DNA unlocks a lifetime’s secret

In about 2015 I discovered my father’s death certificate on a Canadian site, which revealed he had remarried in Canada and he had at least one child who was the informant on his death certificate, but the signature was illegible.

After much online research and requests through various Canadian groups I was no further forward in my search, not only for his second wife and daughter but also his siblings who had emigrated to Canada in 1928 with their parents and my father (he had returned to the UK at the start of World War 2), but returned to Canada in 1953.

About 10 months ago I decided to take a DNA test with Ancestry to explore that route. I had previously tested with MyHeritage to connect with UK relatives which did reveal a number of distant cousins, but not surprisingly not my father’s family, as they had emigrated to Canada so would probably test on Ancestry. This test only turned up one distant cousin and was quite disappointing – until February this