Unraveling the Invisible Lineage: How I Found My Grandmother’s Biological Father
Unraveling the Invisible Lineage: Finding My Grandmother’s Biological Father
Introduction: The Silence We Inherited
A story passed down through my dad’s aunt—Grandma Lillian’s half-sister—recounts a moment when my grandmother, Lillian Mae Woock (December 17, 1932 – September 22, 1998), tried to ask about her biological father. The response she received was swift, firm, and final:
"Some things are left not talked about."
For decades, we thought that was where the story ended. The door was closed, the secret was sealed, and that missing branch of her tree seemed permanently out of reach.
But not knowing weighed heavily on her. Later in life, my dad shared that Grandma Lillian had actually taken a journey back to Minnesota—the place of her birth—specifically to search for information about her biological father. She went looking for answers, but returned empty-handed. The paper trail was cold, and the silence surrounding his identity remained unbroken.
She passed away in Salem, Oregon, in September 1998. I was only 19 years old when we lost her. At the time, consumer DNA testing as we know it today didn't exist, and the answers she sought seemed buried forever with her passing.
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| Lillian Mae Woock (1932–1998) as a young woman. Her lifelong quest to learn her biological father's identity inspired this search to uncover the truth and restore her lost lineage. |
A Right to the Truth
As the years went on and I stepped deeper into genealogy, conversations with family kept bringing me back to her story. It became painfully clear that not knowing her origins had played a quiet, defining role throughout my grandmother’s life.
Whether the circumstances surrounding her birth were complex, painful, or simply kept secret by a different generation's social stigma, one truth stood out above everything else:
She had the right to know her father's name.
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| Lillian Mae Woock and Louis Dale Owen as a young couple. Though she built a full life and family of her own, the quiet mystery of her biological father's identity remained a missing piece of her story. |
Since she couldn't get those answers in her lifetime, I decided to take up the mantle for her. If the paper trail wouldn't speak, I would turn to genetic evidence to finish the search she started when she traveled back to Minnesota all those years ago.
Uncle Burt: The Keeper of the Family Memory
I am so deeply glad I reached out to Cousin Rondi, because those conversations opened the door to a priceless piece of living oral history.
My grandmother’s cousin, Burton Alfred Woock (1928–2024), was four years older than Grandma Lillian. Born in Walker, Minnesota, Bu
Uncle Burt held onto that quiet childhood memory for nearly a century, carrying that exact piece of the puzzle all the way to age 96 before passing away in late 2024. Looking back on it all, I often wonder if Uncle Burton wondered whether that mystery would ever be solved in his lifetime—or if he was simply waiting for someone in the family to finally ask the right question.
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| Burton Alfred Woock (1928–2024). Four years older than Grandma Lillian, Uncle Burton held onto a crucial childhood memory for nearly a century until the right question was asked. |
The Bridge: Untangling the Woock Lineage
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| A lakeside family gathering in Cass County, Minnesota. Grandma Lillian stands in the foreground, with Alberta Deering, an unidentified relative, Fred Woock, and LaVida Deering-Woock holding a cake lined up behind her. Further right are another unidentified guest— holding Robert—along with Albert Deering, Lulu Mitchell-Deering, Bob Rich, an unidentified relative, and Helena Richards, Bob’ Rich's mother. |
To begin narrowing down the mystery, I started by sending a message on Ancestry to connect with family members on the Woock side:
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| The initial inquiry. Cousin Rondi reaches out to Aunt Lois Anderson first—showing how close the truth was to being lost before Uncle Burt shared what he remembered. |
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A Century-Old Secret Uncovered
After reaching out to extended family, the key turned in the lock when I connected with my cousin Rondi. She went straight to Uncle Burt to see what he remembered from those early days in Minnesota, back when LaVida, Fred, and little Lillian were all living under the roof of Fred’s mother, Anna Woock Blanchard.
When Rondi messaged me back, she shared the moment the decades-long silence was finally broken:
"Hi Amber, I just spoke with my Uncle Burt. He said that Lillian's father was someone with the last name of Erickson/Ericson. He didn't know the man's first name. He said that LaVida, Fred, and Lillian all lived with Fred's mother, Anna Woock Blanchard, in the house Burt now lives in. I also spoke to my Aunt Lois and she had never heard anything about that. As far as she knew Fred was Lillian's father. So the lesson here, is that I need to talk to my uncle more, he seems to know all the family dirt. ;-)"
Just like that, the unknown biological father was no longer a total phantom. He had a name: Erickson
Hope in a Surname
Even with just a single last name, a spark of hope lit up the entire search. For decades, my grandmother had lived without a single lead or clue—and now, suddenly, we had a directional signpost pointing straight toward the name Eri
A Tangible Piece of Her Story
While the paper trail was cold for decades, her memory lived on through the things she lovingly crafted with her own hands. From the intricate dolls to the delicate crocheted afghans
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| Handcrafted with love: The intricate dolls and crocheted afghans made by Grandma Lillian Mae Woock, preserved by my dad and passed down to my sister and me as lasting physical connections to her creative legacy. |
June 2021: The Homestead and the Well Pump
In June 2021, Cousin Rondi sent over a pair of photos that brought Grandma Lillian's childhood surroundings into sharp focus, along with a note detailing the history of the house where Lillian lived as a little girl with LaVida, Fred, and Anna:
"Hi Amber,
This is a picture of Burton Woock’s house. The first building was a shanty. It was enlarged as Fred and Anna had more kids. That building was replaced by my grandfather, Al. The original house is the part under the peak, from the door to the right. That is where Lillian lived with LaVida and Fred, Anna, and probably one or two of the younger Woock siblings.
My grandfather enlarged the house after he sold the farm up the hill. He, my grandmother, and Burt moved there shortly before my grandfather died. That’s the pump the Woocks used for water."
"Hi Amber,
This is a picture of Burton Woock’s house. The first building was a shanty. It was enlarged as Fred and Anna had more kids. That building was replaced by my grandfather, Al. The original house is the part under the peak, from the door to the right. That is where Lillian lived with LaVida and Fred, Anna, and probably one or two of the younger Woock siblings.
My grandfather enlarged the house after he sold the farm up the hill. He, my grandmother, and Burt moved there shortly before my grandfather died. That’s the pump the Woocks used for water."
The Woock home on Lower Ten Mile Lake Road in Hackensack (Cass County), Minnesota. The portion under the roof peak marks the original structure where Grandma Lillian lived as a young child.
The original Woock family water pump, a quiet physical reminder of everyday life on the property in the 1930s.
Living History: Grandma Lillian on the Homestead
A family gathering in Cass County, Minnesota. Grandma Lillian standing in the front, with her mother LaVida holding a cake behind her, her grandmother Lulu on the right, and an unidentified young boy.
Grandma Lillian pictured with her brothers Freddie and Robert "Bob" Woock on the family homestead.
July 2021: A View from Tenmile Lake
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| Grandma Lillian pictured with her brothers Freddie and Robert "Bob" Woock on the family homestead. |
Early in our correspondence, Rondi sent over a collection of family photographs along with a note that brought Grandma Lillian's childhood surroundings into vivid focus. She included a view looking out over Tenmile Lake from Uncle Burt's property:
"The photo of Tenmile Lake is taken from Burt's property on the lake. If Lillian had gone to the lake to play on the beach or swim when she was little, this would have been her view of the lake. The house is not on the lake, it's probably about 1/4-1/2 mile away. Burt keeps this empty lot on the lake mowed and has a dock put in every year so his step grandchildren can go swimming."
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| Tenmile Lake in Cass County, Minnesota—taken from Burt's mowed lot. This quiet shoreline reflects the exact view Grandma Lillian would have seen as a young girl playing by the water. |
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| Cousin Rondi with Aunt Lois Anderson. Aunt Lois passed down precious memories of Grandma Lillian's early life, including her artistic talent for making dolls and her wonderful cooking. |
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| Rondi and her sister Alison visiting Uncle Burton Woock—the living link to the 1930s who remembered the Erickson surname from his boyhood in Cass County. |
Reaching Across the Atlantic: The Hypothesis
As the DNA matches began clustering around the Swedish lines, I reached out to Inger, a relative in Sweden, to share the initial breakthrough moment when Uncle Burt’s memory first met genetic proof:
"So my Grandma was raised as a Woock, adopted as a Woock I have heard. My Grandma never knew who her biological father was. All I have been told by her sister (technically half) was that it was not talked about and at one point someone said 'some things are left unspoken.'
But with the DNA test and meeting Woock relations... Burt Woock, who was just 4 years older than my Grandma, knew of a potential last name, so when I looked it up in the DNA matches, low and behold was the name Erickson.
So I put his name as a Hypothesis in the tree so I could get other tree hints. As I am continuing to research and go through matches, they are turning into a big group of people who are all DNA matches and are not connected to any of my Mother's side or any known relations on my dad's side.
There is another Erickson that lived in Hackensack, Minnesota and moved to Portland, OR, and there are some matches around the suburbs of Portland... They are so close to where I live."
Spotting the Mystery Cluster
As I analyzed my own DNA matches on Ancestry, a distinct pattern began to emerge. I came across a specific grouping of matches that shared clear genetic ties to each other, but had zero connection to any of my known family branches. They didn't align with my mother's side, nor did they trace back to any established lines on my father's known family tree.
They were genetic ghosts—and they were pointing straight toward Grandma Lillian's missing biological father.
I knew from my genealogy research that testing my dad, Mike Owen, would be the ultimate game-changer for this mystery cluster. Because he is one generation closer to Grandma Lillian, testing him would double the shared centimorgans with these unknown matches, sharpening the genetic picture and revealing the exact generational distance separating us from this new lineage.
That realization was what sparked my December 2021 Cyber Sale purchase. Getting him tested early wasn't just a holiday gift; it was a deliberate, strategic step to test Uncle Burt's "Erickson" lead against hard genetic data.
With his kit in the mail and the lab processing his sample, I watched that unassigned mystery cluster with growing anticipation, waiting for his results to drop and confirm what we were all hoping to prove...
March 2022: The Results Arrive and the Net Tightens
By late February 2022, my dad's DNA results officially posted. With his direct inheritance from Grandma Lillian in hand, that unassigned mystery cluster didn't just stand out—it lit up like a neon sign.
Just as Uncle Burt had remembered nearly a century prior, the genetic matches pointing to Grandma Lillian’s biological father began confirming the surname Erickson.
Armed with my dad’s higher-resolution match list, I dove straight into building working trees for these unknown cousins, hunting for common ancestors. Before long, specific names began surfacing repeatedly in connection to the Erickson cluster: Sophia Karstens, along with traditional Swedish patronymic lines shifting between Samuelson, Eriksdotter, Anderson, and Erickson.
At one point, I even considered ordering a DNA kit for my aunt (Grandma Lillian’s half-sister) to help separate maternal vs. paternal matches. But the genetic evidence in my dad's results was already making things remarkably clear—we didn't end up needing her test after all!
I shared that late-night surge of progress in a March 2022 message to Stan Erickson:
"I have searched the Erickson line and have finally found a connection of ancestors... following the trail all the way down from Sweden to Minnesota. Tonight was a huge find, but it is getting late so I better get to sleep now."
Narrowing the Net: Testing the Erickson Line
Once my dad’s DNA results posted, I immediately got back to work on Ancestry. Testing him was already paying off—his results showed a strong 28% Sweden & Denmark ethnicity (and mine 15%), confirming that our mystery paternal branch traced straight back to Swedish roots.
I quickly connected with a generous DNA match, Stanton Erickson, who began sharing his family history. We began exploring a promising candidate, Lyndon Erickson (1912–1992), whose age aligned closely with LaVida's during those years in Minnesota.
I sent an update sharing our initial progress and celebrating Uncle Burt's incredible memory:
"The Erickson I am talking to, Stan, said his grandparents moved here from Sweden and lived in Minnesota... A huge thanks to you for talking to Uncle Burt and for his knowledge of the possible last name. That is so amazing that he would remember that all these years!"
While Lyndon’s branch put us in the exact right family—matching the Swedish DNA and the Erickson surname—we were just one branch over. It was this exact work with Stan’s line that laid the groundwork for the DNA Detectives Search Angel to make that final connection to Oscar Ed Erickson in White Oak, Minnesota.
July 2024: The Breakthrough: How the Search Angel Solved It
After working the research as far as my own skill set could take me at the time, I decided to reach out to the DNA Detectives Facebook group on July 10, 2024, hoping a search angel might bring a fresh pair of eyes to the mystery.
Just eight days later, on July 18, 2024, Search Angel Serena spotted the missing link that tied every unplaced centimorgan together.
Instead of looking solely at the Erickson surname, she examined the shared match networks and uncovered a crucial document: a marriage license between an Erickson and a Keatts.
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| The official marriage record between Samuel Erickson and Lula Keatts in Dickson County, Tennessee. Finding this document was the breakthrough key that connected the Swedish Erickson line to the Keatts matches in our DNA pool. |
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| I was finally able to find a connection between the Erickson and Keatts lines... and they only had one son, Oscar Erickson!” — Search Angel Serena, breaking the news on July 18, 2024. |
How the Pieces Fit Together
When she traced that couple’s movements, the entire mystery unraveled with pinpoint accuracy:
The Marriage: Samuel Erickson (1860–1937) married Lula Keatts (1876–?).
The Relocation: The couple had two children in Tennessee before migrating north to Minnesota.
The Son: Their son, Oscar Ed Erickson (born October 30, 1903 in Tennessee; died February 11, 1984), fit every single piece of the puzzle.
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| The Erickson–Keatts family line. Showing Samuel Erickson and Lula Keatts’ children, including Oscar Ed Erickson (1903–1984). |
Closing the Loop
With the genetic puzzle solved and confirmed to 100% certainty, I reached back out to share the breakthrough update to Cousin Rondi in this email:
"Well, we finally found the Erickson to Uncle Burton's hint. He knew what he was talking about. Haven't found the band/music piece or any of what happened, but we got an Erickson name verified by DNA.
We were so close—in the same family, but a different branch."
A lady I recently asked for help from the DNA Detectives FB group discovered a marriage license of an Erickson and Keatts (she had discovered the Keatts name in all the DNA matches). She found they had two children and they moved to Minnesota.
Their son fits to be my grandmother's father: Oscar Ed Erickson (30 October 1903, Tennessee – 11 Feb 1984).
He was born in Tennessee and moved with his parents to Minnesota—just 20 minutes from Hackensack in White Oak, Minnesota. He would have been 28 and LaVida was 15 when Lillian was born in 1932. He moved to Illinois shortly after, married, and had more kids (the next child was born in 1935).
His children had kids.
Oscar's father was Samuel Erickson (1860–1937) who married Lula Keatts (1876–?). Samuel Erickson (1827–1895) is the son of Samuel Erickson and Sara Lena Andersdotter (1829–1891)—all from Sweden.
So there we have it. I had his sibling's child one line over! I've made close connections to families of siblings of Keatts and Erickson, but none from the direct line until now.
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| Grandma Lillian Mae Woock’s completed paternal tree line—restoring the missing branch of her heritage by connecting her directly to her biological father, Oscar Ed Erickson. |
For nearly a century, her biological paternal line sat blank—leaving questions that went unanswered in her lifetime. Connecting her name to Oscar Ed Erickson and the Erickson–Keatts lineage doesn't replace the family that raised her or the Woock legacy she carried, but it brings her genetic story full circle, replacing decades of silence with clarity, truth, and a completed tree.
A Face for the Unspoken Lineage: Grandma Lillian’s Half-Sister
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| Grandma Lillian’s paternal half-sister, Margaret Ruth Erickson (1937–2009). |
Full Circle: Giving Grandma Her Name
When this journey began, all we had was a painful sentence passed down through generations:
"Some things are left not talked about."
For decades, that wall of silence kept my grandmother from knowing where half of her story began. But thanks to genetic genealogy—and the quiet, sharp memory of a young boy in 1930s Minnesota—that silence was finally broken.
Before Uncle Burton Alfred Woock passed away in late 2024 at the age of 96, family was able to share the news with him. The name he had overheard as a child and carried silently for nearly a century wasn't just a rumor. He was right all along: it was Erickson.
Knowing that Uncle Burt got to hear that his childhood memory was validated by hard genetic science before he passed is one of the greatest gifts of this entire search. He wasn't just a witness to our family’s history—he was the key that unlocked it.
Grandma Lillian didn't get to hear her biological father's name in her lifetime, but her memory was honored. Oscar Ed Erickson is no longer a missing piece or a hidden secret. The truth was found, the lineage is restored, and the story is finally complete.
Acknowledgments & Photo Credits
A special thank you to cousin Mary Rich Halet from Minnesota for generously sharing these precious black-and-white family album photographs...
Deepest gratitude to Search Angel Serena from DNA Detectives, whose dedicated research broke through our long-standing brick wall...
Above all, my most heartfelt thanks to Cousin Rondi Kilham for standing in the gap as our family’s vital bridge—for reaching out to Aunt Lois Anderson and Uncle Burton Woock, traveling to Minnesota to gather stories, and holding open the door so this entire discovery could happen.
Her Legacy Lives On
Grandma Lillian spent years searching for her origins, but the family she created became her true masterpiece. Today, her story lives on through the children, grandchildren, and future generations who carry her memory forward.
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| Grandma Lillian’s son Michael Owen and family at Christmas 2021. |
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