Example 1: I was watching a TV program about a woman who was going to give up her child to her sister who is unable to bear children. This got me thinking about the child’s DNA and how we might end up interpreting them.
Let’s say the Child has their DNA tested and they are the
oldest generation living. Thus, what assumptions might we come up with from his
test. If the child didn’t know they were adopted, would they figure out they
were adopted.
His legal/adopted mother is the sister of his biological mother.
Thus, his DNA results on his mother’s side would appear to be the same and no
real unexpected results because his maternal side is the same with either mother.
However, it may appear that his legal/adopted mother had an affair because his legal/adopted father’s
family would not be showing in his DNA results. Also, what if his biological
mother did not have any more children, thus we would not know that his legal/adopted mother is not his biological mother since neither woman had any additional children
to find half siblings or descendants of those half siblings. Even if his biological
father had additional children, this would not make his maternal DNA any
clearer.
Moral of the story, even though DNA doesn’t lie, it might
not be so straight forward. We need to always remember these outlying
relationships and not judge our ancestors so quickly.
Example 2: I had a former co-worker who adopted her 1st
cousin’s child. Again, I was thinking about the Child’s DNA and how we might
end up interpreting them. Her 1st cousin’s mother and her mother are sisters. Again, let’s say the Child has their DNA tested and they
are the oldest generation living and they don’t know they were adopted.
Let’s look at his legal/adopted mother’s DNA compared to his biological mother’s DNA. Both women share one set of grandparents through their maternal side of their family. Thus using the Leeds Method, we may find that the tester’s maternal grandmother’s side of the family matches correctly, however he has three grandparents that are not matching any known relatives, his father’s side (his father's parents), and his maternal grandfather’s side.
Thus, why might this happen? Did his mother have him with
another man than his father? Did his grandmother have his mother with another
man? The test might show that one branch, his maternal grandfather’s side
appears to be matching his grandmother’s brother-in-law’s family. Did grandmother
have an affair with her brother-in-law? See how easy it is to jump to the wrong conclusions. We need to test our theories.
This is where testing closer known relatives come in handy.
Did his legal/adopted mother have any siblings who had children? If so, do these
matches appear further away than expected. Did his biological mother have any other
children and did they happen to test and are showing up as half-siblings. Did
his biological mother have siblings who have children. If these people didn't test, we may need to seek out these types of relatives and ask them to test.
Moral of this story, again, DNA isn’t always straight
forward. We need to let the DNA tell the story. Testing as many
close relatives as we can helps us develop a clearer picture. Not only our maternal first cousins (in this case),
but maybe his mother’s first cousins or their children (his 2nd
cousins).
A wonderful website to help with our confusing DNA matches
is DNAPainter. Their Shared cM Project 4.0 tool has a handy chart to show where
matches should fall into. In my 2nd example, who we think should be his first cousins (children of his adopted mother's siblings) are really his 2nd cousins and the shared DNA
between 1C’s and 2C’s is very different.
Good luck in your DNA research and explore all the relationship possiblites to help in your DNA research!
