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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: mgeneas on Thursday 19 October 17 18:18 BST (UK)

Title: DNA Success Story
Post by: mgeneas on Thursday 19 October 17 18:18 BST (UK)
My son's father in law born before WWII had the name of his father but knew only that he was a soldier and he has a photo of him in uniform
Last week I was searching in ancestry etc for likely suspects. Luckily not named Smith or Jones etc.
I selected one who about 20 years old and far from home when conception occurred!
And found him in a tree on ancestry.
Went to my granddaughters DNA results, and she has a match in the surname of the suspects mother.
Much emailing back and forth with the owner of the tree.
My son's father in law now has a new family, 3 living half siblings.
The ultimate proof is that the new family have a copy of the same photograph!
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: davidft on Thursday 19 October 17 18:58 BST (UK)
Congratulations. Shows DNA testing can work when used properly.
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: RobertCasey on Friday 20 October 17 17:52 BST (UK)
atDNA testing is really great for uncovering recent NPE events and has made research much more viable for adopted people as well. Unfortunately, these vendors over-market the geographic origins to its audience which is not very accurate methodology. On the flip side, I am also seeing many atDNA testers dive into YDNA testing on one or two of their primarily lines of interest, so it is bringing a new crowd to genealogy and genetic genealogy.
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: RobertCasey on Wednesday 01 November 17 13:30 GMT (UK)
I thought I would add another "Success Story" from YDNA for my mother's Brooks line. We have traced our line back to my oldest proven ancestor, Robert Brooks, b. 1730s residing in Lunenburg and Mecklenburg Counties, VA most of his life. However, there was a problem with connecting his two oldest sons, Jordan (b. 1765 and my ancestor) and Robert. Through personal property tax lists and extensive probate records, we found both Jordan and Robert being listed in the same household as Robert Brooks, Sr. for poll taxes (taxes for the right to vote) since his large slave holdings made it easy to determine which Robert Brooks it was from his estate and the personal property tax lists. Since Jordan and Robert, Jr. were the first to move out of the area to South Carolina, we thought that they had been given their inheritance up front when they left or were omitted since they did not stick around. Robert, Sr. signed Robert, Jr marriage bond and Jordan signed the marriage bonds for two of Robert, Sr.'s daughters found in his will. Also, after the death of Robert, Sr. in 1805, around of his ten children moved from VA to SC and lived near Jordan and Robert, Jr. So we had substantial documentation implying that these two men were sons of Robert, Sr.

There had always been "family history" that Robert Brooks, Sr. married Brambly "Wade" and we did find many Wade families living nearby to Robert Brooks, Sr. and the couple named one of their sons Wade Brooks as well. So this was supporting evidence but very weak documentation. So I extensively YDNA tested (both 67 YSTR markers and significant YSNP testing as well) to see if I could connect the known ancestry of Robert Brooks, Sr. which was somewhat speculative in nature. Well, testing this line was negative for a match and after 400 Brooks testers were not related either (other than those known to be descendants of the two sons), YDNA was not panning out too well and unfortunately, we do not have any known male descendants of the sons found in Robert, Sr.'s probate records.

However, more and more Wade testers were matches with my line (getting down to a genetic distance of only two at 67 markers). So we began to warm up to the idea that maybe Robert Brooks, Sr. married a young widow who married a Wade first and then Robert, Sr. informally adopted and raised her two orphaned sons as his own (but left them out of his will). With this information in hand and the pretty solid ancestry of Robert, Sr. being discounted, a high profile researcher (professional for 40 years in family history and State Archives employee), decided to research in depth which Robert Brooks was ours (out of around five of the same age in the same area). They narrowed down and determined which one it was (via ten page summary) and determined they lived very close to the Wades in the county. With some assistance of my Wade YDNA matches, these neighbors were their ancestors. Not solid proof to date but the evidence is mounting that the two oldest sons were probably adopted and that there just may be some truth to the connection to the Wade family via YDNA. Signed Robert Brooks Casey (or should I change my middle name to Wade and ask my son, Jordan Brooks Casey, to change his middle name to Wade as well) :)
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: sugarfizzle on Wednesday 06 December 17 08:00 GMT (UK)
For Robert
Autosomal DNA testing perhaps unlikely to prove or disprove your theory, depending on your relationship to the Brooke/Wade family.  This is considered reliable for only a few generations back, but you could inherit some useful amount of DNA from up to your 7G grandfather.

I have had some positive matches at this level. My 7G grandparents, Benjamin Brigden and Ann Mansur founded a large Brigden dynasty in Hadlow, Kent, where Benjamin was baptised in 1691.  I have quite a few Brigden matches, most from later generations, but one from this marriage.

So why not give it a try, it will help with all your lines, not just the one, and you might just turn up lucky with this line (though perhaps unlikely).

Margaret
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: mgeneas on Thursday 14 December 17 18:58 GMT (UK)
An update - son's father in law has met one of his half sisters. They took to each other at once.
There is to be a family reunion in the summer when he will meet the rest of his new family. (They are 3,000 miles away)
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: RobertCasey on Thursday 14 December 17 23:41 GMT (UK)
Margaret - My YDNA already shows strong connection to my Brooks tester at 67 markers:

Genetic_______Wades________Others
Distance______ Number

0____________None_________None
1____________1____________Wyatt (1)
2____________6____________Brooks (1) - known cousin
3____________5____________Wallace (1)
4 to 7________None_________None

So 12 matches are Wades. I also know from traditional genealogical research that these Wades lived within one or two miles from my Brooks from 1760s to the 1790s. This genetic cluster is also very isolated from others - no matches between 4 to 7 genetic distance which is pretty rare to be this isolated from other testers. Out of 1,200 atDNA matches in FTDNA, only one Wade tester and she does not list any ancestors or genealogy and it is only a 14 cM segment match (longest) which is borderline.
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: RobertCasey on Monday 18 December 17 12:41 GMT (UK)
An update - son's father in law has met one of his half sisters. They took to each other at once.
There is to be a family reunion in the summer when he will meet the rest of his new family. (They are 3,000 miles away)

This just shows how powerful the combination of good old traditional genealogical research and atDNA testing can help discover recent NPE lines. Congratulations on your find. It seems like making progress with very recent NPE events are very special and joyous events. However, finding out a very old NPE line can be somewhat disappointing - even as a hard core genealogist. My 1765 NPE discovery (not well confirmed to date) for my Brooks line turning out to be a Wade line would not have gone well with my mother (her line) as she was so proud to be part of such large Brooks line that we worked on for years. Even the hard core Brooks researchers, none have really expressed interest in diving into Wade research to any extent.

On the other hand, I helped determine a known 1860s NPE event via YDNA testing. This researcher was very joyful to at least get a surname to research at last. But with a dozen possible candidates, there is a lot to sort out with traditional research and hopefully she added atDNA testing to narrow the candidates down. I have another tester who definitely matched my Casey YDNA which explained why his YDNA matches changed in the 1830s. He did have probate records where his ancestor received property from a Casey estate. He had written a 800 page book on his family and now around one-third have now been re-classified as being Caseys. Even though he is fine with this discovery, he has not widely revealed this discovery to researchers of older adopted part of the line.
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: seahall on Tuesday 19 December 17 07:49 GMT (UK)
There was always doubt about my father by my other siblings.

Just having done my DNA my half brother's daughter came up as a
match. Her father and I both share the same FATHER. ELATED.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandy
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: RobertCasey on Tuesday 19 December 17 15:27 GMT (UK)
An update - son's father in law has met one of his half sisters. They took to each other at once.
There is to be a family reunion in the summer when he will meet the rest of his new family. (They are 3,000 miles away)

This just shows how powerful the combination of good old traditional genealogical research and atDNA testing can help discover recent NPE lines. Congratulations on your find. It seems like making progress with very recent NPE events are very special and joyous events. However, finding out a very old NPE line can be somewhat disappointing - even as a hard core genealogist. My 1765 NPE discovery (not well confirmed to date) for my Brooks line turning out to be a Wade line would not have gone well with my mother (her line) as she was so proud to be part of such large Brooks line that we worked on for years. Even the hard core Brooks researchers, none have really expressed interest in diving into Wade research to any extent.

On the other hand, I helped determine a known 1860s NPE event via YDNA testing. This researcher was very joyful to at least get a surname to research at last. But with a dozen possible candidates, there is a lot to sort out with traditional research and hopefully she added atDNA testing to narrow the candidates down. I have another tester who definitely matched my Casey YDNA which explained why his YDNA matches changed in the 1830s. He did have probate records where his ancestor received property from a Casey estate. He had written a 800 page book on his family and now around one-third have now been re-classified as being Caseys. Even though he is fine with this discovery, he has not widely revealed this discovery to researchers of the older adopted part of the line.
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: mgeneas on Tuesday 19 December 17 18:55 GMT (UK)
Very good news Sandy

Marilyn
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: seahall on Wednesday 20 December 17 11:57 GMT (UK)
Thank you Marilyn the best ever for me.

I hesitated for so long and then thought okay, my father's sister always told me
I was her brother's child and I dealt with all the bitterness from my own family.

Congratulations on your own success too.

Sandy
Title: Re: DNA Success Story
Post by: seahall on Tuesday 02 October 18 22:12 BST (UK)
I asked for my Father's name to be added to a new birth certificate now my DNA proved the links as previously stated.

I was told I would have to apply to the Court and I paid £215 and have been through the worst episodes (2 months of my life) trying to get his name to no avail.

Apparently although the District Judge was very understanding, according to the law only a DNA test by a Government selected body would be taken into account and cost £199 upwards. Ancestry tests were totally ignored and the 30+ pieces of evidence I had to submit.

I had to prove that I had no siblings that could test for me and I told him that my cousin would. He replied that it had to be 50% to be accepted by the court and cousins are only 12.5%.

Therefore in the eyes of the law I have failed, but I will put his name on my  original birth certificate. It is my right.

Sandy