52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 11 -- Lucky

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Luck -- and DNA -- played a role in discovering the identity of one of my husband's great-grandfathers. Since we were married and I started learning about his family, I was surprised that he knew so little about his lineage. He knew a few of his grandparents, but beyond that information was sketchy or non-existent.

As I spent more time with my in-laws asking questions, I was particularly taken with the fact that my father-in-law couldn't name his father's father. For years, I asked questions in every way possible in an attempt to elicit information that I thought might yield clues to this man's identity. For years, I was met with no information at all.

My last conversation with my father-in-law about his grandfather finally elicited what I believe to be the only information he had. Paraphrasing: "My grandfather was NEVER discussed around me. I'm not sure my father ever knew his father. If he did, he never spoke about it and I never asked him."

Now what?

For years, I resigned myself to never solving this mystery.

And then, DNA testing became available and affordable. I had my husband take a DNA test and then we waited...

...And then, I received an email from a man -- we'll call him "Joe" -- whose DNA showed a match with my husband's. Until my husband's match appeared, only Joe and two of his cousins were matched in the database. After trading a few emails with Joe, we realized that his Johnston family and my husband's great-grandmother (GGM) had lived in roughly the same location across several census years. Promising, but nothing terribly concrete.

And that's when luck arrived.

I plugged GGM's name into the general search on Ancestry and a new record I had never seen before came up -- Native American Application for Enrollment in Five Civilized Tribes, Mississippi Choctaw.

Now, as long as I've been married, my husband's family has shared stories that they were Native American. I never thought the stories had much merit. So I was surprised to find this application from GGM. Her application states that her great-grandmother was Mississippi Choctaw and had lived on Choctaw land. Her application was ultimately denied as she had no evidence to support her claim.

But since she was also making a claim on behalf of her son, she was asked -- under oath -- the name of her son's father. And suddenly, there he was -- my husband's great-grandfather, Dennis Johnston.



Luck.

Luck that I had my husband take the DNA test. Luck that Joe saw the match. Luck that Joe was still an interested researcher and reached out. Luck that a random search yielded productive results.

I got lucky.

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