Here is a fine example of this TRUTH and REALITY ...
Of using Y-DNA Testing, using my own familial dynamics.
Whether it is NPE dynamics or Adoption ...
Genetic Genealogy can often help ...
This is Larry (or Lawrence Irvin) Fisher (1916-2001)
This is my paternal grandmother Marion/MaryAnn (1918-2001)
Marion (Atwood) married to Larry in early October 1935.
They seemed quite infatuated with one another ...
and in love.
One day in the summer of 1936, Grandma got pregnant with a wee
girl ... (my aunt Joan). Larry was a proud father ...
Joan was born in early February 1937.
Then in 1940 (ca. April and June) ...
MY father was conceived.
Grandma put down Larry as the infant's father
on the birth certificate record.
Charles born March 15, 1942
in Seattle, WA
Charles L. Buchholz
(Photo at 5 months old July 15, 1941)
NOTICE that he was born as “Charles Lawrence Fisher”
by his mother ... 😳
But (so the story goes) ... Chuck was a “Blue” baby. 😳
Blue baby syndrome, also known as hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN), is a condition that can occur when an Rh-negative mother gives birth to an Rh-positive baby. This is the most serious complication of Rh incompatibility. It can cause anemia, jaundice, and even death.
The Rh factor is a protein found on the surface of red blood cells. It can be either positive (+) or negative (-).
With Rh incompatibility, Problems can occur when an Rh-negative mother is pregnant with an Rh-positive baby. If an Rh-negative mother is pregnant with an Rh-positive baby, the mother's immune system may produce antibodies against the baby's red blood cells.
These antibodies can cross the placenta and destroy the baby's red blood cells, leading to anemia (low red blood cell count) and other complications.
Joan was not an Rh factor baby, so her father Larry KNEW that Charles was not his son genetically, except on paper (i.e., the Birth Certificate).
Grandma went to go get some milk and brought home a “bun in the oven” that wasn't of Larry's “loaf of bread.” 😳
In the early 1990s, Larry Fisher had told Douglas Buchholz, that Chuck was not his son, with a quip “Just look at his ears” apparently in reference to the Disney 1941 film (the 4th Disney Animated Classic) entitled “Dumbo.”
When Larry had in retrospect, separated from his wife Maryann, in the summer of 1941 (when Chuck was merely 7 months of age), Larry himself, didn't disavow either child's paternity to himself, and nor did he negate paying child support. Yet, he had stated to the Court that his wife “had made his life hell.”
The reason for the divorce between his mother Maryan and her 1st husband Lawrence, was due to the quote “defendant [Maryan Fisher, defendant] assuming and maintaining towards the plaintiff [Lawrence I. Fisher] an indifferent attitude, and making no attempt to conceal that she had neither affection nor regards for the plaintiff, and had by numerous annoying acts and words, made the home life miserable, to the point that the plaintiff could no longer live with her provocations.”
The divorce was granted on April 27, 1942.
At some point in the fall of 1941, Grandma met Merle James Buchholz, of Port Angeles, WA, and they began to fall in love with one another.
That same day in the same dress, that Marion had went to get the paperwork for the divorce her estranged 1st husband had sought against her, she then got married to Merle, in that same dress, whom she was obviously in love with.
In Charles Lawrence Fisher' childhood, he didn't know anyone else as his father but Merle was his Dad. Even throughout his medical, insurance, and education, he was always documented as “Charles Lawrence Buchholz.”
Merle had never legally adopted Marion's two children.
Chuck loved his stepdad and Merle loved his stepson.
By October 1963, “Chuck” decided he would enlist in the Army, and in so doing sought to serve and defend the United State of America of which he was born a citizen thereof. This would mean he would need to secure his birth certificate.
For the first (and last time) he ever had to sign his name as Charles Lawrence Fisher, Chuck legally had to change his surname to Buchholz, in order to join the Army, in the hopes of going to Vietnam, as were many young men of his generation.
Upon being honorably discharged from the military, Chuck fell in love with “Patty” Woodard ...
Charles (Chuck) and Patricia (Pat) got married
at the age of 24 in late January, 1966
(just after his bride "Patty" turned 22.)
Which resulted in their daughter born in November 1966.
Before our sister's birth, Pat had separated from Chuck, and thinking she would not be able to reestablish the bonds of matrimony, being separated from one another, she gave her daughter, the father of the man she was working for, in a restaurant. So there was that too ...
Nine months later in mid-July 1967, having indeed regained her relationship with Chuck, his wife (and our mother) conceived again.
This time with not just one, but “two buns in the oven” who were born, in April 1968. We were the smallest babies born in the hospital to survive, and our births were even announced on the local radio station, KONP.
But how I digress ...
Charles “Chuck” Buchholz seemingly hadn't known that his Birth Certificate “father” was Larry, Chuck having always looked to Merle as such. That is, until Grandma got out the 1941 certificate of birth, handing it to him, so he could enlist in the military in 1963.
As mentioned earlier, Larry said frankly, that “Chuck” wasn't his genetic conceived son. Merle was merely Chuck's stepfather, having not legally adopted either Joan or Charles in his life time. Merle had subsequently died in November 1969 of a heart attack.
Over the years, and decades, it was always a “question” often times unspoken but thought nonetheless, as to who was my father's father, and that unknown man's ancestry, kith and kin.
Suffice it to say, to make a long story shorter, it all began in April 2006, when Douglas Buchholz received a evening phone call, from the late Robert Woodward's mother, Joanne Violet (Edson) Woodward, inquiring whether or not Douglas was a male-descendant Wood(w)ard.
Her son Robert “Woody” Woodward having retrospectively died in Brattleboro, in December of 2001, she had begun a Y-DNA testing endeavor using Family Tree DNA ca. 2006.
I informed Mrs. Woodward that I was not a man with the surname of Woodward, but had been born with the surname Buchholz, and that my mother was born of Blaine Edward Woodard Sr. and that he had a son of the same name.
I agreed I would ask my uncle Blaine, if he would consider doing a Y-DNA test on my behalf (and Joanne's) at FTDNA. He agreed to do so.
Two weeks before the test results were to be given, my mother's youngest daughter (raised by our maternal grandmother as HER daughter) declared that uncle Blaine was not a Woodard at all. Sure enough, the Y-DNA result proved she was correct.
Uncle Blaine, (alleged genetic son of the late Blaine Sr. 1922-1952, per the Birth certificate in late October of 1946, was seemingly a Lafferty, that of which is an Irish paternal lineage, Y-DNA haplogroup R-L21). We found his genetic-contributing-paternal father, a few years ago, using MyHeritage DNA testing.
It was through his genetic father (Oscar)'s sister's daughter who had tested in MyHeritage DNA at 841.4 cM to Blaine Jr., and thus, we discerned and ascertained the tester's mother's only brother, Oscar, was Blaine Woodard Jr.'s genetic-contributing father, who had got our maternal grandmother pregnant in 1945, apparently while Grandpa Blaine Sr. was in the Coast Guard, in Connecticut, going to school or some such. 😳
Meanwhile, the Y-DNA testing at FTDNA, Douglas Buchholz began for Robert Nelson Woodard, of who was a 2nd cousin once removed from my mother, Patricia (Woodard) Buchholz.
BOTH Robert Nelson and Patricia having the common ancestor Alonzo J. Woodward (1842-1925) and his 2nd wife Marie Charlotte (Robinson) 1m. Rollins (1934-1890) 2m. Woodward. Pat came from Alonzo's son George Edward Woodard (1865-1965); and Robert N. came from Alonzo's son Royal Alonzo Woodard (1868-1951). The Y-DNA haplogroup going back generations prior to ca. 1588 being English, to Rushden and Puddingfordshire, England, is I1 I-M253.
Through Y-DNA testing the haplogroups did not match between Blaine E. Woodard Sr. and that of his alleged genetic paternal son Blaine Jr.
My maternal uncle's Y-DNA was genetically to the Lafferty paternal lineage. It was through MyHeritage DNA testing company that I eventually detected the correct lineage that my later maternal uncle descended from.
No matter how Grandma “Cindy” tried to keep her “secrets” hidden away, the Y-DNA is what it is.
The genetic testing thus contradicted what she had placed on her son's certificate of birth in October 1946.
I thus gained the insight of Y-DNA testing at and within Family Tree DNA, not only to confirm (or deny) the paternal father of my maternal uncle, but realized that I could also use this genetic science to detect my own father's unknown father, with enough persistence and patience.
I found through Merle Buchholz's lineage, that a lateral line descendant male of the Buchholz surname resided in Lewiston, Idaho. Harold Ralph Buchholz (1926 - ) was tested at 37 Markers in early October 2007, the following result being Y-DNA Haplogroup I-P37.
Subsequently, in talking with my father's sister Joan, I was told that Larry had remarried as well, after his divorce from my paternal grandmother, and that through that second married Larry, had a son, Edward Norman Fisher, up on Black Diamond Road in Port Angeles, WA. So I telephoned him in October 2007, and subsequently receiving his Y-DNA Haplogroup of R1b-M269.
My Buchholz-Fisher-Smith DNA Study:
Smith Surname Project http://www.smithsworldwide.org
97635 I1 I-M253 Douglas Lloyd Buchholz MATCH
14-23-14-11-14-14-11-15-11-12-11-28-16-8-9-8-11-23-16-20-28-12-14-15-15-10-9-19-21-14-14-16-19-34-36-12-10
97634 I1b Harold R. Buchholz b. October 28, 1926 in Anatone Creek, WA NOT A MATCH
13-24-15-10-14-16-11-13-13-13-11-31-17-8-10-11-11-25-15-19-29-12-15-15-15-10-10-21-21-15-13-17-18-34-35-11-10
102727 R1b1c M269+ Edward N. Fisher b. August 04, 1946 Port Angeles, WA NOT A MATCH
12-23-14-10-12-14-11-13-13-13-13-30-18-9-10-11-11-25-15-19-29-14-15-16-17-10-12-19-23-15-15-16-17-35-38-12-12
This excluded Larry Fisher and Merle Buchholz from being our own father's genetic paternal contributor. Thus the question remained:
WHO was my father's father?
Mr. Buchholz, in the next step, in December 2007 telephoned his own genetic contributing father, Charles Buchholz, and told him the details and process of Y-DNA, and inquired if he would also do the three Y-DNA test samples on his behalf. Douglas would send him the FTDNA kit. Chuck agreed. With conditions: “Do not tell my 3rd wife”. I agreed.
Getting back my father's DNA testing results of February 2008, such came back as being I-M253, with the predominate surname matches to that of “Smith.”
It was in mid-September of 2009 that Chuck Buchholz received a match to an Elisha White Smith Jr., the latter tester having been born in Spokane, WA in 1934. His father of the same name Elisha White Smith Sr. was born in Des Moines, Iowa.
MODAL BASELINE REFERENCE
14-23-14-11-14-14-11-15-11-12-11-28/16-8-9-8-11-23-16-20-28-12-14-15-15-10-9-19-21-14-14-16-19-34-36-12-10/11-8-15-15-8-11-10-8-9-10-12-12-16-8-14-26-20-13-13-11-12-11-11-12-11
160633 I1 I-M253 Elisha White Smith (IV) b. 1934 Ancestor: Nicholas Smith b. 1635 d. 1699 Huntington, NY MATCH
14-23-14-11-14-14-11-15-11-12-11-28-16-8-9-8-11-23-16-20-28-12-14-15-15-10-9-19-21-14-14-16-19-34-36-12-10/
97636 I1 I-M253 Charles Lawrence Buchholz b. March 15, 1941 Seattle, WA d. April 08, 2012 Eugene, Oregon MATCH
14-23-14-11-14-14-11-15-11-12-11-28-16-8-9-8-11-23-16-20-28-12-14-15-15-10-9-19-21-14-14-16-19-34-36-12-10
By the early winter of 2009, a new genetic test was becoming usable for genetic genealogical consumers. AncestryDNA began testing, using this atDNA (or autosomal testing) with the public.
While initially wary of it's benefits to my own endeavors, genetically and genealogically, it was eventually utilized as well, in conjunction with Y-DNA testing, several years later ...
With the “Abenaki” Pretendian$ research of this blog, beginning May 2009, Y-DNA research of my own paternal lineage had taken a sort of “back burner” ...
That is ... until April 2012, when the 1950 U.S. Federal Census became available to the public, and our father Charles had retrospectively passed away from cancer, at the age of 71.
Grandma Marion / Maryann (Atwood) Fisher had lived at 3909 Greenwood Avenue in Seattle, WA. She had a husband (Lawrence Fisher) and a daughter, Joan, at the time of our father's “time-of-conception” in the spring of 1940.
Y-DNA is the DNA on the Y chromosome, which is passed down from a father to his sons, allowing for tracing of the direct male paternal line of ancestry. Testing Y-DNA helps discover new paternal ancestors, confirm existing paper trails, and uncover ancient origins of a paternal haplogroup. Y-DNA tests use Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) for matching and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to determine a haplogroup, which reveals a population group and ancient origins.
For example:
460662 = Robert Bowman
1011726 = Jean-Pierre Beaudry
1021794 = Mark Allen Voudry
After the Y-111 Marker testing, the DYS570 for Robert Bowman, Jean-Pierre Beaudry and that of Mark A. Voudry (all Vaudry descendants from Simon (1782-1848) Vaudry) were all 18 (at DYS570). One will see this by going to the Vaudry Surname Project at the URL link provided above.
Within a 37-Marker Y-DNA Test, ONLY three testers of the Y-700, that being Robert, Jean-Pierre and Mark, have the SNP 18. None of the other Vaudry Y-DNA inheritors from other genealogical lines from Jacques Vaudry and Jeanne Rénaud.
Testing further ...
And deeper ...
The Big Y-700 test also includes lifetime analysis; as more results come in from new testers, those initial results may allow for new branching on the Y-DNA Haplotree causing one's haplogroup to update (change).
It's all a process of evaluation and comparatives as the science objectively grows and as new testers do their Big Y-700, naturally the haplogroup designations move around like the pieces on a chess board.
But, the important move to understand is that there is the Queen and the King, and so on, and no matter where they are on the board, they are always the same pieces, sitting in different angles. Again it takes understanding, patience and perseverance.
To help understand Y-DNA:
But returning to my own late father's Y-DNA Study:
In sleuthing for the genetic-contributing paternal grandfather, forensic (genealogically-speaking), led to researching a Mr. Lundberg and a Mr. Bergstrom, who lived close to Mrs. Fisher, wife and mother. Their respective ancestors were from Sweden (Scandinavian Y-DNA)
Finding a direct-male-descendant of Lundberg was found in California ... he agreed to provide DNA swab samples on my behalf. As did Mr. Lundberg.
Unaware of FTDNA Surname Projects, Buchholz had not been able to discern the STR markers of Elisha White Smith Jr. (IV) (1934 - ). The kind FTDNA representative on the telephone at FTDNA informed and explained Buchholz the merits of these Surname Projects:
FTDNA No. 97636 = Charles Lawrence (Fisher) Buchholz
Many “Smith” surnamed descendants matched to “Chuck” in FTDNA per the Y-37 Marker testing. Even Elisha White Smith Jr. and his specific father and grandfather seemed geographically-speaking “to far away” from our father's mother Marion/Maryann, in 1940. But then again, there were then-and-now ... cars, trains and airplanes, so anything was possible, that could have caused the two persons to encounter one another.
Contacting the Smith Surname Project moderator, Mrs. Deb Harper (at that time) in early September 2012, I joined the Project, and asked the moderator if (per chance) Elisha's sister Sally (who had Y-DNA tested her brother, since she didn't carry the Y-DNA of their father, paternal grandfather, great-grandfather ... and so on) had provided a Gedcom file, when she had joined the Smith Surname Project, explaining the familial dynamics of my own paternal birth father.
In reply, Mrs. Harper kindly confirmed a Gedcom file had been shared with the Smith Surname Project. Thankfully said.
A GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communications) file is a standard, text-based format for exchanging family tree data between different genealogy programs and online services.
Deb Harper informed Mr. Buchholz, in reviewing the Sally Smith Gedcom file, that the ONLY Smith descendant of Channing Liston Smith (1852-1934) was Jurie B. Smith (1879-1942), to go to Seattle WA. Jurie Sr. lived two blocks away from our Grandmother Maryann in 1940!
Indeed, it is all about proximity and location!
Sometimes Genetic Research is
not always about the husbands. 😳
Sometimes the research is
about all about the spouses 😊
Jurie Smith Sr. had married to a Nettie Louella Purinton in 1904 in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. Her mother was Johanneth ("Hannah") Marie Rosenbaugh (1847-1924).
Looking on FTDNA using atDNA / FamilyFinder / Autosomal DNA Results of Charles Buchholz, there was a match in mid-September 2015 to a Rosenbaugh female descendant, Mrs. (neé: Hudges) Herring, at Shared cM: 110 with a predicted relation to our father as a Second to possible Fourth Cousin within AncestryDNA. She's 114 cM in FTDNA to him.
The one son of Jurie and Nettie in comparative to my own paternal grandmother was 7 months and 12 days difference in age to her, and resided less than a 20 minute walk, between 3909 Greenwood Ave. and 3609 Whitman Avenue, both in the Fremont District of Seattle, King County, WA.
There were 5 sons of Jurie and Nettie born between 1906 and 1918. Including one daughter born in 1907. Which one was my late father's genetic-contributor?
Son #1 (George) daughter Kanza Smith did atDNA testing in FTDNA and AncestryDNA on my behalf. She matched to Charles Buchholz at 753 cM in FTDNA. In AncestryDNA she matches him at 710 cM.
As with several of the Jurie and Nettie son's in 1940, they were employed by Boeing in Seattle.
George's paternal grandson, Adam Smith, did Genographic 2.0 Y-DNA and on my behalf did FTDNA.
Adam Smith was a 100% Y-DNA match, once that Genographic 2.0 Raw Data File was transferred into FTDNA in late October 2013. Doing his FTDNA Y-DNA testing directly with the company, the results in early January 2014 matched to Chuck, and my twin brother and I, with only one marker mutation between all of us.
Son #1 was NOT the genetic paternal grandfather.
Son #2 was NOT the genetic paternal grandfather.
Son #3 was NOT the genetic paternal grandfather.
Son #4 was NOT the genetic paternal grandfather.
Son #5 was the only possible candidate.
Genetic atDNA (autosomal) or even yDNA matches
don't happen overnight.
Or even six years ...
in order breaking down those “brick walls”
~
Genetic Genealogy research is
all about Patience and Persistence.
From early September 2012, having contacted and communicated with the potential Half-Aunt, daughter of Son #5, to my own father, Charles Buchholz, sharing emails back forth, with attached photos, she declined doing autosomal genetic testing. It is a ultimate personal decision to do a genetic genealogical test for non-medical reasons.
Son #5 (1918-1998) of Jurie Smith Sr. and Nettie Purinton indeed was genetically, the father of our father Charles Lawrence (Fisher) Buchholz.
In 2018, his nephews and very thankfully his daughter, tested themselves within AncestryDNA. They all matched to my sister, my twin brother and myself, as well as to their other Smith relatives.
97635 = Douglas L. Buchholz in FTDNA
97636 = Charles L. Buchholz in FTDNA
160633 = Elisha W. Smith IV in FTDNA
314329 = Adam C. Smith in FTDNA
(Haddad, Lebanon was an error; that was of George's wife's Lebanese origin / ancestry)
Yet, Charles Buchholz had only tested at that point in FTDNA, a “swab” test. AncestryDNA is a “saliva” test. He wasn't tested in the latter company (as yet).
Through science and understanding genetic DNA, we tested our father in AncestryDNA with literally the two drops of extracted DNA from FTDNA (of the 3rd sample taken from my then-living father's cheeks in January 2008). He matched to the paternal daughter of Son #5 at 1,475 cM within AncestryDNA. even though his genetic father never took a DNA test in his lifetime.
Joan (neé: Fisher), my father's maternal sister matched to her half sibling brother at 1,866 cM in AncestryDNA. In FTDNA, Joan matched to “Chuck” at 1,997 cM.
What does this say about the Smith genetic inheritance of Charles Buchholz?
Answer: “Chuck” had not inherited as much (autosomal) DNA of his paternal Smith's (and their ancestors), as he did of his mother's Atwood and Gould genetic DNA of those ancestors.
Still, the deeper confirmed Y-Haplogroup for the Smith Surname was I-CTS9346. Then even deeper research and evaluation of of September 10, 2025, brought the Smith haplogroup to 1-L813 which itself is estimated to date from about 870 BC. The group is heavily populated with members who trace their ancestry to Finland, Sweden, or Norway.
Indeed, the direct of myself, my father, grandfather, and Jurie B. Smith Sr. and that of his paternal direct paternal ancestral lineage stretches back through time and generations to Sverige (Sweden) ca. 1613-1635.
The yDNA haplogroup in conjunction with the atDNA objectively clarified WHO my late father's paternal ancestors were, and his LIVING relatives are.
And the point of all this?
I KNEW we could possibly do the same in the summer of 2015 as I had done with my late father's paternity (as I described above) with the Bowman's, taking the same GENETIC GENEALOGICAL STEPS and similar methodology starting with a simple cheek swab kit by FTDNA and/ or salvia sample by AncestryDNA) from a Louis (1844-1918) Bowman direct-male-descendant. The genetic results could very likely and eventually resolve the question of paternity for the Bruchac$ Grandpa Jesse's father.
The Y-DNA from Louis' unknown father, (and unknown grandfather, and great grandfather back paternally has always been inside of Louis' son John Jack Bowman (1893-1973).
This Y-DNA has been passed down to John's sons. For example, Earl Kenneth Bowman, to his son Earl John Bowman Sr. (1936-2025), to his son Earl John Bowman Jr. and to his son Christopher Bowman.
Likewise, from John Jack Bowman, to Howard Leroy Bowman, and to John's grandsons Robert Howard Bowman.
Louis (1844-1918) Bowman's Y-DNA and parental ancestry
for generations and decades was “hiding in plain sight”
😳
Not anymore.
