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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, nos. 19 & 20

I wish I knew the identity of my ancestors no. 19 & 20. I wonder if they ever knew they had a little granddaughter named Grace born on the Nebraska prairie in August, 1896.

Their son, my mystery great-grandfather, would have spent time with my great-grandmother, Laura Riddle, during the holiday season of 1895. Who was he? How well did they know one another? Did he know about his little girl?

Other than his whereabouts at the end of 1895, my only other information about this man consists of a guess as to his heritage. The clue comes from an autosomal DNA test.

My dad, one of the man’s grandsons, took a DNA test and learned that nearly a third of his DNA comes from northern Europe. Because all his known ancestors immigrated from the British Isles, the man who contributed 25% of his DNA must have been the source of most of the European heritage. German, perhaps?

I keep hoping for an unexplained DNA match that points to a relative of my mystery man. If a close match to an unknown line ever turns up, I hope to discover his identity, and that of his parents. Until then, I will know them only by their numbers, 19 & 20.

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