Ancestry DNA Solved A 115 Year Mystery

I expected to confirm what I thought I already knew, that is not what happened. Not only did I learn that my ancestry was not what I thought or anticipated but in the process of it all I came across the truth of a mystery that had hung over part of my family for over a century.

#ancestryDNA #unsolvedmystery #solvedmystery #notwhoIthoughtIwas

[karenkoe]

Your story of the missing child is very much like what I discovered. My grandfather had told me of having a sister who burned to death as a child. When I started doing Ancestry and building a tree I could find no evidence of this story. Knowing my grandfather was not one to make it up as he went along in life I didn't doubt him but could not actually verify it. Last winter while going through old newspapers online (searchable by word or name) I found an old newspaper article about a little girl who had burned to death while left alone (by my great-grandmother) with siblings while their mother was doing errands. She was about 5. This was something like 1891. Which explains why I never saw her on any census records. The 1890 census was destroyed by fire. In any case, my grandfather was one of the youngest children (born 1899) so he never knew her except through stories he heard from his older brother and sister (the ones who were actually there). I then found her buried in a cemetery near the small town they lived in at the time of the incident. These old newspaper databases are invaluable.

[darlenesgardenandhome]

I found my biological siblings because I did my DNA. They had been looking for me almost more than I them. It's been quite amazing finding family.

[Sandy-prqq]

You are probably the best example of the fact that we are not to blame for what our ancestors did.

[jamesstreamssr]

I am basically African American based on my DNA and after doing my family tree, I have found family connections that go to UK, Ireland and Sweden. Our blood lines aren't as pure as some of us would like to believe.

[katwelch]

My dad was born in the 1920s in Kansas on a farm. His birth wasn't registered so when he went to volunteer during WW2 the neighbors had to write a letter that they remembered his birth.

[lindalee]

I've used Ancestry off and on for several years while researching my family. Most recently I entered a name of a man I had dated after my divorce. I'm happily remarried now. Long story short, I've wondered often what happened to this guy. He ended things when he was told that he was terminally ill. A year later he contacted me and said that he was in the "end stage". I was curious as to when he passed away, we didn't have any mutual friends, so as I started I began a search with his name. I did have his place of birth and birthdate already along with his deceased parents names. And boy, was I in for a surprise. Ancestry has the divorce records for some of the states. Where he lived as a young man was one of them. I read the divorce record through twice. Because I was in shock. His wife had filed for divorce listing the reason as her husband being in prison. Also living out of state. The state that I live in was next to the state he had been married in. So it wasn't a stretch to think that he might have been in prison where I live. In the past I had a position where I needed to look up individuals through the state DOC site. He was on there. It showed that he had been in prison for over 30 yrs for a couple of disturbing crimes. One was rape. The other was armed robbery with injury. This guy was a very dedicated liar. His false tale of his life was entirely believable. As was how he lied about having a terminal illness. He made sure that his illness was "age appropriate". He was well versed about possible treatments and outcomes. Unfortunately for him, Ancestry had factual records and the resulting research told the truth. I know that you can find out so much about past family members through sites like Ancestry. Many surprises there too. But this kind of blew my mind. I dodge a huge bullet there.

[kjsalomonsen]

My Mother and her sister were given up for adoption and they were adopted into the same family. When my mom was about 77 years old she said that she would like to know her real name so, my sister, daughter and I started looking and then had my mom do the DNA test with Ancestry. Branches of my mom's family go back to the 1630s and there was one branch that had Colonial Governors. To say that the family had come down in the world would be and understatement. My Mom's bio-Mother well, image a bug hitting a windshield at 70mph and you'll get the picture she had six more children and none of them have the same Father just my Mom and my Aunt . However, we discovered that our bio-Grandmother carried the Breast Cancer gene. My sister found a cousin that lives in Canada and was not it contact with her family for over 40+ years. She had found a lump in her breast and because we knew about the Breast Gene, she went to her Doctor and they were able to do the proper treatment. My Mom now knows her birth name and knows her parents names we were able to give her photos of her parents and her extended family and she said for the first time in my life I feel like I belong somewhere.

[silverstarfinder]

So something that’s really interesting is that - especially in Southern states - having Native American blood came to be a bit of a status symbol or not quite looked down on in the same way as being black was. So if someone had a kid of mixed race, and claimed they had inherited the Native American genes, it wasn’t quite looked so side-eyed at. There are a surprisingly lot of people who have found out that their family stories of having Native American heritage ended up being someone of African ancestry.

[TallDiana]

My daughter is 30 and we had donor insemination to have her. Her dad and I had been open with her since she was five and he died a few years ago. My daughter found several half-siblings when she got her 23 & Me results, and then found her donor! He invited my daughter to spend a week at his home and they found they are very similar! She looks a lot like him in his younger years, and he is 89 years old! They went to a concert, had Sushi, went to wine tasting, and hiking twice! He’s in great shape- a Physicist, and the author of two books.

Some surprises are difficult to process, others, sometimes pretty great. ❤️ This donor dad says he knows that thirteen babies were conceived through his donations, but there are likely several more, as he hadn’t known about my daughter. What a great gift!

[photoremashatspin]

I am 69 years old. My 42-year-old daughter did the 23 and me and talked me into taking it also. When we got it back it showed some names that I wasn’t aware of but are closely related. To make a long story short I found out that my father was not my biological father. And when I asked my mother, since my father had died when I was 10 years old, she was flabbergasted. Apparently when my brother and sister were babies, a man who came to the house when daddy was at work, forced him self up on my mother. And then apologized after it happened. She did several things to “Washaway“ what happened and never thought about it again. She never told my dad, and apparently they were trying to have another child, so when she came up pregnant she assumed it was his. She’s 91 years old now. It hit her like a ton of bricks. But I’ve decided it hasn’t changed a thing. I have met The two people that were listed as close on my DNA and come to find out I am one man’s aunt and we are the same age!

[janicehales]

My father in law was talked into doing a DNA test by one of his granddaughters because he never knew who his father was. Nothing happened for a while, and he on his death bed at 90 yrs old and confessed to my mother in law that he may have fathered a son with another woman right before he married her. She thought he was just talking crazy and ignored him. A few months later we got and email from a man in NC that was a year older than my husband, and yes it turns out they are half brothers! This man was raised as an only child and was surprised to find out that the man that raised him wasn't his real father and that he had 4 half brothers and a half sister here in GA. We met with him and accepted him into our family with no problems. Now we have recently been notified again by a women in CA saying her DNA test shows that my father in law is also her real father! All I can think is its probably a good thing my father in law has passed away, because my mother in law is losing her patience now!

[elizabethbartels]

It really doesn't matter what we are. We're humans and should love each other no matter what color we are.

[rachelm]

I discovered many things about my paternal and maternal family. My Dad's mother who was born in 1897 would never discuss any details about her family. She would always start crying and we would end the discussion so not to upset her more. I never felt very close to her because of secrecy or unwillingness to talk about her family. She passed away in 1990. When I started researching my grandmother's birth records, I discovered that she had two brothers that died as infants. The first one died exactly one year before she was born at 9wks. The other brother died in 1907 from Cholera at 1yr old. My GM was 10 years old. Back in that time period, grief stricken parents never spoke to their children like they do today. I believe as a ten year old, she was never allowed to talk about the loss of her baby brother. It had a profound effect on her all her adult life. It explains why she named her first born son after her brother. She still grieved for him. This is why I love doing genealogy. The records that you discover can help explain or put together pieces of family mysteries. I love sharing this information with my family too.💖

[lindakurtz]

So true- in the last year we’ve “discovered” an unknown half uncle on one side and a half sibling on the other. Fortunately all the misbehaving folks are gone so we can just enjoy new family members.

[LS-ghhl]

The generations after my great great grandfather didnt seem to know how he died at the young age of 25, in 1885. He and my gggrandma had 2 children, the youngest (my gr grandma) was just 1 yr old. While searching newspaper clippings from the area he died in I found a newspaper article titled "J.W Welch Suicides." My heart leaped! I discovered that my great great grandfather had embezzled $75 and the victim and sheriff went out to his house to arrest him. My gggrandma answered the door, baby on her hip, and they asked for him to come out. He did and then asked to go back into the bedroom for his coat. The article said my gggrandma sensed something wasn't right and ran into the bedroom, saw him laying on the bed with a gun to his temple and tried to knock it away but was too late. "Mr Welch deceased immediately, leaving a young widow, 3 yr old son and infant daughter." Wow! We can only assume it wasn't ever talked about ornpassed on because of shame in those days. My poor gggrandma saw her husband kill himself, their son died of typhoid fever 9 yrs later and she died of severe dementia (probably early onset alzheimers)at age 51.

[kaysmyth]

My daughter is adopted we were always open and honest with what information we had on it. She took a DNA test a couple of years ago. Other than all the different countries and I think it was about 10. Fast forward to April 2020 she got an Facebook message “I think your my half sister. It has turned unto a wonderful experience she has 5 sibling from several different fathers. 1 father who has 3 half sibling has welcome my daughter into his family. She doesn’t have anything to do with her birth mother or she doesn’t know who her birth father is and she’s OK with that. The DNA test gave her knowledge about her ancestry but know she knows her related family.

[Kueytwo]

The way DNA works is that you do not always get the exact same genes from your Grandparents. There is mixture and addition and subtraction from ANY given ancestors. Due to Atavism [throwback genes] that means sometimes children will look nothing like parents or siblings.

[tbearsghia]

You never know what you will find in a DNA. When two DNA Cousins contacted me saying my name keeps on coming up in every name they put in. They said there family was in the enslavement of people. Then wrote to say “we never had a Black Cousin”...
I responded, “ keep digging you never know what you will find.”
We stay in touch along with amazing connection when you start building a family tree 🌲
Last yr found a 1st Cousin from Japan and was adopted at 7 yrs of age brought to the USA. We met this February 2020 and it has been pure joy. We had a ZOOM meeting in August 2020 celebrating 100 yrs. in NC and introducing & meeting new kin folks.
Ancestry DNA Connections so thankful.

[Elainestimechange]

You are not your ancestors. You can NEVER be blamed for what was done in previous generations ❣️🤗 I love your video!

[Oogieone]

I found my Dad’s family through Ancestry. His brother who had been given up for adoption when he was little was looking for his family. He saw a picture of my Dad’s headstone and since I had titled it, “Dad’s headstone” he contacted me. I found my uncle and all my Dads many brothers that way. Then I found my great aunt whose daughter I was named after. She is the one who bought my Dads headstone...everything is connected...