I’m still trying to figure out how we may actually be related, because I suspect that this is a case of “we think you’re first cousins based on the percentage of DNA that you share, but because there are so many variables and so many chances for you to be a half-relative, you’re probably one of those and our algorithms can’t suss that out yet”. I did send her a message though as soon as I saw her take the place of the person that I formerly shared the highest percentage of DNA with in the Ancestry app, so I’m hoping that someone is interested enough to respond. These people probably have no idea that I exist given the… complexity of all of this, which has been one reason why I’ve wanted to try out 23andMe and Ancestry. I want to get to know some of the relatives that I wouldn’t have had a chance to get to know were it not for that because I would have had absolutely no idea that we were related, let alone how. (And because there is an unknown grandparent on both sides of my family, I get the fun from both sides, so it isn’t as cut and dry as “oh, this is from the side of my family that I don’t know”, let’s try sides. There is more than one unknown side at play…)

Based on the math that I did with the help of an online site, we share 13.8% of DNA in common.

I’m speculating that these may be people that have no idea that I exist, let alone the parent that we share relation to. Still, though, it will be nice once I start hearing back from more relatives of mine from Ancestry.