DNA test to find unknown GGGrandad

[Caitie777]

My GG grandad was “unknown “ and I was wondering if there’s any way to use my dna test to try and find that branch of the family. Does anyone have any tips please?

[durhamgirl73]

I have the same problem an unknown gg grandad - when my mam and auntie took their dna test there were alot of people who I could match with each other but I couldn't find my connection - I assumed they had something to do with the unknown man but even the location of the family had not appeared before in my research - the only way I can be certain is for someone from a different line to take the test to confirm or rule them out:

unknown gg grandad and known gg grandma had a son
g grandad had 2 sons (one my line and I'm hoping in the future someone from the line of the other son will do a test) 

[a-l]

I wish I had catie777.
I have spent weeks trying to identify my Grandfather through DNA and about to give up.

[durhamgirl73]

Do you have high cM matches with people you can't link?

Caitie - how many children does the child of your unknown gg grandad have?

[brigidmac]

The simple answer  is yes with various triangulations and collaberation from descendants of as many branches as possible lots of clues. a scientific approach and a dollop of luck

Read Biggles posts and mine & others on this forum
 about unknown matches and greatgrandparents

Ive had success matching two grandsons with unknown great grandfather
So it would be similar but harder because a generation further back

Also have worked out a potential lineage for an adoptee who shares 6 x ggparents with me
Its time intensive ...

[msfarrar]

Read my post in this forum which I just posted today
The story of how DNA testing found my Grand Father

The trick is identify the DNA clusters ( the group of people who all DNA relate to each other and you)
Some clusters will share DNA  matches with your known  relatives.  Research the family trees of those in the cluster who have built a family tree that goes back several generations. You may find  a common name/location )
e.g. if your GGGP's were named Arkwright and lived in Bolton  and you found the name Arkwright or Bolton show up in a couple of the family trees' theres a very good chance that cluster of DNA tests are related to that side of your family   and so can be discounted in the search for your unknown GGGrandad

Once you you have a cluster(s)  that doesnt have any of your known ancestors in them, you are in  a position to do what I did in my post and research them to find who the person is who links all the people in that cluster together
HTH  Good Luck !

[Ruskie]

DNA can help, but it is not guaranteed that the unknown gggrandfather’s descendants have taken DNA tests. If they are from the UK and their descendants stayed in the UK you are not likely to have as many matches as those who emigrated to the USA for example.  It might just be a waiting game for you.

Hints and tips and success stories are good to hear and may help, but what works for one might not work for others. It can sound so simple in theory, but the reality can be different and quite disheartening.

If you took a test with Ancestry, as most people seem to have done, upload your raw data to other sites such as My Heritage, and pay to unlock their useful features. You might find you have different matches on different sites. As you probably know, Ancestry do not return the favour and allow people who have tested elsewhere to upload their raw data to Ancestry, so you might miss out on some matches. Ancestry also do not have a chromosome browser, which others do, and which you might find is a useful tool.

Good luck.

[guest189040]

I too am in the same boat.

My Paternal Great Grandmother Isabella’s Father is unknown (GGGF) and her Mother Grace’s (GGGM) line has three DNA Matches to distant Cousins who are mapped out and within my tree.

Of my current DNA Matches I have none that have any useful trees or for that matter user names that I can presently work with.  I would share about 400cM with my GGGF so a half 3rd Cousin would share c50cM with me.

It seems GGGM Grace was a bit of a lass with at least two illegitimate children, one was my GGM Isabella, and it was the same with Grace’s Sister who also had two illegitimate children.  This does not give me much confidence in finding who my unknown GGGF was, it was certainly not the man her mother Grace married as he was only nine years younger than Isabella.

It is a case of Detective work, build your tree, use the Ancestry functions to create Groups that share DNA, build Floating Branches for DNA matches, label up the DNA match that they are in a Floating Branch (I have one such Floating Branch with six DNA Matches all linked together, just not yet linked to my main tree).  Then leave it a couple of weeks are return refreshed and see if any hints have resulted and if my DNA Matches have resulted.

Don’t give up, keep nibbling away at it and just maybe.

[Caitie777]

Thanks for all the replies. One of my highest dna matches is a women who doesn’t match my mothers dna test though, could that be possible that the unknown gg grandads dna wouldn’t match my mums? Probably highly unlikely I guess. Back to the thinking game 🙃