I couldn't find my grandmother's mother, no birth certificate, not in census data. A little more investigation showed she'd possibly had 3 children and gave different names on each birth certificate. Gedmatch threw up a close match in Scotland, one of the names matched. Found!

After unsuccessfully locating a birth certificate for my father, James Edward Chang, I was finally able to discover his actual birth certificate showing the surname Witter with no father. At 7 yrs old, on discovering he had a son, my grandfather stole him from rural Saint Elizabeth, to better opportunities in Kingston, Jamaica. There is no record so far of his name change from Witter to Chang. My mother's birth certificate shows her name as Olive Verinica Fisher. Before she passed, I was able to test her DNA and upload the results to GEDMatch. While planning a reunion of Fisher relatives from Jamaica, The USA and the UK, I discovered that none of them showed up as DNA matches. Instead, there were all these other unfamiliar surnames, which I later discovered were all related to the Spence family from Westmoreland, Jamaica. I sent out messages to many of them and finally, a Jean Spence responded and told me of her older sister's deathbead confession. She was told that my mother was actually their oldest sister from a liaison their father had with my grandmother, prior to meeting their mother. After 83 years, I was able to arrange a family reunion where my mother was able to meet two of her siblings and celebrate the last three christmases with them before she died earlier this year, all thanks to GEDmatch.

1 Finding the mother for an 80 yo adopted lady in Canada whose father is Australian. Have not solved the Australian side yet, but he was in WW2 and while we know one line the other line does not want to cooperate 2 Have just identified through triangulation that a child b 1816 is not her fathers daughter. 3 Two people we believe are sisters b c1797 and 1799 have the same haplogroup V25 but distance 2 matches, can triangulate descendants of the two sisters so hoping for a breakthrough 4 Trying to identify the parents for a woman b 1799 who people believed was Aboriginal but a mtDNA shows she is English and Romani, can identify an ancestor from 1729 but having difficulty working down from England to Australia Would recommend because of the range of testing companies for people on Gedmatch. Also easy to use.

I'm Mary, and here's our story. I used a DNA kit and found I was related to a woman named Flora. Her name was not familiar to me, so I checked her out on facebook and saw we have a mutual friend named Linda. Linda's grandparents lived downstairs from us in NYC. Linda , a year older than me, lived out on Long Island, but she often visited her grandparents. My sister Lily, who's a year younger than me, and I were always happy when Linda came to visit, The three of us would spend all our time together from early childhood until we were adults.We stayed friends through the years and celebrated our growing families. After I found Flora was related to me, I asked Linda how she knew her. They had taken a different DNA test and were also related, but nothing in either's history shed light on any relationship. Then somebody told me about GEDMatch, I uploaded my raw data, and had Linda upload hers. We were shocked to find we were related not only to Flora, but to each other. We always called each other "cousins" so this cracked us up. But where was the connection? We took our questions to an Angel who dug through the data and determined that my dad was Linda's biological dad. We were blown away! I had the honor of conferencing calling Linda on the phone while talking with the Angel. "I have bad news and good news," I told Linda. "The bad news is that we are not cousins." She made a disappointed sound. "The good news is that we're SISTERS! My dad is your dad!" She started crying. "Uncle Billy is really my dad?" She was thrilled beyong anything. The man she had known as her father died when she was very young, and she had always loved my dad. Linda still lives on Long Island. Lily is in Florida, and Im in the Seattle area. We also have a brother in Mississippi. We sisters made plans immediately to get together in FL, where we got matching helix tattoos. I had always known that my dad, who grew up in the same apartment Lily and I grew up in, had dated Linda's mother in their teens, but apparently it went further than that. We never knew. We suspect the adults in our lives knew, but they never said a word. Now we are closer than ever. I have tons of nieces and nephews, thank to Linda. We get together whenever possible, at least we did before Covid. I'm attaching a photo. One is my third birthday party. I have a big bow in my hair, Lily is next to me with her finger in her mouth, and Linda is on the far left. I have others, but can only post one. Another is us sitting on the grass: Lily, Linda, then me being a moron. Easter of 1960 shows Linda, then me, Lily, and two neighbor kids from our building. Out first trip together was to Nokomis Beach in 2017: Lily on the left in yellow, Linda in front, I'm in back. We also got our first tattoos on that trip. We get matching tattoos every time we get together now. The Nickas kids went to NY for Linda 70th birthday in 2018. The pic shows Linda and me in back, our brother Ted and Lily in front. There's also a pic of our dad Billy. We have also become close with Flora, who it turns out is an aunt we never knew about, our grandfather's child. He was already old with six grandkids when she was born. Our family is now much fuller and more joyful than ever. We credit the DNA tests got the ball rolling, but we'd still be in the dark without GEDMatch. I speak for all my siblings when I say we are incredibly grateful.

Was i Jewish? I now have a new grandfather x2 Finding your roots - as long as you are not hung up about surprise results..

My friend suggested me to join GEDmatch. Several reasons that i want to know about my ethnicity, my parents were related and find more specific of people's names from their family tree. Most of those are seem right match. Wow that's amazing!!

I am a french man in France, near Germany and Switzerland. In France genetic tests are not allowed but I do it with MyHeritage and built my tree, principaly with Geneanet.org (untill Carolus Magnus) 2 questions for me: 1) where come my 30% greek genes given by MyHeritage for I have no match with greek people ? 2) My Y haplogroup HP-96 is very special and rarely present in Europa (and world). Why ? I had no answers

We have gathered DNA data from two lines of our family that converge on an ancestor born in 1840 and have accumulated close to 50 of his DNA segments. The goal of this was to find segments that belonged to two of his great-grandparents, born in the early 1730’s, to see what more we could learn about them. Twelve and a half percent of those near 50 segments theoretically would have belonged to each great-grandparent. We’ve been successful in finding a segment on Chr#14 from his great-grandmother, Huldah, whose maiden name we initially did not know. That segment was shared with multiple matches from two different lines of descent from Huldah. We found that one of the common ancestors that passed this segment down was Josiah Proctor, b. 1742 in Littleton, MA. After we had built out his tree, one of our cousins discovered Huldah’s maiden name in a Vermont county biographical sketch. That name was Harwood and we were thrilled to find that it was in the tree of Josiah Proctor. We knew we were on to something. Our job has become easier now that we have the maiden name and has been reduced to finding which of two New England Harwood lines she came from, and, if we are very lucky, we’ll find who her parents were; the latter is complicated by the fact that she did not have a record of her birth. GedMatch has been an essential tool in this work. It isn't easy and it is helpful to have more than one person working on it, but if you put the work in you can break through brick walls. For more detail of our project, see my blog: http://chasingdnasegments.blogspot.com/

Great tool

For 20 years at least I have been doing research on the claims of the woman known as "Evgenia Smetisko" (Eugenia Smith)who claimed until death in 1997 to have been HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov of Russia. Many friends, old and new, have helped in one way or another on this fascinating journey. As a gift I often gave DNA kits for them to find out more about THEIR heritage. Without exception we have found, via Gedmatch, that we share various segments of chromosomes all via my mother's mother's side of the family. One day I was contacted by a Russian immigrant to the USA who had found ME via Gedmatch. She was particularly interested as her aunt, now passed, from Russia had taken a test, uploaded to Gedmatch, and that connected to my and my mom's kit also. The Russian aunt claimed to be a descendant of Tsar Alexander I Romanov and, indeed, she was named Maria Romanova Grebinnikova. Upon further investigation all of my Anastasia Romanov helpers have also matched Maria's sample although we hail from USA, second generation Americans from Italy and Sicily, Mexico, Guatemala and 2nd generation from Austria-Hungary. This has been quite a quest and Gedmatch was there every step of the way. March 2024 Histria Books (Las Vegas) will publish GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA: STILL A MYSTERY? I have self published various books based on characters from the paternal and maternal family tree which can be seen at ahnentafelbooks.com

When my grandmother was on her death-bed she told the family that my grandfather had been adopted. This was a surprise to everyone and I don't believe that my grandfather was ever told that he had been adopted. So, my challenge was to find his biological parents as I already knew his foster parents. I did the Y chromosome DNA test through GEDmatch and kept getting matches with a family in New Zealand that I could not explain. I contacted everyone with those matches and by working with other members of the family, we finally found the name of my grandfather's biological mother. This led me to get his original birth record which tallied with a second birth registration advised under the name of his adoptive parents. The two birth registrations matched completely, except for the fact that one had his birth mother, and the other had the names of his adoptive parents. The other gem was that his biological grandmother had used a distinctive middle name (Bogan). Further investigation led to me also finding his biological father with this clue. In the end, I found half-siblings on his father and mother's side, even though they never married and went on to have relationships with different life partners. I would recommend GEDmatch to friends and family because it helped me solve a mystery that had stayed with me since my grandmother died in 1983. More than twenty years later, I was able to solve the mystery with a combination of DNA evidence and traditional research techniques. So, my next ambition is to meet the New Zealand branch of the family in the flesh. I have already been in communication via email.

Since 2006 I have been searching for my paternal grandfather . My father never knew who he was , and he was never named on his birth certificate , so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. My dad passed away in 2003 before I was able to get him dna tested . Fortunately I was able to test my mum which cut in half my results :) I was able to find 1/2 first cousins , 2 cousins and even half aunts and uncles and eventually found out who my grandfather was . It’s been very eye opening , and the suprises keep coming , my dad is now one of 8 on his paternal side . 3 have only recently found out also, having grown up with no idea that their father wasn’t their father , and one 93 year old who’s recently discovered her paternal line . How lucky is that . I love this dna stuff ! It’s just magic and there is no denying it .

Hello, everyone. My name is Randall McNally (no, not that Rand McNally). I was born in 1957, and from day one, never knew who my real father was. Sure, I knew who my stepfather was, and knew that he'd rather not know who I was, but that's a different story for a different time. So, for over 50 years, I have searched in nearly every way I could think of, clutching a meager handful of clues; a tattered newspaper birth announcement, archival searches of every kind ( even the FBI - don't ask!). You see, in the state I was born in, if you are adopted, everything, and I mean everything, gets sealed. So I tried. I tried some of the competition. I even sent in a DNA sample, and they sent me back a list of over 1700 matches. That's not a typo- 1700. And they have restrictions on how many you can contact at one time, too. More often than not, the people I contacted would not even return the contact. About a week ago, folks on one of my German Genealogy groups were talking about this thing they kept referring to as GEDMatch. Honestly,I thought it had something to do with High School equivalency testing, but once I understood, I figured, what the heck, and had my DNA info transferred over. Miracle of miracles, I was given an easy to interpret set of results, FOR FREE, in less than 2 days, that came with easy to follow video instructions that even a 65 year old computer illiterate could understand. And on that list (of 50, not 1700) were people whose DNA matched mine a heck of a lot more closely. One of those people was named Brandon Thompson. Within 3 days, not 50 years but 3 DAYS, we determined that Brandon was a cousin. In turn, he helped me find my father, my father's family, and suddenly, my family tree had grown dozens of branches. Let me say that again, in case you missed it: thanks to GEDMatch, I found in less than a week what I had been searching for for over 50 years. Thanks to you, I now have an identity. My family has nearly doubled in size. Yes, we're taking things slowly, but at least now, now I know. And I owe it all to you.

Helping me connect my African - Euro African relatives with the rest of the world / Caribbean etc

Exciting to find new cousins & confirm more matches!

My brickwall ancestor was married in an English village in 1745, but he was not from that village or any of the surrounding parishes. My research project is to find his family and place of origin. On GEDmatch, I discovered a group of people whose combined family trees seem to contain the answer. However, these same individuals do not appear as matches on Ancestry or MyHeritage. Only GEDmatch shows that the people in this group all share an identical segment of DNA. Without GEDmatch, I would still be in the dark! This is why I'd recommend GEDmatch to other researchers. I wrote about my findings here: https://sainsbury.home.blog/2023/03/20/the-sainsbury-family-of-castle-combe-reconsidered/

I wasn't really chasing any challenges, but was trying to learn more about my deeper ancestry. Better than Ancestry does. I did find out on Ancestry/Sons of the American Revolution that my 4th great grandfather commanded a company of infantry at Lexington. Then on GED Match I was surprised to see I had 1.56% Amerindian, very unexpected, when I learned I had two ancestors on the Mayflower, the admixture of Amerindian occurred 7/8 generations ago which was after 1630. My Ancestors were Pilgrims, not Puritans so I hope the union was amicable. I reccomed GED Match to all interested in ancestors.

I'm just trying out new sites to find family ancestors and members

Trying to find my grandmother.

Trying to find some ancestors I need to add to lineage. Find more ancestors. It's fun to search and find your people

Encontrar ligações com os Açores era uma das metas. E é sempre uma grata surpresa encontrar parentes, embora todos distantes e em sua maioria curiosamente conectados por um casal de pentavós em Relva, Ponta Delgada,São Miguel, Açores. Ferramenta útil e de fácil manejo.

Finding family members residing in the Middle East specifically Israeli Jews, I found several maternal and paternal Jewish family members, I recommend Gedmatch to family and friends because it is a wonderful genealogy site and connects us to all family members that we didn't even know existed before.

Calvert County, MD I’d been building family trees with limited information about my maternal and paternal ancestors. As I looked up census data for 1880 onward, I saw that the oldest people on both my maternal and paternal family had roots in Maryland and Virginia. These elders were all born about 1825. There were people surrounding them on the 1870 and 1880 US census pages who were born in Maryland and Virginia among other places. I wondered if any of these unknown people were family members. I looked at marriage and death records to see if I could find information about the prior generation but had little success. In 2015 I purchased a DNA test kit from Ancestry.com to ramp up my genealogy research. My mother was my first DNA donor. I mailed off the kit and impatiently waited for the results. The results came back faster than promised by Ancestry.com and I eagerly logged in to check out her matches. Among the results was only 1 last name that was familiar, the name was Provost. I did not immediately know the person with the Provost profile name, but I knew they lived in Iberia Parish. And that Provost profile was a shared match to profiles for 3 people whose names were unknown. Two of those profiles had family trees with people who lived in Calvert County, Maryland. The third profile had only 1 name of the linked family tree. That profile was destinysmom12. The search for destinysmom12 was a challenge, but I solved it and connected my mother’s DNA to the provost profiles as well as the other two. See how I put the pieces together. Piecing together my connection to destinymom12 was a challenge that took me about 2 years to complete. Before I could figure out that mystery, I first had to solve my family’s connection to the 2 profiles (CG and her daughter) that were shared matches to my mother’s DNA. The partial tree attached to CG’s profile pointed me to Calvert County, Maryland. But the tree did not go back enough generations to make the connection clear. The tree began with Hester Patterson, wife of Virgil Watts. Both CG and her daughter’s DNA was in another database in which I uploaded my mother’s DNA. From that database I was able to see that my mother’s connection to CG was through 2 shared segments on the X chromosome and 4 segments of autosomal DNA. This information suggested that the connection was handed down woman to woman through several generations. Interesting right?? Going up my mother’s tree on her maternal side, I had only one person born in Maryland. I had already discovered that her great grandmother Charlotte had been born in Maryland about 1828 and that Charlotte’s family name had been Phillips. Her death certificate listed her parents as Joseph Phillips and Charity. So, I went back to Hester Patterson and looked at the tree linked to the profiles. I saw on the 1900 census a widowed thirty-two (born 1868) Hester Jefferson with several children in her household with the last name of Jefferson. Jefferson? From where had the maiden name Patterson come? I looked through the 1900 census pages before and after the listing for Hester and found a sixty-seven-year-old Peter Phillips and a forty-six-year-old William Jefferson. Both men were recorded on the same page and 1 page before Hester. This seemed to point out that I was on the right track or at least in the vicinity of connecting Hester to a Phillips! So, I searched on the 1880 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. Why I didn’t I just search for a Joseph Phillips since I knew that was my Charlotte’s father’s name–I can’t tell you? Perhaps because I didn’t expect to find him in 1870. This was a big mistake–not expecting to find what you’re looking for, so you don’t even look for it! In any case, when I searched for a Hester born about 1868, the first result was a thirteen-year-old Hester Tayney in the household with Major and Eliza Tayney. In the 2 households following Hester’s were 2 families with the last name of Jefferson. So, I searched the 1870 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. I found 2, Hester Fawney and Hester Tawney, both born in 1866. When I clicked on the first Hester, I found myself looking at page that listed Mager and Eliza Fawney as well as children: Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, James, Rebecca, Hester and Jacob. I scrolled up to look at the other names on the page. And to my great surprise and great joy, I saw the names Joseph Phillips, age 36; Hester Phillips, age 74; Carrity Phillips, age 22; George Phillips, 1; and Joseph Fawney, 14; all in the same household!! I clicked on the other result for Hester Tawney in 1870. The names listed in the Tawney household were almost exactly the same: Mager, Eliza, Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, Betty, Hester and Benjamin as the household with Hester as the Fawney. Because Hester Tawney/Fawney had been counted twice on the 1880 census, I was able to see Hester on the same page with the Phillips family. The addition of Joseph Fawney in the Phillips family, crystallized my understanding that Eliza Tawney’s maiden name was most likely Phillips and that seventy-four-year-old Hester Phillips was most likely Eliza Tawney’s mother and Joseph Phillips was most likely Eliza’s brother. I found and requested death certificates for Joseph Phillips and Eliza Tawney (Torney). The father’s name on both was Joseph Phillips. The mother’s name was given as Easter on Eliza’s death certificate and left blank on Joseph Phillips’ certificate. I later requested a death certificate for Peter Phillips. The name provided for his father was also Joseph Phillips and the mother’s maiden name was left blank. I think the mother’s maiden name is often left blank because many people don’t understand the question ‘maiden name’ or they don’t know the mother’s maiden name. I’d undoubtedly found the X chromosome link between my mother and CG’s profile! In addition to the X chromosome segments, we share 4 other long segments on 4 different chromosomes. Seventy-four-year-old Hester or Easter was the mother of Eliza, who passed X chromosome segments to Hester Torney Jefferson Watts, who passed it on to her daughter Flora Watts, who passed it on to CG. Correspondingly, Hester passed X chromosome segments to Charlotte, who in turn passed those segments to her daughter Amelia, who passed them to her daughter Elzenia, who passed them to her daughter Sarah, who passed them to my mother, who passed them to me!!!

3 of us have the same mother, and different fathers. All of us were put up for adoption at birth. My older brother Dan DNA tested with 23andme, and my younger brother Larry and I tested with Ancestry.com. Through GEDmatch, I was able to find Dan and his family, and connect him with our birth mother's family. I was able to find my birth father's family, but so far I have not been able to find Dan and Larry's paternal lineage. I recommend anyone looking for DNA family ties to upload their DNA test to GEDmatch. There are so many tests our there, and as far as I know, GEDmatch is the best database to find DNA matches with relatives who took a different test.

I'd been working on our family's history for years already when I finally got an Ancestry DNA test. My sister did as well, out of curiosity. When we finally got them both uploaded to GEDmatch, I compared them. The results seemed strange, but I didn't know what I was seeing, so I Googled for information. The article I found had a picture, and it said that a comparison that looks like this with lots of yellow is a half-match. I looked at GEDmatch again and my wheels started spinning. I realized in that moment that my siblings and I were half-siblings. That night I called our mother and had a difficult conversation. That's how I found at age 56 that the man I had thought was my father all my life was not actually my father. For some folks this news would be devastating, but for me it was wonderful. It was freeing to know that I was not related to this awful man. Half the family tree I had worked on for decades was gone in a flash, but I quickly rebuilt it. For me, GEDmatch revealed a family secret, something I should have been told many years ago, and I am grateful.

I wanted to find my grandfather, my father's father. My father died before I was born and he never knew who his father was, no-one did. On first using GEDmatch the very top hit I got was a 1st half cousin that I didn't know, others I did. It turned out she was the granddaughter of my grandfather. It took a while to work through the "how's" and "why's" but eventually we did. A massive brick wall came tumbling down.

Cathy D. Javorsky my half sister who was born when I was twelve. I never knew she existed. Thanksgiving 2017 I received a call from Marsy Nikkel in California. Marsy said, “This may come as a shock. My best friend is trying to find her biological family.” I ask, “Well what does that have to do with me?” Marsy said, “Well her grandmother is Ruby Jewell Stone.” I said, “Well that is my grandmother.” Marsy told me the birth records said: In December 1964, the birth mother was 36 and had two daughters, 12 and 10 years old. I said, “Well that would have to be my mother because Ruby Jewell did not have any other granddaughters that were 12 and 10 in 1964. Then Marsy ask me if I knew someone with the email dspiroski923? I said, “Well that is my sister, Nancy’s son in Anchorage, Alaska.” Then Marsy ask me if I knew a joshstone. I said, “Well that is my Uncle Leslie’s son in Las Vegas.” Then Marsy said, “Cathy had DNA done and it matched with Raymond Dyer. But he will not respond to any emails or calls.” I ask Marsy where Cathy grew up. She said at Corn and Bessie, Oklahoma. She was the oldest of three children. I ask Marsy where Cathy lived. Marsy said she lived in Edmond. I told Marsy I lived in Edmond. I ask Marsy where she lived in Edmond. Cathy lived near Crest Grocery, less than two miles from me. I was shocked to say the least, but then things started coming together. The next day, I went over to our Mothers. I ask Mother, “Did you have a baby on Christmas, 1964?” Mother said, “I don’t think so.” So I told Mother about the call from Marsy in California. We had just got our new car. I took Mother for a ride. We drove down Cathy’s street, Bandera. I told Mother, “Cathy lives on this street.” Mother ask, “Whose Cathy?” I said, “She is Ray’s half-sister.” (since my dna wasn’t back) I told Mother she had made the right decision. She had given Cathy a good chance at life. She was loved and lived in a good Christian family. She got to play sports and go to one school her whole life. I ask Mother if she remembered Doug Rosson. Mother said, “Doug Rosson?” I told her he was dead. I told Mother I was going to have DNA done. She said, “You know that cost a lot of money.” I told her I didn’t care. I had DNA done. It came back on Christmas Eve. I called Cathy and told her we matched. We went to eat at Jimmy’s Egg. We met and talked from 8 till 2. We had a great visit. Cathy was born on Christmas Day. Cathy stayed at the Deaconess Hospital Home till January 13th when Carolyn and Kenneth Javorsky got a call that Deaconess had a baby for them. The Javorsky’s stopped at AMC in Oklahoma City and bought all the needs for a baby in their home. They were thrilled to get the baby. My full sister, Nancy and I had decided in the summer of 2017 that Mother had an abortion over Christmas Break 1964. We both remembered going with Mother to a Medical Clinic in Oklahoma City. We got there at 8 in the morning and didn’t leave till 2 that afternoon. Nancy and I sat in the waiting room drinking water from the fountain. What else would take so long? THEN on the way home I was sitting side ways in the front seat. Mother was driving south on Midwest Blvd. Mother said, “She had to go back two more times to get packed.” We had no idea what Mother was talking about. We did not go back with Mother the next two times. Mother had the baby and went back to work too soon and problems developed.. I was in seventh grade. I remember the last time Doug Rosson was at our house. Mother was sitting on the red couch. Doug was standing in front of her. I was in the bedroom. Doug had his hands in his pockets. Mother had just told Doug she was pregnant. That was the last time Doug was in our house. I remember a few days later asking Mother what happened to Doug. Mother said, “He didn’t want kids.” I thought she was talking about us. Mother met Doug at Desert Oaks Country Club in Midwest City. Mother would go dancing with Bill and Carolyn Hasel there. Mother got pregnant about the time of the Alaskan Earthquake March 24th, 1964. I remember my Grandma Lora calling to tell us about the earthquake and said my aunt and uncle, “Mary Anne and Orville are ok, but everything is torn up.” Mary Anne and Orville homesteaded in Alaska in 1952, but that is another story. One time a seventh grade friend, Laura Trautvetter came over after school. Laura moved to Nicoma Park at the beginning of 7th grade. My last name was Short. So Short and Trautvetter sat by each other in our classes. I got to know Laura and invited her over. We were sitting on the back porch talking and laughing like seventh grade girls would. Mother came out the back door, walked over to the edge of the patio. Mother started yelling and cussing at me. I didn’t know what I had done. I decided later, Mother thought we were laughing or making fun of her. There were other violent outburst from mother. I guess she was taking her frustrations out on me. Then in the fall, about the time to light the floor furnace. Mother had on a white blouse with ruffled sleeves. Mother was bent over lighting the furnace. I said, “You look pregnant.” Mother gave me an UGLY look. Then at Thanksgiving, Nancy and I went over to our Aunt and Uncle’s house which was next door. We went over to Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Merlin’s for Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Short. Cheryl was putting something in the oven. Cheryl said, “Jimmie (my mother) looks like she has gained some weight.” I didn’t say anything. Aunt Cheryl had a baby in February of 1964, Holly. So Cheryl was aware of waistlines. When Cathy was about to arrive, I guess Mother’s water broke. Mother said, “Why don’t you call Grandma and see if you can come spend a few days.” I said ok. Mother took us to Grandma Lora Shorts. Mother didn’t get out of the car. We were there for five days. I remember thinking. I wonder what Mother is doing home alone on Christmas. It hurt me that she wanted us gone over Christmas. I remember conversations with my Dad toward the end of his life. He died in February of 2017. He would have loved to hear this story. He suspected Mother got pregnant, but never came out and said that. My parents had divorced two years earlier when I was ten. Cathy and I have several things in common. We were both elementary teachers. We both love to play golf. We are both National Board Certified Teachers. We went through the process about the same time. We could have been at the same meetings for National Board. We both enjoy travel. We share some food preferences. We may have attended the same basketball game at one time or another. We lived at Elmwood, Oklahoma. Cathy’s grandfather was a preacher at a Mennonite Church in Hooker. Cathy drove by our house when we lived at Elmwood, Oklahoma at age eight. I ask Mother if anyone knew she was pregnant or had a baby. Mother said, “Lucy Thornbrue probably knew.” Lucy lived two houses down the street.

I started on other DNA Ancestry forums to just browse my family history. There were close matches that didn't share any family names in my family. After a year of searching and just about to give up, because I assumed it was a way for the sites to keep my membership, one of my matches responded to me. He himself is a genealogist. This is who told me to join Gedmatch. I was reluctant, but he said that it was FREE. I responded to my match, now on Gedmatch, who explained to me that I was related to all his matches! After viewing videos of how to use Gedmatch, it led me to learn, that my mother's father was someone else! My mother never knew this!

A distant cousin mentioned GEDmatch Ancestor Projects and Facebook Groups to me in the summer of 2019. I didn't understand how to use Ancestor Projects at the time but I thought that it would be a utility to find and maybe collaborate with distant cousins on family tree mysteries. I created North America Settlers group on FB, January 2020 with a matching custom Ancestor Project on GEDmatch. Today there are over 4100 DNA kits in the project database for North America Settlers. I continued to create more groups (during the pandemic) based on requests from members. We now have over 75 private genealogy FB groups with matching custom GEDmatch Ancestor Projects. We have over 45 admins and moderators keeping an eye on things and ready to help. Members are able to compare their DNA kit number to others in the Ancestor Project to collaborate and help solve walls. Members are having fun solving family tree mysteries thanks to Ancestor Projects on GEDmatch.

I originally wanted to get my dna sequenced so I can could find out my ethnicity but the mainstream companies were missing a big chunk of unknown, minor and indigenous groups and left me with part of my ancestral heritage unmatched. Once I found about Gedmatch I was able to upload my dna and find significant discoveries as well as having fun with the tools and getting out of the site as much effort as I put in. Thanks for helping me find my ancestors.

Together we stand, Divided we fall. Opt in for law enforcement

In June of 2022 I was sent home after a complicated hip/femur surgery and instructed to stay seated for up to 3 months. GedMatch saved my sanity. Someone suggested I upload my DNA results from Family Tree and 23 and Me. I was really not on any particular mission other than to find a needle in a haystack- a John Murphy born in 1830's in Cork. LOL_ like there are a million. I slowly learned many features of GEDMatch and really enjoyed the cognitive challenges of learning the tools and keeping my Excel skills up to date. I have not found John Murphy but I have found lots of relatives I was not really looking for just by poking around the site and using the tools to learn how they work. Everynow and then a clear link to a relative jumps off one of the trees provided. In addition- it may be a stretch to say- but I found online commuities that begin with " what is your Gedmatch number" and this opens conversations with people I feel connected to and not as isolated staying home. The tools create a sense of community among strangers who can discuss common topics of interest- quickly. It is much easier to make connections and open conversations with the Facebook group projects that rely on the GedMatch kitnumbers.

Make the world 🌎 safer place to live, and kinder ♥ to be a part of. Opt in for law enforcement .

Hello, The tools from Gedmatch helped to aid me in an extraordinary discovery of finding a distant genetic ancestor. https://testamentsinsegments.wordpress.com/2022/01/22/genetic-mapping-finding-the-most-distant-common-ancestor/

I think is great that gedmatch allow opt in for lawinforcment, That why i join gedmatch . Thank you Thomas Pring

I'm the admin for the large Clan Donald USA DNA Project. About 1/5 of our participants descend from one man , John, 1st Lord of the Isles (i.e. the Hebrides) who died in 1368. We have identified groups of men who descend from most of his numerous sons, but not one called Iain Mor Tanister (McDonald). We suspect he is my all-male-line ancestor, by Y-DNA, and know for 100% certain that I descend from Lord John. But we can't prove the line from pure genealogy. That's because everybody claiming this line has simply copied one purported line on Ancestry.com ... which has no "real" sources. But we have 8 proven (by Y-DNA) 7th to 9th cousins who descend from that purported line, the immigrant to the USA. I, my aunt and 1st cousins, and 5 of those distant cousins have uploaded to Gedmatch. Using the tools in Tier 1 Gedmatch (and admittedly straining their servers) we have proven that the man who is the purported ancestor is almost certainly correct (say 97%) as far as physical ancestry goes. We have some 350 person/segment pairs that agree with that. We also have some 11 person/segment pairs that descend from siblings or 1st cousins of the purported immigrant's wife, some still living in Ireland. I consider this enough that I am confident of that 97% number. We also have 11 (different from the above 11) persons who descend from the purported immigrant's father back in Ireland, a couple of whom descend from recent members of the Irish Parliament. That's good proof that we descend from the line of the purported ancestor. But, unfortunately, as so often the case, it does not absolutely prove that the exact purported person is correct ... there is something like a 50% chance that its a cousin of his. This could absolutely not have been done without three unique, computationally intensive, Tier one tools: "Find surname matches from DNA matches", and the Matrix tool in "Multiple Kit Analysis (MKA)", plus Segment Search by chromosome. Every other site, incluing FTDNA and MyHeritage lack at least one of those tools, which make it impossible, as they would have had to have been emulated "by hand". I estimate that even at Gedmatch I needed 30,000 mouse clicks, while at those others it would have taken 10 million. Gedmatch allows doing things that are simply impossible at any other site, even the toughest of nuts. Really!!!!!!

Tudo maravilhoso!!!

GedMatch connected me to an aunt that my family did not know existed; fathered by my grandfather in San Francisco, while he was awaiting deployment to Vietnam. GedMatch also connected to me a first cousin; the daughter of my biological father's brother.

I have been having such a great time discovering dna on gedmatch from a friend i would have never imagined to be related to my moms mother has relative in the Are your parents related tool match 8 segments, I love the site cant wait for new tools on it.

I am forever indebted to Aaron who spent over an hour with me at Rootstech. He showed me features of the site I had no idea even existed. He found me a cousin who matched on more than one chromosome. I sent a message to the email address on that person and yesterday received a message that said she was my cousin's daughter and lived in Auckkand, New Zealand. Those Scots sure travelled the world. Now I have a cousin in New Zealand and it's all thank to Aaron and his care and attention.

I discovered that my oldest friend from 1964 is actually my second cousin and thus solved a mystery regarding my mother's grandfather.

I helped a friend who was adopted find her family. I tested her at one site and got poor matches. Then I uploaded her to GEDmatch and instantly found a 1st cousin and 1st cousin once removed. Turned out they were mother and daughter who certainly knew who my friend's mother was since the mother of the two was the sister of my friend's mother! Instant success. They had tested at two different sites than the one I chose for my friend, and had separately uploaded themselves to GEDmatch, as they didn't know each other...they did DNA tests because they were trying to find each other: the daughter was adopted out as well. So this was a double success!

I was adopted at eleven months old, and I found my biological parents and siblings when I was nineteen. I had three full blooded sisters and five half brothers. Despite this I knew very little about our background as a family or the family name Tillery, Or extended family members. I found people I was related to on Gedmatch but the funny thing is we couldn't figure out how we are related. It's enough for me to know some of these people. I don't have to know exactly how we're related. I'm thankful I was adopted and given a good home. It's also wonderful to know where I came from and that I have connections in the world. Thank you Gedmatch.

I was adopted and GED match connected me to my cousin, he then introduced me to 3 half sisters and a half brother. Sadly my birth mother had passed. GED Match is the best.

My DNA was uploaded to GEDmatch in hopes of helping a cousin find her birth parents. Two years later, I was contacted by the Pinellas County cold case Detective because my DNA matched the DNA of suspect in 2 rape cases. Using my Family tree they found and arrested a distant cousin. They had been looking for him for 21 years. Case was solved! Police briefing is attached.

Your website has helped me find my roots! I've discovered so much and was thrilled I could share it with my mother before she passed in December 26 2022. I've discovered my Jewish heritage and my Native lines! Because of finding my roots In now serving as the Northern Towns District of Texas Cherokee Tsalagiyi Nvdagi as Chief Dancing Star Woman! Thank you Gedmatch!!!

was able to solve my grandfather father name by use of DNA testing, my mother only tell she her grandfather was a William mccoy, ith a middle name of Charles, turn out his middle name was shannon. Also my father side using DNA results

Gedmatch was instrumental thru Triangulation, in assisting to find my late adopted mother-in-law's bio-father's family in Michigan and ultimately who he was! Thank you!

I joined Gedmatch to help in my search for my only paternal 1st cousin that was given up for adoption at birth. To date I have not found him/her. But I have uses Gedmatch to help others find their lost family members and many persons that were adopted find the bio parents. This is a great tool to use when trying to compare and analyze matches.

I was trying to see if I could find any more distant cousins whom I hadn't found using other means, and I was successful! I contacted one of my matches and he told me stories about my wider family that I hadn't heard before and he also provided photos.

Through DNA matching I was able to identify my mother's biological parents. It took 5 years and over 10,000 DNA matches. When the right people finally tested, it all fell into place. I was also able to identify my half sister's biological father. Through him she has found 5 half siblings she didn't know she had. I have helped several adoptees identify birth families. Once I figured out the process it became very easy for me to do for people. I would recommend GEDmatch to anyone trying to solve a family mystery.

My husband was the son of a man born in 1923, who was raised in a foster home. Parents unknown. We have found a line on the Maternal parent, which was developed in a family tree and has been confirmed by dna matches. The father remained unknown as the mother was single and age 19. DNA matches on gedmatch.com showed a close match, not part of the Maternal family. In filling out the family tree and checking Census data, I found the connection to a family from Sweden who came to Canada and lived next door to a the 19 year old who was my husbands grandmother. In addition, the DNA matches combined with the family tree information explained why he was getting matches from Sweden. Also, the maternal matches a friend who was adopted in 1949, ended up as my husband's 2nd cousin so she now has a line and has found 2 half sisters. My husband's mother's DNA provided confirmation to his mother's father's second family. I have two adopted children and the family tree work linked them with their biological families. Gedmatch DNA has make the biological ties much broader and stronger I have supported DNA matching and have had enough info to write a book! The down side is that unknown births are identified and family dynamics can be changed forever. I recommend it to everyone and I help folks sign up and get their DNA uploaded to gedmatch.com.

The Ancestor Projects may prove to be the sledgehammer I needed for a huge brick wall. I have been searching for the hometown in Ireland of my great great grandfather, Richard McGann for more than thirty years. Multiple members of my family share DNA with multiple members of a Magan Family who are in the Westmeath and Offaly County Ireland project. There is a book written about the Magan Family, Umma-More The Story of an Irish Family, whose history stretches back to Irish Chieftains. Now all I need to do is figure out where in the Magan family tree we fit.

Oh boy what a ride this has been! I started my journey w GEDmatch trying to find my niece that was born in 1988 for my sister. It turns out it something besides my niece had other paths that kept driving me more determined to dig dig dig, there was more I just knew it. Secrets are a horrible thing to keep, I learned this at 48yrs old 2 months ago. I found out that I am the person I was meant to be, I have 5 siblings and my daddy adores me. My mother passed away 12yrs ago. And she and my dad kept the secret buried until dna became available. I found out like a shot to the gut that my dad knew my whole life he wasn’t my biological father but never treated me different. He loves me and told me dna only is logistics any man that steps up and was always there even 3 states away the one who popped up behind home plate telling me “stop closing your eyes honey” he is my daddy. I met my biological w my dad by my side I have a half sister a niece and tons of aunts uncles and cousins that I look like. Nothing is awkward is everyday is a new day to be grateful for open arms forgiveness. I am grateful for this experience I am proud of who I am, where I came from and all faces that love me as I do them. This is like rolling the dice and you only roll the die if you’re a betting person that isn’t scared of throwing all you have to the wind knowing the winds of change could very well throw you for a loop Trust in your faith and know god has you in every direction your journey takes you. Thank you GEDmatch this has been the greatest tool for me and I highly recommend anyone to take the challenge. Roll the dna dice the payoff to your lucky 7 is entirely up to you. Make the best of your odds and move forward. Life is short not promised so fulfill your destiny. Find out who your ancestors are embrace your struggles overcome your weakness’ and never let them see you sweat. God bless you all. Thank you

I couldn't find my grandmother's mother, no birth certificate, not in census data. A little more investigation showed she'd possibly had 3 children and gave different names on each birth certificate. Gedmatch threw up a close match in Scotland, one of the names matched. Found!

After unsuccessfully locating a birth certificate for my father, James Edward Chang, I was finally able to discover his actual birth certificate showing the surname Witter with no father. At 7 yrs old, on discovering he had a son, my grandfather stole him from rural Saint Elizabeth, to better opportunities in Kingston, Jamaica. There is no record so far of his name change from Witter to Chang. My mother's birth certificate shows her name as Olive Verinica Fisher. Before she passed, I was able to test her DNA and upload the results to GEDMatch. While planning a reunion of Fisher relatives from Jamaica, The USA and the UK, I discovered that none of them showed up as DNA matches. Instead, there were all these other unfamiliar surnames, which I later discovered were all related to the Spence family from Westmoreland, Jamaica. I sent out messages to many of them and finally, a Jean Spence responded and told me of her older sister's deathbead confession. She was told that my mother was actually their oldest sister from a liaison their father had with my grandmother, prior to meeting their mother. After 83 years, I was able to arrange a family reunion where my mother was able to meet two of her siblings and celebrate the last three christmases with them before she died earlier this year, all thanks to GEDmatch.

1 Finding the mother for an 80 yo adopted lady in Canada whose father is Australian. Have not solved the Australian side yet, but he was in WW2 and while we know one line the other line does not want to cooperate 2 Have just identified through triangulation that a child b 1816 is not her fathers daughter. 3 Two people we believe are sisters b c1797 and 1799 have the same haplogroup V25 but distance 2 matches, can triangulate descendants of the two sisters so hoping for a breakthrough 4 Trying to identify the parents for a woman b 1799 who people believed was Aboriginal but a mtDNA shows she is English and Romani, can identify an ancestor from 1729 but having difficulty working down from England to Australia Would recommend because of the range of testing companies for people on Gedmatch. Also easy to use.

I'm Mary, and here's our story. I used a DNA kit and found I was related to a woman named Flora. Her name was not familiar to me, so I checked her out on facebook and saw we have a mutual friend named Linda. Linda's grandparents lived downstairs from us in NYC. Linda , a year older than me, lived out on Long Island, but she often visited her grandparents. My sister Lily, who's a year younger than me, and I were always happy when Linda came to visit, The three of us would spend all our time together from early childhood until we were adults.We stayed friends through the years and celebrated our growing families. After I found Flora was related to me, I asked Linda how she knew her. They had taken a different DNA test and were also related, but nothing in either's history shed light on any relationship. Then somebody told me about GEDMatch, I uploaded my raw data, and had Linda upload hers. We were shocked to find we were related not only to Flora, but to each other. We always called each other "cousins" so this cracked us up. But where was the connection? We took our questions to an Angel who dug through the data and determined that my dad was Linda's biological dad. We were blown away! I had the honor of conferencing calling Linda on the phone while talking with the Angel. "I have bad news and good news," I told Linda. "The bad news is that we are not cousins." She made a disappointed sound. "The good news is that we're SISTERS! My dad is your dad!" She started crying. "Uncle Billy is really my dad?" She was thrilled beyong anything. The man she had known as her father died when she was very young, and she had always loved my dad. Linda still lives on Long Island. Lily is in Florida, and Im in the Seattle area. We also have a brother in Mississippi. We sisters made plans immediately to get together in FL, where we got matching helix tattoos. I had always known that my dad, who grew up in the same apartment Lily and I grew up in, had dated Linda's mother in their teens, but apparently it went further than that. We never knew. We suspect the adults in our lives knew, but they never said a word. Now we are closer than ever. I have tons of nieces and nephews, thank to Linda. We get together whenever possible, at least we did before Covid. I'm attaching a photo. One is my third birthday party. I have a big bow in my hair, Lily is next to me with her finger in her mouth, and Linda is on the far left. I have others, but can only post one. Another is us sitting on the grass: Lily, Linda, then me being a moron. Easter of 1960 shows Linda, then me, Lily, and two neighbor kids from our building. Out first trip together was to Nokomis Beach in 2017: Lily on the left in yellow, Linda in front, I'm in back. We also got our first tattoos on that trip. We get matching tattoos every time we get together now. The Nickas kids went to NY for Linda 70th birthday in 2018. The pic shows Linda and me in back, our brother Ted and Lily in front. There's also a pic of our dad Billy. We have also become close with Flora, who it turns out is an aunt we never knew about, our grandfather's child. He was already old with six grandkids when she was born. Our family is now much fuller and more joyful than ever. We credit the DNA tests got the ball rolling, but we'd still be in the dark without GEDMatch. I speak for all my siblings when I say we are incredibly grateful.

Was i Jewish? I now have a new grandfather x2 Finding your roots - as long as you are not hung up about surprise results..

My friend suggested me to join GEDmatch. Several reasons that i want to know about my ethnicity, my parents were related and find more specific of people's names from their family tree. Most of those are seem right match. Wow that's amazing!!

I am a french man in France, near Germany and Switzerland. In France genetic tests are not allowed but I do it with MyHeritage and built my tree, principaly with Geneanet.org (untill Carolus Magnus) 2 questions for me: 1) where come my 30% greek genes given by MyHeritage for I have no match with greek people ? 2) My Y haplogroup HP-96 is very special and rarely present in Europa (and world). Why ? I had no answers

We have gathered DNA data from two lines of our family that converge on an ancestor born in 1840 and have accumulated close to 50 of his DNA segments. The goal of this was to find segments that belonged to two of his great-grandparents, born in the early 1730’s, to see what more we could learn about them. Twelve and a half percent of those near 50 segments theoretically would have belonged to each great-grandparent. We’ve been successful in finding a segment on Chr#14 from his great-grandmother, Huldah, whose maiden name we initially did not know. That segment was shared with multiple matches from two different lines of descent from Huldah. We found that one of the common ancestors that passed this segment down was Josiah Proctor, b. 1742 in Littleton, MA. After we had built out his tree, one of our cousins discovered Huldah’s maiden name in a Vermont county biographical sketch. That name was Harwood and we were thrilled to find that it was in the tree of Josiah Proctor. We knew we were on to something. Our job has become easier now that we have the maiden name and has been reduced to finding which of two New England Harwood lines she came from, and, if we are very lucky, we’ll find who her parents were; the latter is complicated by the fact that she did not have a record of her birth. GedMatch has been an essential tool in this work. It isn't easy and it is helpful to have more than one person working on it, but if you put the work in you can break through brick walls. For more detail of our project, see my blog: http://chasingdnasegments.blogspot.com/

Great tool

For 20 years at least I have been doing research on the claims of the woman known as "Evgenia Smetisko" (Eugenia Smith)who claimed until death in 1997 to have been HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov of Russia. Many friends, old and new, have helped in one way or another on this fascinating journey. As a gift I often gave DNA kits for them to find out more about THEIR heritage. Without exception we have found, via Gedmatch, that we share various segments of chromosomes all via my mother's mother's side of the family. One day I was contacted by a Russian immigrant to the USA who had found ME via Gedmatch. She was particularly interested as her aunt, now passed, from Russia had taken a test, uploaded to Gedmatch, and that connected to my and my mom's kit also. The Russian aunt claimed to be a descendant of Tsar Alexander I Romanov and, indeed, she was named Maria Romanova Grebinnikova. Upon further investigation all of my Anastasia Romanov helpers have also matched Maria's sample although we hail from USA, second generation Americans from Italy and Sicily, Mexico, Guatemala and 2nd generation from Austria-Hungary. This has been quite a quest and Gedmatch was there every step of the way. March 2024 Histria Books (Las Vegas) will publish GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA: STILL A MYSTERY? I have self published various books based on characters from the paternal and maternal family tree which can be seen at ahnentafelbooks.com

When my grandmother was on her death-bed she told the family that my grandfather had been adopted. This was a surprise to everyone and I don't believe that my grandfather was ever told that he had been adopted. So, my challenge was to find his biological parents as I already knew his foster parents. I did the Y chromosome DNA test through GEDmatch and kept getting matches with a family in New Zealand that I could not explain. I contacted everyone with those matches and by working with other members of the family, we finally found the name of my grandfather's biological mother. This led me to get his original birth record which tallied with a second birth registration advised under the name of his adoptive parents. The two birth registrations matched completely, except for the fact that one had his birth mother, and the other had the names of his adoptive parents. The other gem was that his biological grandmother had used a distinctive middle name (Bogan). Further investigation led to me also finding his biological father with this clue. In the end, I found half-siblings on his father and mother's side, even though they never married and went on to have relationships with different life partners. I would recommend GEDmatch to friends and family because it helped me solve a mystery that had stayed with me since my grandmother died in 1983. More than twenty years later, I was able to solve the mystery with a combination of DNA evidence and traditional research techniques. So, my next ambition is to meet the New Zealand branch of the family in the flesh. I have already been in communication via email.

Since 2006 I have been searching for my paternal grandfather . My father never knew who he was , and he was never named on his birth certificate , so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. My dad passed away in 2003 before I was able to get him dna tested . Fortunately I was able to test my mum which cut in half my results :) I was able to find 1/2 first cousins , 2 cousins and even half aunts and uncles and eventually found out who my grandfather was . It’s been very eye opening , and the suprises keep coming , my dad is now one of 8 on his paternal side . 3 have only recently found out also, having grown up with no idea that their father wasn’t their father , and one 93 year old who’s recently discovered her paternal line . How lucky is that . I love this dna stuff ! It’s just magic and there is no denying it .

Hello, everyone. My name is Randall McNally (no, not that Rand McNally). I was born in 1957, and from day one, never knew who my real father was. Sure, I knew who my stepfather was, and knew that he'd rather not know who I was, but that's a different story for a different time. So, for over 50 years, I have searched in nearly every way I could think of, clutching a meager handful of clues; a tattered newspaper birth announcement, archival searches of every kind ( even the FBI - don't ask!). You see, in the state I was born in, if you are adopted, everything, and I mean everything, gets sealed. So I tried. I tried some of the competition. I even sent in a DNA sample, and they sent me back a list of over 1700 matches. That's not a typo- 1700. And they have restrictions on how many you can contact at one time, too. More often than not, the people I contacted would not even return the contact. About a week ago, folks on one of my German Genealogy groups were talking about this thing they kept referring to as GEDMatch. Honestly,I thought it had something to do with High School equivalency testing, but once I understood, I figured, what the heck, and had my DNA info transferred over. Miracle of miracles, I was given an easy to interpret set of results, FOR FREE, in less than 2 days, that came with easy to follow video instructions that even a 65 year old computer illiterate could understand. And on that list (of 50, not 1700) were people whose DNA matched mine a heck of a lot more closely. One of those people was named Brandon Thompson. Within 3 days, not 50 years but 3 DAYS, we determined that Brandon was a cousin. In turn, he helped me find my father, my father's family, and suddenly, my family tree had grown dozens of branches. Let me say that again, in case you missed it: thanks to GEDMatch, I found in less than a week what I had been searching for for over 50 years. Thanks to you, I now have an identity. My family has nearly doubled in size. Yes, we're taking things slowly, but at least now, now I know. And I owe it all to you.

Helping me connect my African - Euro African relatives with the rest of the world / Caribbean etc

Exciting to find new cousins & confirm more matches!

My brickwall ancestor was married in an English village in 1745, but he was not from that village or any of the surrounding parishes. My research project is to find his family and place of origin. On GEDmatch, I discovered a group of people whose combined family trees seem to contain the answer. However, these same individuals do not appear as matches on Ancestry or MyHeritage. Only GEDmatch shows that the people in this group all share an identical segment of DNA. Without GEDmatch, I would still be in the dark! This is why I'd recommend GEDmatch to other researchers. I wrote about my findings here: https://sainsbury.home.blog/2023/03/20/the-sainsbury-family-of-castle-combe-reconsidered/

I wasn't really chasing any challenges, but was trying to learn more about my deeper ancestry. Better than Ancestry does. I did find out on Ancestry/Sons of the American Revolution that my 4th great grandfather commanded a company of infantry at Lexington. Then on GED Match I was surprised to see I had 1.56% Amerindian, very unexpected, when I learned I had two ancestors on the Mayflower, the admixture of Amerindian occurred 7/8 generations ago which was after 1630. My Ancestors were Pilgrims, not Puritans so I hope the union was amicable. I reccomed GED Match to all interested in ancestors.

I'm just trying out new sites to find family ancestors and members

Trying to find my grandmother.

Trying to find some ancestors I need to add to lineage. Find more ancestors. It's fun to search and find your people

Encontrar ligações com os Açores era uma das metas. E é sempre uma grata surpresa encontrar parentes, embora todos distantes e em sua maioria curiosamente conectados por um casal de pentavós em Relva, Ponta Delgada,São Miguel, Açores. Ferramenta útil e de fácil manejo.

Finding family members residing in the Middle East specifically Israeli Jews, I found several maternal and paternal Jewish family members, I recommend Gedmatch to family and friends because it is a wonderful genealogy site and connects us to all family members that we didn't even know existed before.

Calvert County, MD I’d been building family trees with limited information about my maternal and paternal ancestors. As I looked up census data for 1880 onward, I saw that the oldest people on both my maternal and paternal family had roots in Maryland and Virginia. These elders were all born about 1825. There were people surrounding them on the 1870 and 1880 US census pages who were born in Maryland and Virginia among other places. I wondered if any of these unknown people were family members. I looked at marriage and death records to see if I could find information about the prior generation but had little success. In 2015 I purchased a DNA test kit from Ancestry.com to ramp up my genealogy research. My mother was my first DNA donor. I mailed off the kit and impatiently waited for the results. The results came back faster than promised by Ancestry.com and I eagerly logged in to check out her matches. Among the results was only 1 last name that was familiar, the name was Provost. I did not immediately know the person with the Provost profile name, but I knew they lived in Iberia Parish. And that Provost profile was a shared match to profiles for 3 people whose names were unknown. Two of those profiles had family trees with people who lived in Calvert County, Maryland. The third profile had only 1 name of the linked family tree. That profile was destinysmom12. The search for destinysmom12 was a challenge, but I solved it and connected my mother’s DNA to the provost profiles as well as the other two. See how I put the pieces together. Piecing together my connection to destinymom12 was a challenge that took me about 2 years to complete. Before I could figure out that mystery, I first had to solve my family’s connection to the 2 profiles (CG and her daughter) that were shared matches to my mother’s DNA. The partial tree attached to CG’s profile pointed me to Calvert County, Maryland. But the tree did not go back enough generations to make the connection clear. The tree began with Hester Patterson, wife of Virgil Watts. Both CG and her daughter’s DNA was in another database in which I uploaded my mother’s DNA. From that database I was able to see that my mother’s connection to CG was through 2 shared segments on the X chromosome and 4 segments of autosomal DNA. This information suggested that the connection was handed down woman to woman through several generations. Interesting right?? Going up my mother’s tree on her maternal side, I had only one person born in Maryland. I had already discovered that her great grandmother Charlotte had been born in Maryland about 1828 and that Charlotte’s family name had been Phillips. Her death certificate listed her parents as Joseph Phillips and Charity. So, I went back to Hester Patterson and looked at the tree linked to the profiles. I saw on the 1900 census a widowed thirty-two (born 1868) Hester Jefferson with several children in her household with the last name of Jefferson. Jefferson? From where had the maiden name Patterson come? I looked through the 1900 census pages before and after the listing for Hester and found a sixty-seven-year-old Peter Phillips and a forty-six-year-old William Jefferson. Both men were recorded on the same page and 1 page before Hester. This seemed to point out that I was on the right track or at least in the vicinity of connecting Hester to a Phillips! So, I searched on the 1880 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. Why I didn’t I just search for a Joseph Phillips since I knew that was my Charlotte’s father’s name–I can’t tell you? Perhaps because I didn’t expect to find him in 1870. This was a big mistake–not expecting to find what you’re looking for, so you don’t even look for it! In any case, when I searched for a Hester born about 1868, the first result was a thirteen-year-old Hester Tayney in the household with Major and Eliza Tayney. In the 2 households following Hester’s were 2 families with the last name of Jefferson. So, I searched the 1870 Calvert County census for a Hester born about 1868. I found 2, Hester Fawney and Hester Tawney, both born in 1866. When I clicked on the first Hester, I found myself looking at page that listed Mager and Eliza Fawney as well as children: Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, James, Rebecca, Hester and Jacob. I scrolled up to look at the other names on the page. And to my great surprise and great joy, I saw the names Joseph Phillips, age 36; Hester Phillips, age 74; Carrity Phillips, age 22; George Phillips, 1; and Joseph Fawney, 14; all in the same household!! I clicked on the other result for Hester Tawney in 1870. The names listed in the Tawney household were almost exactly the same: Mager, Eliza, Lloyd, Peter, Thomas, Joseph, Jerry, Moses, Betty, Hester and Benjamin as the household with Hester as the Fawney. Because Hester Tawney/Fawney had been counted twice on the 1880 census, I was able to see Hester on the same page with the Phillips family. The addition of Joseph Fawney in the Phillips family, crystallized my understanding that Eliza Tawney’s maiden name was most likely Phillips and that seventy-four-year-old Hester Phillips was most likely Eliza Tawney’s mother and Joseph Phillips was most likely Eliza’s brother. I found and requested death certificates for Joseph Phillips and Eliza Tawney (Torney). The father’s name on both was Joseph Phillips. The mother’s name was given as Easter on Eliza’s death certificate and left blank on Joseph Phillips’ certificate. I later requested a death certificate for Peter Phillips. The name provided for his father was also Joseph Phillips and the mother’s maiden name was left blank. I think the mother’s maiden name is often left blank because many people don’t understand the question ‘maiden name’ or they don’t know the mother’s maiden name. I’d undoubtedly found the X chromosome link between my mother and CG’s profile! In addition to the X chromosome segments, we share 4 other long segments on 4 different chromosomes. Seventy-four-year-old Hester or Easter was the mother of Eliza, who passed X chromosome segments to Hester Torney Jefferson Watts, who passed it on to her daughter Flora Watts, who passed it on to CG. Correspondingly, Hester passed X chromosome segments to Charlotte, who in turn passed those segments to her daughter Amelia, who passed them to her daughter Elzenia, who passed them to her daughter Sarah, who passed them to my mother, who passed them to me!!!

3 of us have the same mother, and different fathers. All of us were put up for adoption at birth. My older brother Dan DNA tested with 23andme, and my younger brother Larry and I tested with Ancestry.com. Through GEDmatch, I was able to find Dan and his family, and connect him with our birth mother's family. I was able to find my birth father's family, but so far I have not been able to find Dan and Larry's paternal lineage. I recommend anyone looking for DNA family ties to upload their DNA test to GEDmatch. There are so many tests our there, and as far as I know, GEDmatch is the best database to find DNA matches with relatives who took a different test.

I'd been working on our family's history for years already when I finally got an Ancestry DNA test. My sister did as well, out of curiosity. When we finally got them both uploaded to GEDmatch, I compared them. The results seemed strange, but I didn't know what I was seeing, so I Googled for information. The article I found had a picture, and it said that a comparison that looks like this with lots of yellow is a half-match. I looked at GEDmatch again and my wheels started spinning. I realized in that moment that my siblings and I were half-siblings. That night I called our mother and had a difficult conversation. That's how I found at age 56 that the man I had thought was my father all my life was not actually my father. For some folks this news would be devastating, but for me it was wonderful. It was freeing to know that I was not related to this awful man. Half the family tree I had worked on for decades was gone in a flash, but I quickly rebuilt it. For me, GEDmatch revealed a family secret, something I should have been told many years ago, and I am grateful.

I wanted to find my grandfather, my father's father. My father died before I was born and he never knew who his father was, no-one did. On first using GEDmatch the very top hit I got was a 1st half cousin that I didn't know, others I did. It turned out she was the granddaughter of my grandfather. It took a while to work through the "how's" and "why's" but eventually we did. A massive brick wall came tumbling down.

Cathy D. Javorsky my half sister who was born when I was twelve. I never knew she existed. Thanksgiving 2017 I received a call from Marsy Nikkel in California. Marsy said, “This may come as a shock. My best friend is trying to find her biological family.” I ask, “Well what does that have to do with me?” Marsy said, “Well her grandmother is Ruby Jewell Stone.” I said, “Well that is my grandmother.” Marsy told me the birth records said: In December 1964, the birth mother was 36 and had two daughters, 12 and 10 years old. I said, “Well that would have to be my mother because Ruby Jewell did not have any other granddaughters that were 12 and 10 in 1964. Then Marsy ask me if I knew someone with the email dspiroski923? I said, “Well that is my sister, Nancy’s son in Anchorage, Alaska.” Then Marsy ask me if I knew a joshstone. I said, “Well that is my Uncle Leslie’s son in Las Vegas.” Then Marsy said, “Cathy had DNA done and it matched with Raymond Dyer. But he will not respond to any emails or calls.” I ask Marsy where Cathy grew up. She said at Corn and Bessie, Oklahoma. She was the oldest of three children. I ask Marsy where Cathy lived. Marsy said she lived in Edmond. I told Marsy I lived in Edmond. I ask Marsy where she lived in Edmond. Cathy lived near Crest Grocery, less than two miles from me. I was shocked to say the least, but then things started coming together. The next day, I went over to our Mothers. I ask Mother, “Did you have a baby on Christmas, 1964?” Mother said, “I don’t think so.” So I told Mother about the call from Marsy in California. We had just got our new car. I took Mother for a ride. We drove down Cathy’s street, Bandera. I told Mother, “Cathy lives on this street.” Mother ask, “Whose Cathy?” I said, “She is Ray’s half-sister.” (since my dna wasn’t back) I told Mother she had made the right decision. She had given Cathy a good chance at life. She was loved and lived in a good Christian family. She got to play sports and go to one school her whole life. I ask Mother if she remembered Doug Rosson. Mother said, “Doug Rosson?” I told her he was dead. I told Mother I was going to have DNA done. She said, “You know that cost a lot of money.” I told her I didn’t care. I had DNA done. It came back on Christmas Eve. I called Cathy and told her we matched. We went to eat at Jimmy’s Egg. We met and talked from 8 till 2. We had a great visit. Cathy was born on Christmas Day. Cathy stayed at the Deaconess Hospital Home till January 13th when Carolyn and Kenneth Javorsky got a call that Deaconess had a baby for them. The Javorsky’s stopped at AMC in Oklahoma City and bought all the needs for a baby in their home. They were thrilled to get the baby. My full sister, Nancy and I had decided in the summer of 2017 that Mother had an abortion over Christmas Break 1964. We both remembered going with Mother to a Medical Clinic in Oklahoma City. We got there at 8 in the morning and didn’t leave till 2 that afternoon. Nancy and I sat in the waiting room drinking water from the fountain. What else would take so long? THEN on the way home I was sitting side ways in the front seat. Mother was driving south on Midwest Blvd. Mother said, “She had to go back two more times to get packed.” We had no idea what Mother was talking about. We did not go back with Mother the next two times. Mother had the baby and went back to work too soon and problems developed.. I was in seventh grade. I remember the last time Doug Rosson was at our house. Mother was sitting on the red couch. Doug was standing in front of her. I was in the bedroom. Doug had his hands in his pockets. Mother had just told Doug she was pregnant. That was the last time Doug was in our house. I remember a few days later asking Mother what happened to Doug. Mother said, “He didn’t want kids.” I thought she was talking about us. Mother met Doug at Desert Oaks Country Club in Midwest City. Mother would go dancing with Bill and Carolyn Hasel there. Mother got pregnant about the time of the Alaskan Earthquake March 24th, 1964. I remember my Grandma Lora calling to tell us about the earthquake and said my aunt and uncle, “Mary Anne and Orville are ok, but everything is torn up.” Mary Anne and Orville homesteaded in Alaska in 1952, but that is another story. One time a seventh grade friend, Laura Trautvetter came over after school. Laura moved to Nicoma Park at the beginning of 7th grade. My last name was Short. So Short and Trautvetter sat by each other in our classes. I got to know Laura and invited her over. We were sitting on the back porch talking and laughing like seventh grade girls would. Mother came out the back door, walked over to the edge of the patio. Mother started yelling and cussing at me. I didn’t know what I had done. I decided later, Mother thought we were laughing or making fun of her. There were other violent outburst from mother. I guess she was taking her frustrations out on me. Then in the fall, about the time to light the floor furnace. Mother had on a white blouse with ruffled sleeves. Mother was bent over lighting the furnace. I said, “You look pregnant.” Mother gave me an UGLY look. Then at Thanksgiving, Nancy and I went over to our Aunt and Uncle’s house which was next door. We went over to Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Merlin’s for Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Short. Cheryl was putting something in the oven. Cheryl said, “Jimmie (my mother) looks like she has gained some weight.” I didn’t say anything. Aunt Cheryl had a baby in February of 1964, Holly. So Cheryl was aware of waistlines. When Cathy was about to arrive, I guess Mother’s water broke. Mother said, “Why don’t you call Grandma and see if you can come spend a few days.” I said ok. Mother took us to Grandma Lora Shorts. Mother didn’t get out of the car. We were there for five days. I remember thinking. I wonder what Mother is doing home alone on Christmas. It hurt me that she wanted us gone over Christmas. I remember conversations with my Dad toward the end of his life. He died in February of 2017. He would have loved to hear this story. He suspected Mother got pregnant, but never came out and said that. My parents had divorced two years earlier when I was ten. Cathy and I have several things in common. We were both elementary teachers. We both love to play golf. We are both National Board Certified Teachers. We went through the process about the same time. We could have been at the same meetings for National Board. We both enjoy travel. We share some food preferences. We may have attended the same basketball game at one time or another. We lived at Elmwood, Oklahoma. Cathy’s grandfather was a preacher at a Mennonite Church in Hooker. Cathy drove by our house when we lived at Elmwood, Oklahoma at age eight. I ask Mother if anyone knew she was pregnant or had a baby. Mother said, “Lucy Thornbrue probably knew.” Lucy lived two houses down the street.

I started on other DNA Ancestry forums to just browse my family history. There were close matches that didn't share any family names in my family. After a year of searching and just about to give up, because I assumed it was a way for the sites to keep my membership, one of my matches responded to me. He himself is a genealogist. This is who told me to join Gedmatch. I was reluctant, but he said that it was FREE. I responded to my match, now on Gedmatch, who explained to me that I was related to all his matches! After viewing videos of how to use Gedmatch, it led me to learn, that my mother's father was someone else! My mother never knew this!

A distant cousin mentioned GEDmatch Ancestor Projects and Facebook Groups to me in the summer of 2019. I didn't understand how to use Ancestor Projects at the time but I thought that it would be a utility to find and maybe collaborate with distant cousins on family tree mysteries. I created North America Settlers group on FB, January 2020 with a matching custom Ancestor Project on GEDmatch. Today there are over 4100 DNA kits in the project database for North America Settlers. I continued to create more groups (during the pandemic) based on requests from members. We now have over 75 private genealogy FB groups with matching custom GEDmatch Ancestor Projects. We have over 45 admins and moderators keeping an eye on things and ready to help. Members are able to compare their DNA kit number to others in the Ancestor Project to collaborate and help solve walls. Members are having fun solving family tree mysteries thanks to Ancestor Projects on GEDmatch.

I originally wanted to get my dna sequenced so I can could find out my ethnicity but the mainstream companies were missing a big chunk of unknown, minor and indigenous groups and left me with part of my ancestral heritage unmatched. Once I found about Gedmatch I was able to upload my dna and find significant discoveries as well as having fun with the tools and getting out of the site as much effort as I put in. Thanks for helping me find my ancestors.

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In June of 2022 I was sent home after a complicated hip/femur surgery and instructed to stay seated for up to 3 months. GedMatch saved my sanity. Someone suggested I upload my DNA results from Family Tree and 23 and Me. I was really not on any particular mission other than to find a needle in a haystack- a John Murphy born in 1830's in Cork. LOL_ like there are a million. I slowly learned many features of GEDMatch and really enjoyed the cognitive challenges of learning the tools and keeping my Excel skills up to date. I have not found John Murphy but I have found lots of relatives I was not really looking for just by poking around the site and using the tools to learn how they work. Everynow and then a clear link to a relative jumps off one of the trees provided. In addition- it may be a stretch to say- but I found online commuities that begin with " what is your Gedmatch number" and this opens conversations with people I feel connected to and not as isolated staying home. The tools create a sense of community among strangers who can discuss common topics of interest- quickly. It is much easier to make connections and open conversations with the Facebook group projects that rely on the GedMatch kitnumbers.

Make the world 🌎 safer place to live, and kinder ♥ to be a part of. Opt in for law enforcement .

Hello, The tools from Gedmatch helped to aid me in an extraordinary discovery of finding a distant genetic ancestor. https://testamentsinsegments.wordpress.com/2022/01/22/genetic-mapping-finding-the-most-distant-common-ancestor/

I think is great that gedmatch allow opt in for lawinforcment, That why i join gedmatch . Thank you Thomas Pring

I'm the admin for the large Clan Donald USA DNA Project. About 1/5 of our participants descend from one man , John, 1st Lord of the Isles (i.e. the Hebrides) who died in 1368. We have identified groups of men who descend from most of his numerous sons, but not one called Iain Mor Tanister (McDonald). We suspect he is my all-male-line ancestor, by Y-DNA, and know for 100% certain that I descend from Lord John. But we can't prove the line from pure genealogy. That's because everybody claiming this line has simply copied one purported line on Ancestry.com ... which has no "real" sources. But we have 8 proven (by Y-DNA) 7th to 9th cousins who descend from that purported line, the immigrant to the USA. I, my aunt and 1st cousins, and 5 of those distant cousins have uploaded to Gedmatch. Using the tools in Tier 1 Gedmatch (and admittedly straining their servers) we have proven that the man who is the purported ancestor is almost certainly correct (say 97%) as far as physical ancestry goes. We have some 350 person/segment pairs that agree with that. We also have some 11 person/segment pairs that descend from siblings or 1st cousins of the purported immigrant's wife, some still living in Ireland. I consider this enough that I am confident of that 97% number. We also have 11 (different from the above 11) persons who descend from the purported immigrant's father back in Ireland, a couple of whom descend from recent members of the Irish Parliament. That's good proof that we descend from the line of the purported ancestor. But, unfortunately, as so often the case, it does not absolutely prove that the exact purported person is correct ... there is something like a 50% chance that its a cousin of his. This could absolutely not have been done without three unique, computationally intensive, Tier one tools: "Find surname matches from DNA matches", and the Matrix tool in "Multiple Kit Analysis (MKA)", plus Segment Search by chromosome. Every other site, incluing FTDNA and MyHeritage lack at least one of those tools, which make it impossible, as they would have had to have been emulated "by hand". I estimate that even at Gedmatch I needed 30,000 mouse clicks, while at those others it would have taken 10 million. Gedmatch allows doing things that are simply impossible at any other site, even the toughest of nuts. Really!!!!!!

Tudo maravilhoso!!!

GedMatch connected me to an aunt that my family did not know existed; fathered by my grandfather in San Francisco, while he was awaiting deployment to Vietnam. GedMatch also connected to me a first cousin; the daughter of my biological father's brother.

I have been having such a great time discovering dna on gedmatch from a friend i would have never imagined to be related to my moms mother has relative in the Are your parents related tool match 8 segments, I love the site cant wait for new tools on it.

I am forever indebted to Aaron who spent over an hour with me at Rootstech. He showed me features of the site I had no idea even existed. He found me a cousin who matched on more than one chromosome. I sent a message to the email address on that person and yesterday received a message that said she was my cousin's daughter and lived in Auckkand, New Zealand. Those Scots sure travelled the world. Now I have a cousin in New Zealand and it's all thank to Aaron and his care and attention.

I discovered that my oldest friend from 1964 is actually my second cousin and thus solved a mystery regarding my mother's grandfather.

I helped a friend who was adopted find her family. I tested her at one site and got poor matches. Then I uploaded her to GEDmatch and instantly found a 1st cousin and 1st cousin once removed. Turned out they were mother and daughter who certainly knew who my friend's mother was since the mother of the two was the sister of my friend's mother! Instant success. They had tested at two different sites than the one I chose for my friend, and had separately uploaded themselves to GEDmatch, as they didn't know each other...they did DNA tests because they were trying to find each other: the daughter was adopted out as well. So this was a double success!

I was adopted at eleven months old, and I found my biological parents and siblings when I was nineteen. I had three full blooded sisters and five half brothers. Despite this I knew very little about our background as a family or the family name Tillery, Or extended family members. I found people I was related to on Gedmatch but the funny thing is we couldn't figure out how we are related. It's enough for me to know some of these people. I don't have to know exactly how we're related. I'm thankful I was adopted and given a good home. It's also wonderful to know where I came from and that I have connections in the world. Thank you Gedmatch.

I was adopted and GED match connected me to my cousin, he then introduced me to 3 half sisters and a half brother. Sadly my birth mother had passed. GED Match is the best.

My DNA was uploaded to GEDmatch in hopes of helping a cousin find her birth parents. Two years later, I was contacted by the Pinellas County cold case Detective because my DNA matched the DNA of suspect in 2 rape cases. Using my Family tree they found and arrested a distant cousin. They had been looking for him for 21 years. Case was solved! Police briefing is attached.

Your website has helped me find my roots! I've discovered so much and was thrilled I could share it with my mother before she passed in December 26 2022. I've discovered my Jewish heritage and my Native lines! Because of finding my roots In now serving as the Northern Towns District of Texas Cherokee Tsalagiyi Nvdagi as Chief Dancing Star Woman! Thank you Gedmatch!!!

was able to solve my grandfather father name by use of DNA testing, my mother only tell she her grandfather was a William mccoy, ith a middle name of Charles, turn out his middle name was shannon. Also my father side using DNA results

Gedmatch was instrumental thru Triangulation, in assisting to find my late adopted mother-in-law's bio-father's family in Michigan and ultimately who he was! Thank you!

I joined Gedmatch to help in my search for my only paternal 1st cousin that was given up for adoption at birth. To date I have not found him/her. But I have uses Gedmatch to help others find their lost family members and many persons that were adopted find the bio parents. This is a great tool to use when trying to compare and analyze matches.

I was trying to see if I could find any more distant cousins whom I hadn't found using other means, and I was successful! I contacted one of my matches and he told me stories about my wider family that I hadn't heard before and he also provided photos.

Through DNA matching I was able to identify my mother's biological parents. It took 5 years and over 10,000 DNA matches. When the right people finally tested, it all fell into place. I was also able to identify my half sister's biological father. Through him she has found 5 half siblings she didn't know she had. I have helped several adoptees identify birth families. Once I figured out the process it became very easy for me to do for people. I would recommend GEDmatch to anyone trying to solve a family mystery.

My husband was the son of a man born in 1923, who was raised in a foster home. Parents unknown. We have found a line on the Maternal parent, which was developed in a family tree and has been confirmed by dna matches. The father remained unknown as the mother was single and age 19. DNA matches on gedmatch.com showed a close match, not part of the Maternal family. In filling out the family tree and checking Census data, I found the connection to a family from Sweden who came to Canada and lived next door to a the 19 year old who was my husbands grandmother. In addition, the DNA matches combined with the family tree information explained why he was getting matches from Sweden. Also, the maternal matches a friend who was adopted in 1949, ended up as my husband's 2nd cousin so she now has a line and has found 2 half sisters. My husband's mother's DNA provided confirmation to his mother's father's second family. I have two adopted children and the family tree work linked them with their biological families. Gedmatch DNA has make the biological ties much broader and stronger I have supported DNA matching and have had enough info to write a book! The down side is that unknown births are identified and family dynamics can be changed forever. I recommend it to everyone and I help folks sign up and get their DNA uploaded to gedmatch.com.

The Ancestor Projects may prove to be the sledgehammer I needed for a huge brick wall. I have been searching for the hometown in Ireland of my great great grandfather, Richard McGann for more than thirty years. Multiple members of my family share DNA with multiple members of a Magan Family who are in the Westmeath and Offaly County Ireland project. There is a book written about the Magan Family, Umma-More The Story of an Irish Family, whose history stretches back to Irish Chieftains. Now all I need to do is figure out where in the Magan family tree we fit.

Oh boy what a ride this has been! I started my journey w GEDmatch trying to find my niece that was born in 1988 for my sister. It turns out it something besides my niece had other paths that kept driving me more determined to dig dig dig, there was more I just knew it. Secrets are a horrible thing to keep, I learned this at 48yrs old 2 months ago. I found out that I am the person I was meant to be, I have 5 siblings and my daddy adores me. My mother passed away 12yrs ago. And she and my dad kept the secret buried until dna became available. I found out like a shot to the gut that my dad knew my whole life he wasn’t my biological father but never treated me different. He loves me and told me dna only is logistics any man that steps up and was always there even 3 states away the one who popped up behind home plate telling me “stop closing your eyes honey” he is my daddy. I met my biological w my dad by my side I have a half sister a niece and tons of aunts uncles and cousins that I look like. Nothing is awkward is everyday is a new day to be grateful for open arms forgiveness. I am grateful for this experience I am proud of who I am, where I came from and all faces that love me as I do them. This is like rolling the dice and you only roll the die if you’re a betting person that isn’t scared of throwing all you have to the wind knowing the winds of change could very well throw you for a loop Trust in your faith and know god has you in every direction your journey takes you. Thank you GEDmatch this has been the greatest tool for me and I highly recommend anyone to take the challenge. Roll the dna dice the payoff to your lucky 7 is entirely up to you. Make the best of your odds and move forward. Life is short not promised so fulfill your destiny. Find out who your ancestors are embrace your struggles overcome your weakness’ and never let them see you sweat. God bless you all. Thank you