I've been working on my genealogy since junior high school, so there have been many big discoveries along the way. But, far and away, my favorite came in November 2018 when I discovered a half sister.
I had my DNA analyzed by ancestry.com a few years earlier. If you've done the same, you know they list your matches in order by number of shared centimorgans (a measurement of distance on your chromosomes). Usually, it's pretty easy to figure out who the first few matches are. Initially, my "top 5" were my mother, my uncle, my aunt, my dad's cousin Karen, and my mom's cousin Sharon. After that, it took a little genealogical sleuthing to figure out who the other matches were. And, it gets progressively harder to ID people as you work down the list--especially if they don't link a family tree.
Anyway, after the initial burst of activity, I got in the habit of checking for new matches every week or two. I almost automatically scrolled down to skip past my "top 5," because they never changed.
Until November 2018.
Shortly before Thanksgiving that year, another name had pushed my parents' cousins down the list. And, we shared a whopping 1,632 centimorgans of DNA. Ancestry.com estimated this person was a first cousin.
Unfortunately, this mystery newcomer had attached a pseudonym to their results. So, their name was not readily apparent. All I could immediately discern was this person was a female and that she managed an unlinked family tree, but none of the names made any sense.
Ancestry's "shared matches" filter allowed me to rule out my mother's side of the family. This new person only matched my father's relatives, both on his father's Morgan line and his mother's Macy line. So, perhaps the prediction was correct, this was one of my paternal first cousins. I only have two of those, though. And, I was quickly able to determine it was not one of them.
Then it occurred to me, this may be a previously-unknown child of one of my uncles. (My father had three brothers.)
I reached out to the mystery person with a private message, and she responded fairly quickly that she was an adoptee. So, the names on her unlinked tree were for her adoptive parents. I was almost convinced she was a long lost first cousin at this point, until she told me her age. She was two years older than me.
My father's brothers were all younger than him. They would have been young teenagers at the time she was conceived. My cousin theory was still possible, but then it dawned on me she might be my half sister. My father would have been a junior in college during the critical time frame . . .
At that point, I consulted Blaine Bettinger's shared centimorgan project's latest Relationship Chart. According to his data, 1,632 cm is too high for a first cousin. Instead, that number indicated this mystery match was either my paternal aunt (typical range 1,349 to 2,175 cm) or my half sister (typical range 1,317 to 2,312 cm).
I dismissed the aunt theory immediately. My grandmother would have been 41 at the time of birth, not impossible. But, if she had delivered a healthy baby girl (a) it would have been noticed and (b) she would never give her up for adoption. She had yearned for a daughter after having four boys.
So, she must be my half sister.
Long story longer, my match's biological mother is still living and appeared on her match list. After comparing notes, the relationship was confirmed.
We met in person in February 2019, and there was no doubt she was family. She looks just like the "Macy girls." I was able to introduce her to our 90 year old grandmother, two great-aunts, and an uncle during a mini family reunion. My dad would have been bursting with joy.
I also gave her a sixteen-generation family tree, so she could keep track of all her newly discovered relatives. She loved it, and took it to work with her for "show and tell" after the reunion (picture above).
Hands down, my favorite genealogical discovery!
#52Ancestors
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