Mystery Parentage

[KarenG]

I have just discovered that my maternal grandfather was not my mother's biological father. My mother's DNA matches have been baffling me for a while and this new piece of information will explain some of the mysteries. I now have the task of trying to work out who her biological father may have been. I have a match of 115cM that could potentially be on her father's side. Does anyone know how far back the common ancestor is likely to be? I appreciate this is not an exact science.
Thanks in anticipation.

 

[peter]

I have just discovered that my maternal grandfather was not my mother's biological father. My mother's DNA matches have been baffling me for a while and this new piece of information will explain some of the mysteries. I now have the task of trying to work out who her biological father may have been. I have a match of 115cM that could potentially be on her father's side. Does anyone know how far back the common ancestor is likely to be? I appreciate this is not an exact science.
Thanks in anticipation.

See the coloured chart at the end of the Masterclass.

This is a good time to remind anyone else who has tested that one of your priorities should be to verify your previous research, as described in this recent newsletter article. Nobody wants to be 'barking up the wrong tree'!

 

[KarenG]

Thank you. I looked at the Masterclass before posting but I did not scroll far enough down to see the chart! I now have an uphill struggle to find out who my grandfather was. I will revisit the matches to my mother's 115cM match to see if there is any new information. I have looked at this person before but there were no names I recognised.

 

[peter]

Thank you. I looked at the Masterclass before posting but I did not scroll far enough down to see the chart! I now have an uphill struggle to find out who my grandfather was. I will revisit the matches to my mother's 115cM match to see if there is any new information. I have looked at this person before but there were no names I recognised.

Surely it's the names that you don't rccognise that you should be focusing on?

When you were looking through the Masterclass did you spot this section?

If you have a very recent unknown ancestor

If you allow the Masterclass to be your guide you can't go far wrong.

 

[KarenG]

Hi Peter, Thank you for your reply. When I first came across this person I traced them back as far as I could at the time and set up a separate tree with all the connections I could find but could still not find any connection to my family. This was a while ago so I am going to look again to see if any new information comes to light. I will also reread the relevant section of your Masterclass as I have found it a very useful reference during my research.

 

[peter]

When I first came across this person I traced them back as far as I could at the time and set up a separate tree with all the connections I could find but could still not find any connection to my family.

The whole point about an unexpected parent is that the records are wrong. So whilst building a tree for your match is part of the process of figuring how you are connected (and, therefore, working out who your mystery grandfather is) you're not going to find the connection no matter how far back you go, because you're building your cousin's tree using records.

I will also reread the relevant section of your Masterclass as I have found it a very useful reference during my research.

You probably didn't mean that literally, but for the benefit of others reading this post: the DNA Masterclass isn't intended to be used as a reference, it is designed to be your guide for your entire DNA journey.