Biological Grandfather Search

[Nanato3]

I'm trying to help a friend find her biological grandfather. Ancestry DNA matches confirm his last name. 

Her father was the product of his mother having an affair with a married man and I am trying to narrow down the relationship of the best DNA match we have at this point.  The half cousin thing confuses me so any help would be appreciated.  The match is as follows;

Shared DNA: 254 cM across 13 segments
Unweighted shared DNA: 254 cM
Longest segment: 44 cM

I know there are many possibilities, but is there a way of narrowing it down based/

[melba_schmelba]

I'm trying to help a friend find her biological grandfather. Ancestry DNA matches confirm his last name. 

Her father was the product of his mother having an affair with a married man and I am trying to narrow down the relationship of the best DNA match we have at this point.  The half cousin thing confuses me so any help would be appreciated.  The match is as follows;

Shared DNA: 254 cM across 13 segments
Unweighted shared DNA: 254 cM
Longest segment: 44 cM

I know there are many possibilities, but is there a way of narrowing it down based/

That's about second cousin level. But if it is a half relationship it could be 1/2 first cousin.

[Gadget]

When I was looking for my grt grandfather, I used shared matches and found a distinct group. I then investigated them and was able to trace them all to one particular family in the village where my great grandmother lived. After further work, I was able to identify which member of the family was my great grandfather.

I suggest that you run a shared match on this match and investigate the people that are listed. It can be laborious but it worked for me.

Gadget

Add - welcome to Rootschat 

[phil57]

DNA Painter can give a range of probabilities, but the only way to be certain is to back up the match with traditional paper based research of possible relationship branches from your friend's ancestors. Widening your friend's tree as far as you can will also increase your chances of getting relevant "thru-lines" on Ancestry, but treat those with some caution until you have investigated and verified the suggested links the same way.

Just by way of an example, I have investigated quite a few of my matches since I got tested, and those on my maternal grandmother's line are generally consistently 3-4 times the length of matches for similar relationships on my paternal grandfather's line, presumably down to the amount of my father's DNA I have to match against them. The way the cookie crumbles with inherited DNA. I'm currently trying to get my brother tested to see what results we get for the same matches to him.

It will be interesting to find out, as he is physically the spitting image of my father, whereas I am more akin in appearance to my maternal grandfather, not that the amount of DNA we share necessarily follows physical traits.

[Nanato3]

Thanks for the replies.

Knowing that this is likely a 2nd cousin gives me a place to start.

I have contacted a couple of shared matches but have had no response.  This really isn't a surprise given the circumstances.  I'll continue looking into additional shared matches.

Also, I'll look into DNA Painter.

I know I'm in for a lot of work on this, but it will be worth it if it works out.  If it doesn't I'll have learned a thing or two along the way.

Thanks for the tips. 

[Petros]

That match is very similar to my 2nd closest match

Shared DNA: 339cM across 14segments
Unweighted shared DNA: 339cM
Longest segment: 47cM

In my case I am as sure as I can be that this match is a half first cousin whose father was fathered by my known grandfather during WWi. My next closest match is this man's niece and the shared matches are all with my maternal grandfather's family.

The father of this match was born illegitimate with his birth registered at the age of 3 so a paper trail appears impossible to establish
 

[Nanna52]

Good luck with that. 
I’m in the same boat and now know who my great grandparents are, but which of their five sons did the deed is still beyond me.  They were all in the area at the time of conception and suitable age so I am just waiting, hoping someone in the direct line tests. 
You may find that many people don’t want to know you and of course looking for answers for something that happened over 100 years ago is never easy.  My biggest match on that line won’t answer and I don’t have enough information to fill out her tree.  Yet!

[Nanato3]

It is a very similar situation. 

I was in contact with the match shown above, so I have several generations of her tree, however she  is not one of my closest matches.  Like you, the closest matches do not respond. 

At first this match was very helpful with information, but suddenly cut off all communication before I had a chance to explain the situation.  My guess is she knew something of a "family secret" and figured out that this was I was looking into.

This is definitely understandable, but frustrating.

[brigidmac]

My mother has 1 half cousin from her mother's mother's side who comes in at 336cm across 9 segments

Half second cousins once removed from mother's grandfather 259 cm

+Via Father's half brother 220 cm 7sg

But  I wouldn't have known these people from their surnames

Only by expanding trees could I place them

As gadget said using shared matches and locations can be very helpful.
I am also helped by ethnicity as my mothers mother was adopted and her birth father came from Latvia most of matches through him have 100percent Jewish ethnicity and ancestors from areas once controlled by Russia

My grandfather s father was from Wales so often matches with high Welsh ethnicity match that line .

If you come across an unusual name in trees of several matches you can group them all together