You mean 1/2 a generation since the daughter would be different but not the cousin. Stephanie R wrote Subject: Re: [DNA] Real Mother - the Mother or adult Daughter? To: genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com, Wesley Johnston <wwjohnston01@yahoo.com> Message-ID: <CAFN4c_g1NOUJvW=vKaodbTbYzBWsh_--9tWJmjz9ipgVwRN5ZA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 I would think that the difference between descendants through Mary would be greater than the differences between descendants of Mary's daughters... one generation's worth. On Nov 19, 2015 4:05 PM, "Wesley Johnston via" <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > One of our family members has a situation with his father's parents. > Mary was married to Joe. They had several children, including several > daughters. > Joe died. And three years later, when his wife was an un-remarried widow > and several of his adult daughters were unmarried and single and living at > home, a son Sam was born and raised as Mary's son. This all happened about > 100 years ago, and no one now living has actual knowledge of who Sam's > parents really were. Sam's birth was never recorded, neither in civil nor > church records. > > Clearly Sam's son (who has DNA tested for all 3 types - y, mt, at) would > like to known who Sam's unknown father was. > But -- and this is the subject of this post -- he would also like to know > who Sam's mother was. Was it really Mary or was it one of her adult > daughters? > I have been rolling this around in my head -- with no breakthrough. > Several of the relatives (all of the generation of Sam's son or more > recent) have tested their atDNA (FTDNA Family Finder).