Did you enjoy this week's video? Learn the whole scoop on grouping your DNA cousin matches in Grouping DNA Cousin Matches on Ancestry th-cam.com/video/ErWHYCLjjxM/w-d-xo.html Keep on climbing your family tree! -Diana, GTV Team
I love that you did this video. It verifies that I’m taking the right steps (thank you, you’ve taught us well 😁) I have a 700cM match with a locked tree, he does not respond to queries, but I’m 98% certain he’s from my grandfather’s “unknown, illegal” marriage. My poor mother would have had a heart attack if she knew what I have discovered. Can’t wait for 1950 to get more clues. It’s a messy case, but I’m on it like bubblegum. 😂 Thank you again!!
Same. Am going to try this method to answer some questions. I suspect my birth grandfather and grandfather on record are not one and the same. My parent does not look like their siblings, I don't have any DNA matches with the alleged grandfather and his family, plus there are many surnames in my DNA matches that I don't recognize. Was frustrated by the lack of response and/or family trees with these matches, so this might provide some answers or direction. I have no desire to disturb anyone's privacy or force some sort of relationship: it just would be nice to confirm my suspicions. The people that know these answers passed away decades ago and probably wouldn't discuss it if they were alive today.
Ignoring the empty tree wouldn't have solved a 55 year mystery for my 2nd cousin. I felt bad because in her small bio under her name, she mentioned she was a "lost child". So that is why I had so many questions regarding DNA and relationship linking. I wanted to help this lady know who her dad was. It just so happened the surname of the father was my mothers maiden name. So it took me time to wrap my head around how it all worked. I am 99% sure who it was based on all the answers to my questions that you provided to me. So I appreciate you taking the time to answer. Thank you. And I feel good knowing I solved that mystery for her, and whether she acts on it or not, is up to her.
I contacted a match about 15months ago who was very surprised, as he did not know who his bio-father was. He is the highest match on my paternal side at 380cm 5%. He believes he is a 1st cousin, (even though Ancestry showed him as a 1st-2nd cousin) and has added my grandparents as his. I have contacted people that we share matches (2nd-3rd cousins and higher) with but they either don't respond or are not keen. Thank you - I will build a spreadsheet and see where that leads. PS I met him a year ago and he was lovely, and very appreciative to meet someone related via his unknown father, as his mother had passed away. He has some hobbies/interests that didn't fit with his step family, however, was very pleased at the age of 59years to find his hobbies/interests run deep within his paternal family.
I've been doing genealogy since 2008 for myself and others and I have to say that your videos have been so extremely helpful and the way you explain is so straight forward and easy to understand. Great stuff!!!!
Agree, this method has helped me decide who to dig in to research and those I didn't have a need too. Also, even the matches with trees that have only a couple people have helped me too, as one provided a name I didn't have and based on that name I created a tree for him and researched how it connected back to our common ancestor. Broke down a big brick wall.
This is exactly what I've been doing to find my grandfather's parents. It's so nice to know I'm on the right track, and you've given me a couple more techniques to try. Thank you.
I have an Ancestry DNA 3rd cousin who doesn't know who he is. I called him, and he broke out crying. The man was left at 5 years old on the streets when his mother died as they traveled. So, he doesn't even know his last-name. All he remembers is his mother's first name. How sad! And he says he wants to know who he is before he dies. There was no way I could figure out how we were related because we share maternal and paternal DNA making things so confusing. And yet, there's another one from 23andMe with suffering with the same mystery. I tried to put myself into their shoes, and I think it must be a so depressing for them.
Make many trees and use the names you know of and build your try to the best of your ability and with the other tree you can guess and search and see if you do find stuff. 3rd cousin isn’t that far back
This is the most useful thing I have ever seen or used. My husband and his mother have almost NO knowledge regarding his father. He has sooooo many matches and I've done Leeds but I'm getting stuck and frustrated and this I think is going to help me break through.
Connie, I had watched this video previously and somehow forgot to follow up on it. I think this is one of the most powerful and relevant videos you have made for us! It's absolutely brilliant! I'm going to start using this procedure today. Many, many thanks for all the wonderful presentations and ideas you share with us. Barbara
Thanks for the video. I saw your note about a Wilson ancestor. I have Wilsons in Virginia. Thanks to DNA they trace back to a guy born 1665 in Maryland, then back to Scotland.
Connie - am I the only one who finds this video ironically timely? I had sorted & flagged most of my 20& up cM matches , and many below, including those with no trees & those with private trees . Recently I tried to click on some new-to-me matches in those categories. Zip. Now coloured in black. No longer clickable - exception: where Ancestry had identified a common ancestor. Mayday! I don't need to say how useful this is!
I like the way you always say a "direct line". Coming from families connected by cousins marrying, I can understand this very well. No DNA testing, because my cousins have done a lot of paper "research". But, of course, this path has its pitfalls too! Wonderful work you are doing.
This is video and really helpful to me. Especially because you have some “halfs” in there. I have tons of half cousins and am looking for a missing link in that line.
My paternal grandmother had twelve siblings, so my father had oodles and oodles of first cousins. Consequently, I have loads of DNA matches with people who are listed as 2nd-3rd cousins, but which are actually 1st cousins once removed. Using these techniques I have managed to correctly place many of them in my family tree. Thank you so much!
I had one where I did this about a year ago. I was working with my grandfather's matches. So I went to Match A who had no tree. Her shared matches had two in the extended family range (B & C). Granted distant family would also help me figure out where A fit in the tree. When I looked through the B and C I found a common last name for one of my grandfather's branches, Owen. Ironically it is where both of those trees ended. I made a Q&D tree to see if I could find out who this Owen was a daughter of and I found her father (and maybe her mother, it's been a while) already in my tree. So I did a little bit more research to that branch of the tree. It turns out that B and C are half-siblings. And as I was flushing out that branch, I found mentioned in an obituary A, who is the first cousin to B & C. What I think is important about this is because I started with match A that's why I was able to find her. Yes, there was enough information on B's and C's pages I would have been able to figure them out. But because I started with A I was keeping a look out for A as I was branching out a bit further. And I will admit, if she had been their second cousin I might not have found her then. It is possible she could have already been in my tree at that point and since A did not have a tree I might not have made the connection, or I might just not have stumbled across the connection. And all this happened because I decided I wanted to challenge myself and work with a match that didn't have a tree. It won't work on all matches, it may not even work on most matches, but sometimes one just has to try. I just wanted to share another example. Oh, and for those curious these are 3C's to my 91 year old grandfather.
Long before i saw this video i did a color coded sort of everyone 4th cousin or less in my dna associated with one of my great-grandparents. Having only 100 matches that were 4th cousin or less made it easy. Including using color coding of “shared matches”. But i had a wrinkle, 3 of my great grandparents lineages were showing that they were related. “But how?”, i thought. Further genealogical study found a couple born about 1770 to which these 3 lineages were related to. 2 of which made my grandparents 4th cousins to each other. The 3rd lineage was not directly related to me, but were related to 2 sets of my grandmothers grandparents, one of which was a full match, the other was a partial match. Other 3 of 8 of my great grandparents families are not represented in my genetic testing. Guess which lineages i need the most help from the dna testing? Yes, you guessed it, The second group of 3. Of the remaining 2 matches to great grandparents 1 is ok and the other constitutes 50% of my matches. The brother of my great grandma had a huge family with like 10 kids and most have done genealogy.
While overall, the lack of trees can be very frustrating, I know that there can be valid reasons for no trees. Adoptees searching may have no idea who to put in a tree. No tree is better than an incorrect tree, as I've found with my own. The paternal family that I grew up with is represented in my main tree (at the request of my children). I have DNA cousins who are related to the daddy who raised me, but obviously are genetically connected to me otherwise. But, since they see my daddy's family in there, that is their assumption of relationship to me, and that seems to end things on their end. I find the no-tree matches offer plenty of opportunity for discovery. In searching for the family identities of my no-tree matches, I've found family that I didn't even know that I needed to be searching for. So, my tree grows, not just with their lines, but others, too. Thanks for another great video. Have a blessed day.
I just realized how much easier it is for people with European descent to find so much information for their trees. My dna indicated I’m am practically 50% Spanish, 50% indigenous Mexican, and it is so hard finding information passed my great grandparents. The documents from Mexico and the information from Mexican census records are so limited. Ugh, I wish I had an easier process in finding such information.
No, not always the case. My grandfather on my mothers side is from Poland and when he and his parents came to America, changed their last name. I can't get anything past his parents. I also have ancestors from Europe that are brick walls past the 5th generation ( which I was lucky enough to get that far) The worst brick walls are the ones from the southern states. Now, I know some were mixed ( DNA says so) but it's like the ancestors that have NO TRACEABILITY, magically appeared in the southern colonies?? NO graves, no deeds.. NOTHING! only leads I have so far is to look further into melungeon ancestry ( European, Indigenous American and African). Redbones and brass ankles of South/North Carolina. I just wish I could find out who ALL my ancestors were ( and give them ALL the recognition they deserve). Just be noticed and accurately recorded. But, that won't happen! Only a few lines I can trace back super far and that's because they stemmed from nobility/antiquity. That's the only reason I know ( very accurately recorded) and they're verified through what is called "gateway" ancestors. Other than those few people, it's just brick walls!
Mexican records are easy to find especially coming from the church since Catholics liked to keep records it doesn’t matter if you have indigenous ancestry or mestizo or European ancestors as a long they were Catholic ( most of them were) you should be able to go farther than great grandparents. I have some documents I found going back to my sixth ( great great great great grandparents) and it came from very old church documents. Even with common names you can still find information if the ages birthdays , spouses , children match the documents. You have to be very patient, double/triple check your information and start slowly just remember people moved all the time for different reasons so don’t just concentrate on certain areas where you believe your family came from because they could easily have moved and you might be looking at the wrong state/city etc..
If you know your great grandparents you should be able to know their parents names since the information is listed in many official documents like marriage certificates, birth certificates etc…
@@sarahMuahahaha I knew a fellow named Smith was always telling Polish jokes and making fun of Polish names. His mom got on a genealogy kick and discovered that her husbands family did not come from England... Kowalski was the name and about 1880 or so somebody thought Smith would go over better in the upscale place they settled.
I am having an issue doing my husbands tree. His father is indigenous Mexican and Spanish. I read all the comments on your post and I'm going to try church records. Have never gone that route... so I don't know how to search for them but I know they were all super catholic. Good luck on your tree my dear.
Thanks Connie. My grandad had an affair in ww2, produced a daughter he had no knowledge of. However, she reconnected with my parents. On ancestry, it states she’s my 1st cousin, but she’s actually my aunt. Because my parents were 1st cousins, they are my cousins according to ancestry. My family confusing their algorithm methinks. 🇦🇺
Interesting. Yes your DNA is going to be a little goofy considering your parents were first cousins. Aunts and 1st cousins overlap in cM ranges, that's why it is showing that way... not to mention you have pedigree collapse with your parents. Ancestry is just guessing at the relationship.
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I have much more distant pedigree collapse but in several instances, think 7+ generations. I still get whacky DNA matched for super-distant cousins. I don't know how many 10th cousins Ive found that are supposed to be much closer according to DNA.
Connie I love your videos, you have the knack for explaining difficult scenarios and you make them easy to understand. You mention in this video about using Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the shared matches of my treeless DNA Match. Could you expand a bit on what information needs to be in the spreadsheet and how it should be setup. My brain is not clear on what the spreadsheet should look like and what info it should contain. Appreciate all you do for us.
I just recently got results on familytreedna for myself and my half-brother, there are a lot of matches with no trees, but now you've given me hope to make some connections even though the dna isn't on ancestry. My main tree and most of my research is on ancestry and I'll be doing dna later in the year. Familytreedna has something called Matrix that I am trying to figure out.
I have done this as well. It has helped solve several lines. I find it interesting you have JENSEN. My 2nd Great Grandmother was Pouline Jensen who married a Carl Julius Gudmund Christensen in 1885 in Garrisons Kirke, Kobenhavn, Denmark. I have no further info on her other than a possible sister named Christine. Pouline would have been born c1863. I only within the last week finally found information on who I believe to be my great grandfather, Jens Christensen (Pouline's son). He has been my 20+ year brick wall!!! I do belong to a Danish Genealogy Group, but it was a lady in the NYC Genealogy Group who broke down a few pieces of my wall when she found the marriage of my great grandparents. I still was not convinced this was them, as her surname was listed as BIRD, not BURKE, which is her correct surname. (she is my other brick wall for Ireland). Just in the last week, I finally found my grand uncles birth certificate, which proved that I had the right great grandparents because of a birth / death record of a child they had. Grand Uncles birth listed 2 children, one living. So, I knew I was on the right trail! This line is a great big mystery. If I found the correct great grandfather, he died in 1918 of the flu/pneumonia. :( I also found out he was a cook and also worked on ships, most likely how he arrived in the US and decided to stay. ... Never knew my Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys books would come in handy in my teens when I started on this journey! ;) Nothing like solving a great mystery! Best to you!
Thank you so much for this video, Connie. I only recently discovered the wonders of using DNA matches through Ancestry (I'm still not too familiar with how to utilize Family Tree DNA). I have my DNA results, and my parents' results, and what I'm most eager to uncover is my mom's great-grandfather's identity. As the story goes, my great-great-grandma had my great-grandpa out of wedlock in Sweden with a man who was a carpenter. This man died, crushed either by a house or boat while working on a project, apparently in Stockholm, and I assume about the time of my great-grandpa's birth, which was 1896. Seeing now how you compartmentalize your matches into groups, I'm going to go back and start doing this so I can see if I can pinpoint any potential DNA matches, even just through my mom's matches, to see if I can identify someone even remotely close to that "missing link." So many matches out there, but not seeing any name I can go to. Wish me luck!
Thanks Connie! I use matches a lot. They seem to either swamp me, or approach zero! (When a certain 2 colours overlap, I know where both lines went, & when . When No Tree matches start to pile up, I click on a 2C of my Nfld grandmother 's line & flag everyone accordingly. Cleans up a lot!) I'd not jump to the conclusion that Schroeder as a first name for that son means he's a son of....In several of my lines , I find it not uncommon for the first child (of appropriate gender) of the next marriage to bear the full name of the deceased spouse - especially where there's not already a child with that name. I'm still rooting around in my DNA cellar (below 20cM) , doing name searches, looking for clues to the identity of my 3rd great grandparents. I believe I've determined at least one pair of 4th ggp- lots of pedigree collapse at 30 to 60cM meant I couldn't miss or ignore them. Finding them in 50 matches from 14 to 19cM encourages me. Two clues: matches' trees peopled by descendants of their aunts & other ancestors, as well as of their siblings- some of whom never set foot in "my" territory. Secondly, while Ancestry doesn't show matches below 20cM, the reverse is not true: clicking on these 14cM matches shows all their matches from 20cM up. (This is indeed a blessing when working at this generational level!) Thanks again!
Several of my family members took DNA tests just to find out the percentages of their ethnicities, they have no trees, and have several thousand matches.. I have about 16 trees, but have not taken a DNA test, YET.
I was working through some shared matches with someone that I’m 3rd cousins with on my Paternal side. I started with “W”(my 3rd cousin) we are SM with “X” who we are a SM with “Y” who we are a SM with “Z”. “Z” ended up having Common Ancestors, so I clicked on that and found that “Z” was now my 2nd Cousin on the Maternal side. Talk about stopping me in my tracks. So somewhere in my rabbit trail of SM’s I had crossed from my Paternal side to my Maternal side…. I ran out of time for the evening, so I haven’t gotten to delve back into it but my goodness quite a surprise. I’m guessing that “Y” is the common denominator but we shall see. All of this started because I was grouping my SM’s.
I bet this helps a lot if you recognize the names of the shared matches. But when your match has a tree and no one in the family recognizes any of the names, and neither does anyone recognize the names of ANY of the shared matches…I don’t know where to go from here.
Go to the next shared match in the list... and keep working them until you find surnames you recognize and try to work off of that. You can also add people to a floating tree (within your tree) if you find surnames in the right place and right era that you strongly suspect are related. That way the hints start popping up for you.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you so much for responding, I really appreciate it! Unfortunately, although there are many names/surnames, there are none that anyone recognizes, and as I say, for the tree that is up for her, none of the names match. My thought is that it is an NPE situation, but I haven't figured out how to isolate which grandparent she would come from
@@GenealogyTV Just fyi, I actually have made a fair bit of a tree for the first match. None of the surnames match up or are recognized by family, however I did recently get a new match from one of the surnames in the tree I made.
Good video on how to do some detective work into matches that I've generally discarded. It's frustrating when people don't have trees (I guess many people just take a test for the Ethnicity Estimate), and even more so when they do have trees, but haven't linked their DNA to it, especially when it's managed by someone with a tree. I've generally discarded these (to a certain extent, or at least left them till last, and I've exhausted matches that do have trees with recognisable surnames and locations on them), but I would guess this only really works when the DNA match isn't very distant, as if they are you might have many shared matches all of which are in your tree, but don't really help you identify an exact branch and it's like looking for a needle in a haystack? If they are a distant shared match then they might not match some of your matches because you got a small fraction of a certain ancestors DNA whereas they didn't, just by chance, so isn't this a bit hit and miss? I guess though that's true of any match when you get down to 2nd and 3rd cousins and beyond. Great video though and gives me food for thought and something to go and have a look at to see what I can find.
No idea why this came up in my feed....but this is exactly what i am trying to do at the moment. I had a cousin reach out from England - I'm in Australia. The person has no idea how we share DNA, and quite frankly neither do I. My Nan was adopted, so there could be a link there that we just don't know of. I'm trying to follow the line of someone in their tree who immigrated to Australia, but there is no link to the state i live in - yet. Therefore, the most useful thing i got out of this video is the granparents-cousins link - i'd been trying to figure that out!
I think this is the most fun part of genetic genealogy, just I wished my grandfather's side had more matches. There's about a dozen matches on his paternal line, which was his cousin's family. Then there's 1 unknown 40cM cousin (on Ancestry), then the rest are 5th-8th cousins. A bit of DNA sleuthing history I've done - Looking on MyHeritage, which has more in the 35-50cM range, it's likely Southeast Poland and Ukraine from matches that don't fit my grandmother's side (hers is more northern and eastern Poland, and Balto-Russians). I've determined that my paternal line (dad's side is Polish) is likely northern and southern Poland, with some like-surnames appearing in Ukraine and possibly Belarus (depending on the spelling). I had done this years before Ancestry put things behind (seemingly confusing) paywalls. Beyond the 1 4th cousin (who doesn't know who his Slavic ancestor is), the rest are 5th-8th cousins, many seem Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian, Russian, German-Polish and German-Russian. MyHeritage at least places many of these in southeast Poland and West Ukraine. (There are East Ukrainians, but I think these are from my grandmother's Balto-Russian grandfather, who's family relocated to industrial cities like Donetsk). My dad and aunt have a collection of Ukrainian matches in the 40-50cM range, with Lithuanians (my grandmother's side) and Belarussians in the 35-40 cM range. These are the only mid-range cousins that aren't closely linked to my grandmother's side. There's 3 newer 50-70cM range cousins, and I think 1 or 2 may be behind my grandmother's paternal mother's brick wall. The following are my unknown matches that don't match my grandmother's brother, or youngest cousins, so likely my grandfather's side, although I do suspect a double cousin (? or a 4th cousin married another 4th cousin on the other side of my family) link on my paternal line. Great-grandfather's father - Only side with close matches (less than 4th cousin) on Ancestry adapting the Leed's Method to Ancestry's labels. Great-grandfather's mother - Her maiden name is found in Krakow, or Eastern Czechia with a Czechian spelling. Might be related to Hungarian matches, but matches are too distant (on MyHeritage) to link to any known person. Great-grandmother Father - Brick wall. Surname appears to be in Ukraine in a recent "close" match (55cM I think) who has the surname in their tree, but the family has moved between Poland and Ukraine throughout the generations. There's also Poles and Ukrainians (or at least, Cyrillic names) in the tree. Great-grandmother's mother - Brick wall. I'm not even 100% sure on the surname, either. Only possible hint is another genealogist said both she and likely her mother were orphans, and while she was born in Silesia, they may have travelled from elsewhere (they were "physical workers"). I wouldn't be surprised if they were from the group of Polish-Ukrainian matches that migrated to south and east Poland.
I am having trouble putting my maternal grandfathers family tree together. After doing the DNA test and putting the family tree together I was able to prove the family story that my grandfather was named after and raised by a man that was not his father. I have 1 close connection to what I think is his side of the family but when I reached out to this person he has not responded. I am not sure how to proceed since was the closest relative on that side he is a 2-3rd cousin to me. HELP!!!!
I really like your G-Rule. Trying to get cousins to attach to a tree is a pain. I often offer to do it for them, just to get it done. I have a question about that. Is it better to create their own little tree, or to attach to my big tree? I usually just create them an Ancestor Tree, bare bones n then attach the DNA. But I'm wondering if it will hurt or cause problems if I do it to my bigger main tree?
Hello Connie, I have hundreds and hundreds of matches on my mother's side, on both sides of her family. I have zero matches on my father's side. Is this because I am a woman? Thank you for your help?
I'm hoping you can address this question in a video sometime: on my mother's side, I have a few double 1C1R, 1C2R, and 1C3R. Going through my DNA matches (trying to find information on a 3x g grandmother's ancestors on my father's mother's side), I come across a match of mine who is on my mother's mother's father's line. BUT this match does NOT match any of my DOUBLE 1C1R, 1C2R OR 1C3R, so I'm wondering how can this be? I'll eventually do the color coding on Ancestry, which should be a big help with this.
Did have a cousin match who had 3% of my DNA. That's more then some cousins I know in real life. I figured she was likely a 2nd cousin. If she was a 3rd cousin with 3% of my DNA that would be pretty high. Turns out her grandfather is my grandmother brother. She was adopted so didn't grow up with the family. Shared matches is the best way to see where the cousins come from. Of course when they're related to you on both sides of your family it can be difficult to pinpoint where they came from.
DNA has blown my tree apart for both grandfathers. My closest matches are around 160-190cM 2nd/3rd cousins but I have no idea who they are. They don't have trees and don't respond to messages (though many are marked as being read), the same is true of the shared matches. I've grouped them together but without names to go on it's almost impossible to make progress. The closest matches I have with trees suggested 4th-6th or 5th-8th cousins. The only response I've had is from someone in the USA who has a large private tree, a 2nd-3rd cousin at 155cM, she wouldn't open her tree or reveal any surnames but advised me to ask others to open their trees and answer my questions. It feels like my matches have all attended 'How to Be Unhelpful' and passed with flying colours.
@@GenealogyTV I do have my DNA uploaded to those, unfortunately a lot of common surnames in the UK matches. I have managed to find the odd public tree here and there that may provide a few clues but often there is a discrepancy with dates/places/parents from one tree to another. I have quite a collection of records from various Family History Societies already and a few more look to be on the cards in the coming months.
I have a good handle on my GG grandparents and their children. It is my GGGfather that is the brick wall. He was born between 1800 and 1810, comes from Maryland, and has a common name. I may have picked up a clue from a recent Who do you think you Are program from a common last name being used as a middle name in my tree, place, and Quaker faith. The only reason I work on 2-3 cousins is the hope of getting back beyond them.
Can you please give me suggestions for how you identify a common ancestor of a cousin DNA match with many shared matches when they descend from an unknown father? The likely common ancestor is known to have disappeared and had another family and apparently went by another name we do not know.
That's a little complicated to answer here. You're going need to do traditional research along with research the other DNA matches in that branch. I suggest using the floating tree strategy to help research them. See this video Floating Trees on Ancestry: How and Why th-cam.com/video/Jut4yld-UnY/w-d-xo.html
@@GenealogyTV Thank you for response. I love the helpful videos. I do have a complicated mystery several generations have tried to solve. I appreciate any suggestions that will help.
SW is an estimated 2nd-3rd cousin. To associate her with your Jensen-Beck side, you need to confirm that she does not match other branches on your Jensen-Madson families. Your other estimated 2nd-3rd cousins will also possibly match William, but this does not show they are from the Jensen-Beck side. Your match William is estimated 5th-6th cousin, & a match this distant is when you should look back more, not with an estmated 2nd-3rd cousin.
Another reason to investigate and reach out is that this person may have family photos or family stories to share. This person may have a labeled photo of an unlabeled photo that you have or visa versa.
Hi Connie, Wonderful video! I have a female who shares 1213 cM and shares 17% DNA. Ancestry guesses she's a 1st or second cousin. Following your steps, I clicked on her name then on "Shared Matches". She's matching individuals on both my mother's and my father's sides. If I'm correct, that narrows her down to being an offspring of either my only brother, one of my nephews, or my only son. (I'm assuming my sisters, nieces, and daughter could not have had a baby without my knowledge.) Do you thing I'm on the right track? Many thanks! I've messaged this "cousin" 4 or 5 times, but she never responds.
Wow, that is a good amount Barbara! 🤔 I'd sure be surprised if she was a 1st cousin (and WAY surprised if she was a second cousin) ...not with that amount of DNA.. I'll bet you're on the right track to look into possible nieces or nephews... but hopefully Connie will weigh in when she's able to! 🥰
Barbara. I had a similar situation with one of my wife's matches. It turned out that the match's parents were first cousins. I've just edited this after checking mine and my wife's DNA matches. 1213cM is a lot. My wife shares 1868cM with her half-sister, and averages about 600cM with her first cousins. I share 1617cM with my uncle and from 510-710cM with my first cousins once removed. I only have 2 first cousins, and they haven't submitted their DNA. Personally, I'd have a talk with your brother about any first cousins he's... especially close with.
A couple of things to consider. Go to dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4 and look at all the possible relationships. You may have already done this. Consider the age of the match (if you know). That might help narrow down the possibilities too. Since she matches on both sides of your family, you have to consider there may be pedigree collapse too. Consider ALL possibilities.
QUESTION FOR ANYONE FOR CLARITY. I have viewed the video several times. My questions are Am I correct to assume this method applies ONLY to those who have common ancestors and some names/surnames listed? If so, are there any tips for those who don't show common ancestors names? I do know finding our DNA matches connections can be challenging. I'm wondering if I am missing something or some steps somewhere.
You can use either with common ancestors or not. The idea is that if you drill into the "Shared Matches" of someone without trees, then research those with trees... and basically do traditional genealogy to connect the DNA cousins to your family tree, then you can successfully work in trees with or without Common ancestors. Another trick is to search those Shared Matches trees for common surnames. You can do this either by scrolling to the bottom of the Shared Matches page or by searching the DNA match tree. Long story short, it is is a 2 or 3 step process. From the No Tree Person, click the Shared Matches tool in one tab, then open those Shared Matches (starting from the top) and research those who do have trees.
@@GenealogyTV - Do you have a video that specifically addresses what to do when you know which line a match comes from (Leeds method) but cannot find a common ancestor after you've built out dozens and dozens of match trees?
Gather everything you know about him. Search all DNA companies for close matches. Search in the area in which he was adopted out. If he is older than 72 you might find him in the 1950 census coming out this weekend.
That would take a little bit of work to figure out. You can go to DNApainter.com and look at the cM tool to figure out all possible relationships. It may be that you have two relationships if you have two different branches that lead to these people.
So, if two people have a great-grandparent in common, they're THIRD cousins? Is that how it works to figure out exactly what type of cousins two people are?
Use my "G Rule" Count the G's including the word Grandparent... so if you have a 3rd cousin... you likely have Great Great Grandparents in common. This is just a general rule of thumb. This does not take into account half relationships or removed (generational difference). So using your example... to people who have great grandparents in common (counting the G's) are 2nd cousins because there are two G's. It's just a quick and dirty way of figuring it quickly.
I;m sorry but I may be confused. In this segment titled "Use DNA Cousins without Family Trees", your examples both had public linked trees...not "without". Am I wrong?
The idea is to look at those cousin matches, even the ones without trees and click on the Shared Matches tool to find more DNA cousins along the same branches of the tree to discover those who do have trees.
In one of my Family lines because I have decent number of matches in Canada and California even though my mother was born in Ukraine. I managed to track down an emigration of my Great Great Grandaunt Kalina Ivanovna Ryabukha who left Ukraine in 1905 with her Husband Peter Koleada and settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. My Great Great Grandfather Grigory Ivanovich Ryabukha stayed in Ukraine.
Connie I need help my father was raised In an orphanage after the death of his mother and they couldn’t find the father. Cousin in the list don’t know or don’t write back Help
See if you can find out anything about the orphanage... newspapers, city directories, tax records, anything to learn more about it. Look at the state archives, county libraries. Do the same with any information you have on your father. Use DNA connections, shared matches to see other trees... for close cousins. Develop a research plan... stuff i teach at the GTV Academy. genealogytv.org/about-genealogy-tv-academy/ It's kind of hard to advise in a comment section.
That how I figured out how my grand fathers real Father was. I was lucky that my biological great grandfather had lots of brothers and sister and I was able to deduce from a second half cousins dna shared matches that my grandfather had a legitimate half sister.
@@GenealogyTV there really is not paper work. It was 1890. My grandfather was put out for adoption to a farm. He shows up on the 1900 census as a 10 year old servant on a farm which is consistent with what my Grandmother said. I could be wrong but the DNA matches up and down their family tree.
In the USA and many countries even if you can prove you are a blood relative it doesn’t automatically give you a right to inheritance unless you were mentioned in their will/ state .
Great info! Thanks. Maybe somebody can help me. One of my distant relatives in ancestry is 100% portuguese which is very unusual. I have 7% portuguese DNA and of course my only connection with him. If ancestry is correct my DNA comes from his family. I sent him a message but unfortunately many matches don't have the interest in building a family tree. Is my Portuguese DNA from his ancestors or can be inherited from other people?
Viktor, have you looked at that person's "shared matches"? If you've created a tree for yourself and then you look at your shared matches with the person, you can immediately tell which side of your family you're linked to them by... (unless you already know which of your parents had Portuguese DNA) Maybe Connie will weigh in about the100% when she can? Have you created a tree for yourself either on Ancestry or the free site FamilySearch? It definitely helps to build your tree, then when you look at your "shared matches" with people like that, it makes it so much easier to figure out how they are linked to you~~ 😊
@@bearpawz_ according to ancestry I don't have any shared match with him. Is so strange finding someone that has a 100% ethnicity and sharing DNA with me. I have thousands of matches in Ancestry, many of them also have Portuguese DNA but also we have in common other ethnicities. I trust DNA results but for me this is something unusual. And yes, I'm building my tree in ancestry and have around two hundred direct ancestors. Some of my great great grandfathers had many but many children. Sometimes I get tired of researching because so many dead relatives😀 I haven't included the living relatives, too many.
@@viktoryosiel Hi Viktor! I'll bet as you keep adding people to your tree, someone will show up as a "shared match" to that person, even if they never create a tree. That's so funny about getting tired of researching dead relatives! 😅LOL! When I first started on Ancestry about 9 years ago, some lady sent me a message out of the blue on the site that said: "Your grandfather was a murderer". I wrote her back and asked her "which grandfather?? And I asked her if she & I were related. Around 3 weeks later, she wrote again & all she said was "you'll figure it out". Talk about mysterious!! 😲 I did eventually locate news articles & she was right.. except that it was my great grandfather, not grandfather. He shot a guy in Phoenix b'cas he thought the guy was flirting with his wife.. I still don't know how she's connected though since she hasn't written back. That's been the strangest communication I've ever had on there with anyone though!
@@bearpawz_ yes, doing genealogy research is kind of detective work. I didn't know why my grandfather was so disfuncional until I discovered that his father married three times, two of them were sisters, when the first sister died he waited 10 years to marry my grandfather's mother but he was already 10 years old and was born a natural son, not legitimate son and in the past some children were ashamed of this label. His father took care of him and all his children in the same way, they never lacked food or anything else since he was rich. He had 17 brothers and sisters, he had another full brother, 13 half brothers and sisters but they were also first cousins, and 2 half brothers from his father first wife. I guess too many kids fighting for love and attention and he was the sensitive one. Anyway, thank you for your help, I have over ten thousand matches in Ancestry, enough to keep me busy the rest of my life.
Hi I need your help I tool the 23&me and Ancestry DNA. I found a lady on both of them. We became very close. She told me that she was found in a trunk of car in Philadelphia pa wrap In a blanket. Now around that time grandmothers where living in that area. I don't think she on my mother's side of the family because she isn't related to the cousin on that side. Plus my mother had just gave birth to a baby on March 5 of that year Now on 23& me they are saying she is my grandmother. I told the who my grandmother was on my grandmother dad side was. So can help use figure this out. She &us wants to know where she same from. I told her that it really don't matter to me because she is still my family and I love her anyway. 💕
Cousins?? I can't keep up with all my Grandparents. I did get an email from familysearch, telling me that Marie Antoinette was my 11th cousin once removed.
and sadly we become addicted and have no expectation of being any more in tune with these 10,000 cousins who often do not really care. But yes I have gotten 3 people who were ADOPTED REUNITED. mY mat aunt is also a half sibling and still cannot find her father >5 years (he is also related 3rd or larger)
I don’t know why AncestryDNA can’t just say what side everybody is on. I’m lost with trying to figure out who is my father side because my grandma had 17 kids😩 it’s so hard to found my father side. Because my grandfather had 22 outside kids. So all I see it’s my mom side alot.
Hi, Connie! Great video! My issue over the years is people with no trees and also no shared matches. I am trying to find my mother's father's father and I have many, many matches in this situation that I believe will lead to potentially finding that person or path. I've reached out to several of them over the years and they either didn't reply or said they didn't have any of the same people in their tree as I do. Any advise?
Sharon, I have a very similar issue. I'm searching for my Great Grandfather (father's father's father!) to no avail. My paternal Grandfather was born out of wedlock in 1922, and I'm beginning to believe that the surname given to him (Burns) may not be the actual biological father's name. I have plenty of matches/shared matches for the maternal side, but the paternal seems almost nonexistent. So frustrating! Hopefully I can use Connie's wonderful information to dig a little deeper.
Sherry if at possible get a male from the line you are in question of and do a y DNA test it will give you the surname you need. I used my brother in order to discover the actual surname of my Dad's Biological Father's surname since we had two names floating and I found the surname and confirmed the correct surname...just a thought
@@sherryledbetter1856 HI, Sherry! Yes, it is very frustrating! I have a similar situation. My grandfather was born in 1915 and his mother refused to tell him who his father was; he was a result of a relationship with a married man with kids. My goal was to find out the info for my mom since she never knew who her paternal grandfather was, but she died over 2 years ago. My new goal is to finally find out so that her siblings will know. I think I have narrowed the surname down to two names, but most of my 2-3x dna cousin matches don't have trees. :-( I may just have to save money and hire someone. :-)
@@cindycarrasco2383Thank you!! I hope to be able to do that in the near future. I've found a half brother from my bio father, but we haven't met in person yet. I was adopted at birth, I'm 57, and I've just discovered my biological family in the last 4 years.
Sherry...that is awesome...I still haven't made contact yet with my Dad's Biological Father's Family yet not really sure if I want to due to rejection but who knows I might get brave one day...glad you have or will get to meet your family 😉
Oh... to quote the great Judy Russell (the Legal Genealogist) "It depends." Different states have different laws about adoption records and their release. I have several videos on how to use DNA for missing parents. Watch this video... th-cam.com/video/792WHKBIOy4/w-d-xo.html Then watch this playlist. th-cam.com/play/PLiMXWjHlj5RS-KZqywC6nxWeOlnfMPAiO.html
"Thus the representations of the things in heaven had to be purified with the blood of animals. The true Heavenly Things, however, had to be purified by far superior sacrifices. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands, a mere representation of the sanctuary. True in Heaven. He has entered Heaven itself, in order now to present himself before God on our behalf." (Hebrews 9:23-24) God bless your life! 😊
Hi Genealogy TV, I think I have found my great grandparents. I'm near positive. They are what I have in common with all my paternal cousins. I haven't found my dad or grandfather yet. I have a guess of who the grandfather is. Any way My great granddads name was Henry Matteson. If I trace him back to before my 8th grandfather some of these guys were supposedly named Madtzen. Are the Madtzens related to the Madsens?
Did you enjoy this week's video? Learn the whole scoop on grouping your DNA cousin matches in Grouping DNA Cousin Matches on Ancestry
th-cam.com/video/ErWHYCLjjxM/w-d-xo.html
Keep on climbing your family tree!
-Diana, GTV Team
I actually learned a tip that I didn't know! Great information.
I love that you did this video. It verifies that I’m taking the right steps (thank you, you’ve taught us well 😁) I have a 700cM match with a locked tree, he does not respond to queries, but I’m 98% certain he’s from my grandfather’s “unknown, illegal” marriage. My poor mother would have had a heart attack if she knew what I have discovered. Can’t wait for 1950 to get more clues. It’s a messy case, but I’m on it like bubblegum. 😂 Thank you again!!
I've got a hot mass going on with my family tree because there are several adoptions, and no open records yet. I don't know what to do
Same. Am going to try this method to answer some questions. I suspect my birth grandfather and grandfather on record are not one and the same. My parent does not look like their siblings, I don't have any DNA matches with the alleged grandfather and his family, plus there are many surnames in my DNA matches that I don't recognize. Was frustrated by the lack of response and/or family trees with these matches, so this might provide some answers or direction. I have no desire to disturb anyone's privacy or force some sort of relationship: it just would be nice to confirm my suspicions. The people that know these answers passed away decades ago and probably wouldn't discuss it if they were alive today.
Ignoring the empty tree wouldn't have solved a 55 year mystery for my 2nd cousin. I felt bad because in her small bio under her name, she mentioned she was a "lost child". So that is why I had so many questions regarding DNA and relationship linking. I wanted to help this lady know who her dad was. It just so happened the surname of the father was my mothers maiden name. So it took me time to wrap my head around how it all worked. I am 99% sure who it was based on all the answers to my questions that you provided to me. So I appreciate you taking the time to answer. Thank you. And I feel good knowing I solved that mystery for her, and whether she acts on it or not, is up to her.
This is amazing. You give me hope
It took me a day or two and many messages and phone calls to discover the parents of an unknown 2nd cousin. It worked out fine for everyone.
I contacted a match about 15months ago who was very surprised, as he did not know who his bio-father was. He is the highest match on my paternal side at 380cm 5%. He believes he is a 1st cousin, (even though Ancestry showed him as a 1st-2nd cousin) and has added my grandparents as his. I have contacted people that we share matches (2nd-3rd cousins and higher) with but they either don't respond or are not keen. Thank you - I will build a spreadsheet and see where that leads. PS I met him a year ago and he was lovely, and very appreciative to meet someone related via his unknown father, as his mother had passed away. He has some hobbies/interests that didn't fit with his step family, however, was very pleased at the age of 59years to find his hobbies/interests run deep within his paternal family.
He might consider taking a YDNA test.
I've been doing Ancestry research for about 20 years and I've never heard the G rule....so easy!!? Thank you
Yeah... I made it up as a way for me to remember the DNA cousins and how they are roughly related.
I've been doing genealogy since 2008 for myself and others and I have to say that your videos have been so extremely helpful and the way you explain is so straight forward and easy to understand. Great stuff!!!!
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Agree, this method has helped me decide who to dig in to research and those I didn't have a need too. Also, even the matches with trees that have only a couple people have helped me too, as one provided a name I didn't have and based on that name I created a tree for him and researched how it connected back to our common ancestor. Broke down a big brick wall.
This is exactly what I've been doing to find my grandfather's parents. It's so nice to know I'm on the right track, and you've given me a couple more techniques to try. Thank you.
You are so welcome!
I have an Ancestry DNA 3rd cousin who doesn't know who he is. I called him, and he broke out crying. The man was left at 5 years old on the streets when his mother died as they traveled. So, he doesn't even know his last-name. All he remembers is his mother's first name. How sad! And he says he wants to know who he is before he dies. There was no way I could figure out how we were related because we share maternal and paternal DNA making things so confusing. And yet, there's another one from 23andMe with suffering with the same mystery. I tried to put myself into their shoes, and I think it must be a so depressing for them.
Tell them to join Facebook DNA groups, and request a free search angel
Make many trees and use the names you know of and build your try to the best of your ability and with the other tree you can guess and search and see if you do find stuff. 3rd cousin isn’t that far back
Poor man!
This is the most useful thing I have ever seen or used.
My husband and his mother have almost NO knowledge regarding his father.
He has sooooo many matches and I've done Leeds but I'm getting stuck and frustrated and this I think is going to help me break through.
Connie, I had watched this video previously and somehow forgot to follow up on it. I think this is one of the most powerful and relevant videos you have made for us! It's absolutely brilliant! I'm going to start using this procedure today. Many, many thanks for all the wonderful presentations and ideas you share with us. Barbara
Wonderful! Thank you for the compliments.
Thanks for the video. I saw your note about a Wilson ancestor. I have Wilsons in Virginia. Thanks to DNA they trace back to a guy born 1665 in Maryland, then back to Scotland.
Connie - am I the only one who finds this video ironically timely?
I had sorted & flagged most of my 20& up cM matches , and many below, including those with no trees & those with private trees .
Recently I tried to click on some new-to-me matches in those categories. Zip. Now coloured in black. No longer clickable - exception: where Ancestry had identified a common ancestor.
Mayday!
I don't need to say how useful this is!
I'm wondering if you had a filter turned on. Start over again from the top of the DNA tab on the home screen to clear any filters.
I like the way you always say a "direct line". Coming from families connected by cousins marrying, I can understand this very well. No DNA testing, because my cousins have done a lot of paper "research". But, of course, this path has its pitfalls too! Wonderful work you are doing.
Thank you.
Oh, my.....very VALUABLE information this morning!!!! I am anxious to use this hints and tips to investigate my "no tree" cousins!!! Thank you
This is video and really helpful to me. Especially because you have some “halfs” in there. I have tons of half cousins and am looking for a missing link in that line.
Thanks for this, I have clicked on Shared DNA Matches in the past but really didn’t understand how useful it can be in triangulating to a real match.
My paternal grandmother had twelve siblings, so my father had oodles and oodles of first cousins. Consequently, I have loads of DNA matches with people who are listed as 2nd-3rd cousins, but which are actually 1st cousins once removed. Using these techniques I have managed to correctly place many of them in my family tree. Thank you so much!
Awesome. Congratulations. Thanks
I had one where I did this about a year ago. I was working with my grandfather's matches. So I went to Match A who had no tree. Her shared matches had two in the extended family range (B & C). Granted distant family would also help me figure out where A fit in the tree. When I looked through the B and C I found a common last name for one of my grandfather's branches, Owen. Ironically it is where both of those trees ended. I made a Q&D tree to see if I could find out who this Owen was a daughter of and I found her father (and maybe her mother, it's been a while) already in my tree. So I did a little bit more research to that branch of the tree. It turns out that B and C are half-siblings. And as I was flushing out that branch, I found mentioned in an obituary A, who is the first cousin to B & C.
What I think is important about this is because I started with match A that's why I was able to find her. Yes, there was enough information on B's and C's pages I would have been able to figure them out. But because I started with A I was keeping a look out for A as I was branching out a bit further. And I will admit, if she had been their second cousin I might not have found her then. It is possible she could have already been in my tree at that point and since A did not have a tree I might not have made the connection, or I might just not have stumbled across the connection.
And all this happened because I decided I wanted to challenge myself and work with a match that didn't have a tree. It won't work on all matches, it may not even work on most matches, but sometimes one just has to try. I just wanted to share another example. Oh, and for those curious these are 3C's to my 91 year old grandfather.
I didn't realize the color-coding dots would show up inside the shared matches list. That's really helpful.
Glad it helped!
Good to know. I have so many with no tree. This will help a lot.
Long before i saw this video i did a color coded sort of everyone 4th cousin or less in my dna associated with one of my great-grandparents. Having only 100 matches that were 4th cousin or less made it easy. Including using color coding of “shared matches”. But i had a wrinkle, 3 of my great grandparents lineages were showing that they were related. “But how?”, i thought. Further genealogical study found a couple born about 1770 to which these 3 lineages were related to. 2 of which made my grandparents 4th cousins to each other. The 3rd lineage was not directly related to me, but were related to 2 sets of my grandmothers grandparents, one of which was a full match, the other was a partial match.
Other 3 of 8 of my great grandparents families are not represented in my genetic testing. Guess which lineages i need the most help from the dna testing? Yes, you guessed it, The second group of 3.
Of the remaining 2 matches to great grandparents 1 is ok and the other constitutes 50% of my matches. The brother of my great grandma had a huge family with like 10 kids and most have done genealogy.
While overall, the lack of trees can be very frustrating, I know that there can be valid reasons for no trees. Adoptees searching may have no idea who to put in a tree. No tree is better than an incorrect tree, as I've found with my own. The paternal family that I grew up with is represented in my main tree (at the request of my children). I have DNA cousins who are related to the daddy who raised me, but obviously are genetically connected to me otherwise. But, since they see my daddy's family in there, that is their assumption of relationship to me, and that seems to end things on their end.
I find the no-tree matches offer plenty of opportunity for discovery. In searching for the family identities of my no-tree matches, I've found family that I didn't even know that I needed to be searching for. So, my tree grows, not just with their lines, but others, too.
Thanks for another great video. Have a blessed day.
Thanks Suzanne
@@GenealogyTV You're welcome, Connie.
I just realized how much easier it is for people with European descent to find so much information for their trees. My dna indicated I’m am practically 50% Spanish, 50% indigenous Mexican, and it is so hard finding information passed my great grandparents. The documents from Mexico and the information from Mexican census records are so limited. Ugh, I wish I had an easier process in finding such information.
No, not always the case. My grandfather on my mothers side is from Poland and when he and his parents came to America, changed their last name. I can't get anything past his parents. I also have ancestors from Europe that are brick walls past the 5th generation ( which I was lucky enough to get that far) The worst brick walls are the ones from the southern states. Now, I know some were mixed ( DNA says so) but it's like the ancestors that have NO TRACEABILITY, magically appeared in the southern colonies?? NO graves, no deeds.. NOTHING! only leads I have so far is to look further into melungeon ancestry ( European, Indigenous American and African). Redbones and brass ankles of South/North Carolina. I just wish I could find out who ALL my ancestors were ( and give them ALL the recognition they deserve). Just be noticed and accurately recorded. But, that won't happen! Only a few lines I can trace back super far and that's because they stemmed from nobility/antiquity. That's the only reason I know ( very accurately recorded) and they're verified through what is called "gateway" ancestors. Other than those few people, it's just brick walls!
Mexican records are easy to find especially coming from the church since Catholics liked to keep records it doesn’t matter if you have indigenous ancestry or mestizo or European ancestors as a long they were Catholic ( most of them were) you should be able to go farther than great grandparents. I have some documents I found going back to my sixth ( great great great great grandparents) and it came from very old church documents. Even with common names you can still find information if the ages birthdays , spouses , children match the documents. You have to be very patient, double/triple check your information and start slowly just remember people moved all the time for different reasons so don’t just concentrate on certain areas where you believe your family came from because they could easily have moved and you might be looking at the wrong state/city etc..
If you know your great grandparents you should be able to know their parents names since the information is listed in many official documents like marriage certificates, birth certificates etc…
@@sarahMuahahaha I knew a fellow named Smith was always telling Polish jokes and making fun of Polish names. His mom got on a genealogy kick and discovered that her husbands family did not come from England... Kowalski was the name and about 1880 or so somebody thought Smith would go over better in the upscale place they settled.
I am having an issue doing my husbands tree. His father is indigenous Mexican and Spanish.
I read all the comments on your post and I'm going to try church records. Have never gone that route... so I don't know how to search for them but I know they were all super catholic.
Good luck on your tree my dear.
Thanks Connie for this video definitely help me to narrow down matches with no trees
You are so welcome!
When you were talking about Beck my Grandmother was born October 30, 1898 one of 11 kids her father was Franklin Beck his father was Francis Beck.
Thanks Connie. My grandad had an affair in ww2, produced a daughter he had no knowledge of. However, she reconnected with my parents. On ancestry, it states she’s my 1st cousin, but she’s actually my aunt. Because my parents were 1st cousins, they are my cousins according to ancestry. My family confusing their algorithm methinks. 🇦🇺
Interesting. Yes your DNA is going to be a little goofy considering your parents were first cousins. Aunts and 1st cousins overlap in cM ranges, that's why it is showing that way... not to mention you have pedigree collapse with your parents. Ancestry is just guessing at the relationship.
I have much more distant pedigree collapse but in several instances, think 7+ generations. I still get whacky DNA matched for super-distant cousins. I don't know how many 10th cousins Ive found that are supposed to be much closer according to DNA.
I just found your video and can't wait to watchthe rest!
Connie I love your videos, you have the knack for explaining difficult scenarios and you make them
easy to understand. You mention in this video about using Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the shared matches of my treeless DNA Match. Could you expand a bit on what information needs to be in the spreadsheet and how it should be setup. My brain is not clear on what the spreadsheet should look like and what info it should contain. Appreciate all you do for us.
Here's a video about it. Organizing DNA Cousin Matches using Excel Spreadsheets th-cam.com/video/mlzAoiwSWIE/w-d-xo.html
So confusing but I LOVE the detective work!!
Me to
I just recently got results on familytreedna for myself and my half-brother, there are a lot of matches with no trees, but now you've given me hope to make some connections even though the dna isn't on ancestry. My main tree and most of my research is on ancestry and I'll be doing dna later in the year. Familytreedna has something called Matrix that I am trying to figure out.
I have done this as well. It has helped solve several lines. I find it interesting you have JENSEN. My 2nd Great Grandmother was Pouline Jensen who married a Carl Julius Gudmund Christensen in 1885 in Garrisons Kirke, Kobenhavn, Denmark. I have no further info on her other than a possible sister named Christine. Pouline would have been born c1863. I only within the last week finally found information on who I believe to be my great grandfather, Jens Christensen (Pouline's son). He has been my 20+ year brick wall!!! I do belong to a Danish Genealogy Group, but it was a lady in the NYC Genealogy Group who broke down a few pieces of my wall when she found the marriage of my great grandparents. I still was not convinced this was them, as her surname was listed as BIRD, not BURKE, which is her correct surname. (she is my other brick wall for Ireland). Just in the last week, I finally found my grand uncles birth certificate, which proved that I had the right great grandparents because of a birth / death record of a child they had. Grand Uncles birth listed 2 children, one living. So, I knew I was on the right trail! This line is a great big mystery. If I found the correct great grandfather, he died in 1918 of the flu/pneumonia. :( I also found out he was a cook and also worked on ships, most likely how he arrived in the US and decided to stay. ... Never knew my Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys books would come in handy in my teens when I started on this journey! ;) Nothing like solving a great mystery! Best to you!
Thank you so much for this video, Connie. I only recently discovered the wonders of using DNA matches through Ancestry (I'm still not too familiar with how to utilize Family Tree DNA). I have my DNA results, and my parents' results, and what I'm most eager to uncover is my mom's great-grandfather's identity. As the story goes, my great-great-grandma had my great-grandpa out of wedlock in Sweden with a man who was a carpenter. This man died, crushed either by a house or boat while working on a project, apparently in Stockholm, and I assume about the time of my great-grandpa's birth, which was 1896. Seeing now how you compartmentalize your matches into groups, I'm going to go back and start doing this so I can see if I can pinpoint any potential DNA matches, even just through my mom's matches, to see if I can identify someone even remotely close to that "missing link." So many matches out there, but not seeing any name I can go to. Wish me luck!
Look in newspapers in Stockholm to see if the accident was written about. Good luck! www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Sweden_Newspapers
@@GenealogyTV I should have thought of it! 🤦♂️I will check it out, thank you!
Another very useful video with great example. Will really help in exploring those DNA cousins without trees
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Connie!
I use matches a lot. They seem to either swamp me, or approach zero! (When a certain 2 colours overlap, I know where both lines went, & when . When No Tree matches start to pile up, I click on a 2C of my Nfld grandmother 's line & flag everyone accordingly. Cleans up a lot!)
I'd not jump to the conclusion that Schroeder as a first name for that son means he's a son of....In several of my lines , I find it not uncommon for the first child (of appropriate gender) of the next marriage to bear the full name of the deceased spouse - especially where there's not already a child with that name.
I'm still rooting around in my DNA cellar (below 20cM) , doing name searches, looking for clues to the identity of my 3rd great grandparents.
I believe I've determined at least one pair of 4th ggp- lots of pedigree collapse at 30 to 60cM meant I couldn't miss or ignore them. Finding them in 50 matches from 14 to 19cM encourages me.
Two clues: matches' trees peopled by descendants of their aunts & other ancestors, as well as of their siblings- some of whom never set foot in "my" territory. Secondly, while Ancestry doesn't show matches below 20cM, the reverse is not true: clicking on these 14cM matches shows all their matches from 20cM up. (This is indeed a blessing when working at this generational level!)
Thanks again!
I ran into a few DNA cousins on 23 and Me recently! I have no idea who they are but they’re 2nd cousins!
Several of my family members took DNA tests just to find out the percentages of their ethnicities, they have no trees, and have several thousand matches.. I have about 16 trees, but have not taken a DNA test, YET.
I was working through some shared matches with someone that I’m 3rd cousins with on my Paternal side. I started with “W”(my 3rd cousin) we are SM with “X” who we are a SM with “Y” who we are a SM with “Z”. “Z” ended up having Common Ancestors, so I clicked on that and found that “Z” was now my 2nd Cousin on the Maternal side. Talk about stopping me in my tracks. So somewhere in my rabbit trail of SM’s I had crossed from my Paternal side to my Maternal side…. I ran out of time for the evening, so I haven’t gotten to delve back into it but my goodness quite a surprise. I’m guessing that “Y” is the common denominator but we shall see. All of this started because I was grouping my SM’s.
Just found this video this morning. Hopefully this will help me find my grandmother's family who unfortunately has a very common last name. Smith
I bet this helps a lot if you recognize the names of the shared matches. But when your match has a tree and no one in the family recognizes any of the names, and neither does anyone recognize the names of ANY of the shared matches…I don’t know where to go from here.
Go to the next shared match in the list... and keep working them until you find surnames you recognize and try to work off of that. You can also add people to a floating tree (within your tree) if you find surnames in the right place and right era that you strongly suspect are related. That way the hints start popping up for you.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you so much for responding, I really appreciate it! Unfortunately, although there are many names/surnames, there are none that anyone recognizes, and as I say, for the tree that is up for her, none of the names match. My thought is that it is an NPE situation, but I haven't figured out how to isolate which grandparent she would come from
@@GenealogyTV Just fyi, I actually have made a fair bit of a tree for the first match. None of the surnames match up or are recognized by family, however I did recently get a new match from one of the surnames in the tree I made.
I have come across this before. You have to build a tree for them from what you can find. After a while you can figure out the person's tree.
Good video on how to do some detective work into matches that I've generally discarded. It's frustrating when people don't have trees (I guess many people just take a test for the Ethnicity Estimate), and even more so when they do have trees, but haven't linked their DNA to it, especially when it's managed by someone with a tree.
I've generally discarded these (to a certain extent, or at least left them till last, and I've exhausted matches that do have trees with recognisable surnames and locations on them), but I would guess this only really works when the DNA match isn't very distant, as if they are you might have many shared matches all of which are in your tree, but don't really help you identify an exact branch and it's like looking for a needle in a haystack?
If they are a distant shared match then they might not match some of your matches because you got a small fraction of a certain ancestors DNA whereas they didn't, just by chance, so isn't this a bit hit and miss? I guess though that's true of any match when you get down to 2nd and 3rd cousins and beyond. Great video though and gives me food for thought and something to go and have a look at to see what I can find.
No idea why this came up in my feed....but this is exactly what i am trying to do at the moment. I had a cousin reach out from England - I'm in Australia. The person has no idea how we share DNA, and quite frankly neither do I. My Nan was adopted, so there could be a link there that we just don't know of. I'm trying to follow the line of someone in their tree who immigrated to Australia, but there is no link to the state i live in - yet.
Therefore, the most useful thing i got out of this video is the granparents-cousins link - i'd been trying to figure that out!
I think this is the most fun part of genetic genealogy, just I wished my grandfather's side had more matches. There's about a dozen matches on his paternal line, which was his cousin's family. Then there's 1 unknown 40cM cousin (on Ancestry), then the rest are 5th-8th cousins.
A bit of DNA sleuthing history I've done - Looking on MyHeritage, which has more in the 35-50cM range, it's likely Southeast Poland and Ukraine from matches that don't fit my grandmother's side (hers is more northern and eastern Poland, and Balto-Russians). I've determined that my paternal line (dad's side is Polish) is likely northern and southern Poland, with some like-surnames appearing in Ukraine and possibly Belarus (depending on the spelling). I had done this years before Ancestry put things behind (seemingly confusing) paywalls. Beyond the 1 4th cousin (who doesn't know who his Slavic ancestor is), the rest are 5th-8th cousins, many seem Polish-Ukrainian, Ukrainian, Russian, German-Polish and German-Russian. MyHeritage at least places many of these in southeast Poland and West Ukraine. (There are East Ukrainians, but I think these are from my grandmother's Balto-Russian grandfather, who's family relocated to industrial cities like Donetsk). My dad and aunt have a collection of Ukrainian matches in the 40-50cM range, with Lithuanians (my grandmother's side) and Belarussians in the 35-40 cM range. These are the only mid-range cousins that aren't closely linked to my grandmother's side. There's 3 newer 50-70cM range cousins, and I think 1 or 2 may be behind my grandmother's paternal mother's brick wall.
The following are my unknown matches that don't match my grandmother's brother, or youngest cousins, so likely my grandfather's side, although I do suspect a double cousin (? or a 4th cousin married another 4th cousin on the other side of my family) link on my paternal line.
Great-grandfather's father - Only side with close matches (less than 4th cousin) on Ancestry adapting the Leed's Method to Ancestry's labels.
Great-grandfather's mother - Her maiden name is found in Krakow, or Eastern Czechia with a Czechian spelling. Might be related to Hungarian matches, but matches are too distant (on MyHeritage) to link to any known person.
Great-grandmother Father - Brick wall. Surname appears to be in Ukraine in a recent "close" match (55cM I think) who has the surname in their tree, but the family has moved between Poland and Ukraine throughout the generations. There's also Poles and Ukrainians (or at least, Cyrillic names) in the tree.
Great-grandmother's mother - Brick wall. I'm not even 100% sure on the surname, either. Only possible hint is another genealogist said both she and likely her mother were orphans, and while she was born in Silesia, they may have travelled from elsewhere (they were "physical workers"). I wouldn't be surprised if they were from the group of Polish-Ukrainian matches that migrated to south and east Poland.
How do I sort out the DNA matches to groups from different sites and how do I pin them on my tree?
I outline them in either Excel or Lucid chart.
I am having trouble putting my maternal grandfathers family tree together. After doing the DNA test and putting the family tree together I was able to prove the family story that my grandfather was named after and raised by a man that was not his father. I have 1 close connection to what I think is his side of the family but when I reached out to this person he has not responded. I am not sure how to proceed since was the closest relative on that side he is a 2-3rd cousin to me. HELP!!!!
I really like your G-Rule. Trying to get cousins to attach to a tree is a pain. I often offer to do it for them, just to get it done. I have a question about that. Is it better to create their own little tree, or to attach to my big tree? I usually just create them an Ancestor Tree, bare bones n then attach the DNA. But I'm wondering if it will hurt or cause problems if I do it to my bigger main tree?
Hello Connie, I have hundreds and hundreds of matches on my mother's side, on both sides of her family. I have zero matches on my father's side. Is this because I am a woman? Thank you for your help?
No. This would take some deep diving into your DNA matches to give you a fair assessment.
I have sides of the family who weren't so tested and it makes it harder to find out who the DNA matches are if the dont connect with someone I know
Identify key persons and offer to pay for a test, if it helps.
I'm hoping you can address this question in a video sometime: on my mother's side, I have a few double 1C1R, 1C2R, and 1C3R. Going through my DNA matches (trying to find information on a 3x g grandmother's ancestors on my father's mother's side), I come across a match of mine who is on my mother's mother's father's line. BUT this match does NOT match any of my DOUBLE 1C1R, 1C2R OR 1C3R, so I'm wondering how can this be? I'll eventually do the color coding on Ancestry, which should be a big help with this.
Did have a cousin match who had 3% of my DNA. That's more then some cousins I know in real life. I figured she was likely a 2nd cousin. If she was a 3rd cousin with 3% of my DNA that would be pretty high. Turns out her grandfather is my grandmother brother. She was adopted so didn't grow up with the family. Shared matches is the best way to see where the cousins come from. Of course when they're related to you on both sides of your family it can be difficult to pinpoint where they came from.
Connie I think SW looks like you. I have found that many times family likenesses show up in various generations.
That's Connie in the picture. It says "you" meaning Connie and SW meaning the relative.
DNA has blown my tree apart for both grandfathers. My closest matches are around 160-190cM 2nd/3rd cousins but I have no idea who they are. They don't have trees and don't respond to messages (though many are marked as being read), the same is true of the shared matches. I've grouped them together but without names to go on it's almost impossible to make progress. The closest matches I have with trees suggested 4th-6th or 5th-8th cousins.
The only response I've had is from someone in the USA who has a large private tree, a 2nd-3rd cousin at 155cM, she wouldn't open her tree or reveal any surnames but advised me to ask others to open their trees and answer my questions. It feels like my matches have all attended 'How to Be Unhelpful' and passed with flying colours.
Look on FamilySearch.org too. Consider downloading your DNA and uploading it to other services like MyHeritage, FindMyPast (mostly UK), Gedmatch, etc.
@@GenealogyTV I do have my DNA uploaded to those, unfortunately a lot of common surnames in the UK matches. I have managed to find the odd public tree here and there that may provide a few clues but often there is a discrepancy with dates/places/parents from one tree to another. I have quite a collection of records from various Family History Societies already and a few more look to be on the cards in the coming months.
Thanks Connie.
I have a good handle on my GG grandparents and their children. It is my GGGfather that is the brick wall. He was born between 1800 and 1810, comes from Maryland, and has a common name. I may have picked up a clue from a recent Who do you think you Are program from a common last name being used as a middle name in my tree, place, and Quaker faith. The only reason I work on 2-3 cousins is the hope of getting back beyond them.
Can you please give me suggestions for how you identify a common ancestor of a cousin DNA match with many shared matches when they descend from an unknown father? The likely common ancestor is known to have disappeared and had another family and apparently went by another name we do not know.
That's a little complicated to answer here. You're going need to do traditional research along with research the other DNA matches in that branch. I suggest using the floating tree strategy to help research them. See this video Floating Trees on Ancestry: How and Why th-cam.com/video/Jut4yld-UnY/w-d-xo.html
@@GenealogyTV Thank you for response. I love the helpful videos. I do have a complicated mystery several generations have tried to solve. I appreciate any suggestions that will help.
SW is an estimated 2nd-3rd cousin. To associate her with your Jensen-Beck side, you need to confirm that she does not match other branches on your Jensen-Madson families. Your other estimated 2nd-3rd cousins will also possibly match William, but this does not show they are from the Jensen-Beck side. Your match William is estimated 5th-6th cousin, & a match this distant is when you should look back more, not with an estmated 2nd-3rd cousin.
Awesome! Thank you!! 💥
Very helpful . Thank you.
Another reason to investigate and reach out is that this person may have family photos or family stories to share. This person may have a labeled photo of an unlabeled photo that you have or visa versa.
Good point!
I have 2nd cousins that have trees and nowhere find where the we have the same relatives.
Hi Connie, Wonderful video! I have a female who shares 1213 cM and shares 17% DNA. Ancestry guesses she's a 1st or second cousin. Following your steps, I clicked on her name then on "Shared Matches". She's matching individuals on both my mother's and my father's sides. If I'm correct, that narrows her down to being an offspring of either my only brother, one of my nephews, or my only son. (I'm assuming my sisters, nieces, and daughter could not have had a baby without my knowledge.) Do you thing I'm on the right track? Many thanks! I've messaged this "cousin" 4 or 5 times, but she never responds.
Wow, that is a good amount Barbara! 🤔 I'd sure be surprised if she was a 1st cousin (and WAY surprised if she was a second cousin) ...not with that amount of DNA.. I'll bet you're on the right track to look into possible nieces or nephews... but hopefully Connie will weigh in when she's able to! 🥰
Barbara. I had a similar situation with one of my wife's matches. It turned out that the match's parents were first cousins.
I've just edited this after checking mine and my wife's DNA matches.
1213cM is a lot. My wife shares 1868cM with her half-sister, and averages about 600cM with her first cousins.
I share 1617cM with my uncle and from 510-710cM with my first cousins once removed. I only have 2 first cousins, and they haven't submitted their DNA.
Personally, I'd have a talk with your brother about any first cousins he's... especially close with.
A couple of things to consider. Go to dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4 and look at all the possible relationships. You may have already done this. Consider the age of the match (if you know). That might help narrow down the possibilities too. Since she matches on both sides of your family, you have to consider there may be pedigree collapse too. Consider ALL possibilities.
QUESTION FOR ANYONE FOR CLARITY. I have viewed the video several times. My questions are Am I correct to assume this method applies ONLY to those who have common ancestors and some names/surnames listed? If so, are there any tips for those who don't show common ancestors names?
I do know finding our DNA matches connections can be challenging. I'm wondering if I am missing something or some steps somewhere.
You can use either with common ancestors or not. The idea is that if you drill into the "Shared Matches" of someone without trees, then research those with trees... and basically do traditional genealogy to connect the DNA cousins to your family tree, then you can successfully work in trees with or without Common ancestors. Another trick is to search those Shared Matches trees for common surnames. You can do this either by scrolling to the bottom of the Shared Matches page or by searching the DNA match tree. Long story short, it is is a 2 or 3 step process. From the No Tree Person, click the Shared Matches tool in one tab, then open those Shared Matches (starting from the top) and research those who do have trees.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you.
@@GenealogyTV - Do you have a video that specifically addresses what to do when you know which line a match comes from (Leeds method) but cannot find a common ancestor after you've built out dozens and dozens of match trees?
I have a lost brother out in the world .My mom adopted him out when she was very young.
Gather everything you know about him. Search all DNA companies for close matches. Search in the area in which he was adopted out. If he is older than 72 you might find him in the 1950 census coming out this weekend.
What is the relationship please? My 2nd cousin from one parents side is related to my fourth cousin on the other parents side.
That would take a little bit of work to figure out. You can go to DNApainter.com and look at the cM tool to figure out all possible relationships. It may be that you have two relationships if you have two different branches that lead to these people.
@@GenealogyTV thank you. I will take. Look at that website
So, if two people have a great-grandparent in common, they're THIRD cousins? Is that how it works to figure out exactly what type of cousins two people are?
Use my "G Rule" Count the G's including the word Grandparent... so if you have a 3rd cousin... you likely have Great Great Grandparents in common. This is just a general rule of thumb. This does not take into account half relationships or removed (generational difference). So using your example... to people who have great grandparents in common (counting the G's) are 2nd cousins because there are two G's. It's just a quick and dirty way of figuring it quickly.
I;m sorry but I may be confused. In this segment titled "Use DNA Cousins without Family Trees", your examples both had public linked trees...not "without". Am I wrong?
The idea is to look at those cousin matches, even the ones without trees and click on the Shared Matches tool to find more DNA cousins along the same branches of the tree to discover those who do have trees.
In one of my Family lines because I have decent number of matches in Canada and California even though my mother was born in Ukraine. I managed to track down an emigration of my Great Great Grandaunt Kalina Ivanovna Ryabukha who left Ukraine in 1905 with her Husband Peter Koleada and settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. My Great Great Grandfather Grigory Ivanovich Ryabukha stayed in Ukraine.
Connie I need help my father was raised In an orphanage after the death of his mother and they couldn’t find the father. Cousin in the list don’t know or don’t write back
Help
See if you can find out anything about the orphanage... newspapers, city directories, tax records, anything to learn more about it. Look at the state archives, county libraries. Do the same with any information you have on your father. Use DNA connections, shared matches to see other trees... for close cousins. Develop a research plan... stuff i teach at the GTV Academy. genealogytv.org/about-genealogy-tv-academy/ It's kind of hard to advise in a comment section.
That how I figured out how my grand fathers real Father was. I was lucky that my biological great grandfather had lots of brothers and sister and I was able to deduce from a second half cousins dna shared matches that my grandfather had a legitimate half sister.
Glad you figured it out. Just try to find all evidence and to not base your conclusions on DNA alone.
@@GenealogyTV there really is not paper work. It was 1890. My grandfather was put out for adoption to a farm. He shows up on the 1900 census as a 10 year old servant on a farm which is consistent with what my Grandmother said. I could be wrong but the DNA matches up and down their family tree.
Need your help with DNA And getting help toward Family Hustory ACESTRIES, ALSO HELP WITH INHERITANCE AND BLOODLINE.
In the USA and many countries even if you can prove you are a blood relative it doesn’t automatically give you a right to inheritance unless you were mentioned in their will/ state .
Great info! Thanks. Maybe somebody can help me. One of my distant relatives in ancestry is 100% portuguese which is very unusual. I have 7% portuguese DNA and of course my only connection with him. If ancestry is correct my DNA comes from his family. I sent him a message but unfortunately many matches don't have the interest in building a family tree. Is my Portuguese DNA from his ancestors or can be inherited from other people?
Viktor, have you looked at that person's "shared matches"? If you've created a tree for yourself and then you look at your shared matches with the person, you can immediately tell which side of your family you're linked to them by... (unless you already know which of your parents had Portuguese DNA) Maybe Connie will weigh in about the100% when she can? Have you created a tree for yourself either on Ancestry or the free site FamilySearch? It definitely helps to build your tree, then when you look at your "shared matches" with people like that, it makes it so much easier to figure out how they are linked to you~~ 😊
@@bearpawz_ according to ancestry I don't have any shared match with him. Is so strange finding someone that has a 100% ethnicity and sharing DNA with me. I have thousands of matches in Ancestry, many of them also have Portuguese DNA but also we have in common other ethnicities. I trust DNA results but for me this is something unusual. And yes, I'm building my tree in ancestry and have around two hundred direct ancestors. Some of my great great grandfathers had many but many children. Sometimes I get tired of researching because so many dead relatives😀 I haven't included the living relatives, too many.
@@viktoryosiel Hi Viktor! I'll bet as you keep adding people to your tree, someone will show up as a "shared match" to that person, even if they never create a tree. That's so funny about getting tired of researching dead relatives! 😅LOL! When I first started on Ancestry about 9 years ago, some lady sent me a message out of the blue on the site that said: "Your grandfather was a murderer". I wrote her back and asked her "which grandfather?? And I asked her if she & I were related. Around 3 weeks later, she wrote again & all she said was "you'll figure it out". Talk about mysterious!! 😲 I did eventually locate news articles & she was right.. except that it was my great grandfather, not grandfather. He shot a guy in Phoenix b'cas he thought the guy was flirting with his wife.. I still don't know how she's connected though since she hasn't written back. That's been the strangest communication I've ever had on there with anyone though!
@@bearpawz_ yes, doing genealogy research is kind of detective work. I didn't know why my grandfather was so disfuncional until I discovered that his father married three times, two of them were sisters, when the first sister died he waited 10 years to marry my grandfather's mother but he was already 10 years old and was born a natural son, not legitimate son and in the past some children were ashamed of this label. His father took care of him and all his children in the same way, they never lacked food or anything else since he was rich. He had 17 brothers and sisters, he had another full brother, 13 half brothers and sisters but they were also first cousins, and 2 half brothers from his father first wife. I guess too many kids fighting for love and attention and he was the sensitive one. Anyway, thank you for your help, I have over ten thousand matches in Ancestry, enough to keep me busy the rest of my life.
Unfortunately, your videos are all blurry. Unable to read the information. Not just the areas you have covered to hide identity. Any suggestions.
In some cases, I have to blur out peoples names for privacy reasons.
What about when your grandmothers are sisters?
Just make sure you document it well.
Hi I need your help I tool the 23&me and Ancestry DNA. I found a lady on both of them. We became very close. She told me that she was found in a trunk of car in Philadelphia pa wrap In a blanket. Now around that time grandmothers where living in that area. I don't think she on my mother's side of the family because she isn't related to the cousin on that side. Plus my mother had just gave birth to a baby on March 5 of that year Now on 23& me they are saying she is my grandmother. I told the who my grandmother was on my grandmother dad side was. So can help use figure this out. She &us wants to know where she same from. I told her that it really don't matter to me because she is still my family and I love her anyway. 💕
Imagine getting a private message from a DNA match who happens to be a professional genealogist.
Cousins?? I can't keep up with all my Grandparents. I did get an email from familysearch, telling me that Marie Antoinette was my 11th cousin once removed.
Thanks bunches
You are so welcome
and sadly we become addicted and have no expectation of being any more in tune with these 10,000 cousins who often do not really care. But yes I have gotten 3 people who were ADOPTED REUNITED. mY mat aunt is also a half sibling and still cannot find her father >5 years (he is also related 3rd or larger)
I did everything but no luck at all 😪
Sometimes it is a waiting game for new matches to pop up.
@@GenealogyTV yeah I see new people pop up every week.
I don’t know why AncestryDNA can’t just say what side everybody is on. I’m lost with trying to figure out who is my father side because my grandma had 17 kids😩 it’s so hard to found my father side. Because my grandfather had 22 outside kids. So all I see it’s my mom side alot.
Hi, Connie! Great video! My issue over the years is people with no trees and also no shared matches. I am trying to find my mother's father's father and I have many, many matches in this situation that I believe will lead to potentially finding that person or path. I've reached out to several of them over the years and they either didn't reply or said they didn't have any of the same people in their tree as I do. Any advise?
Sharon, I have a very similar issue. I'm searching for my Great Grandfather (father's father's father!) to no avail. My paternal Grandfather was born out of wedlock in 1922, and I'm beginning to believe that the surname given to him (Burns) may not be the actual biological father's name. I have plenty of matches/shared matches for the maternal side, but the paternal seems almost nonexistent. So frustrating! Hopefully I can use Connie's wonderful information to dig a little deeper.
Sherry if at possible get a male from the line you are in question of and do a y DNA test it will give you the surname you need. I used my brother in order to discover the actual surname of my Dad's Biological Father's surname since we had two names floating and I found the surname and confirmed the correct surname...just a thought
@@sherryledbetter1856 HI, Sherry! Yes, it is very frustrating! I have a similar situation. My grandfather was born in 1915 and his mother refused to tell him who his father was; he was a result of a relationship with a married man with kids. My goal was to find out the info for my mom since she never knew who her paternal grandfather was, but she died over 2 years ago. My new goal is to finally find out so that her siblings will know. I think I have narrowed the surname down to two names, but most of my 2-3x dna cousin matches don't have trees. :-( I may just have to save money and hire someone. :-)
@@cindycarrasco2383Thank you!! I hope to be able to do that in the near future. I've found a half brother from my bio father, but we haven't met in person yet. I was adopted at birth, I'm 57, and I've just discovered my biological family in the last 4 years.
Sherry...that is awesome...I still haven't made contact yet with my Dad's Biological Father's Family yet not really sure if I want to due to rejection but who knows I might get brave one day...glad you have or will get to meet your family 😉
Sorry I don't see how you think a SW is from a line Jenson or Beck, that's just guess work and do you agree that could be a waste of time?
Because SW is a DNA match to other "Known Matches" on that branch of the family.
Traduzir eim português por favor..brasil
Connie, how would a DNA match locate biological parents after they have been adopted. Would court records help?
Oh... to quote the great Judy Russell (the Legal Genealogist) "It depends." Different states have different laws about adoption records and their release. I have several videos on how to use DNA for missing parents. Watch this video... th-cam.com/video/792WHKBIOy4/w-d-xo.html Then watch this playlist. th-cam.com/play/PLiMXWjHlj5RS-KZqywC6nxWeOlnfMPAiO.html
This is so helpful! I've been doing genealogy since 1993. DNA has messed me up!
DNA has helped me enormously.
"Thus the representations of the things in heaven had to be purified with the blood of animals. The true Heavenly Things, however, had to be purified by far superior sacrifices. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands, a mere representation of the sanctuary. True in Heaven. He has entered Heaven itself, in order now to present himself before God on our behalf." (Hebrews 9:23-24) God bless your life! 😊
Hi Genealogy TV, I think I have found my great grandparents. I'm near positive. They are what I have in common with all my paternal cousins. I haven't found my dad or grandfather yet. I have a guess of who the grandfather is. Any way My great granddads name was Henry Matteson. If I trace him back to before my 8th grandfather some of these guys were supposedly named Madtzen. Are the Madtzens related to the Madsens?
Anything is possible. The spelling of names will vary. I have not seen this variation for Madsen, but I would not be surprised.