One of my new DNA matches turned out to be the great-grandson of a distant relative who died recently. Since many of the individuals involved are living, I won’t go into the details of the search or the specifics of the family, but there are some reminders about DNA match analysis with this match.

Obituaries do not necessarily list all descendants. The great-grandmother (on the maternal side) of the match died in 2019. Her obituary indicated she had grandchildren (they are named) but does not reference great-grandchildren. It it possible that certain family members do not acknowledge the great-grandchild. To confuse the issue the paternal grandfather of the match was apparently adopted or raised by his step-father and uses that name. Until I reached that conclusion, the tree analysis was confusing.

Just don’t take everything at face value and do not jump to conclusions.

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2 Responses

  1. I really love your tips!

    My brother-in-law’s sister, who wrote the obituary when my sister passed away, neglected to mention my dad who was still living, nor any of us siblings!

    • I’m glad you like them. Obits written by someone not in the immediate family can easily contain errors–as your comment suggests.

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