Clarissa’s search

*All names have been changed.

Search goal: Identify Clarissa’s biological father

Clarissa reached out to me looking for help identifying her biological father. She had already identified and reunited with her maternal family, but her paternal side remained a mystery.

Clarissa had tested with AncestryDNA and invited me to view her DNA results. Since she already knew which matches belonged to her maternal side, it was easy to separate those out and focus only on her paternal matches.

When I started sorting her paternal matches, they split into two distinct match groups. The larger of the two centred around the surname Carter. Most of these matches had roots in North Carolina, although there was also a branch of the family living in Baltimore, Maryland. After researching several of Clarissa’s closest matches, including Cheryl, Nate, and Beatrice, I found that those matches were all descended from the same couple: Vance Carter and Cora Jones.

Nate, Beatrice, and Cheryl were all second cousins to one another. Clarissa shared the expected amount of DNA with Nate and Beatrice for that relationship as well, but Cheryl and Clarissa shared noticeably more DNA than I would expect if she were simply another second cousin.

After researching Cheryl’s family a little further, the relationship that fit best was that Clarissa and Cheryl were likely half first cousins, sharing one grandparent. This had to be the grandparent on the Carter line, which was Clarence Carter.

At that point, I switched over to the second DNA match group to see whether there was a connection.

This group took a little longer to figure out, but eventually I found that several of the closest matches were connected through the surname Williams. Like the Carter family, they also had ties to both Baltimore, Maryland and North Carolina.

Two of Clarissa’s closer matches in this group, Monique and Camille, turned out to be half first cousins who shared a grandfather, Stanley Williams. The top match in the Williams group, Latasha, was descended from Stanley’s maternal half-sister, Sarah Williams. Latasha was also matching in the half first cousin range. That told me that Stanley and Sarah’s mother, Lula Mae Williams, was likely going to be important to this search.

As I researched Lula Mae’s family, I found that she had another son, Franklin Williams, who was born in 1946.

One interesting detail was that in the 1950 census, Lula Mae and both of her sons, Stanley and Franklin, were all using the Williams surname, which was Lula Mae’s maiden name. This suggested that her sons had been born before her marriage and likely had different biological fathers.

At this point, my working theory was that Franklin Williams could be Clarissa’s biological father, with Clarence Carter being Franklin’s biological father. If that were true, it would explain why Clarissa’s paternal DNA matches split so neatly into both the Carter and Williams families.

I then looked for records that might support this theory.

I discovered that Clarence Carter had moved from North Carolina to Baltimore sometime before 1942. Lula Mae Williams was also living in Baltimore during this time, and according to the addresses listed in the 1950 census, they lived less than three miles from one another.

Franklin died in Baltimore from pneumonia at just 33 years old and appears never to have married.

While the documentary evidence and DNA all pointed towards Franklin being Clarissa’s biological father, Clarissa hoped to get a closer match to confirm Franklin being her biological father as much as possible. Fortunately, one of Franklin’s half-sisters agreed to take an AncestryDNA test.

When her results came back, they confirmed exactly what the research had suggested- they matched Clarissa in the half aunt range, confirming our theory that Franklin Williams was Clarissa’s biological father.

Clarissa was very pleased to finally have answers about her paternal family. After already reconnecting with her maternal relatives, she now has both sides of her biological family identified and is looking forward to getting to know more about her paternal roots.