u/Citizeniskaned

Apologies for the length of this post, it's as much for my own sake to document what I am doing, but would really appreciate anyone with experience of similar scenarios, who could suggest strategies or poke holes in what I'm doing, it would be much appreciated.

I am born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and had been working on my family tree in the build up to the release of the 1926 census results, and having been able to work back through the available paperwork figured that I had a pretty good idea of my lineage going back to the early 1700s.

I thought it would be interesting to take a DNA test to see if anything interesting came up as a result, but what came back was more surprising than I expected.

A bit of background, I am 47 years old, and the youngest of seven, my parents are no longer alive and there is actually no one from their generation with us (who could be helpful in answering some questions)

My brother had previously done a DNA test (we were both on ancestry.com) and so I figured we would certainly match, but as it turns out we only match as a half-brother (or uncle/nephew) with a match of 1,728 cM | 25% shared DNA. He is the eldest of the family, and there is a 20 year age gap between us, so either scenario was a feasible possibility.

We had a chat about this and his initial reaction was one of confusion, saying there must have been some sort of mistake, but having reviewed it from his side and got over the shock of it, we started discussing possible situations, during which he emphatically removed the uncle/nephew possibility as a non-starter, leaving the only scenario being the half-brother.

Our next step was to narrow our DNA match results down (by parent), in which we both saw a large number of the same matches on our mothers side, but when it came to the fathers side, the matches became much distant and limited, however he did find a cousin matching on this side, meaning that it is my father who has become a mystery!

The closest matches I have on my fathers side are as follows:

222 cM | 3% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 1st cousin 2x removed or half great-grandaunt)

*** This is the only active user (the others haven't been logged into there account for a year or more) I have reached out to her, and I don't know if I've been able to get my point clearly made with her, I'm guessing she's in her 60s/70s, so I don't think the "half great-grandaunt" is a possibility.***

193 cM | 3% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 1st cousin 2x removed or 2nd cousin)

155 cM | 2% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 2nd cousin 1x removed or half 1st cousin 2x removed)

After this point, the matches become much smaller

My problem is that I'm not sure what the best way to approach these, how far back I need to research, For the first two matches, if the suggested relation is correct, that would mean that the man who was my father would be a son of these peoples cousins?, and having looked into publicly available information, I have found that Grandmothers of the first two matches were sisters, so it's possible that I can narrow down the scope by searching through the children across the family from this grandparent level (There are a total of 14 cousins at the next level down from these two sisters, and I don't have a definitive number of grandchildren from that point on)

That is all assuming that the suggested relation by ancestry is correct, for example when I check the first match, the possibilities show as:

Relationship Frequency

60% 1st cousin 2x removed

half 1st cousin 1x removed

half great-grandaunt

2nd cousin

half 1st cousin 1x removed

1st cousin 2x removed

half great-grandniece

25% half 1st cousin 2x removed

2nd cousin 1x removed

1st cousin 3x removed

half 2nd cousin

2nd cousin 1x removed

half 1st cousin 2x removed

1st cousin 3x removed

At this point, my head starts to spin a little as I try to keep all the possible relationships straight in my head, I take a break and try regroup and reapproach the possible scenarios.

So I thought I'd try document this and reach out to see if there is anyone out there who can make any sort of suggestion or sense of this, If you've made it this far into this post, I appreciate you!

Apologies for the length of this post, it's as much for my own sake to document what I am doing, but would really appreciate anyone with experience of similar scenarios, who could suggest strategies or poke holes in what I'm doing, it would be much appreciated.

I am born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and had been working on my family tree in the build up to the release of the 1926 census results, and having been able to work back through the available paperwork figured that I had a pretty good idea of my lineage going back to the early 1700s.

I thought it would be interesting to take a DNA test to see if anything interesting came up as a result, but what came back was more surprising than I expected.

A bit of background, I am 47 years old, and the youngest of seven, my parents are no longer alive and there is actually no one from their generation with us (who could be helpful in answering some questions)

My brother had previously done a DNA test (we were both on ancestry.com) and so I figured we would certainly match, but as it turns out we only match as a half-brother (or uncle/nephew) with a match of 1,728 cM | 25% shared DNA. He is the eldest of the family, and there is a 20 year age gap between us, so either scenario was a feasible possibility.

We had a chat about this and his initial reaction was one of confusion, saying there must have been some sort of mistake, but having reviewed it from his side and got over the shock of it, we started discussing possible situations, during which he emphatically removed the uncle/nephew possibility as a non-starter, leaving the only scenario being the half-brother.

Our next step was to narrow our DNA match results down (by parent), in which we both saw a large number of the same matches on our mothers side, but when it came to the fathers side, the matches became much distant and limited, however he did find a cousin matching on this side, meaning that it is my father who has become a mystery!

The closest matches I have on my fathers side are as follows:

222 cM | 3% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 1st cousin 2x removed or half great-grandaunt)

*** This is the only active user (the others haven't been logged into there account for a year or more) I have reached out to her, and I don't know if I've been able to get my point clearly made with her, I'm guessing she's in her 60s/70s, so I don't think the "half great-grandaunt" is a possibility.***

193 cM | 3% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 1st cousin 2x removed or 2nd cousin)

155 cM | 2% shared DNA (Ancestry suggests 2nd cousin 1x removed or half 1st cousin 2x removed)

After this point, the matches become much smaller

My problem is that I'm not sure what the best way to approach these, how far back I need to research, For the first two matches, if the suggested relation is correct, that would mean that the man who was my father would be a son of these peoples cousins?, and having looked into publicly available information, I have found that Grandmothers of the first two matches were sisters, so it's possible that I can narrow down the scope by searching through the children across the family from this grandparent level (There are a total of 14 cousins at the next level down from these two sisters, and I don't have a definitive number of grandchildren from that point on)

That is all assuming that the suggested relation by ancestry is correct, for example when I check the first match, the possibilities show as:

Relationship Frequency

60% 1st cousin 2x removed

	half 1st cousin 1x removed

	half great-grandaunt

	2nd cousin

	half 1st cousin 1x removed

	1st cousin 2x removed

	half great-grandniece

25% half 1st cousin 2x removed

	2nd cousin 1x removed

	1st cousin 3x removed

	half 2nd cousin

	2nd cousin 1x removed

	half 1st cousin 2x removed

	1st cousin 3x removed

At this point, my head starts to spin a little as I try to keep all the possible relationships straight in my head, I take a break and try regroup and reapproach the possible scenarios.

So I thought I'd try document this and reach out to see if there is anyone out there who can make any sort of suggestion or sense of this, If you've made it this far into this post, I appreciate you!