Where to start

[devfire]

My immediate family and I have an unusual surname, we think its either Portuguese or Italian but I cant find much information. I did a DNA test which put me as 47% sicilian! How can I find my grandfather if no one knows his name? My father died early and didn't know, all we have is what my grandmother put as the name on the birth certificate.

What are your grandfather's likely birth and death dates (just the year will do) and where did he live? Can you find his marriage to your grandmother, if it was in the UK?

Have a look at www.ancestry.co.uk and start building a family tree

Hi @devfire Start from the known and work backwards to the unknown. Begin with living relatives, and collate as much information as you can re birth and marriage dates, and ask if they know of names and dates of death of deceased relations (do bear in mind though, that sometimes there are skeletons that people want to remain in the closet).

You can order birth, marriage and death certificates from the GRO (General Register Office) official website.

FreeBMD is a good search tool (use their reference number to order certificates as above), as are the censuses. Rather than pay for something like an Ancestry subscription, most libraries have access for free.

Collate all the information you find out - for instance a marriage certificate gives both names, marital status (ie if they were married previously), ages, address, occupations and details of fathers and their occupations. There will also be witnesses named on the certificate, and who are often related in some way.

Go by official records, not trees uploaded to databases by other people, as they may contain errors.

DNA research can be useful if you hit a brick wall, but there will be plenty to find out without that, once you get started.

Thank you for your advice.
My grandmother worked as a nurse i think in Salisbury plain military base and the man she met (my grandfather) must have been a fling (it was the 1950s) because we don't know anything about him.

Ive scoured the Internet for similar names but there are some similar people but the dates don't match.

Ive scoured the Internet for similar names but there are some similar people but the dates don't match.

I would do what pp have suggested, and look on FreeBMD to see if you can find a possible birth and death - even see if you can find the family name in the UK - and look up the 1939 Register using your local library's access to Ancestry. Or you can get a free trial period on Ancestry and/or Find My Past, but I'd try FreeBMD first.

If it had been the 1940s, I'd have wondered if it might have been a US serviceman, given the possible Italian ancestry, but less likely in the 1950s.

Did you do your DNA test on one of the genealogy sites? If not, you can upload your DNA to some of them (not Ancestry unless you did your test with Ancestry). The first step would be to look at your closest DNA matches and their family trees. Hopefully you'll find the correct name coming up there.

I didn't know much about my Dad's family but after my DNA test found several relations who had already done a lot of legwork on the trees. You have to be careful, some people don't care much about actual evidence when doing their trees.

Some European countries, certainly France, have banned 'recreational' DNA testing, I am not sure about Portugal and Italy. This will lead to you getting fewer matches, if it is the case. Aren't you connecting with anyone from these countries - what is your DNA provider? My Heritage, which is the cheapest test to do, seems to have the most international users. I have loads of Dutch and Swedish matches there for some mysterious reason.

Yes it was MyHeritage a few years ago, Im not really connecting with anyone.

MH is a bit annoying in the way it doesn't separate matches by parent. Ancestry does this, not sure about 23 and Me. If you have a brother or a male paternal cousin, there are some DNA sites that can test the Y chromosome (generations of fathers to sons) - it's not an area I know much about, but I'm sure someone on here can advise.

Honestly not stalking you @AInightingale ! MH gives me loads of Norwegian matches. People who can go back 10 generations with not a hint of Irish. Can only assume one of my seafaring ancestors had a brief liaison.

OP, I know you said you had a MH test but are you a member of the site? You need to do one of their quick tutorials on how to access your matches and will probably need to subscribe. I find the MH set up infuriating and mainly use Ancestry.

If you can afford another DNA test you might want to try Ancestry which does split maternal and paternal matches. You can load your Ancestry DNA results to other sites but can't load up to Ancestry from other sites. You might find a good Black Friday offer.

If you search there are lots of easy tutorials online to get you started.

Yeah, split Parent 1/Parent 2 is definitely the way to go in the case of one parent whose heritage is a complete blank (adoption, or scenario like OP describes). She just needs to be able to identify one match on her mum's side (or could get her mum or other maternal relative to do a test as well) and Ancestry will do the rest.