I’ve been trying for many years to find out who my mother’s father was, as she was born technically illegitimate. All we might know has been kept secret, other than my Mum thinks his name was “Mack”. Mum did a FTDNA Family Finder test some years ago before she died. I have myself done the same test, as well as a FTDNA Y-DNA test. Recently I did an Ancestry DNA test. The latter helped me discover a second cousin in Australia that I didn’t know existed. Sadly, regards Mum’s Father’s side, I’ve hit a huge brick wall.
I thought I knew who Mum’s Putative Father was. Based on circumstantial evidence, I was sure that he was a Beaumont, especially as this man may have fathered two others out of wedlock before he eventually married. Now I’m unsure, as no matches on either test has shown a link to any Beaumont.
I have narrowed my Ancestry matches down to a few dozen of about 450 that are probably linked to Mum’s Father’s side. But I don’t recognise any surnames on their trees (some don’t even have any tree) as I don’t know his name. Most of these matches are 5th-6th cousins, with one that is a possible 3rd-4th cousin who has not responded to my email.
Obviously the biggest hurdle is in finding his name. It looks like I may have to wait until a closer possible relation does an Ancestry DNA test, which may then reveal something. What I have noticed is that of those matches mentioned above, they seem to have a US connection, but that might just be more Americans than British doing these tests.
Paul.