Unnamed fathers .outside the box thinking

[brigidmac]

I narrowed down a birth father for someone. But she had no matches to the brothers birth mother's side ...then discovered they had a half brother from a second marriage

She did match his birth mother's side

So that seemed obvious solution ...until a new DNA match ...the man's daughter ...informs me that he had a twin brother ! ....so now it's down to 2 candidates again .

That's only one generation away .

Whenever you narrow down possibilities to a set of brothers you also have to consider there may be half-brothers too.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

I have a twist in the tale with one dna match, they have an illegitimate ancestor and constantly change their tree to indicate different parents (and not names in any other trees either!), when I view him as a match he suddenly has 'no tree' and the message option is greyed out. If I do a member search for him he appears and there is his public tree linked to his profile. He had a shock when he visited my tree today though as there's the birth cert of his direct ancestor showing the mother and no father noted.

I sometimes wonder if he's tried to block me for some reason or if it's a deliberate ploy to throw me off as many other matches in the group chopped off chunks of their trees  which showed the link to the largest match of all. 


On the plus side a new low match quickly replied to confirm which side of his tree I match on so there's a new lead to follow,  it may not seem much but it saves wading through unconnected lines jut to reach a dead end. I wish more would just reply to the same request when I make it and take up the offer of help if they are unsure how to work out which parent is which.
   

[Ayashi]

I have three direct line illegitimacies- one has both parents named (but I can't find any information about the mother), one has a surname as a middle name and we already had a theory before DNA proved it (but down to one of four brothers) and the other had no name mentioned at all on any source.

I believe I'm making progress on the last one- I match with several descendants of his marriage from different children, as well as a) the family his daughter married into and b) his wife's side of the family. There's a whole group of DNA matches that do not match his wife's side or son-in-law's side that do match with his descendants- and they have a shared common ancestor that is not in his mother's family. I think this common couple is our target man's grandparents. I'm hoping that eventually I'll get a match with a marry-in family so I know which branch he comes from.

[BarbW]

My great grandfather John Pritchard is one of his mother's 5 illegitimate children.  I naively thought my DNA results would help with at least his father but no matches.  They may also all have different father's as I've never seen her living with a man in any census, so perhaps all are half siblings.

When he married he gave the name and occupation of his grandfather for his father!  That doesn't bear thinking about, I prefer to think he was too embarrassed to say he was illegitimate.

[Ayashi]

Giving a family member's details in place of an unknown father is pretty typical. One of my others gave her mother's surname and her stepfather's forename for hers. I've heard of plenty giving their grandfather's name.

[BarbW]

Giving a family member's details in place of an unknown father is pretty typical. One of my others gave her mother's surname and her stepfather's forename for hers. I've heard of plenty giving their grandfather's name.

I hope and pray so 🙏

[brigidmac]

I think it's quite common for tree holders with an adoptee or unknown birth father to try out different names on tree as potential parents because the surnames will then show to DNA matches as names in common and thru lines may come up .

Just heard a story of someone whose mother was brought up by mother's brother so DNA matched paternal side but not mother's that could explain some people's mysteries

Funnily enough my cousin's top match was descended from a John Pritchard but as far as I found his mother lily only had 2 children 1 lover and 2 legitimate husbands !

[Petros]

My great grandfather John Pritchard is one of his mother's 5 illegitimate children.  I naively thought my DNA results would help with at least his father but no matches.  They may also all have different father's as I've never seen her living with a man in any census, so perhaps all are half siblings.

When he married he gave the name and occupation of his grandfather for his father!  That doesn't bear thinking about, I prefer to think he was too embarrassed to say he was illegitimate.

Possibly ignorance. My wife's GGM b 1884 was shown as her grandfather's daughter in the 1891 census and on her marriage certificate, while working elsewhere as a servant in 1901. Only the birth certificate showed the illegitimate birth GGM's mother married not long after GGM was born.

[Talacharn]

In looking for the father of an illegitimate child through DNA, they need to have fathered other children, for that line to continue to the present; and one of them taking a DNA test with results available to view.

Within my family there are several illegitimate children, and on marriage certificates they gave their grandfather’s name. I am also looking for their biological father, but even with DNA it is rarely possible.