Lindsey’s search

*All names have been changed.

Search goal: Identify Lindsey’s biological father

Lindsey reached out for help with finding her biological father. She had taken an AncestryDNA test and discovered she had had an NPE, and had discovered a paternal half sibling who was also searching for their biological father.

Lindsey and her sibling had done some research already but needed a second set of eyes to help them find their biological father. Lindsey sent me an invite to her AncestryDNA matches, and an invite to the tree she had created using some of her paternal matches and their trees.

Lindsey’s paternal matches split into three groups. One group of matches was huge and the majority of her matches were from this group, related by the last name Haines, and these were the ones she had mapped out in her research tree. The other two match groups were smaller, and both Eastern European/Russian based.

I took a look at Lindsey’s research tree and could see she had found the common ancestors of the Haines group. Almost immediately I spotted who who Lindsey’s paternal grandparents were going to be- there was a Haines man who had married a woman with a fairly Eastern European last name. This woman’s parents were in the tree of one of Lindsey’s EE/Russian matches, and her mother’s maiden last name was in a tree of a match from the other EE/Russian match group.

Thanks to Lindsey’s research, she already had her biological father in the tree. He had no brothers which made it easy to know he was the biological father. Using his mother’s obituary, I quickly found him on social media, as well as children, and sent the profiles to Lindsey. The resemblance to Lindsey’s sibling was notable!

Lindsey was pleased with my quick research- although she definitely helped having the tree all done!- as this search only took about an hour from start to finish. She hopes to connect with her paternal family members one day soon.