Finding Client's missing father from Family Finder test

[raven]

I need to ask a DNA question, please.

I have a client who has had some testing done (through FTDNA), and has some further results pending. I've not yet delved into this world so know little about it, and what I'd like to know is regarding the Family Finder matches that have cropped up for her. As far as I've been able to get on her tree (ground zero is NZ) much migration came from the UK, but in FF most of the matches (closest are 2nd-4th cousins) come from the US so it is proving difficult to link the families (especially when some of the other people appear to have no interest in communication or sharing tree info!). In fact when viewing the My Origins data none shows up from the US, rather it is centralised in the UK, with some Norwegian and Polish.

Now, all the research I've been able to do has had to centre around her maternal line because her father is unknown, but rumoured to have been a US military man (stationed in NZ during the relevant time). So, my question is, is there any way some of his genetic info could be picked up from his daughter (my client), hence the great number of FF matches from the US? Because as I understand it in order to trace the paternal line one needs a male to gather the genetics from? My client has no siblings with this same father. I know how much it would mean to her to be able to trace her paternal line (she is 70 years old).

I'm not sure if there is an easier way of trying to find links between her tree and the ones through FF, but at the moment I am just gathering as much data from these other trees (the closest matches) in the hopes of eventually finding some overlapping ancestors. Its the long way round, I know.

Any ideas on this, anyone?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Generally every individual picks up around 50% of their Autosomnal DNA from their mother and 50% from their father. Note it might be 49.5% vs 50.5% but it will be very close to 50/50. Matches in the US are possibly a match to your client but ONLY if they are labelled as better than 4th cousins. 5th cousins and beyond the chance of a match gets closer to random chance rather than due to any definite matching.

In your shoes I'd only bother chasing up 2nd cousins or better matches. It's just going to be too hard to trace a 3rd cousin or worse.

The reason for this is if you apply the 50/50 rule then you get
siblings : 50% from father, 50% mother
1st cousins : 25% fathers father, 25% father's mother, 25% mothers father, 25% mothers mother
2nd cousins : 12.5% fathers paternal grandfather, 12.5% fathers paternal grandmother, 12.5% fathers maternal grandfather, 12.5% fathers maternal grandmother, 12.5% mothers paternal grandfather, 12.5% mothers paternal grandmother, 12.5% mothers maternal grandfather, 12.5% mothers maternal grandmother
3rd cousins : you are down to 6.25% from each 2g grandparent.

As you see the more you go down tree the less DNA you are likely to share with a cousin. So for this sort of tracking beyond 3rd cousins gets vanishingly small chance of success.

Edit: Also note that FTDNA is a US company so their data has a built in US bias. ie: more clients from US that any other place in the world. Bear that in mind. It's also another reason why it is worth ignoring anything beyond 3rd cousin as a lot of them won't actually be a match. You'd hit gold if you got a 1st or 2nd cousin. However its not that likely as it also requires having someone from the other family having tested. That said once the data is collected its like the Lost Cousins site it is still good and sits there waiting for other tests to become available to produce new matches.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Another thought. You say "my client has no siblings with this same father" which implies she may have siblings with the same mother? If so then it COULD significantly help if the sibling(s) who share the same mother tested too.

The point is that they would get 50% of their DNA from their mother. That DOES NOT MEAN that they will get the SAME 50% from their mother though. To explain lets say father A (missing father) has data ABCD, shared mother has data EFGH, and second father has data IJKL.

Your client could have got ABEF (2 letters from father, 2 from mother) or BDFG etc.

Her sibling with shared mother could have got IJEF (ie: 50% of DNA in common with your client) or KLGH (nothing in common) or JKFG (25%, the F, in common). Note we have several billion letters that make up our DNA not just 4 but the smaller number makes it easier to understand.

The point is that a half sibling could help eliminate matches as being on the mothers side not the fathers. Her mothers sample would 100% eliminate the matches on her mothers side but I'm guessing if she is 70 then its likely her mother is no longer with us.

 

[raven]

Thank you for that explanation, much appreciated and pretty clear. The closest FF match my client has says this other woman is a '2nd-3rd' cousin but unfortunately she is not forthcoming in the sharing department, apparently. Shame.

My client has several 1/2 siblings so may be able to approach at least one of them - the more the better to increase chances of a positive result? Her mother is still alive, amazingly enough (early 90s) but not approachable.

Your explanation has, I think, also saved me a lot of unnecessary chasing up of those possible connections if, as you say, they will be too distant to match effectively. I guess now its more a waiting game until more people submit their own DNA and we get lucky with a closer match.

 

[Tim]

My client has several 1/2 siblings so may be able to approach at least one of them - the more the better to increase chances of a positive result?

This is very true. As Alexander pointed out, you can eliminate more matches and focus in on common matches by having more samples to match against.

 

[emjay]

Very informative in 'plain speak' you guys.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Her mother is still alive, amazingly enough (early 90s) but not approachable.

That is a great shame it is only a cheek swab so non invasive and would go a MASSIVE way to eliminating matches.

Basically you'd have two tests and would expect the matches on the mothers side to appear in both tests and the ones left over from your client would be matches on the fathers side. This could give you a large batch of possible matches to follow up. I've done this with my own mother so it makes it really easy to work out when someone contacts me if I should be looking for a maternal or paternal match.

 

[raven]

In regards to her mother, there is always hope I guess. I am going to pass these snippets on to my client so she can get a better understanding of the results she's had, and see what her next step/s might be.


As a bonus, I am gaining knowledge before I step into the DNA-testing world for myself.

 

[Tim]

Hi Raven, there is another discussion going on here about DNA testing which you might find helpful.

 

[SarahLC]

Hello Raven,
I have often been able to find enough about a DNA match in the U.S. from the name and email address provided to track them down and begin to reconstruct their family tree, even though they don't respond to a contact request. It helps that the U.S. 1940 census is freely available, as most of the testers were either on that census or their parents were. Then the previous censuses will continue to take you back. If you're in luck, the match will have been born in a state with online birth records, such as California or Texas. The U.S. public records index often has exact birth dates and if the match has an unusual name or a helpful middle initial, one can often be fairly confident that one has found the correct person. I would be glad to give it a try if you would like to pm me the details of the closest matches.

 

[peter]

In your shoes I'd only bother chasing up 2nd cousins or better matches.

It's unusual to get a match this close - unless you prompt a known cousin to test, of course.

Some simple statistics will demonstrate why: assuming you have 50 relatives who are 2nd cousins or closer, that's just over 1 in 100,000 of the NZ population, less than 1 in 1,000,000 of the UK population, and less than 1 in 6,000,000 of the US population. However, so far only about 120,000 people have taken the Family Finder test (according to ISOGG).

 

[raven]

Hello Raven,
I have often been able to find enough about a DNA match in the U.S. from the name and email address provided to track them down and begin to reconstruct their family tree, ... I would be glad to give it a try if you would like to pm me the details of the closest matches.

I hadn't thought of that strategy but I can see how it would work, thanks for the tip.

I will see what sort of list I can compile and pm you with it.
If there is a chance that my client's father's family could be found this way, it would truly make her day! She was given scant snippets of information about him by her mother, but has taken them with huge grains of salt. If any of them could be proven true with the help of her DNA results it would be wonderful, and help her gain a sense of identity she's always felt the lack of.

 

[raven]

Hi Raven, there is another discussion going on here about DNA testing which you might find helpful.

Thank you, I shall check out the links in that discussion. I did like biology at school, but when combined with the math aspect (my worst subject) it makes my eyes cross.

 

[SarahLC]

I got hooked on genealogy when I worked on tracking down my mother's parents and managed to find photographs of them while she was still alive to appreciate it (they died when she was a baby and she knew very little about them.) By this time my mother was in her late 80s... so I am very sympathetic to the situation! If her father was in the military, it might be possible to narrow down the field that way and find him in the WWII enlistment records, once one had some idea of who he might be. Good luck with convincing the mother to donate a cheek swab-- as Alexander said, it would be extremely valuable to be able to exclude the matches on her side.

 

[raven]

From what my client has said (after I passed on the wonderful hints & explanations from yesterday) that family cooperation is unlikely. So I will help her in any other ways I can, with genealogy research and anything else that has the potential to make links.


For myself, most of my research success has come along after my mother and grandmother have passed, and I would have really loved to have been able to share it all with them. My mother and I began the journey together, and my grandmother had some greatly intriguing snippets of family lore which I've since been able to prove.

I love the challenge, the puzzles, the hunt, the research, the eureka moment.... I could go on.

 

[uncle024]

Hello Raven,
I have often been able to find enough about a DNA match in the U.S. from the name and email address provided to track them down and begin to reconstruct their family tree, even though they don't respond to a contact request. It helps that the U.S. 1940 census is freely available, as most of the testers were either on that census or their parents were. .

Sarah, I agree, put on your detective hat and try and work out who the person is from the little clues they have given. Google their email address, Facebook, Whitepages etc. Its SO frustrating when people do a DNA test and don't give paternal/maternal line, except to say John Smith born 1800 in NC with no supporting information. Having said that a good 30% of my potential matches are people who are adopted or have a known break in their ancestry.

 

[SarahLC]

Yes, we all hope to find a breakthrough on our brick walls... in the case of adoptees, every line is a brick wall. I have corresponded with several adoptees who were able, with perseverance, to track down their birth parents through DNA.
In the meantime, things have been happening behind the scenes on this forum and Raven and I managed to find out the identity of the close DNA match and trace her family back. Now the problem is to find where it may or may not intersect with her client's birth father, since he may have given a false name

 

[raven]

Yes, Sarah has been a wonderful help

I must say, that since this 'mysterious cousin' has been so unforthcoming and uninterested in helping to find a match between herself and my client, I am quite gleeful that we've managed to find out so much about her anyway. nah-nah! I've always said genealogists would make wonderful private detectives.

 

[raven]

UPDATE: my client finally knows who her father was!!!

Basically, through a possible distant cousin making an enquiry of my client from FTDNA information we three nutted out in a couple of days just how they were related (roughly 5x cousins+removed).
To refresh, my client has been waiting approx. 70 years to know who her father was and had just about given up hope. Interestingly, comparing what we now know about him against the scant information she was told about him there was very little actual truth! No wonder he was hard to find.

I am so very pleased for her.

 

[uncle024]

Raven, Congratulations on your success. I am new to using FF to help in tracing. I have a client whose mother is still alive and asked me to trace her father. The clients mother knew some facts about the father such as he went on to marry and have a daughter and his approximate age and occupation. I think I have found the daughter/ half sister but the father has since died. So would FF be a way forward?