Introduction
Remember that story I shared about the mysterious Mr. Max? If you missed it, I introduced you to one of my family’s most enduring mysteries—the identity of Clifford Max’s father, born in Edwardsville, Illinois in 1929. According to family lore, Clifford’s father had died before his son was born. But as I dug deeper into records, something didn’t quite add up. There were no death records, no obituaries, nothing to confirm this tragic tale. It was as if Mr. Max had simply vanished into thin air!
Today, I’m taking you along on the next chapter of this detective story. But this time, we’re using tools that weren’t available to previous generations of family historians: DNA testing. Those genetic breadcrumbs left behind through generations might finally lead us to answers about who Mr. Max really was, where he came from, and why he disappeared from my family’s story.
This investigation is still ongoing—think of it as a real-time genealogical mystery unfolding across chromosomes rather than just dusty archives. So grab your coffee (or tea!) and consider this the first installment in what I hope will be a fascinating journey toward solving a nearly century-old family puzzle.
Part I: The Paper Trail Hits a Dead End
When I first began searching for Clifford’s father, I followed the traditional genealogist’s path—you know the one! I scoured census records, newspaper archives, city directories, and vital records in both Edwardsville, Illinois, and nearby St. Louis, Missouri. The paper trail revealed some interesting facts:
- Clifford Frank Max was born on June 18, 1929, in Edwardsville, Illinois, to Myrtle June Thompson.
- His birth was announced in the Edwardsville Intelligencer the very next day, with no mention of his father’s death.
- In the 1930 Census, Myrtle was listed as “June Max,” age 19, and “widowed.”
- She lived with her mother, Martha Thompson, who was also widowed.
But when I tried to find any record of Mr. Max’s death in 1928 or early 1929, the trail went cold. No death certificate. No cemetery record. No obituary. Nothing in either Illinois or Missouri that would confirm the story of a young father-to-be who died before seeing his son.
The questions kept multiplying: If he had truly died, why wasn’t there any record? If he hadn’t died, what happened to him? Why did Myrtle create this story? And most intriguingly: who was he?
The paper trail had led me to a brick wall covered in question marks. It was time to try a different approach!
Part II: Historical Context – Edwardsville in 1928
To understand the circumstances surrounding Clifford’s birth, I needed to get a feel for the world his parents inhabited. What was Edwardsville like in late 1928, when Clifford would have been conceived?
Edwardsville in the late 1920s was a small but growing town, positioned just 20 miles from the much larger, bustling city of St. Louis, Missouri. This proximity to a major urban center played a significant role in the town’s development and social dynamics.
Transportation between these two places was remarkably convenient for the era. Edwardsville was served by as many as five railroad lines, with nearby Glen Carbon hosting two railroad depots that saw up to twenty-two passenger trains daily. This made day trips to St. Louis not just possible but common. People regularly traveled between these locations for work, shopping, entertainment, and socializing.
Perhaps even more interesting for our timeline is the electric streetcar line known locally as the “Interurban” or the “Yellow Hammer” (nicknamed for its yellow cars and notoriously bumpy ride). This East St. Louis and Suburban Railway connected Edwardsville to the greater St. Louis area until October 1928—precisely during the period when Clifford would have been conceived. For young people like Myrtle, this would have provided affordable transportation to the excitement of the big city.
Economically, Edwardsville offered diverse opportunities that might have attracted a young man like Mr. Max. The area had significant industrial development, particularly with N.O. Nelson’s plumbing fixture factories that had originally brought hundreds of workers to the region. The surrounding areas, especially Glen Carbon (whose name literally means “Valley of Coal”), had thriving coal mining operations that employed many men. Madison Coal Corporation operated two coal mines and a coal-washing facility south of Edwardsville.
In 1928, the Roaring Twenties were still in full swing, though no one knew that the economic prosperity would soon come crashing down with the stock market in 1929. Dance halls, theaters, and social events would have provided ample opportunities for young people to meet in both Edwardsville and nearby St. Louis.
So, what brought Mr. Max to Edwardsville? Was he working in the local industries? Was he passing through on the railroad? Was he a frequent visitor via the Interurban streetcar? Did he have family in the area that he was visiting? Perhaps he was staying with relatives while looking for work in either Edwardsville or St. Louis. Did he meet Myrtle at a local dance or perhaps during one of her trips to St. Louis?
These questions have lingered for decades. But now, DNA might offer clues that records cannot.
Part III: Introduction to DNA Testing for Genealogy
Before I dive into my findings, let me offer a brief primer on how DNA testing works for genealogy, especially for those of you who might be new to this powerful research tool.
DNA testing for family history comes in several forms, but two types have been particularly important in my search for Mr. Max:
Autosomal DNA Testing: This is the most common type of DNA test offered by companies like Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and FamilyTreeDNA. It examines DNA inherited from all of your ancestral lines (both maternal and paternal) going back about 5-7 generations. When you take an autosomal DNA test, the testing company compares your DNA with others in their database to find matches—people who share enough DNA with you to be considered relatives. The amount of shared DNA is measured in centimorgans (cM), and this measurement helps estimate how closely related you are to each match.
Think of autosomal DNA like a deck of cards that gets shuffled and dealt anew with each generation. You receive half your autosomal DNA from each parent, but which specific cards (segments) you get is somewhat random. This randomness means that the further back you go, the less DNA you might share with a particular ancestor.
Y-DNA Testing: Unlike autosomal DNA, Y-DNA is passed virtually unchanged from father to son along the direct paternal line. Only males have a Y chromosome, so this test can only be taken by men, but it can reveal connections along surname lines that might be difficult to detect with autosomal DNA alone. Y-DNA is particularly valuable for questions about paternal ancestry because it follows the same inheritance pattern as surnames in many Western cultures.
For our search for Mr. Max, we’ve employed both testing types. Clifford’s grandson has taken both autosomal DNA tests (uploaded to Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, GEDMatch, and Living DNA) and a Y-DNA test through FamilyTreeDNA. Additionally, Clifford’s son has taken autosomal DNA tests that have been uploaded to multiple platforms.
The beauty of DNA testing is that it reveals biological relationships regardless of what names appear on paper records. Even if Mr. Max used a different name or if documents were altered, the genetic connections remain intact across generations, waiting to be discovered.
Part IV: Following the Genetic Breadcrumbs
When you embark on a DNA journey, you never quite know where the path will lead. In our case, the first major clue came from an unexpected source—a DNA match that initially seemed to raise more questions than answers.
An Unexpected Match
While reviewing DNA matches on 23andMe, we discovered something surprising: a third cousin match who shared 2.05% DNA (approximately 151 cM) with Clifford’s grandson (whom I’ll call ZM for privacy). What made this match particularly intriguing was that while ZM’s ancestry composition showed 100% European heritage, this match—let’s call him Mr. C—showed 40% Sub-Saharan African ancestry.
This unexpected discovery deserved further investigation. We reached out to Mr. C, who, to our surprise, responded quickly and offered to speak with us directly. During our call, Mr. C revealed he was adopted and had only recently found his birth mother—just six months earlier! Since his birth mother was Caucasian, he suggested this was likely where his connection to ZM originated.
What happened next demonstrates the incredible power of DNA to bring people together across time and circumstance. Mr. C spontaneously decided to conference his birth mother into our call! She shared that she had been raised by her maternal grandfather, a Mr. Pitts. This information was potentially significant—if ZM and Mr. C share 151 cM, that could potentially make them third cousins, sharing a set of great-great-grandparents, and in fact, 23andMe proposed this.
This presented an exciting possibility: could Mr. C’s great-grandfather (the man who raised his mother) be either ZM’s unknown great-grandfather or the brother of ZM’s unknown great-grandfather? The DNA amounts suggested a third-cousin relationship rather than second cousins, which would have shown a higher shared cM amount. Blaine T. Bettinger’s Shared cM Project 4.0 tool v4 (https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4) shows the following relationship possibilities, so third cousins is not a given – in fact it’s only a 16% probability.
Sorting Maternal from Paternal
With this tantalizing lead, I needed to systematically sort through other DNA matches to see if they supported this theory or pointed in different directions. Since Clifford’s son (let’s call him Mr. Max, Jr.) had also tested his DNA, I focused on his matches as he was a generation closer to the mysterious Mr. Max.
The first step in working with unknown parentage cases is to separate matches into maternal and paternal groups. Fortunately, Mr. Max, Jr.’s maternal line was relatively straightforward to identify. His mother came from French Canadian/Cajun ancestry, creating a distinctive pattern of matches.
We also had another advantage in our research. Myrtle June (Clifford’s mother) had married a man named Clifford Deuel in 1939—whom I’ll simply call Mr. Deuel to avoid confusion with all the Cliffords in this story! This second marriage created another set of genetic relatives that needed to be filtered out of our search.
Using Ancestry DNA’s grouping tools, I was able to cluster together all the matches related to Myrtle and to Mr. Deuel. By systematically eliminating these maternal-side matches, what remained should theoretically be connections through Mr. Max—the biological father we’re searching for.
Half-relationships like these are invaluable in unknown parentage cases. Since Mr. Max, Jr. was related to his step-father’s family only through marriage (not biology), any match that connected to the Deuel family could be immediately placed in the “not relevant to our search” category.
The Investigation Continues
Despite these methodical steps, our search for Mr. Max remains ongoing. The DNA evidence has provided intriguing leads—particularly the connection to Mr. C and potentially the Pitts family—but we haven’t yet been able to conclusively identify Clifford’s father.
Each DNA match represents a potential clue, a branch of a family tree that might intersect with our mystery man. By carefully analyzing shared DNA amounts, building out family trees for matches, and looking for overlapping ancestral lines, we hope to eventually find the common ancestor that connects these genetic cousins to Clifford’s line.
The advantage of DNA testing is that it reveals biological relationships regardless of what names appear on paper records. Even if documents were altered or information was concealed, the genetic connections remain intact across generations. These connections are our breadcrumbs, leading us slowly but surely toward the truth about Mr. Max.
Conclusion: Following the Trail Forward
While I haven’t yet identified Mr. Max with certainty, I’m closer than ever before. The journey through DNA has opened new doors that traditional research couldn’t unlock. What was once a family story shrouded in mystery now has tangible leads to follow—genetic connections that can’t be erased by time or intentional obscurement.
As I continue this investigation, my next steps will focus on the extensive database at Ancestry.com, which offers the largest collection of DNA testers in the United States. Several promising matches ranging from 99 to 363 cMs await exploration, many with family trees that might hold the key to this mystery. Intriguingly, a few of these matches already allude to a common ancestor—a tantalizing hint that I’m on the right track!
I also plan to utilize Ancestry’s ThruLines feature by adding a potential father to my tree as a hypothesis, which might generate new connections I haven’t yet discovered.
This search has already taught me so much about genetic genealogy, historical context, and the power of persistence in family history research. Whether I ultimately identify Mr. Max with certainty or simply narrow down the possibilities, each step brings me closer to understanding this branch of my family tree that was nearly lost to time.
Stay tuned for the next installment in this genetic detective story. The breadcrumbs are leading somewhere—I just need to follow them to their destination!
Have you used DNA to break through a genealogical brick wall? Or do you have a mysterious ancestor you’re trying to identify? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!
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