Perhaps you took a DNA test recently just for fun. Or, maybe you wanted to learn more about your family's ethnicity or where your family originated from, only to discover that a parent or grandparent you have known your entire life is not really your biological parent or grandparent. Having experienced this myself, I understand just how surprising and shocking this can be. I would like to share with you my crazy wild journey after taking my own Ancestry DNA Test. I share my story here to offer hope to those of you who may be searching for your own biological family members you do not know anything about.
I took an Ancestry DNA test to see if I might discover some leads to my mother's Irish family and break through some of the roadblocks preventing me from learning more about my mother's lineage. The results rocked my world... PAPPAS cousins! A Greek name that I was not familiar with, AND the surprise results that I am 17% Greek! Most shockingly… NONE of my known paternal cousins were listed in my DNA results. My father, his siblings, and my grandparents are no longer alive, so I had no one who could offer answers to this mystery. I had to rely on putting this puzzle together piece by piece, record by record. But I want to encourage those searching that it IS possible to find answers.
I began to suspect that the man I had always thought to be my paternal grandfather was not my dad's biological father. Using the 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census, Birth, Marriage, and Death Certificates, countless other records, and many newspaper clippings, I was able to piece together all the Pappas families that lived near where my father was born in Nebraska in 1933.
There were many Pappas families in Nebraska, and it seemed they were all unrelated to each other. I was soon to learn that Pappas was a simplified Americanized version of many, many Greek names beginning with "Papa...". Greek names such as Papadopoulos, Papageorgiou, Papaconstantinou, Papachristos, Papadiamantopoulos, Papadimitriou, and on and on the list went. It then became a stark realization that Pappas was a very common name in the late 1880's and early 1900's among the many hundreds of Greek immigrants who found work building the railroad and working in the mines during that time.
The proverbial needle in the haystack was finally found when I discovered a WWII Draft registration card that listed the man I had always known as my grandfather working on a farm owned by a Mr. Pappas, in the town where my father was born. BIG CLUE! Sorting through the thousands of DNA matches in my results, the unravelling of the mystery began. I was able to confirm that one of my 2nd Cousin DNA matches was the great-nephew of this Mr. Pappas. After much research, and a lot of old-fashioned detective work, I found more cousins, and then eventually, a cousin to that 2nd Cousin match who lived in Nebraska. After contacting him, I was able to finally confirm who my grandfather was. This new cousin's grandfather, born in 1896, was also my biological grandfather!
I had so much to learn! A Greek keyboard and Google Translate became my best friends. I was able to piece together most of the members of my Pappas grandfathers' limited family and descendants in the US. I discovered that my “new” Greek grandfather came to the US alone as a teenager to work on the railroad in Nebraska, and that the only last name he was ever known by in the United States was Pappas. It was so rewarding when I found his World War I Draft Registration Card and learned that he listed his place of birth as Zakynthos, Greece, the homeland of my father's paternal family!
Unfortunately, I was unable to ever find him listed on a ship passenger manifest list or his Naturalization papers amongst the hundreds of Pappas immigrants. My hopes were shattered of ever learning his original Greek family surname. However, undeterred, I kept searching month after month to learn his original Greek name. Eventually I discovered my grandfather's “A-number” in a long sought-after record. I was able to then access the "A-Files" archived with US Immigration at the National Archives. These files contain all the information, communications, interviews etc. for all non-citizen immigrants in the US up to 1944. This file confirmed his date and place of birth which matched the information I had from other records, but most importantly, it listed his original Greek name as Angelos Papathatos, arriving in the United States March 21, 1907 aboard the SS Patras! Finally, a name I could search for in Greece!
I will never know what happened between this man and my grandmother all those many years, long ago in Nebraska… however, I am at peace knowing that their secrets belong only to them. After a lot of twists and turns, and dead ends, I am now so incredibly grateful every day for the new understanding of my newly discovered Greek heritage and lineage. I am also excited to know that I have "new" Greek cousins out there in this big world. A trip to Greece is certainly now on my Bucket List.
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I would be honored to also help you find your own biological family members, if you too, were surprised by people and names that you did not recognize in your DNA results. Please feel free to contact me for a 1-hour free consult, so we might develop a plan to help you with your search.
