I have a DNA tree mystery.

[Carrie12345]

And I don’t know if anyone can even follow it, lol.
 

I have a “great-aunt” who has always been thought to be a blood cousin of some sort, but we struggled for years to find where the connection was. She started long before me. she’s into history and I’m into DNA, and we still haven’t solved the mystery. But I have a new clue. BUT, there’s also a serious (legit) Family rift right now, so she can’t help me.

We know Aunt L’s family tree for what SHOULD be the needed number of generations. We trace the last name back to 1881 with no issues. Our family was close with her uncle (the last name we’re tracing). We all know a genetic tie exists. Familylore is that my great-grandmother used Aunt L’s  deceased aunt’s birth certificate (already here, died as a child) to immigrate to North America. Both families trace to Finland and the story is that the relation starts there.

My 1st cousin 2x removed in Finland contacted me years ago and shared my great-great grandmother’s complete (downward) tree. No hint of Aunt L’s relatives.

Today, I reset my 23andMe predicted tree, now that I have a DNA match who shares Aunt L’s family name.  She was positioned as the grandchild of an unspecified sibling of my grandmother, despite being half the % match of my known 2nd cousin. (From different sibling of grandma.)

I am only barely short of 100% certain my match can’t be the grandchild of any of my great-aunts/uncles. I also can’t imagine how she’d be the great grandchild of my great grandmother. The histories and birthdates/ages don’t line up. 

And yet, there’s the 2.something% match with an age that checks out for a 2nd or 2nd once removed cousin. But she didn’t respond to my message when she first popped up (pre-tree on my end.)

Whatever happened in Finland wouldn’t get me this close of a match. It had to have happened in the US to add up. But secret babies generally don’t pass down family names and adoptees don’t share DNA! Well...  Yeah. Mystery.

Any thoughts/hints appreciated!

 

[maize]

Which DNA service are you using?

[Katy]

It could be, if the adoptee was adopted by a family member, married in or otherwise. 

[Carrie12345]

My g-g-grandma b.1886   Finland
— g-grandma b.1909 Finland.  (Eldest girl of all girls)
———-grandma b.1929 USA (eldest of 6).   
——————-mom b.1953 (eldest).   
————————-me b.1977

Ole H b.1881.   Finland. 
—Louis H Sr b.1908. USA (I knew his brother.)
——-Aunt L (maiden name H) b. 1938

Edited June 28, 2021 by Carrie12345

[Carrie12345]

14 minutes ago, maize said:

Which DNA service are you using?

I’m on 23andMe. My son is on ancestry, but no hints there.

[Carrie12345]

I can sit down and expand my tree comparison to siblings at some point, but I’m still not sure how it can line up in a way that makes sense that Uncle T or Aunt L wouldn’t have already  figured out negates the Finland story.

[KungFuPanda]

I think all sorts of messy real-life ‘stuff’ can mess with the formulas. A young mother’s secret baby raised as a sibling. Grandpa had an affair with wife’s sister. Double first cousins messing up the consanguinity formulas. Small populations where everyone is related to some degree. It could be anything. 

[Ottakee]

5 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I think all sorts of messy real-life ‘stuff’ can mess with the formulas. A young mother’s secret baby raised as a sibling. Grandpa had an affair with wife’s sister. Double first cousins messing up the consanguinity formulas. Small populations where everyone is related to some degree. It could be anything. 

Agreed.  Lots of that happened.  In my ex husband's family there are cousins that are siblings by blood, etc.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

2 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Agreed.  Lots of that happened.  In my ex husband's family there are cousins that are siblings by blood, etc.

Yep. My grandmother has 38 double first cousins due to three sets of her parent’s siblings marrying each other and then reproducing a lot lol.  That always messed up our 23 and me and ancestry results.

There are also several cases of an “adopted” child’s DNA matching family members. My great uncle was much younger and adopted, but he looked so much like the family that everyone figured he was a kin adoption. 23 and Me proved that my “adopted from a random far off orphanage” great uncle was really my grandfather’s first cousin once removed.

[maize]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’m on 23andMe. My son is on ancestry, but no hints there.

Maybe try transferring your DNA data to MyHeritage; I'm not sure about Finland but that is where I have found the most Swedish matches for my grandmother's line; there just aren't that many people testing with 23andMe and opting into the relative finder feature, and Ancestry is strongest for US matches. I also have had some luck with Swedish matches on FamilyTreeDNA. You may find more matches that help to clarify things.

Could this match be the grandchild of a half sibling of your grandmother? That would account for a lower DNA percentage than a full second cousin.

Generations could also be off; age is not a good indicator. Men in particular sometimes have children thirty or forty years apart in age.

[Carrie12345]

28 minutes ago, maize said:

Maybe try transferring your DNA data to MyHeritage; I'm not sure about Finland but that is where I have found the most Swedish matches for my grandmother's line; there just aren't that many people testing with 23andMe and opting into the relative finder feature, and Ancestry is strongest for US matches. I also have had some luck with Swedish matches on FamilyTreeDNA. You may find more matches that help to clarify things.

Could this match be the grandchild of a half sibling of your grandmother? That would account for a lower DNA percentage than a full second cousin.

Generations could also be off; age is not a good indicator. Men in particular sometimes have children thirty or forty years apart in age.

If my grandmother had a half sibling, she didn’t know. G-grandma was 16 when she got to Canada and 18 to the US, so it isn’t entirely impossible to have had a secret baby anywhere. But my Finland cousin knew my g and g-g-grandmothers and doesn’t know of other siblings. And the H family wasn’t in Canada.

Wheels are turning. Aunt L’s uncle *was* the half-brother of her father. Uncle Tom’s mother’s maiden name is thought to possibly be the same as my g-g-grandmother’s maiden name. (Swede/Finn records are so hard fir me to follow with how they did names.)

Uncle Tom did have boys. At least one of them adopted a boy around my age. Match is technically young enough to be the generation below us. 
 

I’m bad at untangling my shoe lace knots, too, lol. 
 

 

[Tap]

Don't let names fool you. It could be a coincidence that they have the same last name, especially if it was a common name in that area. (If a person is adopted into XYZ's name....and then has children, they will give the adopted name to the child---who could have been born an XYZ originally)

 

I have a very uncommon last name. I have never seen my last name any where, except in a small town in Wisconsin. Then it is EVERYWHERE! I am sure it is a common name in the outlying communities as well. We are only the 3rd generation the USA, so we aren't a big clan. It was funny to grow up having to spell my name every time I used it, to going to a town with XWY Furniture Store, and XWY Grocery and XYZ Doctor's clinic etc.  With marriage and adoption, it is entirely possible to have the same last name and not be biologically related or visa versa. 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Tap

[Carrie12345]

12 minutes ago, Tap said:

 With marriage and adoption, it is entirely possible to have the same last name and not be biologically related or visa versa. 

Right. 
But now I have someone we don’t know with the last name who is biologically related where we would not expect and still don’t know how the rest of us are biologically related, if we are, lol. It’s so crazy!

[maize]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

If my grandmother had a half sibling, she didn’t know. G-grandma was 16 when she got to Canada and 18 to the US, so it isn’t entirely impossible to have had a secret baby anywhere. But my Finland cousin knew my g and g-g-grandmothers and doesn’t know of other siblings. And the H family wasn’t in Canada.

Wheels are turning. Aunt L’s uncle *was* the half-brother of her father. Uncle Tom’s mother’s maiden name is thought to possibly be the same as my g-g-grandmother’s maiden name. (Swede/Finn records are so hard fir me to follow with how they did names.)

Uncle Tom did have boys. At least one of them adopted a boy around my age. Match is technically young enough to be the generation below us. 
 

I’m bad at untangling my shoe lace knots, too, lol. 
 

 

If the name originated as a patronymic there is a very high chance that the match bears no relationship to your "great aunt"'s family. My maiden name is derived from the patronymic system and I am not related to 99.9% of the other people with that name.

Family names in general in Sweden and Finland were not clearly established and stabilized until the early 1900's. They aren't much good for genealogy unfortunately.

[Carrie12345]

6 hours ago, maize said:

If the name originated as a patronymic there is a very high chance that the match bears no relationship to your "great aunt"'s family. My maiden name is derived from the patronymic system and I am not related to 99.9% of the other people with that name.

Family names in general in Sweden and Finland were not clearly established and stabilized until the early 1900's. They aren't much good for genealogy unfortunately.

Yeah, it makes me nuts. My match’s name is the H name, which is what Aunt L’s grandfather used here and passed down.  
There’s a P name that that man’s first wife used before taking his that we THINK my g-g-grandmother used, but of course it’s a very common/general late 1800s name, and we hit a wall.

If that IS our way-back connection, it would explain why Aunt L’s dd hasn’t matched my son on Ancestry, because Aunt L’s biological grandmother is different, but she’d still be Uncle Tom’s niece, and therefore our family.

It doesn’t unlock my mystery match though. The name *could be a fluke, but what an odd one. There are 17 people with the H name in the US, according to the Forebears site ( combined 2 spellings.) 4 in Sweden. I know it’s not entirely accurate from my work on other names, but it’s definitely low odds.

Weird.

[maize]

Have you tried the autocluster tool on the Genetic Affairs website? It's a good resource for extending the value of DNA testing for genealogy purposes. It can pull your match data from 23andMe and help you see how those matches form clusters according to common descent.

And definitely upload to MyHeritage and GEDMATCH. GEDMATCH is free, MyHeritage may require some payment to unlock all features, I'm not sure. It was free when I was uploading kits a couple of years ago so it may still be. FamilyTreeDNA requires a fee to unlock all matches, but it is cheaper than paying for a new kit.

[Carrie12345]

20 minutes ago, maize said:

Have you tried the autocluster tool on the Genetic Affairs website? It's a good resource for extending the value of DNA testing for genealogy purposes. It can pull your match data from 23andMe and help you see how those matches form clusters according to common descent.

And definitely upload to MyHeritage and GEDMATCH. GEDMATCH is free, MyHeritage may require some payment to unlock all features, I'm not sure. It was free when I was uploading kits a couple of years ago so it may still be. FamilyTreeDNA requires a fee to unlock all matches, but it is cheaper than paying for a new kit.

Ds and I are both on GEDMATCh, but not the others.  I’ll have to look into expanding later this week. Thanks!