Last night I received my first Christmas present of the year. A most welcomed gift given after twenty years of searching for a father I knew nothing about.

I was so close so many times, or rather I thought I was, but when I sat down to the computer last night and started putting names into my DNA matches I got my biggest hit. My grandmother’s side of the tree. Lo, and behold I have fourth cousins from that side of the family. Wow and wow.

And now you have the rest of the story. I feel like I’m talking in circles, can’t concentrate, my words are running over each other. Let me see if I can jot down what I found out so you won’t be as up in the air as I am.

From the time I was eight years old my mother said my last name was Eisentrager, not the name I’d been going under. But she said I still had to use the name of Wideen. No changing even though I was not a Wideen. Go figure.

I did do quite a bit of research on the Eisentrager side of the family but nothing ever clicked. But I trucked on. My mother passed away in 1995 and in 1996 I was able to get her divorce papers. From those papers I learned her well kept secret. She’d had an affair while Eisentrager was off to war and from that affair their was a child. It had my birthdate. Now I have another name to research “Bud Wyburn”.

In 2007 I had my DNA done with Family Tree DNA. I couldn’t figure out anything from the charts I was sent so I just set it aside. Then in 2010 I decided to go with Ancestry and had my DNA tested. Still nothing close showed up. Then last year I had my DNA tested with 23and me. Still no close matches.

Recently, with more and more people having their DNA tested I’ve been getting a lot more matches and from those matches I’ve finally figured out who my biological father is. Of course it didn’t happen overnight and I was taken up one road and down the other, but like I said, last night it all came together. Now maybe I might be able to meet one or two of that family. If not, at least I know.

Until then………………..