Paul’s search

Search goal: Determine the relationship between Paul and Christina.

*All names have been changed

This case was a different one! Usually I am working on finding a parent, grandparent, or both, but this time around, I was confirming a relationship.

Paul’s wife reached out to me to help with a mystery match. Paul had matched Christina rather high, but they were unsure of the relationship. However, Christina’s dad was adopted, so we knew that was the avenue to explore.

As usual, I sorted the matches just to be sure of what side the relation would be for Paul. It was through his mother’s side. Christina shared all of Paul’s maternal matches.

Based on the DNA, we were looking at two scenarios: Christina’s dad was a half sibling of Paul, or Paul and Christina were first full cousins.

First full cousins was ruled out, because Paul’s mom’s dad had already passed away by the time Christina’s dad was born, therefore, Christina’s dad could not be a full sibling of Paul’s mom.

This left only one other option-Paul’s mom was also the mother of Christina’s dad. Despite being only 16 years old, Paul’s wife explained that this made sense based on the family background and things that happened within the family.

This search also brought to light another family revelation- Paul’s mom’s sister is actually her half sister. Nobody knew this until I realized it while looking at their matches, and mentioned it to Paul’s wife. This is not the first time one mystery has led to another! Paul’s half aunt’s biological father is one of four siblings born over 100 years ago, so we may not be able to narrow that down further unless descendants of the brothers end up testing. Paul’s wife and I are the only ones to know about this, as well…