The slower pace of January and February coupled with the wintry conditions encouraged this DNA sleuth to indulge in many cozy nights tucked snuggly under a thick, soft throw while delving deeply into genetic mysteries. Sorting DNA matches, building family trees, and scouring archived vital records . . . oh my!
Three of those mysteries included—
- Solving the puzzle of adoptee Tim’s biological parents and then discovering that his maternal siblings had been looking for him for years! Smiles abounded in the pictures of him with his three half-sisters, yet the moment was bittersweet as his mother, who desperately wanted to find him, did not live to be part of the reunion.
- Discovering the identity of Sue’s biological father who received the news of a very likely daughter with cautiously-open arms. After time to process and a confirmed paternity test, the father-daughter reunion is happily moving forward, as evidenced by the smiling photos she shared that readily capture the family resemblance.
- Revisiting Amber’s case with the hope that a new DNA match would offer the info needed to finally piece together the puzzle of her paternal family—and it did. When I shared the likely father’s name, Amber quickly remembered the family, whose younger twin daughters had attended her school. She hesitantly reached out and now we wait.
The mystery of John’s father
On one of those more recent tucked-in late nights, I heaved a big sigh. “Just keep going,” I murmured to myself. “Keep going . . . ”
I was up to my neck in a biological-father search, for a situation that originated less than 50 miles away. My gaze bounced from the already sprawling family tree covering my computer screen to the time in the bottom right corner—12:30 a.m. Being too stubborn to admit I was stumped, I hopped up to stretch my legs and grabbed a quick snack before situating myself back in the recliner. I knew the only hope of solving the mystery of John’s biological father lay in further expanding the family tree I’d built to connect his DNA matches. While the matches linked to one side of his father’s family offered decent-to-goodish clues, the connections on the other side were few, low, and difficult to identify.
It would take deeper burrowing into the third and fourth-level cousin DNA matches to look for clues that pointed to his grandparents and great-grandparents—a task both challenging and tedious. But first, I had to round up the spouses for a group of 11 siblings born between 1897 and 1922. Ugh . . .
Now, I have nothing against large families—really, I don’t. But when the spouses and children are added to a large sibling group, their section of the family tree becomes exponentially wider than what can be viewed on one computer screen, requiring constant scrolling to the right and then to the left. The words cumbersome and downright unwieldy spring to mind every time this scenario happens. Not to mention how tricky and time-consuming the process is when attempting to glean facts from an era when documentation tended to be hit-and-miss. And, as I’ve lamented repeatedly, spelling didn’t count!
Consider these fun facts about birth registration in Indiana—
The state began officially recording births through the Indiana State Board of Health when birth registration became mandatory in October 1907. Some local, less consistent recording occurred as early as 1881-1882, but those records remained with the county. Unfortunately, full compliance with the 1907 registration law was not achieved until after 1920.
For births prior to 1907, you may need to search local county records or alternative sources like church records, censuses, or family Bibles.
Now . . . back to John and the truth he so wanted to learn about his paternal heritage. For the past 18 years, John has been trying to wrap his head around the reality of a secret, inadvertently revealed by extended family. At the age of five, John had been adopted by a stepfather, his mother’s new husband, and grew up believing this man was his father. When the secret leaked, John’s mother had already passed and his stepfather knew next to nothing about John’s biological father.
John and his descendants deserved to know the identity of his father. So, I gritted my teeth and forged ahead. About 1:30 a.m., a surname from one branch of DNA matches popped up in another branch of DNA matches, finally connecting his father’s maternal and paternal families. And from there, the pieces fell into place. When I closed the laptop just before 2 a.m., I felt 80% sure I’d located a highly-likely father candidate, Donald. Within the branches of the “research” family tree that had swelled to include 216 persons.
The next morning a review of the many pieces to the puzzle, with refreshed eyes and a less groggy mind, bumped my confidence to 95% +. After I shared the news with a very excited John and his wife Christy, mutual continued digging uncovered additional clues that further solidified the connection. Two days later, John telephoned Donald who was more than receptive to the news of a son fathered more than 50 years ago.
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Ancestry DNA results include ethnicity estimates and a long list of DNA matches. Check out my results as of mid-February 2026. New matches come in on a daily/weekly basis with many falling into the distant matches category. I check every day, hoping for a close-ish match, maybe one with a mystery to solve.
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Inspiration to keep going
Later that night, I pondered the late-night self-mutterings that had nudged me to forge ahead. Soon names began wafting through my mind. James . . . Jay . . . Cordan . . . Eric . . . Sara . . . Lynda . . . Melissa. Each had an origin-story puzzle with pieces that stubbornly remained missing. Could deeper-yet digging, more combing through archived documents, and a closer evaluation of the DNA connections uncover answers for them? There’s never a guarantee that a parentage mystery can be solved using DNA matches, but it is certain that the deeper the digging, the better the chances that the pieces will fall into place.
After stepping away for a few weeks from another challenging case, I plan to jump back in, hoping to get answers for Zane.
Twenty-four-year-old Zane has never known his father. Raised by a single mother, with a lot of support from her extended family, the subject of his parental heritage was seldom broached over the years. But now, as a young man striking out on his own, he finds himself in a place of deep longing to know. Although it’s difficult for his mother to talk about that time of her life, they’ve recently had a few meaningful conversations. She understands his desire for answers, but she has little information to offer him—a scenario that she wishes were not the case. But, it is what it is. Both mother and son understand that the past can’t be changed. Zane is choosing to bravely walk toward the truth.
Piecing together John’s mystery has inspired me to delve back into Zane’s puzzle. I’ve encouraged Zane to also test his DNA with either 23andMe or MyHeritage as those results coupled with his Ancestry results may yield further clues. But in the meantime, I foresee more late-night sessions, tucked under a lighter, less-cozy throw as, hopefully, the worst of the winter cold is behind us.
Are you stumped by a genealogical mystery? Maybe you’re an adoptee looking to discover your roots. Are you pondering the ins-and-outs of DNA testing OR have you grown weary of staring at your own might-as-well-be-written-in-Greek DNA results? Send me a message, at bethsteury@gmail.com, so we can discuss a path forward.
Beth Steury, Author 