Friday, April 29, 2016

Where's Perry?


Unfortunately, when you dig in the genealogical bone yards, you will undoubtedly will find some skeletons.  You'll unearth tidbits of information which folks would prefer to forget.

I made contact with the daughter of a woman on Gedmatch.  Match name:  Perry.

This is one time that research was really needed, fortunately, the lady took it in stride.  It seems her grandfather (her mother's father) was an adoptee.  Okay, that's common.  But he met a violent end at age 31.  So, instead of solving this case, I got a new twist to solve at the same time.

The connection, however, seems to be a Florida Adoption.  Bad.  No way to get info from Florida, despite the fact that the adoptee is long gone.  This is why I fight the system.

I've also gotten contact with a Davis line (paternal side) and a McCaffrey (This MUST be a variant of "McCafferty").   Everything does seem to connect via McCafferty.  But as of yet, not real clues as to where.  Well, not exactly.  I got an "Unknown Cafferty" in a GG-Grand location.  But what good is that, when you consider it?

I have some help.  I only hope this can be solved soon.  But searches may go on forever, never be solved.

So, Where's Perry?  Or is it Cafferty?  Right now, the body is 6 feet under.  DNA is likely unobtainable.  And the answer is still hidden.

More to come.  I'm still searching for the buried treasure.  The clues are not yet deciphered.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

The Saga continues

January rolled in.  I'd been alternating between Ancestry and 23andme, looking for answers.  THEN I got the Email.

George, whom we had asked to test, let us know the test results were in at FTDna.  That wasn't where I expected, but it's good enough since our results are there.  He tells me it's a "High Match."  OOOOH MY...How high?  It should be reading in "First cousin" area, I think, so I believe that Trish is his Grand-Aunt.  (Also called great-aunt.)
Nope!  It was CLOSER THAN THAT!  721, according to FTDNA.  I asked for him to upload to Gedmatch, because it usually gives a different story.  And it did.  40 cM MORE!  This is about 12%, which is online for first, but there's a pattern... at next generation, that would be about 1520.  This makes his father Trisha's half-brother!  Unfortunately, he long passed on.  This changed the suspected Father, George A, to his son, George B.  And the search heats up.  This is Trisha's dad, I'm sure of it.

I go to a new site, GENI.  There was a man named Champion, with the name of George A in the tree.   Unfortunately, he doesn't have much info, but he directs me to Nancy.  And she is a GOLDMINE of info!
She discovered a son of George B, who is still living... and he's either in NY (Binghamton, again) or in AZ.  I shared this info with Jessica, our search angel.  And she hit the jackpot on FB, find Tim, who is that son, and who IS in AZ.

Oh, boy.  I asked for a test, but at the moment it hasn't been ordered.  Yet the resemblance is there, and he's likely to be a half brother!  Or is he?  Could he be a FULL BROTHER?  This is yet to be answered.

A new Florance relative pops up.  And I am ... disappointed.  I found that he was related to a man whose mother and uncle are related to Trish.  But this isn't the elusive Irish side.  And this eliminated a McGinnis from the mother's side, because she's matching both Randy and Kaylin!  So, she's off Radar as a maternal match.

But other names are popping up.  Another 2 McNulty names.  And one of THOSE is related to a second cousin who hasn't been on Ancestry since 2014.  She's a 3rd cousin to Joe, and a 2nd to Trish, While Trish is a 4th to Joe.  Ain't no answers there.  Only one name that even has an F.  And that's a Ferguson.  But it is 1843.  With Forry, and Fadian, and Feddell, and Farrow on the lists, is it even remotely possible?

That is still to be determined.
But the search still yields surprises.  and I still have a "slight" possibility of solving by Trisha's b-day.  But the odds...well...Better odds on a Mega Millions ticket, I think.

But there IS hope.  I have determined one GGG-Grand line.  But that's one couple of 16.  There is STILL a long ways to go.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

 A little small, I know.  You can make it larger with Windows by using Control and Plus.

Unexpected and welcome help

Uploading to FTDna was easy.  But it took quite a while to get all the results opened.  I couldn't contact anyone unless the results were opened and nobody would see us.  This is where Jessica came in VERY HANDY!

Within a few weeks, all the matches were opened.  I saw some "High match" cousins, possibly 2nd, so I reached out to the Email address.  There was a quick reply.  But what we saw was no connection.  NOTHING!

The match HAD to be through her father's side.  It was 3 family members, two siblings and a half-sibling.  Everyone matched Trish, but the mother was different for two.  The father, same.  So we knew it was there.  But WHO?  This was puzzling.  a 188 cM match, a 186, and a 114 (According to Gedmatch)  This means Trisha's match ought to be a 1st cousin or close to it, but... Nothing.  Kristen set to work to find something, to see what she could locate.  It was this time when I asked a daughter of a suspected mother to test for us.  Those results proved it wasn't maternal here.

Kristen's father tested.  Results were unexpected, not as high as I would have hoped.  According to our info, now, Kristen's dad is a 2nd cousin, but so are her brothers and she's third?  Seriously?

When Kristen found the match between Side A and Side B, it was a shock.  It seems that side A and side B were actually all the same side of Trisha's family!  But we now have names at a level with which we can work.  Turns out that our "1C1R" is 2nd cousin.  The match is Great-Grands. We're now on the hunt.  Still don't know if it's father or mother, but now it's all pointing to father's side.  At the Generation listed, we have 6 children.  1 of them died before reaching child bearing years.  Several had passed before 1930.

I started looking for more children.  Not in this Generation.  Only 1 person fit the bill...and he was dead 1 day after Trisha's birth.  But still, wrong generation for the search.

But I was looking for siblings of George.  I had forgotten about offspring.

And I found who I believed was a great-great grandson of our match.

I wrote.  He replied.  Test arranged.  No more answers until January.  The search slows to a sloth's pace.  I begin to check on the Irish side.

Tired.  Frustrated.  But it all continues.

And it was about now that I learned that Kristen's dad wasn't a 2nd cousin at all.  Our match was far more distant.  She is a 6th cousin.  Her father 5C1R.  We're at a loss to explain the high match.  But I'm glad, this strangeness was found.  And I'm grateful I had such a helpful match...even if it was far more distant than we expected!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Ancestry results

Ancestry results came in quicker than I had hoped.  I begin looking and IMMEDIATELY see the match that will turn the tide, I hope.  It is another match in NY state.  Most hits have been Susquehanna, PA,
but Binghamton is right on that list of top areas.

The match, a man of about 50, is unresponsive.  But he has a partial tree.  It doesn't go back a long way, but it is enough, I think.  cM match is 450, or about 6/5%.  The names to which he is connected:  Hulbert.  Florance.  Silvernail.  Green.   And again, I find I'm looking in the wrong spot!  I have a lot to learn.
I keep my eyes on the Hulbert line.  Well...  Then a new Clapper pops up, and I start think match between a Hulbert and a Clapper.  I really need to stop making such assumptions!

I give my search angel, Jessica, what info I have... she gets to work.  Unfortunately, we don't communicate as much as we need.

I upload results to FTDna, which is the last of the 3 major testing companies which were accepted by Gedmatch.

I make contact with the father of the match Hulbert.  Not too helpful, I fear.  But armed with more info, I'm able to make contact in the future with the daughter of sister of the father of the match... results later, but not what I hoped or expected.  Shows as 3rd cousin, so line is again wrong.

It would be September before we get our next big break. And it would NOT be what was expected!

Friday, April 15, 2016

Shifting Focus

December, 2014.  Searching names, closest names.  We find most names unresponsive.

First cousin with whom we made contact, for Trish:  Kimberly.  4th cousin?  Small match, but about 20 centimorgans (cM).  I was told to double each gen back.  Really can't make any connections.  Moved on to the closest cousins.  No replies at 23andme.  But a few started to come in.  Surnames, such as English, Calder,  some others.  I reached out using Gedmatch as a list.  But concentrating on Haplogroups (Which are passed down from mother to all children was an error.  I joined groups at Facebook.

I tried to construct a tree to Trish's then closest, Kaylin.  Gedmatch indicated a 3rd cousin; the groups gave me a different opinion, as 2nd cousin, 1 time removed.  But I started gathering names.  Lindquist.  Clapper.  Slater.  Galloway.  Fish.  Considering Irish was supposedly high in percent, I concentrated on the obvious Irish names.  That was dumb, but I didn't know it.  No real pictures, except for a Crissel and a few others such as a Lindquist.  But Names were a start.  We were told it was best to do another test with a second company.  Oh, there was just no way!

January 2015.  Trisha's suspected daughter ordered a test.  Didn't arrive; another would be ordered.  It was taken, we figured it would show results in March.  I started sending out more invites to people at 23andme...until I covered the whole list/  That was more than 1000 people.  And to think we had believed Trish was alone in the world.  At least, that was my fear; an unknown, an Island adrift with no connections to the mainland.

March.  About the 9th or so.  We got word from the person we wanted to test:  Results, IN.  I asked Haplogroup.  It was "H".  Trish was H3.  This couldn't be right.  We're devastated. Who we were so sure of being our first success...and it came to this.  But our tested told me to HOLD ON until the results were in.  All we had was the Haplogroup.  Finally, the results are in.  I'm hoping that she's at least a cousin, even if distant.

That first chromosome told me a different story.  It was a match.  COMPLETE!  NO DOUBT.  Fluke?  I checked the next.  Then 3rd.  and 4th.  All the way....
BINGO!  We had our first success.  Old fashioned research with DNA proof.

A search angel appeared on the horizon.  She promised us help in getting a new test, for ancestry.  Jessica is truly an angel in such a manner.

April:  First birthday we knew who Trisha's daughter is.  May, Trisha's first knowing it.  Test comes in.  Taken immediately, sent back.  I figure it will be July.

Would Ancestry, with results uploaded to FTDNA, provide any clues at all?
It remained to be seen.

Each day, now, I was checking 23andme, Gedmatch, for new matches.  The search would be going on for a long time, I reckoned.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Another day

After poking my way all the way through to 970, it looked like there was nobody.  I've gone more than 1/2 of the way, near 2/3s of the way with nothing.  I figured I go to 1000 for now.  Then, at 973, I hit upon someone who was searching for the family of his fiance'.  He gave info:  Born in Tampa.  Check.  Born at "Women's Hospital".  Check.  Born in Month wanted, day wanted... CHECK.

The info looked wrong, though.  Looked as if the adoption was from a woman from Atlanta.  That didn't make sense.  I marked the page.  I was tired.

A few days later, I was back on that page.  I had misread.  The adoption was by an Atlanta Resident...and we have a name.  But there are far too many with that name.  And one person has several "AKA"...  which did not make sense.

But I was on the trail.  I started asking for help to find the address of the person in question.  With help from "FINDING IN FLORIDA" Yahoo group, I got a name and an address.  I'd give it a try.

I mailed out a letter in August.  One day in September, the phone rang.  It was she to whom I had written.  Medical problems suspected, matched.  The only question left would be TIME OF DAY... and it fell, so neatly, into the time period I wanted.  Hopes, WAY UP!

Trish did DNA...  hopefully, something would be confirmed later.  It would be months.

The more we chatted, the more I was convinced.  Same hobbies!  Sane medical problems.  Same eye color.
I shifted focus to DNA searching for parents.A couple of matches at 23andme, but nothing I could verify because my invitations and queries went unanswered.
Finally, the day came when I uploaded to www.gedmatch.com

This proved to be vital, a tipping point for Trisha's search.  But it wouldn't be enough.  We needed more.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The journey

The journey began almost 64 years ago; 64 years in May.  This is when Trish was born.  She often wondered about her family -- who are they?  WHERE?  Why was she given to Catholic Charities for placement?

In 1975, her only child was born.  Circumstances dictated that her child would suffer the same fate as she...To be an "AFO-Syndrome" baby, placed through Children's home Society.

I would marry Trish in 1990.  She would speak of her lost daughter.  She would tell me her father was a musician.  But I had nothing with which to work.  The search led nowhere.

I picked up the search, again, about 10 years later, but still didn't have a clue as to what was needed.

Then, in 2013, I started again.  I frequented the boards, groups dealing with children that had been placed through various agencies.

In 2014, we decided that we would try DNA before the end of the year.

I also learned of a site called COUSINCONNECT.COM which I checked, hoping to find clues.

Clues.
Clues?

I checked over and over for clues to Trisha's parents.  Nothing.  Nobody looking.  She's a total "non-entity."

So, I thought I would see what I might find in the search for her long-lost child.  Hospital, County, Date, sex, time of day...at least approximately on that last one.

Over 1500 entries.  I started going through, one by one.  First hundred.  Nothing.  Second hundred.  A date, but not the sex.  Third Hundred:  Hospital, Gender, but date is off.  400, 500, 600 -- the story repeats.  No answers.

700.  800.  900.  Do you realize how much time I spent?

It looked hopeless.  But I would continue to plow through this info.

More to come.  Hopefully, Trish will do some entries, too.