Muriel’s search

*All names have been changed

Search goal: Find Muriel’s biological father

Muriel is an adoptee that reached out for help finding her biological father. She had done an AncestryDNA test, and had non-identifying information, and had found her biological mother. However, she needed help with the paternal side as there were fewer matches on this side.

I took a look at Muriel’s matches and sorted her paternal matches into 2 groups. One of these groups was very small and only had 4 matches in it. Muriel’s top match, was in both groups- so a possible first cousin, but she knew from messaging him that he was also adopted, and wasn’t sure of the connnection.

Most of the matches were not in Canada, which added to the challenge. I took a look at Muriel’s second highest paternal match Maya, who was around the second cousin range, and saw her paternal grandfather had died where Muriel had been born. Thinking there was a possible connection here, I found that Maya’s grandpa also had a brother Benjamin who, like him, had also come to Canada from Scotland. This lined up with the non-identifying information Muriel had- she knew her biological father had immigrated to Canada as a child.

After finding the obituary for Benjamin, I noticed his number of children and their genders matched with Muriel’s information. Only one of the children was still living, and this was the son who aligned exactly with the information Muriel had on her biological father. I also realized this man had made an extensive family tree on Ancestry that I had been looking at during my research!

Upon further communication with her top match, Muriel confirmed they were first cousins- a sibling of her biological father was her match’s biological parent.

Muriel is glad to have traced her paternal side and hopes to one day connect with more relatives.