When I sent the first message to Denise, my husband and I were travelling around Australia in our caravan. This is colloquially known as doing the “Big Lap”. There was plenty of time for thinking as the road unrolled in front of us. We stopped at Kidman’s Camp just out of Bourke, then drove into Queensland where we visited the Qantas Museum in Longreach. Crawling all over old planes and reading the history of aviation in the remote outback is a great way to appreciate modern technology. You can see our van parked in the distance behind the 747.
We visited the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry where a herd of 150 small two-legged dinosaurs was ambushed by a large theropod, 95 million years ago. As I was wrestling with the information I had found through Ancestry, the sheer immensity of time since those footprints were made in the earth somehow gave my findings perspective.
It was three days before I told my husband what I had found as I had to convince myself of the implications. From the start he was enthusiastic and excited. We both suspected that Linden Price was not my biological father. Could I somehow be related to the Turners?
A new match appeared on Ancestry. Her name was Alice* and she was also a cousin. She replied to my email that she too was related to the Turner family. Her sister appeared as a match and also her grandfather. Denise tested her mother and she came up as possibly….my half sister.
Each match corresponded to a certain number of centimorgans. According to Wikipedia in genetics, a centimorgan (abbreviated cM) or map unit (m.u.) is a unit for measuring genetic linkage. It was named in honour of geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan by his student Alfred Sturtevant. It is defined as the distance between chromosome positions (also termed loci or markers) for which the expected average number of intervening chromosomal crossovers in a single generation is 0.01.
Hmmm. Maybe if I just list them it will make more sense.
Denise’s mum 1,443 cM
Alice’s grandfather 988 cM
Denise 815 cM
Robin * (Denise’s cousin) 698 cM
Alice 240 cM
As Ted had brothers and a son it was possible that any one of them could have been my biological father. I was interested to find I had some matches on my mother’s side. There were common ancestors from both sides of her tree so at least I knew my mother was my biological parent. There were no matches on my father’s side.
* Not their real names.
The Curry Apple Orchard 
Deep breaths and perspective about the scheme of things is important. Thank you for sharing your journey.
Today I am looking at DNA too but much more distant connections. However, I haven’t learned anything from my DNA. It is like a giant sudoku without the tidy limitations of nine numbers and only one number per row or column.
Regards
Anne
https://ayfamilyhistory.com/2018/04/04/d-is-for-daniel/
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I need to spend more time figuring out Gedmatch etc but this month is just A to Z! Thanks for your comments.
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It sounds like a interesting journey learning about your roots
Debbie
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Yes, Debbie, it was a double journey, travelling by day and checking for the latest development on my iPad each night.
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Wow, so many DNA matches. You’re head must have been spinning. Weekends In Maine
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Yes, it’s amazing that family had so many interested in DNA testing.Now some of us are friends on FB.
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Hari OM
Crikey… the mind works overtime at all the possibilities, but that’s my storytelling and not at all the truth of yours. Thank you for bringing it to us… YAM xx
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It is an excellent opportunity for storytelling. There is only so much truth and the rest is conjecture.
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Ah the DNA matches.. Now this is gettting more interesting
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Okay, now I totally want to have my DNA tested….and read more of this fascinating story!
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Enjoying to learn about dino’s in Australia. I also have Turner’s in my family lines. They stumped me for awhile, but I eventually broke down the walls. https://everyonehasafamilystorytotell.wordpress.com/category/2018-a-to-z-all-about-nancy-drew/
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I sent you a reply saying the name Turner was made up to protect the living but I can’t see it anywhere. It must be floating around somewhere.
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Hi Linda – I think my DNA is fairly straightforward … so I’m not needing to unknit my genes – but how fascinating … and quite amazing if you can tie things up … so interesting.
I’m here really for the dinosaurs – as Yamini – went ‘yikes’ when she saw another dinosaur post – mine is Canada – where I’m spending a maximum of two years being with an elderly relative … so I’m finding things out without perhaps visiting too many places – we’ll see what happens anon.
So here’s my D … http://positiveletters.blogspot.ca/2018/04/d-is-for-canadian-dinosaurs.html
Cheers and I’ll be back to see you again – Hilary
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I need to get more educated about DNA. I know only what I know which isn’t much. I too learned about a Non-Paternal Event that occurred in my dad’s line some time in the mid-1800s.
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Thank you for sharing your travels again, but now I think I need to catch up with your earlier posts to make sure I know what’s going on!
So nice to see you, I look forward to following along! This genetic stuff sounds so exciting, it’s like intrigue built right into your own body.
@IsaLeeWolf
A Bit to Read
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I have been able to reconnect some broken lines with DNA, finding cousins related through my great grandparents. Nothing unexpected here though. That’s interesting about the dinosaur slaughter too, not as much as your own DNA.
http://findingeliza.com/
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Wow, just caught up on your tale, this is so interesting! Can’t wait to see what else you’ll find out!
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Love the 95 million-year-old dinosaur footprints for perspective. This information must have been pretty hard to process.
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