How can i prove my mother is John Galsworthys daughter

Question

My mother was told when she was 12, by her sister, that her surname should have been Galsworthy, as John Galsworthy was her Father. He was the second cousin of my Mums Mothers husband, whose surname was Dunkin. My Mother was born in 1924. Her mother never spoke about this. The resemblance between JG and my Mum ,and my elder brother is uncanny. How can i find out if he is indeed my Grandfather?

Comments

Welcome to WikiTree, Fiona. You have come to what I think is the best place on the internet to work together to form one large tree. Be sure to let your Greeter know if you have any questions about how to upgrade.

Proving that would involve DNA research. I'm going to add a couple of tags to your post. Those tags will get the attention of people who can offer specific advice.

I look forward to seeing your twig grow within the branches of WikiTree.

---

I've added the Adoption Angels tag to your post.  We have a project that is designed to help people with situations such as this.

Answer 1

Welcome to the WikiTree community and G2G Forum as a guest, Fiona!

If you want to communicate with cousins or others about genealogy (whether or not you want to add profiles on our single family tree, you can upgrade at no cost to the Family Member level at any time by adding your genealogy communication preferences.

Help:Membership

To do this, click on the upgrade link on either your navigation or profile page.

We would need to know the complete names (including maiden if female), dates, and locations of birth and death to help you with researching your family. If one or more are living then you would need to send the info in a PM (personal message) from a member's profile.

Answer 2

Hello Fiona

You could attempt to answer the question by doing a DNA test. Ancestry DNA has the biggest database of testers (and I think it’s most user-friendly to get started with) so that’s what I would recommend.

What you’ll find out will depend on who else has already tested. Do you have any close relatives who have done it? They can help you work out how you’re related to the people on your list of matches.

If you know someone who’s a descendant of John Galsworthy you could maybe ask them to test too.

Comments

Hi Fiona!

The DNA test is a good place to start, as noted above. However, you noted above " He was the second cousin of my Mums Mothers husband"  so the DNA is going to come up with at least distant matches regardless, if you can find relatives to match against.

Another thought is that you need to test against her "known" siblings - there may be other surprises there, as well. I only point that out, because the siblings I was raised with all turned out to be half-sibs. In that era, keeping a lack of fertility hidden, and the solution "in-house" as it were, was pretty common.

My biggest recommendation, if you go down the DNA path, is be ready for surprises. 

Good luck!

Answer 3

I infer that you are talking about the author John Galsworthy.

It looks some research is needed to find relatives of John Galsworthy with whom you could compare DNA. His WikiTree profile (which I linked his name to) does not show any children, but there is one sister with children. To help you in your quest, you would need to investigate his genealogy, including his ancestry, but particularly seeking (1) any acknowledged children he had and (2) additional descendants of his siblings.

Members of the WikiTree England Project could help you learn how to do the genealogical research.

Comments

And I should have added that you ought to join WikiTree as a full member and start a family tree for yourself here. To effectively pursue unknown relatives, it is important to document what you do know.