Search goal: Find both biological parents.
*All names have been changed
Deirdre is a Canadian adoptee that was in search of her biological parents. She had some decently close Ancestry DNA matches under 1000cm (cm is centimorgan, which is a unit of measurement for genetic linkage).
Deirdre had a bit of information about her maternal side, including her birthmother’s name, which proved helpful when messaging a maternal match that turned out to be her birthmother’s cousin.
As always, I sorted Deirdre’s matches and ended up with five groups, as her paternal grandmother had had two husbands and descendants from each of them. The matches helped make it clear that Deirdre was a descendant of the second marriage. Due to the information we had about the maternal side, it was clear that the side with the closest matches was paternal. It came down between three brothers, but since only one was old enough to be Deirdre’s father at the time she was born, it was clear that the birthfather was Harvey, who had unfortunately passed away six years ago.
The top maternal match ended up being a cousin of Deirdre’s birthmother, who remembered Deirdre’s birthmother Laura, who unfortunately had also passed away. Though both of her biological parents are gone, Deirdre has lots of new family members including some half siblings that were excited to get to know her.
Lauren’s Genetic Genealogy 