What yall think?? Both of my parents are mixed race. Mom is black and Puerto Rican and my dad is Bolivian/German and black. But I didn't know it was all of this 🥸..

Also this is a repost had to take down the previous one made a mistake!

I’ve been sitting with a family/DNA mystery for about five years, and after recently digging into it again, I’ve realized that one of the possible explanations is much more significant than I originally understood. I’d really appreciate input from people experienced with genetic genealogy or adoption searches.

In 2021, 23andMe matched me with a girl I’ll call Jane Jr., who was a minor at the time. We share 11.56% of our DNA. 23andMe predicted first cousins. I had absolutely no idea who she was, and only have three first cousins I'm aware of due to a pretty small family on both sides.

I sent a message to the adult managing her account and explained that I wasn’t aware of any first cousin who could be Jane Jr. She told me that she believed our connection was through Jane Jr.’s mother, who I’ll call Jane Doe, and that Jane Doe had been adopted. They apparently knew very little about Jane Doe’s family and said that I would need permission from Jane Jr's guardian to talk to Jane Jr. Nothing ever came of that and I let it lie for about five years. My mother was very ill and I had a lot of other life things going on that allowed me to put it on the backburner, and I honestly forgot about it a little bit.

I recently started looking into this again after coming back to 23andMe for some health data. One thing that immediately stood out is that the relatives Jane Jr. and I share on 23andMe are all from my mother’s side of my family. No shared relatives on my father's side. My recent maternal family tree is also fairly simple. My maternal grandparents had only two children: my mother, born in 1957, and my uncle, who I’ll call Uncle Z, who is now almost 80. My mother had no sisters, and my maternal grandmother had no siblings either.

As far as I can figure out, there are three main possibilities:

Possibility #1: Jane Jr. is my half-niece.

My mother → Jane Doe (who was adopted out) → Jane Jr.

That would make Jane Doe my maternal half-sister and Jane Jr. my half-niece.

Expected shared DNA: ~12.5%
Actual shared DNA: 11.56%

So the amount of DNA Jane Jr. and I share seems to fit this relationship extremely well.

The timeline also works. My mother was born in 1957, so she could have had a daughter sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s who would easily be the right age to be Jane Doe. My parents didn’t marry until the mid 80s. I wasn't born until 1987.

Also, my mother had previously been married to another man for a few years, and she never told me about that marriage. I discovered it accidentally when I was 16 after finding an old photo album of her first wedding in a locked cabinet at my grandmother’s house. Obviously, a secret first marriage is not evidence that she also relinquished a child for adoption. But it does mean I know there were significant pieces of her earlier life that she chose not to tell me about and that my grandmother and the rest of the family also signed on to keep secret. She told me when confronted that she didn't want to tell me or upset me because she thought I was a sensitive kid. I suspect she would never have told me if I hadn't found physical evidence. My mother was particularly shame sensitive and I'm aware first-hand of some of her intense psychological protective mechanisms (especially denial). My brother thinks she never would have given up a child for adoption, but I think for that exact reason, it would have been her absolute darkest and most deeply held secret.

Possibility #2: Jane Jr. is Uncle Z’s granddaughter.

My maternal grandparents → Uncle Z → Jane Doe → Jane Jr.

That would make Jane Jr. my first cousin once removed (1C1R).

Expected shared DNA: ~6.25%
Actual shared DNA: 11.56%

From what I understand, 11.56% is possible for a 1C1R, but it is way out toward the high end of the observed range. So this would explain the generation/ages fairly easily, but the amount of DNA we share seems much less typical than it would be for a half-niece.

Possibility #3: Jane Jr. is actually Uncle Z’s daughter.

My maternal grandparents → Uncle Z → Jane Jr.

That would make Jane Jr. my first cousin, and 11.56% would fit that relationship extremely well. However, there's a few things that make this less likely.

First, there’s the timeline. Jane Jr. appears to be around 14–15 now. Uncle Z is almost 80, meaning he would have been roughly in his 60s when Jane Jr. was conceived. That is obviously biologically possible for a man, so age alone certainly doesn’t rule it out. Based on the photographs and information I’ve been able to find, however, Jane Doe, Jane Jr's mom, appears to be considerably younger than Uncle Z.

More importantly, my 2021 conversation with the adult managing Jane Jr.’s 23andMe account gave me the impression that Jane Jr.’s paternal identity and family line were known to them and through 23andMe. She specifically directed the mystery toward Jane Doe’s side, explaining that Jane Doe was adopted and that this was where they believed my connection to Jane Jr. came from.

There’s one other piece that I’m treating very cautiously. I did some admittedly amateur internet sleuthing and managed to find what I'm pretty sure is Jane Jr.’s social media, which led me to a single old photograph of a woman she identified as her mom, possibly my Jane Doe. It appears Jane Doe is not in her life and has been no-contact for a while.

To my eye, the woman in this photograph bears a noticeable resemblance to women in my maternal family, particularly my mother. There are similarities in facial proportions, smile/teeth, and some other features. I completely understand that perceived facial resemblance is subjective, confirmation bias is real, and photographs are not genetic evidence. I’m not using this to establish the relationship, but it felt very eerie to see what looks like my mom's smile on this stranger's face.

My mother died in 2024, which unfortunately means I can’t ask her about any of this.

I asked my father whether he knew anything about the possibility of my mother having another child. He said he didn’t. He has also asked me not to tell him anything further about what I discover because the possibility would be too upsetting for him.

I’ve now reached back out to the woman managing Jane Jr's 23andMe account whom I communicated with in 2021. I asked whether she, Jane Jr.’s guardians, or another adult in the family knows anything more about Jane Doe’s adoption — particularly her birth year, birthplace, circumstances of adoption, or biological family. I politely asked if any adult in the family would be willing to talk to me about anything they know - really any clue at all.

I’ve also sent a connection request through 23andMe because I’m particularly interested in comparing our maternal haplogroups. My understanding is that if the relationship is:

my mother → Jane Doe → Jane Jr.

then Jane Jr. and I should share the same maternal-line mitochondrial ancestry.

But if Jane Jr. descends through Uncle Z, either as his daughter or granddaughter, Uncle Z cannot transmit his mitochondrial DNA to his children. So I realize that a matching maternal haplogroup wouldn’t prove that my mother was Jane Doe’s biological mother, especially if the haplogroup is common. But a clearly incompatible maternal haplogroup seems like it could potentially rule out the specific mother → Jane Doe → Jane Jr. hypothesis.

I’m also being careful about Jane Jr. herself because she appears to still be a minor. I told the adult I contacted that whenever Jane Jr.’s guardians feel she’s old enough or that contact is appropriate, I’d be open to whatever level of contact or relationship Jane Jr. herself might want, with absolutely no expectation from me. For now, I’d be so appreciative for the chance to just speak with an adult in the family who knows more about Jane Doe.

So at this point I have:

Half-niece (my mother → Jane Doe → Jane Jr.): 11.56% is almost exactly what one could expect, the timeline works, and it fits what Jane Jr.’s family told me about the connection being through adopted Jane Doe.

First cousin (Uncle Z → Jane Jr.): 11.56% is also almost exactly what one would expect genetically, but Uncle Z would have been in his 60s when Jane Jr. was conceived, Jane Doe appears substantially younger than him, and it doesn’t readily explain why Jane Jr.’s family believed our connection was through Jane Doe and not Jane Jr's father. Paternal ancestry is not the mystery for them.

First cousin once removed (Uncle Z → Uncle Z’s daughter → Jane Jr.): the generations make intuitive sense, but 11.56% seems unusually high for that relationship.

I’m trying very hard not to turn a plausible hypothesis into a fact simply because the pieces seem to fit. There may be another explanation I’m overlooking entirely. But this has been niggling at me since I first saw the match five years ago, and 11.56% is obviously not a distant genealogical connection. Since my mother died, it has also taken on a different emotional weight. If possibility #1 is correct, my mother had a daughter I never knew existed, Jane Doe is my half-sister, and Jane Jr. is my half-niece. There would be an entire living branch descending from my mother that I never knew about. I may have a half-sister out there, who doesn't seem to be doing too well and may be impossible to find or communicate with. There's an added layer of grief to that, too. There's also the possibility I never hear back from Jane Jr's family and/or that they never want to have any contact with me at all, especially if things are complicated with Jane Doe, and I respect that. It just feels a little heartbreaking. If it turns out Jane Doe is my half sister, I would give just about anything to lay eyes on her and see if anything feels familiar - her smile in person, her voice or laugh, mannerisms, etc.

For those experienced with genetic genealogy/adoption searches: How would you interpret an 11.56% match given these possibilities? How unusual is 11.56% for a 1C1R compared with a half-niece? Is my mtDNA reasoning correct? And what evidence would you look for next to distinguish among these three possibilities?

Background: my half sister and I were raised and adopted by our maternal grandparents. She never knew who her biological father was. She was always told she was half Filipino. I bought her 23andMe for her birthday last year and results came back basically 50% African American. She had a few matches that showed up as cousins and she’s been in contact with them.

I was always told my biological father was part Native American - that his grandmother was 100% Apache. I decided to buy 23andMe to test that. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to get this result (48.6% Italian). There is zero Italian on the maternal side (my sisters doesn’t show any). My supposed biological father passed way when I was in elementary school in 1991. I knew one of his brothers who passed away in 1999. He apparently had 2 other brothers but both have passed 10+ years back. I know nobody else alive in his family. My biological mother passed in 2013. When I started to build out a family tree for both maternal and paternal side. I see nothing but English/Irish surnames.

So I’m going under the assumption that the man I was told was my biological father was not. Next step is to reach out to search angel and see if they can help me find anything out. Maybe I have more half siblings out there. Maybe my actual biological father is still alive.

Regardless, I now have heard of Sardinia and my wife wants to go.

My dad’s Palestinian, mom’s Korean. Photo is only of me because he didn’t want to be posted online.

I would get my mom tested too, but it seems kinda pointless after all this 😅

Tagalog Filipino from Manila/Central Luzon area with no known Indonesian ancestors.

3rd region under indigenous is Western Honduran Highlands

First of all, I never knew I even had Hungarian ancestry until the latest update and just in the last week or so I have historical matches for Hungarian Royalty. It’s so strange because the DNA is less than 1% as well.

Long story short, my ancestry on paper is as follows:

37.5% French-Canadian

25% Italian (Abruzzese)

12.5% Hungarian

12.5% Slovak

12.5% Dutch (including some Frisian & German)

Long story less short:

Three of my four maternal great-grandparents were of French-Canadian descent, and the lion's share of that ancestry is Québécois, though there is an Acadian branch a few generations back. If you, yourself, are French-Canadian, or if you're acquainted with the history of the province, then you'll know the majority of these French bloodlines have their origin in Northern & Western France, a few in Central & Eastern France, and a smattering in Southern France. Additionally, in my particular case, there are a couple of Flemish, Swiss-French, Galician-Spanish, and English ancestors thrown into the mix—all from the 1600s.

My one great-grandparent who was not French-Canadian was my great-grandmother Dorothy, who was the daughter of Dutch-immigrant parents, both of whom were born in Noord-Brabant where their families had been established for centuries with the exception of one Frisian and one German ancestor, both born in the 1700s.

My paternal grandfather was of mostly Hungarian (Abaúj-Torna) and Slovak (Košice & Prešov) extraction; I say "mostly" because a few surnames (e.g. Orosz, Rusznák, Homa) indicate possible Rusyn/Ruthenian ancestry. Moreover a number of relatives who've taken DNA tests have received considerable amounts of Southern Polish in their results; if we do, indeed, have ties to Poland, then it is most likely concentrated in Nowy Targ and/or the surrounding villages—Goral territory.

Finally there is my paternal grandmother, who was born to Italian-immigrant parents hailing from the mountains of Abruzzo; I've pushed most of these lines back to the 1700s, and so far everyone was born in either L'Aquila or Teramo.

So there you have it!

Genealogy is one of my greatest passions, along with all of the other subjects with which one inevitably becomes acquainted in genealogical pursuits: history, anthropology, archeology, population genetics, linguistics, religion, folklore, mythology—and I would be delighted to discuss any of these with you, should you find yourself in need of a like-minded conversation partner.

Posting this just for fun. There were a few things surprising to me, I guess, though it’s mostly expected as a white American. My mom’s family has largely been here since the 17th century (mishmash of English, Scottish, Irish, German, French, etc). My paternal grandmother’s family all immigrated from Germany (Prussia) in the 19th century. It’s my paternal grandfather’s family that has always been a bit of a mystery to me. He immigrated to the US in 1927 with his parents and returned with his mom to visit her family a couple of times. Their final visit was in 1933, the year Hitler was elected chancellor. My grandfather became a citizen of the US in 1940. Trained soldiers during WWII. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my last name associated with families that weren’t Jewish (except for mine) and many of these families lived in Eastern Europe or came to Germany from Eastern Europe. A number of them also seemingly perished in the Holocaust. My dad’s genetic ancestry showed a a small amount of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, but that isn’t visible in any of my tests. (It’s too minimal.) In any case, there’s no one alive anymore to ask. My dad, grandfather, and I all didn’t have any siblings.

My trace ancestry can possibly be accounted for by a rumor I heard as a kid from my mom. Idk. If anyone is curious, I can explain in comments.

Included is my photo and a photo of my grandfather’s father from WWI in Germany. (Edit to add: A while ago, I used AI to enhance the old WWI era photo, hence why the text is wonky on the wall behind.)

1st photo is my default dna results and 2nd is with 90% confidence.

i don’t understand why there’s such a big difference between the default dna results and 90% confidence levels. why not just have the 90% confidence level the default results

Just checking as it seems like a lot! I believe it started with 28 but has gone up! I have many viking era matches as well as neolithic Irish in those tomb mounds, as well as many other eras . I find it all super interesting!!!

Maternal haplogroup is H11.

I have some recent Polish ancestry, so I’m not surprised by the results.

I found this so interesting because the people from this region are from the mountainous area of Guinea. Anyone else in the thread got this as a result or from this area? :)

Also, how many generations back that is?