Old Man Dies without Knowing Who His Biological Father Was, Son Completes the Search

After a man was told that the person he knew as his father wasn't his biological father, he got curious and tried to look for his birth father to no avail. After his death, his son continued the search and almost gave up before finding his biological grandfather's details.

The son posted the story on Reddit, referring to his paternal grandfather as a "mystery." He revealed his father's birth and childhood details before disclosing his biological grandfather's details.

His father asked him to solve the decades-long mystery when he saw his son taking an interest in genealogy. However, after his death, the man stopped looking for his ancestors until he thought about taking a DNA test.

OP (Original Poster) revealed his father was born in a military base in Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1945. He was born while his grandfather, EC, was deployed overseas for a year.

EC's wife, Bernice, divorced him when he returned home. She went back to her hometown, Alabama, and married another veteran but soon died during childbirth. OP explained:

"My father was adopted by his aunt and uncle."

When OP's father turned 16, he discovered that EC was not his birth father. His mother never told anyone who his birth father was, so he spent many years wondering about his true identity.

Studying the results made him believe it was impossible to track down his biological grandfather, but he was wrong.

OP became interested in genealogy, so his father asked him to track down his ancestors simply because he wanted to know more about his roots. OP revealed that his father wasn't interested in meeting or talking to his birth father.

He took the task as a challenge and searched for his biological grandfather. He went through his adoption papers and tried connecting with his relatives, only to realize they were dead.

A few years later, OP's father passed away. OP grieved his loss and didn't continue looking for his biological grandfather until he decided to take a DNA test. He explained:

"The test yielded an absolutely massive amount of matches from my paternal grandmother's side and decent amount of matches on my maternal side."

However, there were almost no matches from OP's paternal grandfather's side. This made him believe it was impossible to track down his biological grandfather, but he was wrong.

He came across a Reddit post that mentioned a Google Chrome extension filtering common matches from ancestry feed matches. OP installed the extension and tried it.

A few distant matches showed up, but they had no trees. OP nearly gave up finding his grandfather but tried the extension one last time.

To his surprise, he found a match with a dense private tree. He immediately messaged the person explaining his situation and asked him to go through their shared matches.

The person responded with some common ancestors and invited OP to view his tree. Excited, OP accepted his invitation and studied the tree to track down his ancestors. He revealed:

"Finally, last night at 2am, seventy six years after my father was born, I found my grandfather."

The great-grandson of his ancestors in the family tree served in a military base in his grandmother's hometown. He discovered that the man was from Iowa and predicted that he didn't meet his grandmother after she moved to Wisconsin.

OP felt relieved after discovering his biological grandfather but wished his father witnessed it. He posted his story on Reddit to share his accomplishment with other users since his friends and family weren't interested in it.

A user named sweetwithnuts felt happy for OP and told him that he was lucky to find a person with a large family tree. He asked OP if his biological grandfather met his grandmother at the military base before his father's birth.

OP read the comment and agreed that he was lucky to receive a reply from the other person. He added that they met at the military base before his grandmother moved to Wisconsin.

Another user named Ok_Huckleberry6820 shared that her mother always wanted to look for her biological parents, so she took a DNA test. Unfortunately, her mother passed away before she solved the mystery for her.

Questions to Ponder:

If you were OP, would you give up or continue the search as he did?

OP's determination made him succeed in his mission. If he had given up after running the Chrome extension for the first time, he wouldn't have found the person who helped him find his biological grandfather.

Do you believe OP succeeded because of luck or persistence?

Since the chances of OP finding his grandfather were slim, some people might believe that he succeeded purely because of luck. On the other hand, people who believe in the power of hard work and persistence might argue that he found his grandfather because of his determination. It was easy for him to give up, but he chose to remain steadfast.

If you enjoyed reading this mysterious story, you might like this one about an orphan who claimed his inheritance was stolen after his father's death.

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