Just to recap: My cousin and I have several DNA matches in common on Ancestry. They are among my closest matches there. One of these matches [who shares the most DNA with me after my cousin] was linked to my cousin's maternal grandmother, Harriet Riley, or rather one of Harriet's sisters [not Louisa Richardson]. Therefore, I had to conclude that I am connected to that maternal side.
Because of the amount of centimorgans we have in common, my biological father has to be a very close relative of hers. She had two uncles on her mother's side, one named Brooker and the other named Berry. The trouble is that neither of them can be placed in my town of Wesel in Germany at the time I should have been conceived. Albert Brooker was a seaman and, according to my cousin, Lawrence Berry was stationed in India and demobbed in Italy. This last is consistent with what I know about the British army in India, which was a volunteer army until 1939. Later, out of necessity, the India troops were sent west to the Mediterranean area and perhaps also to desert warfare and many of them were demobbed in Italy at the end.
On her father's side there are more possible men but I have not been able to connect myself to that side. By sheer coincidence, my cousin has another DNA relative who lives not more than 40 miles from me--but that relative knows she is descended from a common paternal ancestor with my cousin. As far as I know, that relative is not among our common matches. My Ancestry.com DNA relatives map shows me as being alone in my own state--where I have only lived for the past 14 years. Therefore, my only chance on my cousin's maternal side [insofar as I know] is if her great-aunt, Louisa Riley Richardson, had a son. Her husband, if you recall, was John Robert Richardson of Hull. He was born in 1883--but I did find another John Robert Richardson born in Hull in 1916. Yet I have not been able to find out the names of his parents in order to securely place him within the family.
The reason I believe that my connection to my cousin is not some sort of mistake within the DNA testing lab is that we do have those common DNA relatives and, also, my daughters got her as a relative before I ever tested with Ancestry. She was a mystery to them and so I was asked to test in order to try to shed some light. It turned out I am a closer match with my cousin than my daughters are, which makes sense. Somewhere out there is the reason for this but that is elusive thus far. My youngest sister offered to test with Ancestry to determine if we are really full sisters and, although we do share more DNA than most half-siblings, the tool mentioned in this thread indicated the great likelihood is that we are no more than that--half-siblings.
