I have been working on my family tree for over 25 years. Whoever originally said, “Genealogy is not a hobby, it’s a passion!” spoke the truth!
For most of these 25 years, I have been completely focused on my maternal ancestry. Those that know me, understand why this is. For those that don’t, I was raised by my maternal grandmother from the age of 3 months. My surname, “Drake” is my mother’s maiden name and thus the last name of my grandmother and uncle, the folks who were my functional parents while I was growing up. I was given another last name at birth by my mother and grew up thinking this man was my biological father (a DNA test in the early 1990’s proved him to be no blood relative of mine), but had my last name changed to Drake when I turned 18, to honor my uncle and grandmother. After all, they were the only family I ever knew.
It wasn’t until some years ago that I decided to use the latest craze in DNA testing (a.k.a. “genetic genealogy”) to try to find my biological father and his family. The results were life-changing. I immediately was able to determine that I belong to the John Lee, Esquire bloodline. John Lee shows up out of nowhere in North Carolina in the 1700’s as a wealthy plantation owner. The Y-DNA test I took uncovered this data for me, but the closest Lee relative I could find was a 6th cousin! Let me tell you, that’s not very close, certainly not anywhere near close enough for me to figure out who might be my father. To get to my father and his family, I needed an autosomal DNA test (AtDna). This is the test touted by Ancestry.com and others for discovering your cousins. The AtDna test discovered lots of cousins for me and although some were 4th cousins and even 3rd cousins, it still wasn’t close enough for someone like me, with no knowledge whatsoever about my paternal heritage, to draw any conclusions. In the end, I had to bite the bullet and wait for at least a 2nd cousin to show up, or better yet, a first cousin. I felt at the time that I was facing the prospect that I would never be able to find my father’s family.
Amazingly, it took less than a year for me to find a first cousin once-removed, which led me to identifying 4 uncles (all dead), and purchasing DNA tests for select children of my uncles (cousins), and eventually led to my biological father (Rufus Jack Lee), who died in 1980. Even more shocking is that I discovered that my father had 6 children, which meant that I have six half-siblings! And since I found my biological father’s family, I have discovered one more half-brother, an adoptee who has no knowledge of his parentage at all. I wonder how many more half-siblings might be out there?
Genealogy is definitely more than a hobby to me.
Jeff
You have had a long journey but it has obviously been worth the effort. Congratulations on your perseverance.
Heather Blegg Drake Denholm 4th cousin.
Thanks, cousin!
It has been an amazing journey, for sure. I’m probably going to blog about the genealogical road I’ve traveled.
I am still holding out hope that my wife and I will visit Australia in the next couple of years. If so, it would be cool to meet you in person and say hello.
Jeff
Y-DNA revealed to full brother E.B. and I that we are descendants of Simon Hadley (northern Ireland), his son Simon, grandson Joshua HADLEY married Patience Brown. Looking (with you) at CAUGHLIN, COUGHLAN, COUGHLIN and such for a Hadley connection, also Beatrice? REIDY. My great grandfather John Wesley Braxton 1854-1920 has sister Ellen BRAXTON. Father of her children BARE is believed to be Native American, illegal to marry – so her male children carry her BRAXTON – a grandson or so (recently died) has the name REID (no trailing Y) – Clyde Reid Braxton, slightly older than I, who am born 1944, reared Quaker area in North Caorlina – Snow Camp / Cane Creek. A Hadley match (administrator) family came out of Deep Creek monthly Meeting in NC, moved out to Iowa.