G2G: Research for My Adopted Fathers Father Through Y-DNA

Question

I am new to this but here is a link to my matches. I am trying to break it down, but it could either be the Surname O'Dell or Woodall?

I posted the CSV link on my Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YjEaoTyBxD2HMtyuRZRJcdA9vCzzFDMp/view?usp=sharing

Answer 1

Hi Gary!

I'd love to help.  When i clicked on the link, it showed me that i don't have access, so i used the button to request access.

I'm curious--you mentioned that this would be a link to your matches.  Do I understand you correctly that you are looking for biological relatives of your ADOPTED father?  Is your adopted father also a male line biological relative of yours?  If he isn't, then your shared matches will not help you find your adopted father.  Maybe you have shared matches of a biological male-line relative of your adopted father?

Never mind all that -- maybe you mean that someone up in your male line might have been adopted??

Looking forward to understanding the puzzle better

Cheers

Shirlea

Comments

Looks like several of your matches note that they are descended from Austin Odell/O'Dell etc.

Wow, that was a popular name among the O'Dell clan members! There are a lot of Austin and Augustine O'Dell profiles already on WikiTree.

You can run a search for Austin Odell; I got 18 hits.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:SearchPerson

Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to get a handle on the Odell and Woodall families of your Y-DNA matches, and then you might see where your own line could fit in.

The phonetic similarity between Woodall and O'Dell is fascinating too.  What if it turns out to be the same family?

Cheers

Shirlea

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Thank you for the help. It really is appreciated.

Answer 2

Looks like several of the Woodell/Woodall matches in your Y DNA list go back (or at least they think they go back) to this man:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Woodall-2052

Answer 3

Gary, I'm going to suggest you also tag your question with y-dna, ydna, and dna to get the attention of the many experts here who follow those tags.

Answer 4

Did you join the Woodall YDNA project at FTDNA?  They are already linking Woodall and O'Dell in the same project.  

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/woodall/about

Seems there is some history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odell,_Bedfordshire

Comments

interesting stuff going on in that project!

https://discover.familytreedna.com/groups/woodall/tree?subgroups=0,25413,26292,31872,315074 (be sure to toggle 'Select all search results')

They might be able to tell you where your Y DNA fits into their info, already!

Answer 5

https://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Odell-856/890

I think i see several names which also appear on your YDNA report as ancestors of your matches

Answer 6

Hi again Gary! Did you have a chance to look at this?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Wodell_Name_Study