Mystery match

[Family]

Mystery solved!!!!!

OMG! The mystery has been solved - and many thanks to you all who have provided input to lead me to the answer!

So.... I've been writing all this for my husband, 'cause I'm the genealogy nut in the family, but I didn't want to keep writing "my husband this" and "my husband that". Last night I posed to him the possibility that his mother's father and his aunt's father might not be the same. Tonight I read him some of your responses (thank you!!!) and we were mulling it over again, when my husband asked if the name Farrell tied at all to the mystery cousin's tree. Yes! Indeed it does! Long story short, my husband remembered that his mother had a close relationship with a Farrell neighbor who kind of took her under his wing. This Mr. Farrell is, indeed, the grand uncle of the mystery match, and is clearly the father of my husband's mother (is my husband's grandfather).

I've been trying to figure this out for more than 2 years! Thank you so much for helping me out with the analysis that has brought this mystery to a conclusion - explaining both the mystery match and the low sharing 1st cousin.

Thank you!!!!!

[MMaddi]

I've been trying to figure this out for more than 2 years! Thank you so much for helping me out with the analysis that has brought this mystery to a conclusion - explaining both the mystery match and the low sharing 1st cousin.

Thank you!!!!!

I'm very glad to be helpful in the process.

It was quite a challenging puzzle, which is why I enjoyed it so much. But the fact that the two strange results were connected was what helped to solve both of them. It's a good example of the power of genetic genealogy to correct the errors in a tree due to unknown or hidden relationships.

Did your husband know before the puzzle was solved that his mother and her sister had different fathers?

[Family]

Hi!

No - he had absolutely no idea that his mother had a different father! And without being presented with some kind of compelling evidence that it might be the case, I don't think he would have ever considered it a possibility But thankfully he did give it consideration based on the dna data, and he remembered that his mother spoke many times about Mr. Farrell and how good he was to her. Her "father" died when she was 7, and she spent a lot of time with Mr. Farrell, who was married but did not have any other children.

Thanks, again! It's been quite an interesting evening of discussion at our house