A DNA test can uncover some interesting family connections.

My late sister talked me into doing a commercial DNA test back in around 2010. She thought that it would support her genealogical research into our Lind family in Scotland. She had been doing extensive paper research, including visiting Scotland to ferret out relevant documents, and she wanted to get the added perspective that DNA analysis can provide.

After she passed away back in 2016, I slowly started fiddling around with the DNA results. She had started me off with a test of Y DNA, passed down from father to son. I subsequently added a tests from two providers for “autosomal DNA,” which includes DNA inherited from both parents. It’s really only good for finding “cousins” over the past 6-8 generations, while the Y DNA tests link you to the vast history of humankind.

Which gets me close to the present. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying out a set of sophisticated tools for DNA analysis from GEDmatch.com. After signing up for a gedmatch account (your choice of a free but limited account, or a paid account with access to additional tools), you upload your DNA results obtained from other services, which are then matched to the Gedmatch database using the set of rather robust tools.

GEDmatch is the system that gained notoriety recently for leading to the identification of the notorious Golden State Killer, and dozens of other criminals through tracing DNA and family histories.

One basic GEDmatch tool returns a list of all the people who match your DNA, with information on where the match occurs (usually on one or more of 22 chromosomes), the strength of the match, and an estimate of how many generations ago you and your match shared a common ancestor.

A second tool offers “triangulation,” which returns a list of all your DNA matches who share specific bits of DNA with you and with another person in your list of matches. When the three of you share the same bits of DNA, and those are over above the level that could simply reflect random genetic mutations over time, then it is likely that you share a common ancestor. The GEDmatch triangulation test results are sorted by chromosome, and by the specific location of each match, which allows you to see groups of DNA cousins who likely share a common ancestor.

My GEDmatch results confirmed that I’ve got a slew of DNA cousins in Australia and New Zealand, including many Maori, through an as-yet undiscovered common ancestor probably about four generations back. I’m still hoping that I’ll eventually be able to get a better idea of who and where that family connection was made.

Even just eyeballing the results of the triangulation analysis turns up some interesting things.

For example, my list of DNA “cousins” included someone by the name of Abigail Kawananakoa Roberts. The Abigail Kawananakoa part caught my attention, and sent me scrambling to online search engines for some background.

Well, Abigail Kawananakoa Roberts turns out to be a Pennsylvania woman who repeatedly tried to pass herself off as Campbell Estate heir Abigail K. Kawananakoa.

According to news reports, Abigail from Philly was born as Charlotte Veronica Kuheana, but she claimed to be the real heiress Abigail Kawananakoa. In 1999, she faced criminal charges for stealing more than $34,000 from the federal government by filing false claims that she was an heir to the Bishop Estate and a legal representative of Kamehameha Schools.

She was found not guilty. Although her attorneys admitted she had unlawfully used the real Kawananakoa’s identity to get tax refunds from the IRS, they argued Roberts had “an irrational insistence upon an identity that is not her own.”

Then in 2004, she reportedly received a $2.1 million tax refund by again claiming to be the real Abigail Kawananakoa. The government sued for return of the money, and seized her bank accounts and two new vehicles she had purchased after receiving the IRS payment.

Somewhere back several generations Abigail Kawananakoa Roberts and I share a common ancestor. Perhaps not the kind of family connection you want to brag on, but certainly a colorful cousin, to be sure.