Trying to find half sibling with limited information

[josey]

Please come back & tell us any progress you make.

[Ruskie]

An autosomal DNA test is worth considering. Most people seem to be testing with Ancestry. You are almost guaranteed to get some matches.

To distinguish your paternal and maternal matches, and make it hopefully easier to identify possible matches with your half sister, it would be useful to test someone from the ‘other’ side of the family too.

For example, if your half sister was a child of your mother and another man, if you can test your father, then matches you have in common with your father, will not relate to your half sister.

If your half sister was a child of your father and another woman, then if you can test your mother, any matches you have with your mother will not relate to your father’s side.

As autosomal results are all mixed up, testing a parent as well as yourself, basically just helps you work out which side of your family your matches come from.

If your parents are deceased then testing a sibling of your parent could be an alternative.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that your half sister has taken a DNA test to try to find blood relatives, and some people do have success finding family via DNA tests.

Best of luck. I hope you find her.

[Mctierk]

Of course I will keep my thread up to date with any leads but everyone has been so helpful. I’ve not thought of the dna match so it I done my own and we have the same father is that enough to link me to herself as long as she has previously done the same?

[IgorStrav]

Yes, if you test for DNA and she does also, then the link to your father will show up with DNA which you both share from him.

As suggested, it might be good to ask someone from your mum's side to test also, then you will know that any matches you both share are from your mum's side and not your father.

Ancestry is probably the best place to test as they have such a large database.

Very best of luck to you!  Come back and tell us what you see from your DNA matches, it can be confusing at first.

[MonicaL]

Does mother have an unusual name or a middle name? Any idea of when approx she was born?

You might want to search for a marriage and possible death for her? Informant/witnesses names can often help.

As mentioned SP is free to search and view search results. You will just have to wait until offices re-open to be able to order any cert that you may think is worth viewing.

Monica

[guest189040]

I have 373 Matches of which I have traced about 40 thanks to a Common Ancestor being presented by Ancestry.

Of those with no effective tree it is difficult to ID them precisely and to create a tree branch to them, but we are talking low cM matches.

In your case if your half sibling has taken a DNA test then it will be obvious from the results by the about 1800 cM match you will share with them.

If their children have a DNA test online then that will give you about a 900 cM match so again a match will be very obvious.

For info a 900 cM match is what you would also expect from a full Cousin.

Hence any match with 400+ would be a strong contender for following up.

That said DNA matches on Ancestry can have some odd user names eg I have one called catloverofmytown, she has no tree and has not been on Ancestry for over a year hence I have practically zero chance of finding her directly.

[Mctierk]

Yes someone has helped me so much through direct message which had been absolutely brilliant never expected within couple of days to have so many people helping it’s been amazing
Still haven’t found all the info as yet but slowly getting there

[guest189040]

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