*All names have been changed
Search goal: Identify Catherine’s biological maternal grandfather
Catherine reached out for help identifying her biological maternal grandfather. Her biological mother had never known the identity of her father, and Catherine hoped to solve this family mystery, which had remained unanswered for more than 80 years, using her own DNA results.
Catherine added me as a collaborator to her AncestryDNA results, and I got started.
The first step was to organize Catherine’s DNA matches by family line. I marked the matches belonging to her maternal grandmother’s side with a pink dot, which helped isolate the matches from her maternal grandfather’s side.
One thing stood out immediately: the matches from this unknown line were Americans from the southern United States, whereas Catherine’s other family lines were primarily from eastern Canada.
I began examining the family trees of these matches and comparing how they matched one another to identify recurring surnames and shared ancestors. Two surnames appeared frequently: Henderson and Oliver.
Catherine’s closest matches in this group had connections to Texas, while their ancestors were also associated with Louisiana and South Carolina. I started building out these families in a private research tree on Ancestry to better understand how everyone was connected.
My research led me to a couple named Theodore Henderson and Dorothy Oliver, who had several children. Based on the ages of their sons and the amount of DNA shared between Catherine and her DNA matches, I figured that one of Theodore and Dorothy’s sons was likely Catherine’s biological maternal grandfather.
The next step was figuring out which of these sons had been in Nova Scotia during the relevant period.
I researched the four sons and discovered that the three oldest were married by 1940, while the youngest married in late 1942.
Given the timing and the evidence that Catherine’s biological grandfather was American, I began considering whether military service might explain his presence in Nova Scotia.
Two of the brothers had military connections. One had served in the Navy, while the youngest son, Andrew, had served in the United States Coast Guard.
Andrew became particularly interesting. I researched Andrew’s service history and discovered that he had enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1940. Records placed him aboard the USS Mojave during the early 1940s. The ship’s service history was especially significant. During the Second World War, the USS Mojave participated in the Greenland patrol, including convoy escort and rescue operations in the North Atlantic region.
This made a connection to Nova Scotia plausible. Then I found an even more compelling piece of evidence. Several of Andrew’s military muster rolls, dating from the summer of 1942, were signed in Sydney, Nova Scotia. This placed Andrew in the very area we were investigating during the relevant period.
The DNA evidence connected Catherine to the Henderson family, while further research narrowed the possibilities to a handful of brothers. Only one brother’s military records placed him in Nova Scotia during the relevant period. Based on the combined DNA, genealogical, and historical evidence, Catherine and I concluded that Andrew was her biological maternal grandfather.
Catherine was very pleased with my findings and is looking forward to learning more about Andrew’s family and ancestry.
Leave a Reply