Typically it is fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers that I am asked to find. But I have also helped adoptees who know nothing about either biological parent, people whose female ancestor had to give away a child, and even a person whose great grandfather was a foundling left on church steps. I can also do branch verification to check the ancestors you have on paper are in fact the ancestors in your genes.

It is a possibility that I might not be able to identify an individual. You are paying for my time regardless of the outcome. It depends on your matches, their genetic proximity, and how successfully I can identify and research them (which I don’t know at the outset). But I try to get as close as I can to your mystery person. For example, sometimes this is a shortlist of a set of brothers or cousins with supporting circumstantial information that may point to one being more likely than another. In such cases, I may make recommendations of named living relations to approach and ask to test. If I am unable to solve your family mystery, I retain and archive my notes on your case so that you have the option of requesting a check for new DNA matches at a later date or at regular intervals i.e. once a year.

Autosomal DNA goes back approximately five generations but the further back your mystery, the more challenging it can be to research due to the higher number of matches irrelevant to the search. It is always best if the oldest living person tests e.g. if you want to uncover the identity of a great grandfather on your father’s side and your father is still alive, his DNA results will be more illuminating than yours.

I predominantly work with family histories from the British Isles, US or Canada. Unfortunately, some ancestral regions are less well represented at present on DNA databases and so will provide more limited matches. If a branch of your family tree is from a country whose records have less of an online presence, or whose records are in a language other than English, there will be barriers to my research that will make it more time-consuming and expensive. I have successfully researched Jewish family mysteries but these can be complex in terms of both the DNA and access to records in other countries e.g. Russia and Eastern Europe.

Unfortunately, I can’t know this at the outset. I’ve worked on cases that are quick, and those that are much more arduous. I recommend you purchase an initial day of research so that I can get your matches grouped and identified by branch, and the significant matches identified and connections mapped. After the initial day, I may have solved your mystery or if not, I may have a good idea of how much more time I need. It is up to you how many subsequent days or half days you purchase and therefore how long I continue to research your case. I am very well practised so can work quickly and efficiently.

Taking the DNA test is easy and just the beginning. You might be lucky enough to have very close DNA matches that immediately answer your mystery. However, most people have more distant matches, some estimated 2nd-3rd cousins and a bewildering amount of 4th cousins and beyond. Making sense of these matches, who they are, and how they fit together and relate to you is a challenging and time-consuming activity.

I work on Ancestry, although will often suggest you also upload your raw DNA for free to other sites in order to find more matches. Feel free to contact me if your DNA test is not with Ancestry, but currently Ancestry does not allow uploads from other initial test companies.