
Thanks for your post.
I am in the UK but my half sister could have gone anywhere
She and I share the same father and its her or her descendants that I'm looking for.
Her mother had another 3 children with someone else. They are not related to me but are half sisters to my half sister.
No one on her paternal/maternal or the father of her half sisters had anything to do with her up bringing.
I have searched everything I can think of. She has not married or died with her birth name and as I believe her name was changed and she would have no knowledge of me, its very difficult.
My only hope is DNA but as her descendants would only share a little DNA with me and the matches I have are distant, I don't know where to start
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Hi Biggles50,
What would you say 400-450 centimorgan DNA match would possibly be ?
I do use DNA painter when I have new matches but would value your opinion.
Could it be a half first cousin ?
Many thanks in advance.
Helen.
Depending upon generation a 400-450 can be a 1/2 First Cousin or a 1C1R with an 85% probablility.
As well as DNP Painter visit https://dna-sci.com/tools/segcm/ and feed in both the cM and No of Segments for their take on the relationship probabilities.
Whatever the results do keep your options open as there are other possibilities even though they have a lower probability %age.
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Hi Ambly
Thanks for your post.
I am in the UK but my half sister could have gone anywhere
She and I share the same father and its her or her descendants that I'm looking for.
Her mother had another 3 children with someone else. They are not related to me but are half sisters to my half sister.
No one on her paternal/maternal or the father of her half sisters had anything to do with her up bringing.
I have searched everything I can think of. She has not married or died with her birth name and as I believe her name was changed and she would have no knowledge of me, its very difficult.
My only hope is DNA but as her descendants would only share a little DNA with me and the matches I have are distant, I don't know where to start
It is a long shot but you could also try contacting the TV programmes Long Lost Family and DNA Family Secrets to see if they would be interested.
You could also try contacting a specialist agency who deal with adoptions to see if they can help.
Otherwise just keep monitoring for high cM matches showing up, certainly any match over 120cM has the potential to be a 1/2 great great Nephew or Niece or closer.
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Hi Susan, and Welcome to Rootschat.
My parent has a half sibling ,which we knew nothing about until I uploaded my DNA .
To give you some idea on some real life examples - below is what my child and myself share with our half family. My parent hasn't tested ( but their half sibling and children have) , so I don't know what my parent's cms would be exactly against their half sibling of course ( the other siblings have passed away except my parent and their half sibling) , but me being the generation below, I test highly to my parent's half sibling, and am the next best thing to my own parent's dna of course.
( I've also added my 1st full cousin's , my parent's full sibling child's cms too ,at the bottom of the page under the Ps)
I share 1162cm with my parent's half sibling, which is on the higher end ( dna painter actually have a 7% chance that it could be a half sibling to me with this amount )
With their children (my 1st half cousins) I share 562 cm and 546cm
With my 1st half cousins child ( my half 1st cousin once removed) I share 290cm
My child :
shares 570 with my parent's half sibling (great to my child)
And 293 and 346cm with my 1st half cousins ( once removed half 1st to my child)
With my child's Second half cousin ( a child of the above 293cm cousin) my child shares 121cm
Hope this helps
I wish you all the best in locating your sister. Sometimes with the DNA route it is is very much a waiting game. More and more people are testing all the time . All it takes is a child, or grandchild ,or a great grandchild of your sister to test , if she has any of course.
That 400 to 450 cms falls well within a half great nephew/ niece ,an 85% chance at 450cm ( besides half first cousin and
first cousin once removed cousin - also a 13% chance of being a GG half nephew/ niece and so on ) ,My child who is a half great nephew of my parent's half sibling shares just a wee bit higher at 570cm.
Very Kind regards
Ps
My 1st full cousin shares 713cm to our parents half sibling ( where I share 1162)
And only shares 253 cm to our half 1st cousin ,where I share over 500cm with them ,and my child shares 293 and 346 cms with them.
My child actually shares more than my 1st full cousin does to our 1st half cousin.
At first glance people may mistakenly think my 1st full cousin could be on my child's generation line when comparing both of their cms to my 1st half cousins.
Given its only 13% chance on dna painter that 253cm is a half first cousin It's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
My advice would be , never overlook the lower cms ones in your matches , and overlook the lower percentage chances when using the calculators such as dna painter . Those lower cms and low percentage chances can be just as important.
I'd hate to guess what my 1st full cousin's children would be against our first half cousins if they were to test - they could very well be as low as 100cm, even less ( which would fall within 4% to 6% on dna painter ), given my full cousin is only 253 against them.
Kind regards.
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And just to illustrate the variability of DNA inheritance, I have generally higher matches to numerous half cousins through my GGF who had children with at least six different women, than I have to most of my full cousins at similar generational distances. I can only assume that I have inherited a greater proportion of his DNA in comparison to my other ancestors. So I agree with Cell - whilst tools such as DNApainter can offer guidance, don't discount the relationships suggested with lower probabilities. Someone has to match at those levels or they wouldn't be included.
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I have been trying for 50 years to find my half sister born in 1938 to my father and his first wife. All I have is her birth certificate. There is no trace of her other than it is thought as a toddler she went to live with another family. She was not with anyone of her birth family. Her mother had 3 more children with another man. One dying at birth, one officially adopted and another with no trace. I have their birth certificates only
I appreciate she may be dead but would like to see if she had family. I have DNA on Ancestry, My Heritage and Living DNA. My parents DNA is split so I have been able to home in on my father’s side but apart from a few 2nd cousin matches they are all very distant.
I’m really not sure what I should be looking for to try and find any of her descendants and would be so grateful for any pointers.
Have you considered 23&Me? The reason for this is a friend of mine's daughter did a 23&Me test as her maternal grandmother had died from cancer early. To her and her father's total shock she had a "half-aunt" come up on her paternal side. It has all had a very happy ending with her paternal grandmother finally releasing the secret she'd held for most of her life and family united.
Many adpotees use 23&Me looking for medical information.
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I have been trying for 50 years to find my half sister born in 1938 to my father and his first wife. All I have is her birth certificate. There is no trace of her other than it is thought as a toddler she went to live with another family. She was not with anyone of her birth family. Her mother had 3 more children with another man. One dying at birth, one officially adopted and another with no trace. I have their birth certificates only
I appreciate she may be dead but would like to see if she had family. I have DNA on Ancestry, My Heritage and Living DNA. My parents DNA is split so I have been able to home in on my father’s side but apart from a few 2nd cousin matches they are all very distant.
I’m really not sure what I should be looking for to try and find any of her descendants and would be so grateful for any pointers.
Have you considered 23&Me? The reason for this is a friend of mine's daughter did a 23&Me test as her maternal grandmother had died from cancer early. To her and her father's total shock she had a "half-aunt" come up on her paternal side. It has all had a very happy ending with her paternal grandmother finally releasing the secret she'd held for most of her life and family united.
Many adpotees use 23&Me looking for medical information.
I would not touch 23&me with a ten foot barge pole.
Remember they are being investigated over a Data Breach.
Deal with 23&Me at your own risk