Looking for Ahearn (Ahern)

Letter of Introduction

Hello              

     Please bear with me…

      My name is Edward Glenn Ruby…before age 8, I was Edward Robert Sustersic, Jr…but thru AncestryDNA and FTM YDNA I guess my birth genetic last name would be Ahearn.

      I was adopted when I was 8 years old…now I am 65.  I was taken away from my birth family in Johnstown PA when I was 6 years old…spent a year and a half on a foster home farm in a nearby town of Ebensburg. Tried to keep my memories alive. I would lay awake at night and say my name over and over and remember my young memories.  I thought that the memories of my birth family for the first 6 years were true. So…I grew up as an adopted child thinking that I was ½ Slovenian and half or so Irish…until two years ago.

     My adoptive family, the Rubys, were a great couple who sacrificed a life of peace and tranquility to adopt two of the five brothers who needed a home. I could not have asked for a more loving family. I was raised in a mill working-class family in a working-class neighbor. Went to a great high school in Western Pennsylvania and then to college.  Got married in 1974 to my first wife and moved to Orlando, Florida. Moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida in 1988 and have been here ever since.

          This brings us to why this letter…

     My main reason to have contacted any of my “birth” family at all was to let my birth family know that I did OK. Things worked out. Stuff happens… and I had no ill will to anyone. I just wanted to let them know in person.  I’m sure having all the grandchildren for two families ripped away at one time must have been heart-breaking.

    So, over the last 10 years or so I have been using the internet to find all the information I can about my adopted family genealogy.  Ironically, my wife and I are BOTH adopted children…she has no desire to find her roots as she was adopted as a newborn. Two years ago, I started on my birth families’ genealogy. Everything was moving along fine until I had the bright idea to do a DNA test to see where all my birth family came from…Daniels from Ireland and Sustersic from Slovenia.

     I decided to use the Ancestry DNA test since I had used Ancestry as one of my search programs. Spit in the tube and waited patiently for 5 weeks for the results to come in.

    My birth mother’s side is somewhat known…birth father is questionable if the Ancestry DNA test is accurate.  This has really thrown a screwball into all my research. Thought this would be easy. But no…

Ancestry Autosomal Results: Ethnicity Estimate:

   Ireland/Scotland/Wales        64%         Munster, Ireland

   Great Britain                            23%

   Europe West                            11% 

Low Confidence Regions

   Scandinavia                                1%

   Europe East                            < 1%

   Iberian Peninsula                  < 1%

     So, I then took the Family Tree Maker YDNA test to find the male side truth.

     Oh Crap! Not what I was expecting.

     Turns out that I had no Slovenian ( Sustersic ) in me…just lots of Irish / English. Also, after comparing with other DNA samples it turns out that I am directly linked to an Ahearn or Ahern.

     My birth father turned out to be not who I thought or was told.  So, I send out a letter like this as an introduction to anyone that may be related.

     I believe that we may be in some way genetically related. I understand that this may not mean anything to you, but I did want you to know. Thank you for your time in reading this. If you do want to respond…either way...I understand.

My life truth at 65: “While the truth may hurt…at least it is the truth. I have had little truth and lots of unknowns most of my life.”

I want to find out my genetic Irish roots. Family names: Ahearn, Sullivan, Shea, Murphy, McSweeney

The Irish YDNA in my genetic genealogy  leads to:

William J. Ahearn (Ahern)

Born: 12/28/1853  Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland

Lived in Boston most of life.

Died: 10/1/1919 Philadelphia, PA, USA

Any help or direction would be forever appreciated,

Thank you,

Edward Ruby