 Genealogy Brick Wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part 2 Genealogy Brick Wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part 2 This is the continuing story, continued from Genealogy Brick Wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part 1, of my temporary genealogy brick wall for yet another new DNA mystery match that had just showed up. I call it a temporary brick wall because I have not really exhausted all of my resources, but I had found all the known descendants for those lines (not to mention that I know of that generation’s descendants very well), and he is unknown of. Messaging through Ancestry: Next, I messaged him on Ancestry, which I RARELY do. Most people rarely message back from Ancestry, don’t notice it for a long time (or never notice it), rarely are on it, or just take too long getting back. Some people who do their DNA, just do the DNA test, and that was their only purpose. Many check out their results when they get them, and don’t go on frequently after that. This is usually the case with unlinked trees that have just a few people, or they have no family tree at all. I also just like to get my info and solve my mysteries quickly, so I just don’t waste time with messaging, not to mention that I love solving puzzles and challenges! Public and Social Media Search: Then I Googled him, searched him out on Facebook, and looked him up in public online records to look up his phone number and age, and verify relatives. By Googling and checking him in public records, I was able to verify his age so that I would know the age range of the person I was seeking out on Facebook. I got lucky that his father, who had passed away in 2004, was still associated with him in some public records. It also helped me to see other relatives and associates of his to also find those people associated with him on Facebook (you can also do this for other social media), so that I would know I had the right person. Thank goodness there were only 3 people on Facebook that had his uncommon name, and only 2 looked to be about his age! I also got lucky in that 2 had profile pics! I “stalked” the 3 Facebook pages, and I found the one with some of the other names associated with him that were also associated with him in the public records. Stay tuned for more in Part 3! Interactive Questions: How has your experience been messaging your matches on Ancestry? Have you sought out your matches in public records or social media? Let me know in the comments below! Update, November 6, 2021: Part 3 is now here!: Genealogy Brick wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part 3 More DNA and Genealogy Research Tips and Resources: Find more research tips under the Genealogy Research Tips category, brick wall tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category, and DNA/genetic genealogy tips under the DNA Simplified category. You can also find some DNA research resources, to help you in your research, on my dedicated Genealogy Resources page. Below you'll find some other genealogy brick wall research cases that may be of interest:
1 Comment
 Well, I just hit a new, temporary brick wall in my family tree. I just noticed a new DNA match in the 2nd to 3rd cousin category in Ancestry last night. This person is matched to my father’s line, and has to be matched through my paternal grandfather or one of his siblings; his shared matches were the first clue. Since he is matched to ALL the lines of my paternal grandfather, he has to be descended from that generation. This is not the first unknown of descendant/DNA mystery/family secret match from ANY my lines. I have found and solved many unknown of children/descendants/family secrets that no one knew about; I will try to blog about those stories when I have time. This one just happened, so it is still fresh in my mind. I know ALL of the descendants of those lines, and had published my descendant books on those lines about 6 years ago, and he was not one of them. Hmmmmmm, a new DNA mystery to solve! Challenge accepted! 😉 So, time to get an early start and wake up with my morning tea; I’ve got a new DNA mystery to solve, and my challenge awaits! 😉 His centimorgans shared with me are 201. This leaves him (only according to his centimorgans) most likely matched as a 1/2 gg-aunt / uncle; a 2c; a 1/2 1c1r; a 1c2r; a 1/2 gg-niece / nephew; a 1/2 2c; a 2c1r; a 1/2 1c2r; or a 1c3r, and a less probability (but still possible) as a 1/2 c3r †; a 1/2 2c1r †; a 3c; a 2c2r; a great-great-aunt / uncle; a 1/2 great-aunt / uncle; a 1/2 1c; a 1c1r; a 1/2 great-niece / nephew; or a great-great-niece / nephew (according to the DNA Painter Shared cM Project tool).  Okay, time to get going on this! He had an unlinked tree with only 3 people in it: him as private, his father’s name and date and place of death, and his mother as private. The first thing I did was quickly build my own tree for them in Ancestry, as always. I found his father’s information right away. I found a marriage for his father, and added that spouse as a possible (who I thought at first) mother. I then added a few male and female children born to them with no first names or any other info, as I usually do, and searched for them. I found 2 children born to them, but neither had the name of my match. This was all in the first 10 minutes. Stay tuned for more in Part 2! Update, October 30, 2021: Part 2 is now here!: Genealogy Brick Wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part 2 Update, November 6, 2021: Part 3 is now here!: Genealogy Brick Wall: Another New DNA Mystery Match-Part3 Find more research tips under the Genealogy Research Tips category, brick wall tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category, and DNA tips under the DNA Simplified category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page Below you'll find some other genealogy brick wall research cases that may be of interest:
 1) Use lower case letters- Google is not case sensitive 2) Do not use punctuation 3) Your word order matters 4) Use roots words- Google will search all forms of the word automatically Example: genealogy will give you results concerning genealogy, genealogist, genealogists, genealogical and so on 5) Use the approximate symbol (~) to find words with similar meanings Example: genealogy~descendant will give you results for descendancy research concerning genealogy, such as descendants, lineage, etc. 6) Use OR to get results for similar meanings Example: family history OR genealogy will give you results for that topic under either term 7) Use * to fill in the unknown Example: john * smith will give you a plethora of john smiths with different middle names 8) Use … for date ranges Example: 1890…1910 will give you dates anywhere in that range 9) Use quotation marks “ “ to search for the exact words/phrase in the exact order Example: “descendants of john smith” or “ancestry of john smith” will give you results for those exact phrases Example: “john smith” will only bring up John Smiths, not Johns and Smiths 10) Use parentheses ( ) to search for those terms first before anything outside of those terms Example: (genealogy OR family history) 11) Use + or – symbols to only get results of a particular category of a topic Example: dna+triangulation gives you only results concerning dna triangulation, dna +genealogy -testing gives you results concerning topics of DNA in the genealogical/family history world without giving you results about DNA tests, testing or testing sites, and genealogy research -sites will give you results about genealogy research methods, tools, resources etc. without giving you pages and pages of different genealogy/family history sites Now let’s apply what we’ve learned: Example: "john*smith" 1890...1910 +genealogy will bring up all John Smiths with an unknown middle name, with a date range of 1890 to 1910, and concerning genealogy Example: "john*smith" 1890...1910 ~descendant will give you results of all John Smiths with an unknown middle name, with a date range of 1890 to 1910, and concerning only descendancy or family line research, charts, family trees, genealogy, family history, etc. Example: ("john*smith") 1890...1910 (~descendant) will churn out all John Smiths with an unknown middle name, and concerning only descendancy, family lines, etc. of those John Smiths, with a date range of 1890-1910, but will not focus on that date range. This is good to use if you are guessing the date range. Example: ("john m smith") ~descendant will bring up all descendancy, lineage, etc. on John M Smiths I hope you have found this to be helpful in your genealogy/family history research! 😊 Find more tips for your family history and genealogy research under the Genealogy Research Tips category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the 6th Annual Genealogy Blog Party! ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  Continued from Part 3…
Time to tie up the name change theory, and how it went from a possibility as the reason for not finding much on my great grandfather, to becoming fact. About a year later I was able to find his petition for naturalization with the name “Frank Smith”, before he had ever married my great grandmother, which was like finding a needle in a haystack with that name! That record had been denied for Want of Prosecution; he obviously could not provide proof to any of the info he had given. Another surprise on that record was a daughter that was listed as living with him in Washington and a wife in the Philippines, more family secrets! I have never found anymore records or information on another daughter or wife. I did find out later through letters to General Pershing, that he had been trying to get his old position back in the Philippines, even though he wasn’t in the military anymore. I still do not know if he really had a wife there or just said he had a wife there that he needed to get back to, so it would seem more urgent that he needed to get passage and his old job back, with help from government. Searching with the new “official search criteria”, aka the newly found last name, I was able to find what I had believed was his passenger list. My great aunt’s daughter did not believe that it was his passenger list, just because the year of his birth was off by a couple of years. I had explained to her that accurate information isn’t always displayed on documents; there are various reason for this. That was the only passenger list I could find for someone with the last name that I had suspected was his, had his approximate year of birth, was from the exact area in Germany that he had been born, had come when he did (based off his 1900 Census and family), and had an occupation which was that of a carpenter, which I had put in the keyword box of the immigration resource section. Later that year I was able to find his second petition for naturalization under the “new search criteria” name; at the bottom of the document, it had said that the petitioner had wished to change his name from the name that I had suspected was his to the name that he went by here in the United States. That second petition also included his spouse and three of his four children, and where they had lived before he had passed away. The spouse was my great grandmother, and 3 of the 4 children were my grandmother; great uncle; and great aunt. My oldest great aunt was not listed; this was more evidence to confirm that I had found her correct birth record, which was found under a different last name and with a different father. This petition was proof of his name change, and how a strong hunch became reality! Years later, I had finally gotten some DNA matches from his line, which just verified my hunch of him changing his identity, the possible family line I had found him, and the newly found info even more. I still do not know why he changed his name! I wonder if he was hiding from something. I may never know! Another ancestor who changed their name. Another ancestor with family secrets. If you've hit a brick wall don't rule out name changes! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and read about more brick wall cases in Genealogy Brick Wall Cases: Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 1: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 2: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 3: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the Genealogy Blog Party!   Continued from Part 2…
That was a lot of surprises and secrets I had found so far! My next step was to search the names of his parents, or for his birth in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he was from. I could not find any such records for any of them. By just googling his parents' names online together with descendants of in front, with the specific area of where they were from, I had found a tree; it was not on ancestry.com or another popular site, but on Geneanet, and in Swedish. This person had a tree with a woman with the same first and last name as my great grandfather’s mother that was married to someone with the same first name as my great grandfather’s father, from the same exact place in Germany, and married about the time that his parents may have married. The last name of her spouse did not match up though, and she had no children listed for them. This was the ONLY lead I had found at the time for his parents. I had tried contacting the owner of the tree, but she had not been on there in at least 10 years. My next step was to then build a tree with that couple and try to find all their children. I remember my father saying that his grandmother had told him that my great grandfather had multiple middle names and had remembered a few of them. I had found they had a son born to them that had six names, and a couple of those names matched up with what my great grandmother had remembered. That particular son of theirs was born the same year and on the same day as my great grandfather, but off by one month. My great grandfather was born in July, as told and recorded on his documents here in the United States, and the baptismal record for this strongly suspected person showed he was born in June. His first name did not match up either, but one of his middle names was the German form of Frank, which was the name of my great grandfather. My father didn't think I had the right person, and he had insisted that my great grandfather’s last name was Schmidt, the German form of Smith. I went by my hunch that I had indeed found the right person, not to mention that the last name of the person I had found was given to my great uncle as his middle name. It had also been told that my grandmother and her siblings had been named after her father’s siblings, in which this person had siblings with the same names. This newly found last name had now been the official search criteria, along with his name here in the states. Stayed tuned for part 4, as there are quite a few more secrets to unveil! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and read about more brick wall cases in Genealogy Brick Wall Cases: Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 1: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 2: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉  Continued from Part 1...
My father had on the hand drawn family tree he had given me that my great grandfather, Frank Smith, and my great grandmother were married in Texas. He told me that they had met in Texas, with an entire, elaborate STORY that was told to him by my great grandmother on how they met. It was also told that they married in El Paso, Texas; this made sense, as my grandmother and her older sister were born there. My next steps were to find my grandmother’s and great aunt’s birth records, as I knew the exact dates and places they were born, and my great grandparent’s marriage record; I could find none. At the time, not all the Texas birth records were online. I had found a birth index for my grandmother, and had requested the record from the El Paso County Clerk; I was disappointed when I had given them the certificate number from the Index, along with the name and date of birth, and they said they couldn’t locate it. What??!! Instead, they sent me a “certified” birth certificate with the name, date and place I had given them, written out in paragraph form, for my $50!!! I was back to square one. I then looked for my great aunt’s birth record, and I could not find one for her either; at the time I had searched, her record should have been online for her birth year. I was so confused. I then searched taking out some identifying info such as her name and gender, and then put in her EXACT birth. I had a hit! I found a birth record for her with her exact birth, her first name, correct mother’s name, and correct mother’s place of birth; although, this Maria had a different last name, different father, and a clerical error of “male” as the gender. When I told my father and uncle, they were surprised! When my great aunt’s daughter was shown the certificate, she did not believe it was her mom’s, of course, because of the different last name and different father, not to mention the incorrect gender; it was in fact hers. Family Secret #1! I then searched for and could not find their marriage record, so I requested a search through the El Paso County Clerk for the date given, along with a few years before and after; they got back to me and said they could not locate one. What, but we had the date??!! It took me quite a while to find their marriage record, because my great grandparents were not married at the time nor in the place that my great grandmother had told my father and uncle in her stories. I decided later to go down to the county clerk’s office to look up marriage records in the county and state where they last lived, after I had exhausted all my other resources. I could not find anything within a couple of years before to a couple of years after the date that was given by my grandmother, and before my great aunt and grandmother were born. When I widened the search years of the marriage date told, I found their marriage record; it was in a totally different state than where they had said they got married, and a date after their first three children had already been born! Family Secret #2! The names of my great grandfather’s parents on his marriage certificate matched the names given by my great grandmother. I was back to square one again! These were the first family secrets of hidden identity and more for this family; stay tuned for part 3, as there are quite a few more! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and read about more brick wall cases in Genealogy Brick Wall Cases: Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 1: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 3: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉  Are you having a hard time searching for an ancestor, and have hit a brick wall? Have you ever considered your ancestor having a hidden identity? Follow my journey on a brick wall case I had in my family tree, years ago, for some research tips and methods I used!
Years ago, the first year I started my genealogy research, I was given a hand drawn family tree chart by my father; that's what got me started on the genealogy craze!😉In the hand drawn family tree chart, my grandmother's father was listed with the name Frank Smith. How common is that name!? I didn't know where to start with him. Because I knew where they lived at the time, I was able to find my first record. The first record I had found was the 1930 Census, in which the entire family was shown; after finding that record, the rest was like finding a needle in a haystack with that name! When I told my father that I was interested in finding out more about Frank Smith, he gave me a few records he and my uncle had gathered when they were interested teenagers. These were now the only records I had to go by; a copy of Frank Smith’s death certificate, some miscellaneous letters to the government, and now the 1930 Census. Each of these documents showed his name as Frank Smith. I was able to locate his 1900 Census, which was just him at the time, stationed in the Philippines during his military service. The only reason why I was able to ascertain that it was the correct census, with such a common name, was because it showed where he was born, his month and year of birth, not to mention it was where he was stationed during his time in the service. There were also MANY Frank Smiths stationed in the Philippines at that time, which is why I also searched specifically for a Frank Smith born in Wiesbaden (he was extremely proud of that fact, so it was an IMPORTANT search clue), and used the keyword “Carpenter” in my search, as that was his occupation (this was another fact that he was also very proud of, so it was also an IMPORTANT search clue). Other than the 1900 census, the 1930 census, the copies of the death record and the few governmental letters that were given to me, I could not find any other information on him. I hit a major brick wall! Stay tuned for part 2, you won’t want to miss it; this gets crazy! 😉 Follow my other posts on Genealogy Brick Wall: The Case of an Ancestor's Hidden Identity below, and find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category : Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 2: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 3: Here Genealogy Brick Wall the Case of an Ancestors Hidden Identity- Part 4: Here P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are : Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the 6th Annual Genealogy Blog Party! ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  My father, who had been researching for over 40 years, had never been able to locate one of my great grandfathers’ death record, and asked me to search for it. This was at the beginning of my genealogy research days, and I also had trouble finding it. My father knew the approximate year his grandfather died, and said he had passed away in Oklahoma. I could not find a death record or burial for him. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t find anything on him at all after a certain point, the point when he had separated from my great grandmother.
I searched for his known “second” wife, and found a headstone that had a first name and last name on it that matched; although, her name was all that was known by family. This person shared a headstone with someone with a different first and middle name than that of my great grandfather, but had the same last name and approximate death year as my great grandfather, and shared the headstone with a women that had the same first name as his last known wife. I then researched with that name, and found his death certificate. He had died in Missouri, not Oklahoma as thought; although, he was buried there. I knew I had the right record, due to the fact that his birth date and parents’ names matched. An unknown of daughter was the informant. I ran a search for the daughter, and found a census with my great grandfather having yet another name. I then ran a search for anyone with his last name (omitting a first name, as I do quite frequently), age and previous locations, and had then found that he had changed his first name and middle name multiple times throughout his life. Not only did I find his death record as my father had wanted, but I was also able to find a second wife (the known "second" wife was actually a third wife) who was unknown of to the family, and a daughter he had with that second wife (a new aunt for my father, whom he never knew about), not to mention the fact that he went by several names throughout his life. I’m still trying to solve the secret of why he kept changing his name. Was he hiding from something? I may never know. 😉 Find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  Do you have any ancestors that seemed to just fall off the face of the earth after a certain point in time?
A while back, I worked on a case for a client that had hit a brick wall 23 years ago, and had not been able to break through it. She never knew what had happened to her great grandfather, as did his own daughter, her grandmother. She gave me an excessive amount of information, and had also invited me to her family tree. I explained to her that I NEVER use anyone else’s research, and build my own tree with just the name, age, and known areas for the closest known direct relative to that ancestor. I will look at personal documents, if I need them, after I get to that point and find that it matches my research. My client also let me collaborate on her DNA, which was invaluable. I built my FRESH tree for the line with the brick wall, and had gotten to the point where she had hit her brick wall. Her great grandfather was nowhere to be found after he had divorced his wife, her great grandmother, in 1893. I had found a person that I suspected was a match; although, he had a different middle initial and last name, his birthdate, place of birth, and occupation matched. This person had seemed to not exist before 1896, and was in a totally different area with an entirely different family, but was strongly suspected as being the same person. My next step was to build a separate tree for the strongly suspected match. I then grouped her DNA matches, and gathered as many known matches to the person being sought, and the strongly suspected match; the descendants of each matched perfectly in a DNA mapped tree, according to their centimorgans and place in the new, combined tree. Her great grandfather and the strongly suspected match were one in the same. Her great grandfather had changed his name, moved to a totally different area, and had a whole new family. It is unknown why he left one family behind, and “hid” his past from his new family, but my client had some suspicions as to why. Through this case, not only was I able to help my client solve her 23 year mystery, but I was also able to help some descendants of the second family of her great grandfather, who had also hit a brick wall, that of his life before 1896. Have you ever thought about a name change when you’ve hit a brick wall? It’s more common than you think. 😉 Find more brick wall research tips under the Genealogy Brick Wall Cases category. P.S... My older site theme does not support the "Leave a Reply" field labels; if you'd like to leave a comment on a blog, the fields are: Name, Email, Site (if you'd like), and Comment, the standard fields 😉 This post is a participant in the 6th Annual Genealogy Blog Party! ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page  EVERYTHING is a Clue in Genealogy!
Did you know that you can build a family tree with just clues? Make sure you write down EVERY single bit of information you find, read or hear! I was able to build a tree for my mom's biological father, whom she never knew, with just a name, and a few short remarks she had heard here and there, from her mother, throughout her younger years. These remarks were not necessarily about him, but were definitely clues in me being able to locate him, and build his tree. I also had a very difficult time finding any records for my father's maternal grandparents, because the information his grandmother gave was false. Because my uncle had interviewed her when he was young, and made a family tree based off of her interviews, I was able to use all of the first names only to find both her lines and build a tree. I have also tracked down several clients' missing ancestors or living relatives just by following EVERY single clue. EVERYTHING is a clue! All stories may not be true, especially if there are family secrets, but there are always snippets of truth in each story. EVERY single bit of detail holds clues. Listen carefully to the stories, especially the small details in the stories you hear. Look at EVERY single detail in a record; sometimes the small details are often overlooked and can be a clue for something else. Sometimes if you can't find someone, it may be possible that there are family secrets, that someone changed their name, that someone falsified documents for an unknown reason, and a number of other circumstances. So if you're having a hard time finding someone, or details about their lives, follow the clues! The case studies to the above will be talked about in more detail in future blogs, so stay tuned! Follow more tips for your family history and genealogy research under the Genealogy Research Tips category. ←Back to Genealogy Research Tips Page |
Categories
All
Featured
Top Posts
BlogrollEvalogue.Life, Heart of the Family, Molly's Canopy, Climbing My Family Tree, Cami Mayer, Field Genealogist, Ancestor Detective, DNA Breakthroughs, Your DNA Guide, Ancestral Findings, Genealogy Tip of the Day, Family History Daily, Genea-Musings
BlogI hope my family history and genealogy blog on genealogy research tips, resources, events, and more, along with my own genealogy journeys, will help you in your research and in building your family tree to learn more about your ancestors and family history to preserve for future generations to come! 
Come visit me at Know Who Wears the Genes in Your Family if you're interested in starting your family history journey, booking me for your next speaking event, or family history and genealogy heirloom products!
          Archives
September 2024
|
RSS Feed
HoursM-Su: 8am - 8pm
|
Know Who Wears the Genes in Your Family is dedicated to promoting family history and genealogy, while maintaining commitment to client care and professional service, and adheres to the Code of Ethics and Professional Practices put forth by the Association of Professional Genealogists.
|