Alina’s search

*All names have been changed

Search goal: Find Alina’s biological father

Alina is an adoptee who knew who her birthmother was, but unfortunately, she had passed away, and Alina had no information about her biological father. So she took an AncestryDNA test in hopes of finding him.

Alina’s matches were mostly maternal matches, and she only had four paternal matches, with a very distinct Eastern European ethnicity, indicating a recent immigration in the family.

Luckily, three of the four matches were actually very close matches over 400cM each. After some quick research and Alina telling me she had messaged one of them, I knew that two of the matches were full siblings to each other, and the other match was their half first cousin. Alina matched the two siblings in the full first cousin range, and the half first cousin in the half first cousin range.

So I started putting together a little tree, and found that there was a set of three brothers whose mother had immigrated from Europe. The oldest son was the father of the lower match, and he was a half brother to the younger two brothers. The second son was the father of the two siblings. So I knew that the third and youngest brother had to be Alina’s birth father.

Unfortunately, he had also passed away, but he had one son and a granddaughter that Alina may eventually reach out to.