Tracking Down a Missing Grandfather (Another One)

[farmeroman]

Another missing grandfather DNA conundrum.

My daughter-in-law’s mother was adopted soon after birth in 1945. I have traced her birth mother through adoption records, but the father was not recorded on either the adoption records or the original birth certificate. The child’s maternal line has now been proven by DNA (much to the surprise of the family concerned).

I have spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to find the child’s father through DNA and believe that I may now have a very good candidate family, and possibly even an individual, but I need some help checking my DNA logic in case I've made a stupid mistake.

I've been looking for reasonably high cM (150+) matches to my DIL with no familial connection to anyone on her tree. This of course  requires a common ancestor and/or a good reliable tree. Until recently most of the unconnected matches have been those with either a low cM match and/or no tree, but yesterday I found a 175 cM match (which could equate to a second cousin or a half second cousin) with no common ancestors and with a good Ancestry tree. This matches tree shows a familial link to another (101 cM) match and I now believe that the child’s father could be one of three brothers, one of whom lived just half a mile away and in the next street to the mother of the child in 1939 (I can’t confirm he still lived there in 1945, but I know that she did). The other two brothers probably did not live nearby so I’ve discounted them for now. All of the other matches to the 175 cM match have zero matches with the child’s mother’s line.

This make the 175 cM DNA match my DIL’s half second cousin, which fits well with the online cousin calculator.

When considering her matches I have of course excluded anyone with a link to my DIL’s paternal line (he was Indian, which makes it easy to separate her maternal and paternal lines) for currently unassigned matches and anyone who has a DNA match to the child’s maternal line.

I do have Protools, but that doesn’t seem to help.


I may have been rambling a bit, but it's difficult to get my head around this and to be sure that I've got all possibilities covered. So, with that level of DNA match (175 cM) and no links at all to anyone on the child’s maternal line, is it reasonable to assume that I’m on the right track, or could I be missing something obvious?

[Biggles50]

At 175cM there are a lot of relationship possibilities but it does have a high probability that it is a Half relationship.

1) Have you mapped out a tree for the 175cM match?

2) The shared 101cM match, are they also in the tree with the 175cM match?

If the answers to 1) & 2) are both yes then what is the relationship between the two?

ProTools most useful feature is seeing how much cM shared matches also share with each other.  This info can be used to build them into a family tree as the cM may give a cue to MRCA’s.

In Police drama’s we see, Means, Motive & Opportunity are criteria used in solving the crime and in this case the Brother certainly fits the Bill (sorry bad pun).

You could also check on the various Newspaper sites to see if there was any Paternity Cases reported, unlikely given the adoption but it is stone that needs turning.

Alas it is one of the downsides of DNA is that there is very likely not going to be a paper trail.

If we assume that you have identified the Biological Father then I would look to include all his children and grandchildren in the family tree and I would approach the older ones and after explaining the situation I would ask for their help and offer to give them a DNA test kit.

The latter worked for me.

[LisaMarieHanneyMontague]

If you tracked down the mum and made contact and took a DNA test, did you not ask her? If they were all surprised to know she had a child adopted out does make you wonder why, or if it was consensual. Good luck anyway I was trying to trace a partner's adopted father I spoke to some people on Facebook when I said why I was looking their attitude changed ,l, don't think they believed me, his mum was only 14 at the time bless her

[farmeroman]

If you tracked down the mum and made contact and took a DNA test, did you not ask her? If they were all surprised to know she had a child adopted out does make you wonder why, or if it was consensual. Good luck anyway I was trying to trace a partner's adopted father I spoke to some people on Facebook when I said why I was looking their attitude changed ,l, don't think they believed me, his mum was only 14 at the time bless her

The mother and the child (my daughter-in-law's mother) both passsed away many years ago (2004 and 1991 respectively), so neither was spoken to or took DNA tests. Her adoptive parends are also deceased.

It was always known that the child was adopted soon after birth, but the story regarding her natural family was deliberately hidden by the family (they concocted and documented a complicated story to cover it up) until I researched her background and obtained access to the original adoption records. Those explained that the child was adopted because the mother's husband (yes that's correct, she was married) was not the father; the adoptive mother was in fact the mother's first cousin, later proved by my daughter-in-law's DNA test. This was a big surprise to the family of the mother and the surviving child of her adoptive parents, who now knows that he is a blood relative of my daughter-in-law.

So I'm afraid that any record of the father of the child is now long gone.

[farmeroman]

At 175cM there are a lot of relationship possibilities but it does have a high probability that it is a Half relationship.

1) Have you mapped out a tree for the 175cM match?

2) The shared 101cM match, are they also in the tree with the 175cM match?

If the answers to 1) & 2) are both yes then what is the relationship between the two?

ProTools most useful feature is seeing how much cM shared matches also share with each other.  This info can be used to build them into a family tree as the cM may give a cue to MRCA’s.

In Police drama’s we see, Means, Motive & Opportunity are criteria used in solving the crime and in this case the Brother certainly fits the Bill (sorry bad pun).

You could also check on the various Newspaper sites to see if there was any Paternity Cases reported, unlikely given the adoption but it is stone that needs turning.

Alas it is one of the downsides of DNA is that there is very likely not going to be a paper trail.

If we assume that you have identified the Biological Father then I would look to include all his children and grandchildren in the family tree and I would approach the older ones and after explaining the situation I would ask for their help and offer to give them a DNA test kit.

The latter worked for me.

Yes there is a good tree for the 175 cM match. He has four great uncles all born in the same area, but only one still lived there in 1939 and lived about half a mile away in the next street. I’m assuming he still lived there in 1945.

I agree there is unlikely to be a paper trail, unless the 175 cM match comes back and says “ah, that sounds like great uncle ‘thingummy’. What a rascal he was!”. There definitely isn’t any from the mother’s side, who were surprised she even existed when I told them about the adoption, so it must have been covered up at a very early stage. There is almost no chance of a paternity suit being filed since the mother was already married and according to the adoption record it was agreed that the child would be given up to a family friend – she was actually one of the mother’s first cousins. The adoptive father covered the whole thing up with an elaborate written document explaining that the mother had died in childbirth and her name was unknown, which was certainly untrue.

The 101 cM match was my mistake I’m afraid – she doesn’t have a tree, and unfortunately neither does a 165cM match. However, there are at least three lower cM matches at 39, 24 and 20 to my DIL whose trees all connect into the 175 cM tree, although none of them have DNA matches with Mr 175cM. They do match with the 165 or 101 cM matches to him though. I assume that’s not so surprising at the lower end of the cM matches. The trees join at g-g-g or g-g-g-g grandparent level.

I'm currently working my way though the Protools shared matches to Mr 175cM and putting them in to Excel to see if I can make any sense of it all. Most of the lower matches don't have useable trees, but those that do all join into the 175 cM tree at some point. One thing that does stand out is that none of the shared matches, or any of the shared matches of the shared matches, have any common ancestors with the maternal side of the child.

Does it sound like I'm onto something here? Or is it just wishful thinking?

[Biggles50]

Yes, you do seem to be on the right track.

I would suggest that when you get further down the line and have a possible resolution you then park it, step away and leave it.

Go back to basics a week or so later and verify each stage of your process, a fresh look and all that.

Do keep the thread updated.

[farmeroman]

Yes, you do seem to be on the right track.

I would suggest that when you get further down the line and have a possible resolution you then park it, step away and leave it.

Go back to basics a week or so later and verify each stage of your process, a fresh look and all that.

Do keep the thread updated.

Thanks. I'm now going back through my scribbled notes and confused thoughts and documenting the whole thing; names, places, dates, relationships, documents.

One thing I've now realised is that the mother did not live in that property in 1939 as I earlier claimed; her married sister did, but she (the mother) definitely was staying there in 1945 after the birth of the child. What I need to establish is whether she arrived there before or after she became pregnant. I suspect the former and that she had gone to stay with her sister when her husband went away to war, although proving it may be difficult. I do have DNA matches to a grandson and a great grandson of the sister so I'll contact them to see if they have any information, although I don't hold out much hope.

I'll keep you posted!