My wife and I attended her high school class reunion last summer. I met a number of her old classmates I hadn't met before. She had been chatting with an old friend of hers while I went up to get something to nibble on. When I returned, I heard my wife say to her friend, "My husband can find him for you." It ends up that this friend of my wife's never knew who her father was. Her mother passed away years ago and would never tell her. When I heard the story, I was happy to give it a try. Nothing beats the feeling you get when you're able to use your skills and really make a difference in someone's life.
A couple of days later, we spoke on the phone. She provided me access to her Ancestry DNA test results and pointed out matches she knew were on her mother's side. Then I started digging in.
It took a few days. I can't recall exactly how long but it was definitely less than a week. At that point, I was able to provide her the name, birth date and location, along with where I believe he still lives today. She asked me how confident I was that this was the correct person. I told her I was 99% sure that her father had this name and was born at this location on this date to these parents. I was about 75% sure the man living in this town in Colorado was her father. I couldn't be sure because while the name and approximate age lined up, this was a town a little ways away from where he lived when his mother died and I couldn't be sure of the birth date of the man living in this town.
She contacted him and went to visit him last fall. She spoke with him and requested that he take a DNA test. She just got the results back, which confirmed he is her father.
I just received this card from her today. I've blurred out her name for privacy reasons.
On a less happy note, I volunteered to help someone on the DNA Detectives Facebook group last week. She provided me her required information and I started looking. While I haven't completely given up on it, I suggested she put out another request for someone with more experience with Hispanic research. I've just not been able to connect the trees of her matches. I'm going to keep looking at it as I have time but I think she'll have better luck with someone with different research experience.
On that note, if you're looking to solve a DNA mystery, whether that's finding your birth parents, grandparents, of figuring out who those mystery matches are, let me know! I'm happy to give it my best shot!
--Matt
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