Troy’s search

*All names have been changed.

Search goal: Confirm the identity of Troy’s biological father

Troy reached out to me for help with his own search after I reached out to him regarding another search that is currently in progress. While Troy is related to that match on his maternal side, he needed help confirming the father he had been told was his biological father was indeed so. They had met long ago, but Troy needed some help interpreting his AncestryDNA matches to be sure.

Troy added me as a collaborator to his matches and I got started sorting his paternal matches. The matches split into two groups, and I was able to see that one of the match groups indeed had the common last name that Troy had been told his biological father had. The other match group had a Scottish last name.

Troy had a match in the 500 centimorgan range that I figured was likely a first cousin once removed. I started looking at this matches’ uncles to see if any married a woman with a Scottish last name. As I had theorized, I found a marriage between a couple that clearly tied Troy’s two match groups together.

A little bit of searching pulled up some obituaries, and Troy’s biological father was named in both as a living descendant, along with many other relatives. Troy reached out to some first cousins to see if they knew the whereabouts of Troy’s father. Half siblings were also located. While Troy’s biological father’s whereabouts is currently unknown, Troy is glad to have his identity confirmed and hopes to find him one day.

This search is in partnership with Andrew Mercer Reformatory.