Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Baby Girl of Poland 1942

An interesting cousin surfaced in my mother's DNA matches at 23andMe.  A woman who was given away as a baby in Poland in 1942 during World War II has submitted her DNA in hopes of locating family.  Identifinders International features two people who were separated from their biological families at young ages because of the Holocaust who are now seeking their families of origin through DNA testing.  Because they were separated so young, they have little or no recollection of their origins.

Here is what the match looks like between Baby Girl from Poland and my mother:
They share two small segments, which could indicate that they are distantly related from at least two ancestral lines.  As Baby Girl has no documented lines and I have no documented lines in Poland, figuring this one out is going to depend on other people with documented lines coming forward with their DNA and their family trees.

A geographical map of the locations of Baby Girl's genetic matches and the locations of their ancestors was created at Google Maps.  This is a great strategy for seeing where genetic relations live and forming possible branches of the tree based on concentrations.  Drawbacks include recent migrations, lack of knowledge of one's roots, under-representation of certain groups and areas in the database, and confused names as geographic names were altered to reflect the language of the contemporary rulers of the area.
Locations of genetic relatives and their ancestral lines of Baby Girl
The map definitely shows a concentration of relatives in the area where Baby Girl was given to her new parents.  A very close relation is still needed to possibly identify her birth parents.


  1. Love the map! Where did the data to put it together? I have to do more with my 23andme results. My father-in-law agreed to test, so now my husband and I will both have one parent in the system.

  2. The locations come from the matches themselves. Some are more detailed and reliable than others. The person assisting the family of this particular match assembled the map herself, but you can create one yourself for your matches. Patterns and clustered should become more obvious.