Seeing Double? 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “All Mixed Up”

 

DNA Results Suggest My Third Great Grandfather Was Identical Twin

Tomas Anfinnson Vetti: 1766-1851 (Paternal Third-Great-Grandfather)
Ola Anfinnson Vetti: 1766-1826 (Paternal Third-Great-Uncle)

 

While checking on some new Ancestry DNA matches, I came across one with the “common ancestor” notation. That designation always excites me, because a potential common ancestor can really help me trace the cousin connection and connect the new cousin to my tree. But when I clicked on the common ancestor link for this particular new cousin, who I will refer to as NE, I saw my third great-grandfather. Tomas Anfinnson Vetti,  listed as the common ancestor. Ancestry’s Thruline feature showed him as the father both of my second-great-grandfather Sjur Tommason Hestetun and NE’s third-great-grandfather Peder Olsson Melheim.

That immediately raised a red flag—in 18^th century Norway, sons had their father’s first name as part of their surname. My second great-grandad’s surname was “Tommason”—Tomas Anfinnson Vetti’s son, Sjur. But Peder’s name was Olsson, so he would have been the son of Ole or Ola, not Tomas. Was this what genealogists call a “non-parental event”—in other words, did Tomas fool around with Peder’s mother? Or was there another less titillating explanation? It was time for further research.

I used the tools associated with Ancestry’s Thruline feature, which showed the other Ancestry-based trees that led their algorithm to suggest the relationship between Peder Olsson Melheim and Tomas Anfinnson Vetti. The trees showed Peder was born January 7, 1792 to parents as Ola Anfinnson Vetti and Martha Pedersdatter. Peder’s surname now made sense: his father of record had the first name “Ola”, so he was Peder Olsson.

I also immediately noticed another connection: Peder’s father Ola had the same father as my third-great-grandfather Tomas: Anfinn Anfinnson Vetti, born February 17, 1715 in Vetti, Aardal, Sogn al Fjordane, Norway. Ola and Tomas were brothers.

But that left me with a question: why did the DNA show that Tomas was more closely related to Ola’s son Peder than an uncle should be? Surely Tomas wasn’t sneaking around with his own brother’s wife! Would they have even had the opportunity? Peder’s final surname piece was Melheim, which indicated his parents were living on the Melheim farm in Aardal, while Tomas’ children all had Vetti as part of their name, indicating they were still living on the Vetti farm where Tomas and Ola were born and raised. I am not sure how distant the properties were from one another, but it would have taken more effort to conduct an affair if you needed to travel by horse and wagon. From the map below, which shows Melheim in the Fardal region and Vetti in the Utladal region, they are over an hour apart by car.

I quickly discovered another interesting piece of information: Tomas Anfinnson Vetti and Ola Anfinnson Vetti had the same birthdate: supposedly both men were born January 13, 1766. Of course this could be an error—someone transcribing records incorrectly. Or it could indicate something else: that Tomas and Ola were twins. And given the DNA evidence, probably identical twins! If Tomas and Ola had the same DNA because they split from the same embryo, their children would genetically be half-siblings as well as first cousins, and my relationship to my new cousin NE would make sense.

Proving my hypothesis will be nearly impossible. I have been unable to locate birth records for Tomas and Ola verifying they were born the same day. I will have to investigate further using Norwegian Bygdeboks. For now, I will record Peder Olsson Melheim as the son of Ola Anfinnson Vetti, and the nephew of my third great-grandfather Tomas Anfinnson Vetti. I will make a private note about my hypothesis about the brothers’ twinship.

I am intrigued by the possibilities opened up by my hypothesis about the Anfinnson Vetti brothers—I’d never considered the difficulties presented by identical twins in DNA testing. I am glad that this DNA cousin connection turned out to be less mixed up than it initially appeared.

Sources:

Ancestry.com, DNA Match.

Information on Anfinn Anfinnsson Vetti: https://norwayancestors.com/getperson.php?personID=I1342&tree=tree2

Relationship to NE page on Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/tree/991514595:9009:66/for/38B5E694-2D64-4CC7-BEFE-4FE8A7F44961?matchingSampleId=D2063198-2FB9-4C93-9549-D0547D742246&member=322220658093:1030:46986934