Recently, I had the honour to be a part of something truly remarkable. On Wednesday, March
7th I was contacted by a woman named Tiffany Koerner through
23andMe, the company I chose to do my DNA test two years ago. She explained
that I was her top match, and that we are predicted 2nd cousins. She shared with me a little about herself and why she did a DNA test. She wanted to know who her
father was. She had previously done DNA testing with disappointing results, however,
she was fairly sure this time. She said she thinks his surname is Grant.
BINGO! A starting point! My maternal grandfather’s surname is Grant!
I
immediately logged into my 23andMe account and compared our shared relatives and
there she was: Christina Mason! A relative I had confirmed as a 3rd
cousin a couple of years ago! Christina and I share 2nd
great grandparents, Elias Vidito and Mary Jane Sabean. This is exciting because
their daughter, Leafy May Vidito is my great grandmother, and she married
George Angus Grant. So, there is a Grant connection between her and I…and she
is related to Tiffany too!
I
immediately opened my family tree on ancestry.ca to gather information for Tiffany. I gave her the information about
our shared relative and how she and I are related, as well as information
about Leafy May Vidito and George Angus Grant along with a list of their male
children, as it would seem likely that Tiffany descends from one of them.
She
responded immediately saying she was just about to meet with another DNA
relative she was matched to through 23andMe. They met at a Tim Horton’s (so
Canadian!) and she messaged me after the meeting and let me know he was a
descendant of my great grandmother, Leafy May Vidito’s sister, Eva May! He is
my 3rd cousin! This was fantastic... another match to the Grant line!
At this
point Tiffany was certain of who her father was: Harold Grant, a brother of my
grandfather, Angus Grant. This would make Tiffany my first cousin once removed.
Now when I
say Tiffany is tenacious, I truly mean it. She wasted no time once she received
her DNA results to figure out who her father was. That same day that she
contacted me and met up with our mutual DNA relative at Timmie’s, she was also
communicating with one of Harold’s daughters, Ruth! As it turns out one of
Ruth’s sisters, Kelly, had done a DNA test! After a brief challenge trying to
figure out how to compare DNA from different companies and one in a format not
compatible with GEDmatch, Tiffany had done it! Within 3 days she not only had a
confirmed match to a half-sister, but she also knew Harold Grant was her
father! Unfortunately, Harold died July 15, 2016, but her newly found siblings wasted no time in sharing photos of their father with Tiffany. Here is a very handsome one of him in his younger days.
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| Harold Grant |
On Saturday, March 10th Tiffany met four of her siblings for
the very first time! It was so
exciting to see Tiffany get that final puzzle piece in place! It was even more
exciting and heartwarming to see how open and welcoming her newly found
siblings were! They celebrated meeting their new baby sister with a cake that
read “Welcome Tiffany”, a balloon proclaiming “It’s a girl!” and other precious
gifts to show her she was welcomed and loved.
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Tiffany (centre) with 4 of her newly found siblings:
Paul, Ruth, Katherine and Kelly.
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I am so
incredibly happy for all of the Grant siblings and hope they enjoy getting to
know each other over the years to come! And selfishly, I too, am incredibly
blessed by now knowing all of these new cousins of mine!
As always, happy hunting, fellow gene geeks! You
never know who you are going to find!