www.familysearch.org
I have an Italian mother and 5 children identified in the mid 1800s. I have found their birth records on FamilySearch.org. On each birth record of the children the father is listed as UNKNOWN. I have had my DNA tested at Ancestry and My Heritage. I have had my brother's DNA tested at Ancestry, My Heritage, and Family Tree DNA. Is it possible to Identify this UNKNOWN FATHER by sorting all the Italian cousin matches I have? There are digitized birth, marriage, and death records for the little town in Italy where this family lived from about 1809 - 1900. This is Angela my great-grandmother, who is one of the children in this family. Thank you.
This is the URL for the Italian Town of Santi Cosma e Damiano, but you can only view the images at a LDS Family History Center. I will be at RootsTech in Salt Lake City next week. If any of you are attending, could we meet sometime?
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/128690?availability=Family History Library
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I will not be at RootsTech this year. There are several DNA classes that you can attend but you probably will benefit best from sitting down with someone with a little experience. Hopefully someone on this list will attend and be willing to help you a little.
First of all - your ancestral grandmother that had these children - do you have a pedigree on her. Since you do know her you need to identify all the ancestors of her that you can. Then when you look at the matches you get with the DNA you will have a chance to determine if they probably match her or the missing father. Five illegitimate kids - interesting. Unusual but could happen. My wife has a female ancestor who had 3 kids out of wedlock. The parish register even records the priest going to her birthing bed each time wanting the name of the father (as he would be responsible financially if know instead of the Church) but her recorded that she refused to tell the father's name each time. Who says genealogy is boring?
In any case the more you know about the mother's family the better off you will be.
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Facebook is a great place to get help on this type of dna research. Join some groups like DNA Detectives and DD Social. Yes it is very possible to find unknown family through dna family research. I have done this myself with 0 information to start with. Join those groups if possible to find more about how to do this then use what you find to make dna trees and start to add in the paper research.
I would add that you can find more groups there that are invaluable just by typing dna in the facebook search bar. Chose the groups with the most members since they will be very active and are full of people willing to help anyone including newbies to dna family research.
I would also like to mention youtube. There are some very good research videos there. Family History Fanatics has some great videos. All the big dna companies have good videos there as well. When I was learning about the dna research those were the two resources that helped me the most besides the third cousin of my husband that knew as little as I did but we learned together and still are. Don't be afraid to ask for help from any of the people in your shared matches!
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If you know other descendants of this couple, you can sort on your matches to find other descendants of this couple. You then need to go through them one by one to eliminate those who match the mother.
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You can use the cluster method , i.e. DNAGedcom Client, or you can use MatchCompare (SortingDNACousins.Blogspot.com).
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Thank you all for your time and great ideas. I will continue to learn the ropes of DNA research. You have started me on the path and I grateful! I may be back with more questions. You are the best!!!!
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