Seems to me that we have an abundance of red herrings to chase.
I couldn’t agree more. It is verging on a comic opera.
Yet, the DNA link has been largely ignored.
The DNA match has been focusing on the Myerson side - but don't know why. The link has other ancestors.
The match is 5%, from DNA painter
64%Great-Great-Aunt / Uncle Half Great-Aunt / Uncle Half 1C 1C1R Half Great-Niece / Nephew Great-Great-Niece / Nephew
35%Half GG-Niece / Nephew † Half GG-Aunt / Uncle † 2C Half 1C1R 1C2R
The match has named her grandparents (through her father) as Morris / Maurice Myerson and Mildred (Roth). She is therefore one of the 3 daughters of that couple's only son.
Morris and Peter are near contemporaries, so likely that the match and Jb are near enough contemporary, so we can probably eliminate any of the great.. and great-great.. relationships.
We probably have to go back to at least great grandparents to find a link.
Assuming no endogamy, the match will have the normal 4 pairs of great grandparents- i.e 8 people who will have contributed to her DNA and need to be investigated.
Turning to Auntie's saga. We don't know when it was written or more importantly when she acquired this wealth of information. Was she an inquisitive child who wondered why she did not appear to have any grandparents. Her maternal gp's (Carstens) died in the 1920s, grandad was a carpenter originally from Cape Town and moved to Johannesberg. No sensational story there. But was she fed all sort of romantic stories about the paternal side, which an impressionable child might have believed? Was Peter illegitimate and didn't actually know who his parents (or his father) were? Was he estranged from them and didn't want to tell her about his real family? Had he really been born in the Transvaal (or more precisely Pretoria) while his mother was taking a holiday, just before the 2nd Boer war (which must have been simmering for ages) officially started.
Did he really spend his childhood elsewhere and return to SA as a adult? Is Peter Barnato his original name? Although Barney Barnato had died in July 1897 (which of course is more than 9 months before Peter's dob as stated on his death record (20/09/1899), the company continued and would be well known throughout SA even without the internet.
Jb has a total of 9% Jewish heritage, almost equal amounts from two different regions. If she tested with Ancestry she should be able to get an indication which side of the family this was from, it may not be from her father's side.
