1. Taking a DNA test will cost you money. There are multiple companies offering this service, some are interconnected and some are not. You want to take as many test from as many of these companies as possible. The reason for this is simple. You are trying to find a DNA match with a distant family member. Your chances of finding a distant relative with helpful ancestral information increases greatly and you have a much higher chance of success by taking multiple tests. The big three companies are:
• Ancestry.com
• FamilyTreeDNA.com
• 23&Me.com

These 3 companies make up about 80% of all U.S. citizens who do a DNA test. Therefore you would have a 80% chance of matching a distant relative who takes all 3 of these company’s tests.

2. If you do not know the name of someone’s father, you can take a DNA test. Your objective in this scenario would be to link to a distant relative with the same Surname. As an example. You have a match with your grandfathers, great grandfather. But you don’t know the people between your grandfather and his great grandfather. What you would know and is critical is the location the Great Grandfather was born and died. From this point you find out how many children he had, their names and where they lived. You would then find all their Children and Grandchildren. One of these Grandchildren is going to be your Grandfathers Father. This is confusing and difficult but is a direct way to bridge unknown gaps. In reality this should be left up to a professional who is used to doing this. This same method can be used to find adopted people’s biological families.

January 30, 2019