Hanna’s search

*All names have been changed

Search goal: Identify Hanna’s biological father

Hanna’s search is one of the most unique ones I have ever done.

Last year, before I met Hanna, in the summer of 2024 I met a woman named Chanah through doing some local genealogy research. Chanah and I struck up a friendship right away, and she shared with me that a young woman had reached out to her online in the last year, and coincidentally, they even had the same name, spelt different ways- Chanah and Hanna.

Hanna had done an AncestryDNA test after discovering she was donor conceived. Through her own research and looking at her matches, Hanna had found Chanah’s family and figured they were probably closely related, but they hadn’t quite confirmed it yet. Eventually I was introduced to Hanna, and we created a group chat and we still talk nearly every day!

Before I had even joined this trio, Chanah and Hanna had been working on the mystery and were trying to figure it out. Hanna, born in the late 1980s, was about one generation younger than Chanah, who was born in the 1960s. Chanah had done some asking around in her own family and discovered that her father, Norman, had donated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But the timeline didn’t quite fit, with Hanna being born 30 years later. Surely they didn’t use a donor from 30 years prior. As well, Hanna’s ethnicity estimate also raised some further questions.

Chanah was from a small family, with just a brother and sister, who were full siblings to her, and neither of them had any children of their own. More curiously, Hanna’s results showed she was 25% Ashkenazi Jewish, while Chanah and her father, were presumably 100%. It was as if there was one extra generation in between Norman and Hanna- but it could only be explained by Norman having a son- perhaps a donor conceived son that had also been a donor. Two generations of donors? Could it be?

A handful of months into the friendship with Chanah and Hanna, I gifted Chanah an AncestryDNA test to try and further Hanna’s search. She was ready to do it and sent it away, and we all waited [im]patiently for the results.

About a month later, a few months into 2025, Chanah’s results were back. As we expected, Chanah was 100% Jewish, and her father was Norman, as she had known matches from his side, so it was all good there. Chanah and Hanna matched in the right cm range to be half aunt/half niece as Hanna had theorized they would be. Although this range fit for a first cousin relationship too, we knew this was not possible because Chanah matched their shared matches at double the centimorgan range of what Hanna matched them at.

Hanna’s research had been correct and thus as a result, Chanah had several new paternal half siblings and half nieces/nephews that had tested on AncestryDNA as well as on the other DNA sites. It became clear that Hanna’s theory of having a donor biological father as well as a donor paternal grandfather were likely correct. But how would we ever find a donor conceived person that had also been donor conceived? It seemed impossible. After thinking about it for a while, I figured we might be able to do it through the donor’s mother’s side.

Hanna was 25% Jewish and 25% Polish on her paternal side. Using her results on 23andMe, I was able to determine that her paternal grandmother was the Polish side, further confirming Norman as Hanna’s paternal grandfather.

However, across all the sites, Hanna’s few Polish matches were very low, with the highest one being around in the 100cm range. All too low to build trees and try to find the paternal grandmother of Hanna, who would likely be the key to solving this.

About a month after Chanah’s results came back, Hanna had a new match appear on MyHeritage. It was an older man from Poland named Konstanty, and he matched Hanna around 450cm. He had a very nicely built out family tree, and Hanna and I both explored it, looking for any connections to Canada. And then- I found it.

Konstanty’s mother had only one sister- and that sister had moved from Poland to Canada, to the city where Chanah and Hanna had been born in. She had married a Jewish man, and they had one son and one daughter. Using obituaries and social media, we were able to find the son- and he shared a remarkable resemblance to Chanah, as well as Hanna. It was clear based on DNA, dates, and locations that this man had been donor conceived and was a half sibling to Chanah and the biological father of Hanna.

Hanna is very glad to have identified her biological father, and is most happy with the close relationship she has developed with her half aunt Chanah.

This search may have taken years if it was not for Konstanty testing, so we are thankful for him and his help too. Every donor conceived person, along with adoptees and NPEs, and everyone else, deserves to know their biological health history and form relationships with their relatives if that’s something they choose to pursue.