Mystery Match - Pointers Please

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

I've got the problem of having no living relatives above me now.  My mum's line had died out, she was a single child to a single child but I have had DNA matches with older generations in that family.  My dad and his siblings are all passed now and I've got matches to his mothers families and his dad's mothers side but the direct male line is known on paper but not confirmed by DNA.  They were notorious for affairs so I'd like to sort that one out some how.

Very much like my scenario, nobody from a generation above and my generation range from 57-79 years of age. I'm giving up on a lot of close relatives as they just copy from any old tree and ignore their dna results and the information in my tree and messages to them. I'm sure if I made a 2nd account and a fictitious tree showing a link to Cleopatra they would copy it and message me in a day bragging about the link. 

[Norfolk Nan]

That tree thing does annoy me! 

Taking on board what was said about being sure of who the **parents are via dna, how do you do that when you're only able to test your own generation?  How does it prove the Ancestors in your tree are blood relatives?

[brigidmac]

You don't have to have relatives above you to test . If you can get nephews or nieces or cousins children to test some DNA lines will be confirmed .

You have to build your tree up and wide & back down  to include second and third cousins and their legitimate descendants.

Clusters of unknown matches may reveal a mutual relative then it's. Case of calculating where this relative might connect ..

Take a look at some of the success stories of how other people have been able to work things out .

[coombs]

As we know lots of women were pregnant when they married, but in time DNA testing will reveal the percentage of those who married another man while pregnant, maybe they were seeing 2 blokes at the same time or the blood father fled or died or married someone else, and the mother was married off to another man. However in my trees I have found lots of instances of couples being together long before they married, such as banns being read 2 or 3 years prior to marrying, or family postcards etc to one another, or both witnessing a wedding before they married each other, or had a child before marrying and the child was baptised as if the parents were married or with the future husband's middle name as a forename or if he was subject to a bastardy bond and they later married etc.

[Norfolk Nan]

Yes, me too, Coombs.  Family relationships are never as neat and tidy as we are encouraged to think.  My theory for the start of this thread was a pregnant mum with someone else's child, not new husband's.  He was a widower with young kids so a grateful new wife might be useful.  Will I ever be able to confirm my theory? Probably not.

[coombs]

Yes, me too, Coombs.  Family relationships are never as neat and tidy as we are encouraged to think.  My theory for the start of this thread was a pregnant mum with someone else's child, not new husband's.  He was a widower with young kids so a grateful new wife might be useful.  Will I ever be able to confirm my theory? Probably not.

So it seems she married him while pregnant then? I guess if he was a vulnerable widower with children and she needed a father for her child if the blood father fled or died, it would be the perfect solution.

[Norfolk Nan]

Well, it's a theory.  This is a possibility in a mystery match and my half of the match (whoever that is) might be the real dad hence the match. 

However, all this has me looking at a different branch in my tree - great-grandfather born and register to mum, missing father, but baptised six months later as the son of the man he called dad.  But was he?  I've absolutely no DNA matches for that male line although I have matches to the wives that they married up until that point.  Does that suggest my great-grandfather isn't who I think he is? 

[Biggles50]

Re the Unknown Father of the Great Grandfather.

To find DNA matches of this GG GF of the same generation would mean you are looking at a Half 3C with about a 48 cM shared DNA, if a generation removed then a Half 3C1R @ about 37 cM.  So likely to be amongst the hundreds of 4C and above that Ancestry reports.

If Shared DNA matches do not offer any clues I would then be tempted to upload DNA to Gedmatch, My Heritage and my Living DNA, pay fees due and see what other sites have by way of DNA matches.

As I have oft written, DNA can be a waiting game.

[Norfolk Nan]

Good pointer, thank you.  My lovely family tree is a bit like Swiss cheese ... full of holes