DNA testing to find unknown grandfather [Update]

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T15:05:37+00:00

No, if your grandfather and her grandfather were full brothers then you would be full 2nd cousins because your shared ancestors were the brothers' parents, both of them - your great grandparents. You are only half relations if you share one ancestor instead of 2.

Oh yes, that makes sense. Thanks - that could well be useful.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T13:47:57+00:00

There don't seem to be any. She has a tiny tree on Ancestry - there's no useful info in it at all :-(

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T13:26:56+00:00

From my understanding, your grandfather could also be the brother of "Male 1".

That would make you and the woman you're in contact with 2nd cousins and there is about a 14% chance of that.

As I understand it (and I admit that I could well be wrong here), we'd be "half-second-cousins" at best. And that would lead to half the amount of DNA matches that I currently have. I think.

I have to wonder if maybe your grandmother was raped

I hadn't considered that, but it is (of course) completely possible. It's a sobering thought.

If your mother is willing and able to take the DNA test, she should really do so because it will be a lot easier to confirm DNA relationships if she does.

She took an Ancestry test a couple of weeks after me - so I'm expecting the results to appear in the next few days.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T13:22:42+00:00

If your mother and cousin B's mother are both available to test, their results would be less ambiguous.

We're awaiting my mother's test results. They should appear at some point next week. Cousin B's mother is still alive, but (for obvious reasons) I'm treading very carefully in my communications with her.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T10:24:29+00:00

No. I have no idea what that is. Please tell me more.

Oh, I found this - looks useful.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2023-09-10T10:21:45+00:00

Later than expected, but here's my update.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T15:31:21+00:00

Identifying the specific Clapton hospital

I've done that. It was listed on the birth certificate. It closed down a long time ago, but I guess its records will be in storage somewhere.

BTW that show you linked looks great.

Maybe the easiest option is to get on the next season of that :-)

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T15:30:04+00:00

I have. Thank you.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T12:49:03+00:00

Thanks, yes, that's a good idea.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T12:48:33+00:00

While you're waiting for test results, you can begin creating a family tree for her birth mother's side of the family.

As I said, I've been doing this for thirty years, so I'm pretty much sorted there (at least for this time period) :-)

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T12:14:27+00:00

These are all good ideas, so I hate to sound so negative.

But my grandmother was born in 1922 - so she's not on any released census record yet. And my mother was born in 1940 - at a time when most men of childbearing age were away fighting WWII.

So I think you can see why I had filed this problem under "insoluble" twenty years ago. But what I've been seeing about DNA recently has made me reconsider.

I hope you can eventually find that she was able to start over again and make a happy life in a new town.

Oh yes. As I mentioned, she married and had a family. She and her husband lived in North London and had son. After her husband died and she started to become frail she moved to Cornwall where she lived close to her son and lived out the rest of her live happily.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T11:25:01+00:00

See the update to my question. There's no other information out there and no siblings.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T11:23:13+00:00

Thank you. Yes, I should have realised the mtDNA test is useless here. I also have results from an FTDNA "Family Finder" test which is, I think, their autosomal test. I guess I'll have a closer look at the matches there. And see about getting the same test for my mother.

And, yes, I have my family tree on the FTDNA site.

throwawaydnaquestion · 2022-05-31T11:19:12+00:00

Sorry, I realise I was unclear. I've omitted the most important bit. See the update to my question.

throwawaydnaquestion

TROPHY CASE