52 Ancestors Week 17: DNA

 Week 17

April 25 is DNA Day, and it's no coincidence that the theme for Week 17 is "DNA." Has DNA testing broken down a brick wall for you? Is there a brick wall that you wish it would break down? Have there been any surprises? (If you're posting anything publicly, remember to not identify living people unless you have their permission.)

Y'know with just one or two modifications, we could
totally have superpowers.

   

     When I had my DNA tested back in 2017, I was told many things. The first being that my father was all Italian all the time. I could've told you that. If you look at his tree, you can clearly see the pasta sauce flowing through his branches. The leaves of his tree are fig! One of the other things I was told that you should always expect surprises. That goes without saying. You never know what a DNA test will reveal once the test results come in. You could end up being an ethnicity you previously had no connection with OR you could find a relative or two you never knew existed. Those are all very good words to live by. However, what if you're on the recieving end of the surprises? What if you are the surprise relative to someone? It's happened to me before and it's more likely than you think. The names in this blog have been changed to protect the innocent!

   For the longest time, my mother and I had this DNA match who was pretty much unknown to us. We didn't know where she fit into the family tree. She matched me at 127 cMs and my mother at 182 cMs. The woman, let's call her Crystal, sat on the backburner of my DNA match list for quite some time before I said "You know what? I'm going to message her!"

    And that's what I did after doing a Leeds chart and finding out that she matches virtually everyone who descended from my 2nd great-grandparents, Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran. You would think that would narrow things down a bit, but, unfortunately (or fortunately) the family tree is HUGE!

    A little over a year since I sent the message, I got a response from Crystal. After getting over my shock, I saw that she was looking for information on her father's side of the family. That's reasonable. Many people wanted to learn about their family and that's why they send in those DNA tests. In this case, this was Ancestry. I offered some advice and various tools like DNApainter's shared cM project/WATO. I also linked her to Dana Leed's Leeds Method. If you have access to the tools of the trade, why not share the wealth?

    I'm not sure what possessed me to ask my next question. I asked Crystal about various matches we shared in the Legault line. I asked her about a known second cousin, "Joseph", who descended from Antoine and Lucie's son, Oliver. Crystal replied saying that she matched Joseph at 1540 cMs!

    The blood drained from my face and my jaw hit the floor. To quote Strong Bad: "That is not a small number! THAT IS A BIG NUMBER!"

    I tried very hard to compose myself afterward. As a genealogist one must remain calm like the summer breeze and....Oh, who am I kidding? I was floored! You would be too!

    I composed myself and made sure that this was the same 2nd cousin I was talking to her about. She verified that it was indeed the same guy. Running the numbers through the old shared cM project, I found this amazing result.

There is little to no wiggle room!

   According to the shared cM project, Joseph was most likely Crystal's grandfather. I doubled-checked my work and even did a WATO tree to be sure. The evidence was clear and right away Crystal greeted me as a new third cousin. I smiled and I asked her if she talked to anyone else in the family who could help find the connection.

    Crystal said she was talking to another second cousin of mine named "Felicia". Felicia is a DNA match over on MyHeritage and I had messaged her a few times here and there. So, I knew how we were related.  I emailed Felicia to see what she had to say about everything as she was incredibly warm and kind to our "new" cousin. That was a good thing. The last thing I wanted to be caught in the middle of was some drama. If there was drama, I'd have backed away. No one has time for that mess.

    Felicia being warm and caring is a bit of an understatement. When I messaged her before this big reveal, she told me everything I needed to know. She also descended from Oliver and she answered my mother's questions about his children since she hadn't seen them since my parents' wedding! Yeah, it's been quite a while since we last heard from that Legault branch hasn't it? After all fifty years is a long time.

Hello, old Ancestry screenshot...

    My second cousin told me that she had a pretty good idea about the rest of the tree and filled me in on the details. For privacy's sake, I'm not going to elaborate on anything. Let's just celebrate the fact that Crystal has a new grandfather that she never knew about and a family that cares about her. That's all anyone can hope for. Let's just hope they have some relationship because I hadn't had an update in quite some time.

    The only thing is that I felt like I rocked the boat a bit with the big reveal. I was the one who told Crystal about the connection to Joseph and what that meant. Did I stir the pot? All I did was present the facts of the case in a calm manner.

    Crystal and Felicia have both informed me that while the boat was rocked a little bit, all parties involved in the situation have been made aware of everything. There were some waves made. But, at this point I think things calmed down. Do they have a relationship with one another? I have no clue. All I can say is that I hope there's some relationship. You never know. Having that close of a DNA match doesn't mean you HAVE to have that close of a relationship with someone. You aren't owed anything. But, you should always be aware that surprises can happen when you take a DNA test.

    I also learned an important lesson in all of this. If you're the person who has to explain things to the surprised DNA match, it's a good idea to explain things in laymen's terms and present the facts of the case so that they will understand what you're saying. Too much information could startle them and they'll feel overwhelmed. So, treat it with kid gloves, be their friend and whatever you do, try to avoid dropping the truth bomb. Save those for incredibly difficult DNA matches.

Did I just equate a truth bomb with a nuclear weapon? Yes. Yes, I did.

See ya next time!

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