Tag: non-paternal event

Mexico: Reynoso via Ennis

A couple of weeks ago, I received a friend invitation on Facebook from a woman in Mission, Texas. I added her and figured she was interested in reading about my research. Five days ago, she messaged me and asked if I was the Kathleen Hill on her matches list. I don’t use my name on my DNA, so I knew she was referring to someone other than me. She explained that she was looking for her biological father. Her mother had passed and could no longer provide information. This woman had spent the past thirty years wondering who her father was.

Coincidence, perhaps, but I have become adept at solving similar mysteries. I asked her if she would like me to help, and she accepted. I reviewed her DNA matches. The closest match on her father’s side was a man with the last name of Reynoso. She shared 1500 centimorgans of DNA with him. My first guess was; he is her half-brother. I questioned her about him and any communication she has had. She messaged him but never received a response.

No Response, Now What?

One of the frustrating things about DNA research is the fact that many people submit their DNA to discover their ethnicity. They are not researching their family tree, nor do they pay a subscription to Ancestry to use all of the resources offered. Mr. Reynoso likely tested and has not logged back into his account for many months.

I sorted her DNA matches and looked at the few people she matched via her father. I believed her father’s last name was Reynoso, but there wasn’t enough evidence to make any additional connections.

90% Northern European and 9% Central American

My client’s mother, Edna was raised in Tennessee and lived in with her husband and children. Edna became pregnant with another man’s child and her husband raised the child as his own. My client was told that her father was of Peurto Rican descent, however, her ethnicity estimate shows otherwise.

The second closest match on my client’s paternal line was a first cousin, or a first cousin, once removed.  Given the closeness of this relationship, I narrowed my focus to the grandparents of this match; Albert Pedin Ennis and Estela Grandison Gastanza. 

Albert Pedin Ennis

Albert Ennis was an Engineer.  He worked for Electric Bond and Share Company in the early 1900’s.  His job required him to travel to Jaimaca, Central & South America, and the West Indies to examine electric properties in various countries.  His wife was Estella Grandison Ennis.  She was born in Oaxico, Mexico.  She and her children traveled with Mr. Ennis for his job.

Stella, Albert, and Thomas Ennis

Two things jumped out at me while researching Mr. Ennis.  His wife, Estella was born in Oaxaca, Mexico (note the mention of Oaxaca, Mexico in my client’s Ethnicity Estimate.)  Mr. Ennis was born in Illinois.   If both great grandparents were from Mexico, my client’s DNA should show 15-20% Central America.  Thus, only one of her great-grandparents was from Mexico.  Mr. Ennis was from Illinois and his wife was from Mexico. 

The next step was to research all of the children of Mr. Ennis and Ms. Grandison Gastanza to see if I could find a connection to the Reynoso line. I found two sons and three daughters. I researched each of these children and their spouses. One daughter, Jean Margareta Elizabeth Ennis y Grandison, “Betty”, married a man named Pedro Reynoso. Pedro’s father was from Vera Cruz, Mexico (another city listed in my client’s DNA Ethnicity results.) Additionally, his grandparents were from the United States; Kentucky, and Wisconsin. Again, supporting my client’s 9% DNA connection to Central America. I believe Betty and Pedro Reynoso are my client’s grandparents. One of their two sons is likely her father.

Mr. Reynoso and Ms. Ennis y Grandison had three girls and two boys. They lived in Browning, Texas where my client’s family lived in when her mother became pregnant.

I have meticulously constructed my client’s family tree on Ancestry.com and have uncovered photographs and documents dating back to the early 1800s. Proudly, I can say she has the most well-established tree on both her Reynoso and Ennis lines. Hopefully, she will be able to establish a relationship with her biological half-siblings and they can discover their rich family history together.

Ba-Da-Bean!

Laurel Geraldine Denmark
1923-2011

Fred Crawford and I became acquainted several weeks ago. He was referred to me by a friend with whom he shared DNA. Fred was trying to determine who his mother’s family was. His mother, Laurel Geraldine Denmark was born in Atlanta in 1923. Mr. Andrew Denmark and his wife, Bessie Fife, adopted her.

Mr. and Mrs. Denmark grew up in Taylor, Florida. They married in 1912 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia where Mr. Denmark worked as a repairman for the railroad. Bessie, his wife, worked as a seamstress at a local laundry. The couple adopted Laurel in 1923. Laurel never had any documentation of her adoption and later in life, when she needed a birth certificate, the Denmarks had to present a sworn statement of birth to the local hospital. Fred had very little information to go on and requested my assistance with determining who Laurel’s biological parents were.
Atlanta in the 1920s
“It was during the ’20s, perhaps, that Atlanta reached its height of reconstruction, though its fate was sealed by the depression of the 1930s.”

I began my research on Ancestry.com and looked closely at Fred’s DNA matches. Three of his five closest DNA matches were on his mother’s side. After some time, I identified a woman of interest, Bessie Gladys Bayne.

Mary Georgia Bayne (Bessie’s Mother)

Bessie was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1900. She was the youngest child of Georgia and Thomas Bayne. Bessie had two older brothers, Macon, and Clarence, and an older sister Mary. Bessie grew up in Atlanta and married Daniel Edgar Morgan on December 29,1919. Bessie and Daniel had a daughter, Jacqueline Morgan, in April of 1921. By September 25th, 1922, Mr. Morgan was serving a 29-month sentence in Futon County, Georgia, for Larceny.
Georgia Central Register of Convicts 1817-1976

Daniel Morgan is listed in the 1930 census in Louisiana at the State Penal Farm at Angola. His marital status is “divorced.” In 1942, Mr. Morgan was back in jail for theft of an automobile, in Fulton County, Georgia. In 1958, he served time for burglary. Unfortunately, Mr. Morgan’s life of crime left his wife and child without a husband and father.

After being abandoned by Mr. Morgan, Bessie and Jacqueline remained in Atlanta until 1930. Sometime in 1922, Bessie became pregnant with Laurel Denmark and placed her for adoption. By 1949, Bessie and her daughter Jaqueline had moved to Chicago, Illinois.

Fred shares 248 cm of DNA with Jacqueline’s grand-daughter and 134 cm of DNA with Bessie’s sister (Mary’s) grand-daughter.

Fred shares DNA with multiple people on both Bessie’s maternal and paternal side, thus making them direct ancestors (his great-grandparents.) Through a process of looking at the shared centimorgans to determine relationships, the DNA supports Bessie being the mother versus her sister or one of her brothers.

Fred had several matches to another family on both the maternal and paternal sides (indicating a direct ancestral connection.) William R. Bean and Alice Buchanan married on November 5th, 1889, in Atlanta Georgia. They had two children, Theodore and Lucille. Fred had DNA matches to both the Buchanan side and the Bean side (above William and Alice.) Thus, William and Alice are Fred’ great-grandparents and his mother’s grandparents.

After determining that William and Alice were likely Laurel’s grandparents, I looked at their two children as possible parents for Laurelle. Lucille (their daughter) was married and had two daughters. Her daughter, Anne was born in 1920, and another daughter, Jean was born about 1924. I thought it unlikely that Lucille would have been Laurel’s mother, given the circumstances. Although it is feasible that Lucille was the mother of Laurel, Fred shared higher centimorgans with the children of Theodore. Fred’s DNA fit with him being a half 1st cousin once removed to Theo’s grandson. If Theo had been an uncle (and Lucille was Laurel’s mother), the DNA centimorgans would have been less. Thus, Theodore Bean was likely Laurel’s biological father.

Theodore Bean 1890-1950

Theodore Bean was born in Georgia in 1890 and was the son of William Riley Bean and Alice Buchanan. His father, William Bean moved to Atlanta around the 1880s to be closer to his brother. He worked as a mason before he became a partner in a printing business. When his partner died, he started W.R. Bean and Son Printing Company.

W. R. Bean and Son Printing
https://exhibits.library.gsu.edu/current/items/show/925

Another mystery solved! Laurel Geraldine Denmark was the child of Theodore Bean and Bessie Bayne. She was born in 1923, and circumstances at the time led her mother to place her for adoption. Theodore Bean may not have known he had a child. In the 1930 census, Theodore indicates his age was 33 when he married his wife, Clara Bell Cook. That would have been about 1924, suggesting that Theodore was single when Bessie Bayne became pregnant.

I would not have been able to solve his puzzle without the cooperation and active participation of Robert H. Bean. He was Fred’s highest DNA match and it was his DNA which helped us solve this puzzle. Fred and his siblings now have the answer they have been searching for over the years. Ba-Da-Bean!

Coping with DNA Surprises

Recently, Laura Hill, a fellow researcher and newly discovered relative (via DNA) of my husband, reached out to me with these questions. She connects to my husband on his Curtis line, and the surname Hill is a coincidence.


Last night I listened to a webinar on the basics of DNA. There were some questions from the listeners, but then the moderator and the presenter started talking about the ethics of DNA. They said one should not be asking how a match is related lest there be a non-parental event in which the other person was not aware.

The moderator went on to say that her best friend has been traumatized and going to receive counseling after learning some family secret via a DNA test.

Would you characterize your husband and you to have been traumatized to learn that he did not descend from a Hill ancestor? Does it make you/him wish you had never taken the test? Do you think it wrong to ask about how they are related to oneself?

The moderator was also saying that one shouldn’t contact people to inform them of the new-found relationship: in your case, that you shouldn’t contact Curtis descendants of your husband’s ancestor.

I feel that it is good to make connections. I used to have an idealized view of my ancestors, but through DNA and genealogy I realize what goes on now also went on then; there are no perfect people. 


If I learned my father had created a child outside of marriage, I might feel differently, but suspect after the initial shock I would want to welcome a newly found relative.

What’s your opinion? Laura Hill

I appreciate these questions because DNA surprises will have an impact on others. Before I submitted my own DNA, I thought about the privacy implications and weighed the pros and cons.

  1. There is a possibility you will learn something you did not know about your family. Take a moment to consider the chance that you might learn something unexpected. Are you prepared to deal with what you might learn?
  2. DNA is a tool used by law enforcement to solve crimes. If you or someone who shares your DNA has committed a crime, your DNA could be helpful in an unsolved case. Although, not having your DNA will probably not prevent the case from being solved because thousands of others have shared their DNA results.
  3. People take DNA tests for many reasons. Some are only interested in their ethnic make-up. If you are not interested in the other uses of DNA results, you can keep your results private by not sharing them or deleting them once you learn yourr ethnicity.

The moderator of the Webinar you attended would be very unhappy with me. Not only do I reach out to others who have tested, but I also contact people who have not tested. I send letters to people who I believe are close relatives of the adoptees I am helping. I am gentle but factual with the information I give. If I send a letter to a gentleman who I believe is the father of an adoptee, I share the information I have. It is not uncommon for a man to have unknowingly fathered a child. If he wishes to make a connection or research this further, I will help. If the possible father does not respond, the adoptee has gained powerful and validating information.

The Curtis Research

The DNA Curtis Puzzle

Although I have not finished writing about my research experience about husband’s DNA, suffice it to say, he should carry the surname Curtis. After years of research and collaboration with other DNA testers, we have discovered a non-paternal event in his line. My husband’s grandfather on his paternal line was not his biological grandfather. We are not damaged or traumatized. Our discovery happened over some time and we, believe his grandfather knew that he was not the father. He was an incredible man. Not only did he raise a child who was not his, but he also embraced the child and gave him his name. The fact is, if it were not for the non-paternal event, my husband would not be here today! Damaged, no. Grateful and proud, yes.

In the coming months, this entire research project will be posted on my website. I have stared with sharing information about Susan Lloyd and James Patterson Hill, Sr. and there will be more to come. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Deep Kentucky Roots

Yesterday, I wrapped up a project for a woman who was adopted as a child.  She was looking for her biological father.  My research began a month ago and mainly involved the state of Kentucky.  She had a person in mind whom she considered a possibility but wanted verification.

I began my research with an empty palette.  My goal was to come to a conclusion by following the DNA.  I didn’t want to begin my research with the suspected individual.

After gaining access to profile on Ancestry.com, I was able to link her DNA to her tree and started building a tree.  I began with her mother (whom she identified several years ago) and developed a comprehensive tree on her maternal side.  Her grandfather’s name was Maxwell, a very common name in Kentucky. This Maxwell line has been traced to Herbert Maxwell (1382-1454), in Lancashire, Scotland.

One of her DNA cousins was a direct descendant of her great-grandfather.  I clicked on this individual’s profile and sorted by shared matches.  I then highlighted the star on the left, next to every match.  This helped me to sort her matches (highlighted stars) were her maternal matches.  The remainder of her matches, who did not have highlighted stars, were more likely to be on her paternal (father’s) side.

I then began the painstaking process of building family trees for all of the people who were suspected to be on her father’s side.  I looked for common surnames and eventually, tied all of these trees together.  This process can take weeks or even months.  As I constructed each tree, I looked at the person with whom she shared DNA.  I looked at the centimorgans and then looked at the probable relationship.  One of her matches was someone named Larry Webster.  He shared 874 centimorgans across 41 DNA segments with my client.  The above chart shows the possible relationships based on centimorgans.  Based on my client’s year of birth and Mr. Webster’s year of birth, I knew he had to be her cousin.  He was too old to be her brother’s son/grandson.  With this information, I began looking at all of the male siblings in both his mother’s and father’s families.  At this point, I had to expand the tree and develop a tree for Larry’s mother’s side of the family.  As I began to do this, the DNA trees I had developed, started falling into place.

The final step was to connect my client (in her tree) as a daughter to one of Larry’s uncles, on his mother’s side.  We chose the gentleman whose age was the closest to my client’s mother.   As it turns out, this was the individual she suspected to be her father.  In order to be completely certain, we must reach out to one of her half-siblings and see if they are interested in submitting their DNA.  If so, their centimorgans will tell us if our hypothesis is correct.  If it is not, we will likely move to one of this gentleman’s brothers.

Because we linked my client’s DNA to her tree as we began this project, Ancestry.com was able to sort through the tree and identify matches in my client’s tree with the trees of her DNA matches.  When Ancestry finished this process, we had identified 186 shared hints.  The photo on the left shows the number of shared hints.  The image on the right shows exactly who the shared ancestor is and the relationship of the “cousins.”  The image shown is one of my shared matches with a cousin.  We share great-grandparents.