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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: chiddicks on Sunday 28 June 20 22:11 BST (UK)
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This week I made my biggest ever breakthrough on my tree, when I managed to solve a 20 year brickwall, thanks to the powers of DNA. For 20 years I have had one 'missing' great great grandfather.
Of my 16 great great grandparents, one has always been listed as 'unknown father', well not anymore!!!!!
If I said it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, well before, I didn't even know which haystack to even look in!!!!
http://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2020/06/22/my-dna-breakthrough-and-looking-for-a-needle-in-a-haystack/
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Amazing story
Thanks for sharing
Our needle in haystack was ;
My grandmother s middle name led us to her birth father but it was an extra bonus when DNA led us to descendants of the unknown grandparents who also had photos so we could share photos and compare family likeness too .
I now have all 16 of my great great grandparents too
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Oh wow what a similar story but what great bonus that you were also able to trace living descendants that led to the bonus of the photos, priceless!!
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I had a similar breakthrough 2 years ago, having searched (off and on) for a great grandfather since the 1950s.
I did a DNA test 2 - 3 years ago and after a lot of investigations and grouping of matches and more traditional research, I found him in 3 months.
:D
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I had a similar breakthrough 2 years ago, having searched (off and on) for a great grandfather since the 1950s.
I did a DNA test 2 - 3 years ago and after a lot of investigations and grouping of matches and more traditional research, I found him in 3 months.
:D
Thats amazing! Congratulations to have been searching since the 1950's is incredible, you must feel so elated at having finally made the breakthrough
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Well, I didn't spend all of the intervening years searching - only off and on - as I had a job to do for much of the time ;D
What was even more interesting was that he and his parents and siblings had lived in the same house that my great grandfather from another line had later lived (and died) in.
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Well, I didn't spend all of the intervening years searching - only off and on - as I had a job to do for much of the time ;D
What was even more interesting was that he and his parents and siblings had lived in the same house that my great grandfather from another line had later lived (and died) in.
How spooky is that, what are the chances of that
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How wonderful, congratulations :)
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How wonderful, congratulations :)
Thanks Trish, much appreciated
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What a find ... well done you
xin
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Thanks Finley :)
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Congratulations that is exciting !
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Chiddicks,
Congratulations - I know how satisfying this type of find can be, as I likewise used DNA last year to find out where my Great Grandfather came from. His origins only took fifty years to find, as it involved a change of name and hiding where he was born!
DNA can be a great tools for solving these old brick walls,
Al & Al
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Congratulations that is exciting !
Thank you!
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Chiddicks,
Congratulations - I know how satisfying this type of find can be, as I likewise used DNA last year to find out where my Great Grandfather came from. His origins only took fifty years to find, as it involved a change of name and hiding where he was born!
DNA can be a great tools for solving these old brick walls,
Al & Al
Wow 50 years to find your great grandfather now that is impressive and that must have taken some work to find him
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Impressive work and a marvellous outcome. Well done!
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Well done, I'm still searching for my one of my g.grandfather's roots. From DNA, I have been in contact with a man in USA, who kindly provided me with his father's parents names and I've followed both branches back to the mid 1700s. Bearing in mind that my g.grandfather was born around 1857/8 I've been looking for people born early enough to have been his father or mother. I've yet to trace all these individual people forwards to see where they were in 1851 and 1861. Of course, it could be that my g.grandfather is descended from this American man's mother's line, so when I've got all the info together about his father's tree, I'm going to give it to him and ask him if he'll give me the names of his mother's parents.
Whether I'll ever find out my g.grandfather's roots or not, I don't know. I have a feeling he was illegitimate and whatever name he had at birth is not the one he used as an adult. His daughter (my gran) always had a photo of his mother on the mantelpiece, but as far as I remember no photo of his father. Sadly, when my gran died, her eldest daughter who lived with her burned all photos etc. relating to this man saying "We don't want anything to do with that do we!" As from my DNA results, I have some Jewish DNA which must have come from this g.grandfather - I've traced the other branches of my family tree back generations and everyone is from either England or Scotland and the man in America is Jewish - I'm assuming that my aunt didn't want to be associated with Jewishness, particularly soon after WW2 ended. Otherwise, she just didn't like the fact that her g.grandfather was illegitimate (if indeed he was).
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Impressive work and a marvellous outcome. Well done!
Thanks Nettie much appreciated
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Well done, I'm still searching for my one of my g.grandfather's roots. From DNA, I have been in contact with a man in USA, who kindly provided me with his father's parents names and I've followed both branches back to the mid 1700s. Bearing in mind that my g.grandfather was born around 1857/8 I've been looking for people born early enough to have been his father or mother. I've yet to trace all these individual people forwards to see where they were in 1851 and 1861. Of course, it could be that my g.grandfather is descended from this American man's mother's line, so when I've got all the info together about his father's tree, I'm going to give it to him and ask him if he'll give me the names of his mother's parents.
Whether I'll ever find out my g.grandfather's roots or not, I don't know. I have a feeling he was illegitimate and whatever name he had at birth is not the one he used as an adult. His daughter (my gran) always had a photo of his mother on the mantelpiece, but as far as I remember no photo of his father. Sadly, when my gran died, her eldest daughter who lived with her burned all photos etc. relating to this man saying "We don't want anything to do with that do we!" As from my DNA results, I have some Jewish DNA which must have come from this g.grandfather - I've traced the other branches of my family tree back generations and everyone is from either England or Scotland and the man in America is Jewish - I'm assuming that my aunt didn't want to be associated with Jewishness, particularly soon after WW2 ended. Otherwise, she just didn't like the fact that her g.grandfather was illegitimate (if indeed he was).
How sad that the photos have been destroyed, maybe she knew more about the story than she ever told.
The beauty of DNA is as more and more people test, hopefully your matches will increase and you might be able to triangulate your matches to narrow it down.
Have you uploaded your data to all the available websites?