Unknown Surname

[sonyao]

 I had a short romance with a man in Sydney in 1971 from which my daughter was born.  This man named John left Sydney  to work in Mt Isa, I received a letter and photo several months later, sadly I destroyed the letter, before I thought to write his surname on the back of the photo as his surname I was unable to pronounce. I have placed the photo on the Mt Isa Face Book page several times, there are several men sitting at the table in the photo and two have been identified.   My daughter has done a DNA test and discovered her grandfather is an American Marine who was in Queensland in the mid 1940s, he returned home possibly not knowing he had a child here.  It has been suggested John ? may have been adopted.  I hope I am not wasting your time.
Sonya

[Spelk]

If John was born in the 40s he may still be alive and so we are not meant to put any details about him online.
However I suggest you put your query on the Australian board where it may catch the eye of someone, or ask the moderator to move this to there.
As Mt ISA has a population of only about 20,000 if John had stayed there the locals could probably identify him from a photo.
Is your daughter’s DNA on several different sites? I copied mine onto MyHeritage and after some years found a close relative who had been given  a DNA test with them as a Christmas present and took it “for a laugh”. His mother had been adopted.
Can you get access to a list of residents of Mt ISA now and or back in around 1975. If John has such odd surname you might recognise it.

[sonyao]

Thank you, I will move it as you suggested

[sparrett]

If you have an Ancestry account you can search the Electoral Roll for Mt Isa in 1972.
I had a try at putting in First name John and blank on second name.
Date 1972. Place Mount Isa QLD.

There were 977 Johns.

A trawl through might help you.

To vote in Australia in 1972 you needed to be 21 and a citizen
Sue

[sonyao]

Thank you, I know that John was not a local, I believe he probably worked for one of the contracting companies there. I briefly met him again at the same address one year later, he had a nurse of his daughter but didn't seem very interested.  I have put the photo on the Face Book site 'ex Mt isan's from the 70's catch up page' some of the men have been identified.  I have tried every thing I can think of, also paid $4000,00 to a detective agency,  Without a surname or a DNA hit I don't think we will ever find this man.

[sparrett]

He did not have to be a local to vote in 1972.

It was then as is now compulsory for citizen of age

You use the word address.  What do you actually mean by "Same Address"?

[sonyao]

The address was a house converted to flats in Petersham, Sydney I lived in the top flat, his
 friends lived  down stairs, it was thru them i met John, after the baby was born I left but returned a few months later to collect mail, John was there again(the same time of year). I didn't vote till I was in my late thirties, nothing was digitized back then, you only got caught if the Electoral Officer came knocking on your door.  Some of the men in the photo were recognized because they were locals, some of the names were wrong but no one offered up a surname for John, 

[Biggles50]

Can you explain how you know that the Grandfather was an American Marine & the amount of DNA she shares with him?

A Grandparent should share a mean of 1754cM with your Daughter but her inherited DNA from him could be in the range 984-2462cM.

There may be legal records of John’s Mother seeking financial support.

John may have had children with other women and in which case it may well be a waiting game that one of his close family takes a DNA test.

Uploading the DNA to other sites may yield results as would your Daughter taking a My Heritage DNA test.