Generation Gaps Research

Grandmother’s Biological Father

I was recently contacted by Jim to determine his paternal grandmother through Genetic Genealogy. His grandmother went her whole life believing a man named David was her father. When Jim completed his DNA, no one from David’s family was a match.

Using Jim’s DNA I was able to group his matches into known groups, leaving one unknown set of matches to research.

Normally there should be two lines, one for each parent of an unknown father. I realized that most likely the first match I was focusing on was a descendant of that couple, and therefore matches both lines.

I moved to focus on smaller size matches and was able to determine the two families Jim should descend from, the Thomas and the Nesbit families.

A Thomas son had married a Nesbit daughter. Using documentary evidence I was able to then trace their descendants until I was confident I had all their known children recorded.

This left three possible brothers who could be the bio-father of Jim’s grandmother.

Jim knew the descendants of each of these men, having grown up in the same town. After I presented my findings, Jim’s aunt decided to test, and they carefully approached the descendants from the various lines with the situation, to see if they could purchase them a DNA kit and confirm which line they descend from.

When you purchase a DNA kit you never know what family secrets you may uncover, however with an open mind you may be able to make more connections generations later.

(Note: All names have been changed in this case to protect the identity of all parties involved).