DNA, GENETIC TESTING – IS IT FOR YOU?
Individuals choose to take DNA tests for various reasons. How the resulting information is used depends on each person. While I was eager for DNA testing, my relatives showed little interest. We had a family secret to solve and for years, I thought there was no hope or there never would be. The person concerned never knew who her father was and for all her life she said she was not interested because she had just learned to live without a father, but she had the best childhood and family anyone could ever want. I know that to be true but there was still a missing link and whole different family that she did not know about. Back in 2015, she stated that she was getting older now and maybe she should have pursued the identity of her father after all. Her mother took his identity to the grave and would never reveal who he was. In her last moments, when asked his name, her mother just turned away and shook her head. People thought the person would never find the answer. I had heard about DNA testing, and many people were testing through Ancestry, which in the beginning, was information gathered by The Church of the Latter-Day Saints to help their church members research their family history. I asked the person concerned if she would be willing to take a DNA test as that may yield answers about finding her father. She said yes and gave me access to her DNA results. There is a lot more to this story, which I will share later. Helping her has been such a journey as at the time, I knew nothing about DNA, centimorgans and how the connections worked. It took me about 2 years to find the answer for her, but I gained so much knowledge, understanding and a great passion for finding the answers. When I begin, I continue until I finish. I had my whole family take a test and this has helped us with our family trees. I began to help others with their family trees, and they would share that with others, and I would help them also. The information can be very shocking and unexpected, so you must tread carefully. I will not add any information unless I can prove it is accurate. When I have finished, I will give the person the information and I do not get involved after that. I’m not a professional Genealogist and I always clarify this when helping others. All information I obtain remains confidential.
GEORGE
I would like to share with you one story, obviously not using true identities. So let us name the person concerned ‘George’. His story is complex and heartbreaking.
George contacted me and stated that he was a DNA match, and a very distant cousin of a family member of mine. He said he was adopted and searching for his birth parents. I have helped with quite a few of these cases. He was a 3rd cousin match, which typically means three generations back. Not the greatest connection and it can take a lot of work to find out where the connection of the families began. So, I began to build his family tree, starting with his DNA matches only as I had no other information to go on. I knew that he was my family member’s third cousin, so I had to go back to that generation to see those to whom at that time we were related. Now you must think about it this way, if it is your Grandparents, then you have four Grandparents and two other families. Great Grandparents, then you have four other families and so on. I took the people in our tree and went to George’s DNA matches to see if anyone shared the same people and what I found was amazing….
To be continued…
