Matilda’s search

*All names have been changed

Search goal: Identify Matilda’s maternal great grandfather

Matilda reached out for help earlier this year for help with her family mystery- it was nice to reconnect, as Matilda was an old schoolmate of mine. Matilda’s maternal grandmother Katherine had been adopted by her aunt and uncle, and they did not know her biological father. Matilda and her grandmother were both born in England, but there was a rumor that her grandmother’s biological father could have been an American soldier that was overseas in WW2.

Matilda had done an AncestryDNA test and she invited me to her results. Her paternal uncle had tested, which helped split the matches a bit, as many of them still were Unassigned. Matilda had also created a nice filled out family tree, so I began to sort her maternal matches and identify the known lines.

Being from England, Matilda did not have that many DNA matches, but there was at least one clear mystery line, with the top match in this group being a lady named Jade, 210cm. Matilda’s mother had tested on 23andMe, and Jade was also on there and matched her at 5.53%, or 411cm.

Matilda had a handful of more distant shared matches with Jade, and I quickly found one match, Beth, that shared a common ancestor with Jade. Their common ancestor was a man named Wallace Watson, born in the 1870s.

It began to get a little interesting as I looked closely at Wallace and his family in the trees of Jade and Beth.
Wallace had children with two sisters from the Greene family. Jade was a descendant of Miranda Greene, while Beth was descended from Miranda’s sister, Margaret. Wallace was married to Margaret Greene when Jade’s grandfather, Wilson Greene, was born in the mid 1910s.

On Wilson’s birth index record, he had his mother’s last name, suggesting that Wallace may have had an affair with his sister-in-law. This affair may have been discovered through DNA testing or was possibly a known family ‘secret’.

Matilda was a much closer match with Jade than Beth, and Jade was one generation younger than Beth, so I knew the relation was from the Watson/Greene pairing that Jade was descended from. Her grandfather Wilson Greene was looking like a good contender for being Matilda’s great grandfather. He was the right age, in the right place, and had no full siblings. Jade’s cm also worked well as a half first cousin once removed to Matilda and as a half first cousin to Matilda’s mother on 23andMe.

Matilda got in touch with Jade again- they had chatted previously, but had been unable to figure out how they were related at the time. Jade sent photos of her grandfather and there was a clear resemblance to Matilda’s grandmother and her family. Matilda and her family are very glad to have solved their family mystery.