Hi, I think we may be related....

Tweet

On April 4th, 2018 i received a message on Facebook it was from a lady i did not know, i do alot of Genealogy and often am contacted by family members so i usually do read messages from people i don't know.... Well this lady wrote that she had taken a DNA test on 23andMe and she matched with a man named Tom Willenbring, and she was pretty confident she descended from the Willenbring line, all of the Willenbring's are originally from Minnesota so she had to find someone whom descended from Tom's great grandparents whom somehow ended up in Oregon, and as soon as she said that i knew she must descend from either my Great Grandmother Martha Willenbring or her sister Ida Willenbring as they we're the only children of Tom's grandparents Thomas Willenbring and Mary Katherine Kolb whom ever ended up in Oregon. See i knew Tom Willenbring he is my 2nd cousin 1x removed and i had gotten in touch with him two years ago and we we're facebook friends, we had shared photos of his Grandfather Roman Willenbring and my great grandmother Martha his sister. Tom had told her that he knew a guy whom also was from Oregon whom descended from the Willenbring's and that's how she found my name. See i have taken DNA tests on every site out there besides 23andMe which is the one where Amber had tested. We chatted for awhile and i said if she is DNA connected to Tom Willenbring and matches other Willenbring's then she is definitley related to me somehow, i said the fact she was born in Oregon there was a strong possibility she was descended from my great grandmother Martha or her sister Ida, i told her that she should download her raw DNA data from 23andMe and upload to the site GEDMatch.com which is a way that people whom have tested at different companies can upload to this site and match each other, my test from ancestrydna i had already downloaded and uploaded to Gedmatch.com She was excited i could help her, i explained i have helped many adoptees find there biological family through Genetic Genealogy thanks to the wonders of DNA and sites like Ancestry.com. It took awhile for her to download her raw DNA data and upload to gedmatch.com when she did she provided her gedmatch number and i went to check how close are match was...... and then MY JAW HIT THE FLOOR!!! she literally was now my top match on GedMatch.com above my Great Aunt and 2nd cousins whom had tested, i immediately thought oh my god could she be a half sister? i mean we had heard rumors my dad might have had older kids. I told her this is the highest DNA match i've ever had based on the CM's and i wanted to check the DNA chart to see what possible relationship this could be, i said i need to see of this is a strong enough match to be a possible half sibling.... WE WERE BOTH IN SHOCK.... but upon further investigation based on the amount of CM shared we could be only one of two possible relationships, Half Aunt Match, or first cousins!! The chances of my Grandpa on his dead bed from brain cancer impregnating her 17 year old mother at the time in 1977 was highly unlikely, so literally the only possibility was her being my Uncle George's child! I was possitive, and everything added up, we found out from her Uncle that he was friends with George and he was around at that time, her mother did not regognize him at first but she had a aneurysm a few years back and had selective memory from it. We decided to meet up a few days later, on our first meeting we went to out to eat dinner and later visited OUR grandparents grave, i felt such a strong connection right away and looking at her i saw my Grandma Mary staring back at me, similar mannerisms, laugh, smile, and just how she talked.... yep she was family!! She would eventually get in touch with my Uncle and they would confirm through him DNA testing that they we're without a doubt a father and daughter match, it has been such a joy seeing there relationship blossom and her being able to connect with all of our family. I am very glad to now have another first cousin <3