Mike sent this wonderful story of finding his family. How wonderful to know your roots. Thank you so much for sharing as it no doubt will inspire others.
My father passed away
in 1971 when I was 18. His absence from my life led me to want to learn more
about him and his ancestors through genealogy research. Working with a group of
other Moon researchers, we ran into a road block in 1771 with Abraham Moon. There
were different spellings such as Mohn, Moon, Mohun, etc., and we could not find
conclusive documentation to connect the lines.
In the early 2000s,
DNA testing was becoming popular for genealogy purposes. Therefore, a group of
us Moon researchers decided to take a DNA test to see if we could triangulate
our names to hopefully make a connection with other Moon lines that were more
established.
Initially, I had a 12
and 25 marker YDNA test through Family Tree DNA. Those test results basically
showed my male line matched to thousands of men throughout the world but no
Moons. It wasn’t until I had a 37 marker YDNA test that I started matching to
one particular name, Dunn. However, I could not figure out how a Dunn entered
my Moon gene pool. I continued with the testing in hopes that the next level of
DNA test would prove something more definitive. With the 6- marker test, I
matched more Dunn’s but no Moons. Same with the 111-marker test.
By this time, I was
working with other Dunn’s and/or Dunn line administrators on what kind of tests
to have and what the results meant. My mother was still living, and she made it
clear that she didn’t like that I was doing the testing. She said she feared I
might find some dark family secret. I laughed it off and assured her that it
was far back in the Moon ancestry where the Dunn line came into our gene
pool.
Working with the Dunn
administrator, I was advised to test my closest known male relative and with
each match, find another male ancestor to be tested. Therefore, I had my
brother tested first. Mom had already passed by that time (2006), and when I
received my brothers YDNA test results, it showed that we didn’t match on any
male ancestors. Which meant, we were not full brothers. I was shocked, as was
everyone in our family. I was 55 at the time, and everything I thought I knew
about my life was wrong.
To make sure the results were
right, FTDNA retested my sample, and it was the same as the first. We then had
my brother (two and a half years older than me) and my sister (six years
younger than me) tested with FTDNA’s autosomal tests. Their test results were
clear, they were full siblings to each other and only half siblings to me.
Through much effort,
my brother, sister, and I concluded that mom and dad split up for a short time
after my brother was born in 1951 and got back together three months before my
birth. We don’t know if they separated because mom cheated or that I was
conceived while they were separated. Either way, my dad never made any
difference in the way he treated me.
After the shock of the
test results wore off, I decided to continue looking for my biological father
and his family. I had the Big Y test done through FTDNA and then their
autosomal test. However, none of the results proved anything, and I almost gave
up because I’d spent a lot of money on all the family tests.
Then in 2015, I tried Ancestry.com’s autosomal test and the results
were the same there. I matched some people connected to Dunn lines but no
Dunn’s themselves and no one matched close enough to be even a fourth cousin.
Then I received a message through Ancestry from a woman who asked how I was
related to her daughter whose results showed she was a second cousin to me. We
talked at length, and she agreed to be tested. Her results came back showing
she was my first cousin. We knew by then this was my line, but we needed her
uncle (one of five but only two still alive) to be tested. He was in a nursing
home in Ohio, but we got him to submit a sample and his results came back as my
uncle. My first cousin and I went through all the uncle’s pictures and agreed
that I only looked like one of her uncles. She knew of the man, but the family
wasn’t that close. She thought the one uncle had a daughter. I finally tracked
her down, and at first, she was very resistant to doing the test. Finally, she
agreed, and we both watched every day for the results to come back. Finally
they did. I was driving in Florida when she called and said, “hello brother”.
Our dad died in 2010
but we are alike in a lot of ways. At least now I know she is my sister and
that I have other nieces and nephews.
Mike His dad, Sammy
Best wishes,
Emily
