2019--Week 1--FIRST No More

I am the first and only child of my parents marriage. After they divorced, my father soon remarried and produced 5 more children with his second wife.  And although I didn't know those children as I was growing up, I knew I was the first and oldest. 

A few years ago as I began my genealogy research, the first thing I did was order a DNA kit from Ancestry.com. Of my four grandparents, 3 out of 4 were either first or second generation citizens. Only one had a long line of ancestors born in the US. I was anxious and hopeful to find some cousins who could help me learn more about the diverse backgrounds of my family. I anticipated the possibility of finding other offspring of my father's as he had a quite a reputation for being a ladies' man. 

So, on April 26, 2016, I logged on to my barebones Ancestry account and placed an order for DNA kits for my husband and myself. After I completed that task, I decided to take a look at my family tree and do a little research before turning in for the night. I noticed a "shaky leaf" on my mother's name, so I clicked on it. Her mother was one of ten children and I already knew there were cousins by the dozens who had Ancestry accounts, and I figured whatever clue was lurking was from this branch of the family. These connections were of little interest to me, as I had grown up hearing about the Littles and Wombles, most of whom had lived around the Arkansas-Louisiana state line since the mid 1800s.  I was far more interested to make a connection with my cousins who were descended from the Irish, Polish, or Mexican branches of my family. 

But to make the shaking leaf go away, I clicked on it, and went to the other family trees of people researching my mother's surname.  There was one family tree for someone whose name was not familiar to me, but, again, as the Little-Womble families branched out there were lots of unfamiliar surnames.  So I opened that tree and saw that it included my mother and father and me. However, the entry for me showed me as deceased, and having lived in Louisiana, a different Debra born also in 1950.  Further, there was another child born 3 years earlier than I, shown under my mother and a second unknown man. There was a birth index for the child's birth, and the mother's name was someone unknown to me. Someone had done some sloppy research just to fill out their tree, I opined. 

I whipped off an email immediately to the owner of the tree and informed her I was alive and well, and that I was an only child!  I pointed out the information from the birth index did not support her tree.   By now it was close to 11 pm, but I got a quick response from the owner, the now adult daughter of the second child.  She explained her mother had been adopted and the name on the birth index was the adoptive mother's name; the name on the original birth certificate was the same as my mother's. 

We exchanged a few more emails that night and the next day she posted the birth certificate so I could see it for myself.  My DNA kit could not get here soon enough!

You are warned when you buy a kit that there could be surprises in store. Sure enough, my DNA results matched with the owner of the tree, the highest DNA match I have.  I was supplanted as the first born.

Sadly, this newfound half sister passed away prematurely nearly 30 years ago as did my mother. But her daughter, my niece, and I have begun a nice friendship.