Can DNA testing help identify the birth father's family of an illegitimate child

[VillageDuckpond]

Can DNA testing help to identify the birth father's family of an illegitimate child?

In this case the child was female, born in the late 30's (now deceased) and has 3 living children, I son and 2 daughters.

I am not sure if this is right site to be on but I shall try and explain my situation in the hope that you can perhaps help me.
When I was born in the UK my birth mother did not give the name of my birth father but when she approached the London Adoption Society about my being adopted gave some rather vague details of who he could have been. He died in World War II.
I would be very grateful for any suggestions, please

[shellyesq]

VillageDuckpond, I am an adoptee too, and I found my birth father's family through autosomal DNA testing on Ancestry.com.  My birth father passed away in the 1970's, but his half-sister and his cousin had done DNA testing and came up as matches to me.  Using the non-identifying information I had from the adoption agency, we were able to figure it out who my birth father was, and a DNA test of a full sibling to my birthfather helped to verify our suspicions.  Many adoptees have had success like mine, but it really depends on a surviving family member having been tested.

If you are male, Y DNA testing is another option that can help lead you to a surname.

[VillageDuckpond]

VillageDuckpond, I am an adoptee too, and I found my birth father's family through autosomal DNA testing on Ancestry.com.  My birth father passed away in the 1970's, but his half-sister and his cousin had done DNA testing and came up as matches to me.  Using the non-identifying information I had from the adoption agency, we were able to figure it out who my birth father was, and a DNA test of a full sibling to my birthfather helped to verify our suspicions.  Many adoptees have had success like mine, but it really depends on a surviving family member having been tested.

If you are male, Y DNA testing is another option that can help lead you to a surname.

VillageDuckpond, I am an adoptee too, and I found my birth father's family through autosomal DNA testing on Ancestry.com.  My birth father passed away in the 1970's, but his half-sister and his cousin had done DNA testing and came up as matches to me.  Using the non-identifying information I had from the adoption agency, we were able to figure it out who my birth father was, and a DNA test of a full sibling to my birthfather helped to verify our suspicions.  Many adoptees have had success like mine, but it really depends on a surviving family member having been tested.

If you are male, Y DNA testing is another option that can help lead you to a surname.

Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. May I send you a pm, please?

[shellyesq]

Sure.

[Seaton Smithy]

VillageDuckpond - I recently assisted a person who came up as a DNA match confirm the identity of his birth father.  The person came up as a roughly third cousin to me and was also a match to someone who is my 2nd cousin.  All he had was a surname, a profession and the province in Canada.  I had that surname in my tree and from the profession pinpointed which son was his father, making him my 2C1R.  So it certainly is possible!

[VillageDuckpond]

VillageDuckpond - I recently assisted a person who came up as a DNA match confirm the identity of his birth father.  The person came up as a roughly third cousin to me and was also a match to someone who is my 2nd cousin.  All he had was a surname, a profession and the province in Canada.  I had that surname in my tree and from the profession pinpointed which son was his father, making him my 2C1R.  So it certainly is possible!

VillageDuckpond - I recently assisted a person who came up as a DNA m atch confirm the identity of his birth father.  The person came up as a roughly third cousin to me and was also a match to someone who is my 2nd cousin.  All he had was a surname, a profession and the province in Canada.  I had that surname in my tree and from the profession pinpointed which son was his father, making him my 2C1R.  So it certainly is possible!

How nice of you to reply. According to my DNA results so far I have found no trace of my birth father but then having said that I am still struggling to understand (I got the results this morning in the UK) how I access other people's trees so you just never know!
VDP

[katherinem]

How nice of you to reply. According to my DNA results so far I have found no trace of my birth father but then having said that I am still struggling to understand (I got the results this morning in the UK) how I access other people's trees so you just never know!
VDP

I really do hope that you get some answers.

Hopefully you have managed to access other peoples trees by now, just in case you haven't, when you select 'View all DNA matches', you will see a green button with the words VIEW MATCH on it, to the right of each of your matches, if you click on this it will take you to their tree.  Sometimes you may have to select a tree from a dropdown box, of course some of your matches will not have a tree on Ancestry, but you will see whether this is the case to the left of the green VIEW MATCH button.

Best of luck to you,

Kath

[hurworth]

How nice of you to reply. According to my DNA results so far I have found no trace of my birth father but then having said that I am still struggling to understand (I got the results this morning in the UK) how I access other people's trees so you just never know!
VDP

Did you test with Ancestry DNA?  Unfortunately you can't see matches' trees without a current Ancestry sub.

I would also recommend you transfer to FtDNA and Gedmatch.  Your results still stay on Ancestry but this gives you access to other databases.   There is no sub needed for those.  You can see your matches on both for free.