Diane’s search

*All names have been changed

Search goal: Identify Diane’s maternal grandfather

Diane’s search was a quick one from earlier this month. Diane reached out in hopes of identifying her biological maternal grandfather. She had taken an AncestryDNA test and had already created a tree based on her line of maternal grandfather matches, but needed another pair of eyes to figure things out.

I took a look at her matches and tree and could see that the family name was Cooper and they were all from the same province that Diane’s mom was born in. I knew we were likely looking for someone born at the start of the 20th century.

Diane had a match in the 900cm range, which she thought might be a first cousin. However I could quickly tell that this match was not a first cousin as he was not matching Diane’s maternal grandmother’s side. I found this match in the tree, and it became clear that this match was a half uncle, and he was a generation older than Diane as well. This match’s father was the right age to be Diane’s maternal grandfather and was living fairly close by to where her grandmother was living at the time of Diane’s mom was born, so it turned out to be a quick conclusion. Diane has met her half uncle already and is glad to have discovered how she is connected to the Cooper family.