Finding Nana’s Mother: A DNA Story

The following is shared by a client whom we helped with finding biological family using DNA:

Learning Nana’s Story

I only have the faintest of memories of what it was like for my Nana to live close by before she moved out of state. My memories of her stem from our trips to see her in Saint George and her visits nearly every year for Christmas at our house.

One such year, on Christmas Eve, I tried to go to bed early to hurry the arrival of Christmas morning. But the excitement was too much. I found myself lying wide awake in bed, full of imaginings of what would await me downstairs the next morning.

At some point, my Nana came upstairs and found me restless but still unwilling to give up my plan. So she sat with me and we talked to pass the time away. With our large family, I can think of few other experiences where I had her all to myself. I treasure the memory now, most especially because of all I learned about her. Before that night, I had no idea that she had been adopted as a young girl. She told me of her mother and her childhood, and hearing her stories made me feel closer to her and, in fact, part of the story she told.

Searching for her family

It has been many years since that night. Several years ago, my Nana passed away, and in addition to that Christmas Eve, I remember her for her kindness and selflessness, her amazing breakfasts and affinity for crafts. She lived to serve others and had a way of making everyone feel as if they were her favorite.

But even after all of this time, I have held onto a childlike intrigue in the idea that she was adopted and didn’t know much about her birth family. Growing up, I would see someone who shared a possible family resemblance, and I would wonder…

That’s where The Handwritten Past comes in. I gathered as much information as I could from my Dad about Nana’s origins and got access to his DNA results through Ancestry.com. David from The Handwritten Past helped me navigate the findings, using the information we did have to help us identify family I didn’t know that I had.

Finding Nana’s Mother

We were chasing a clue, and suddenly, a picture was before me of a woman who looked remarkably similar to my own Nana. The resemblance brought tears to my eyes- we were family.

The woman turned out to be my Great Aunt, Florence Hazel McClure. And had my Nana lived to be much older, I’m convinced the two women could have been mistaken for one another.

We’re now waiting for my paternal grandfather’s DNA results to see if we can’t track down Nana’s birth father. We have next to no information about who he is. Still, I won’t be surprised if we find him after the experience I’ve already had.

I wouldn’t have known where to start without David’s help, and I can’t believe what we were able to find. My family, my roots, another piece of my Nana’s story. And mine.