Probing Further for Clues

 

I've resorted to speed-reading my DNA matches. I've examined them from every angle: using ThruLines at Ancestry.com; checking my tests at MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, 23 and Me; searching key surnames in matches' trees at all these sites. But nothing promising has shown up.

I'm truly playing the role of the genealogy guinea pig this month as I probe further for clues about the roots of my second great-grandmother, Susanna Radomska. I have a fairly decent grasp of the availability of Polish record sets for the time period in question and general location of Lubichowo in Pomerania. But that doesn't mean I know everything—or even have it all at my fingertips.

Sometimes, lacking access, it helps to noodle things out. (That's my technical term for writing notes to myself in thinking through why I'm stuck.)

Here are a few details I realized:

• Some distant Radomski cousins won't be found because the record sets in Poland are not accessible for more recent years.
• Some descendants of Susanna's siblings who remained in Poland over the subsequent generations may have been relocated due to the turmoil of war or, after the war, forcibly removed to labor camps far from their home—perhaps even in a different country during post-war Soviet occupation.
• Some lines of descent for those remaining in Poland may have died out in earlier generations, due to disease, hazards of life, or acts of war.
• Some of these distant cousins may indeed have migrated, but not to what I'd consider an obvious destination; I apparently have DNA matches from my paternal side living in England, Wales, Germany, and Scandinavian countries whose ancestral origin, like mine, was in Poland. 

With that, I turned to DNA matches for one last whirlwind inspection. With Susanna Radomska being my second great-grandmother, the closest DNA matches I could hope for would be third cousins, but oftentimes, the result could be much more distant than that. Indeed, among the 48,758 total DNA matches linked to me at Ancestry.com alone, those who are fourth cousin or closer (2,831) represent a marginal tip of the genetic iceberg. Those are a lot of small matches to consider.

And yet, reiterating the several approaches I've already tried this month—though this time looking even farther—I did run into a puzzling discovery. A distant DNA cousin I found turns out to be one of those few who not only maintains a tree—complete with that often rare link to their own position in the tree—but who had a tree of considerable size. In fact, this match had even included my paternal grandfather's name in two versions: the Polish version, and his Americanized name.

As you might expect, I wasted no time in sending a message. I want to compare notes. But this discovery prompted me in one more area to research. Not only do I need to research the lines of Susanna Radomska's siblings, but—if I can—I need to push back yet another generation and see whether there is anything that can be found on Susanna's parents' siblings.