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Ancestry DNA has been very useful to me. I have found matches with people who confirm my relationship with all 13 of my known great-great-grandparents, some many times over, and many other lines further back.

So I was keen to find a supposed link to one of these greatx3 ancestors, a Taylor, via her sibling, to someone who was also a match on another line. However, checking proved that someone had conflated a Gilbert born in North Warwickshire with another born in Cubbington, centre county - whose actual parents are known and different.

No harm done. But then I had a match with someone whose tree said descended through farmer's son John Reece of Bronington Flints who was obviously wrong - on censuses with wife Sarah at the same time as the other with wife Clara in Cefn Mawr, a miner and Welsh speaking (unlikely for a Bronington man) but whose birthplace was not known on censuses (filled in by his stepson 1911),

So having eliminated all the other John Reece  from very near the border, I was ready to assume that this was my John Rees of Cefn -  especially since his marriage as Rees gave his father as Thomas Rees deceased, which would be right - until I went and looked at the 1921 where he clearly gives his PoB as Machynlleth, Mont (there are a lot born there thenabout).   

So this (so far) removes the proof from this well-researched branch, although can there really be more than one Rowland Rees born c1790 Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant?

And how am I related to this match? With the rest of her ancestors Irish or central English, the only one is Edna Winifred Lloyd 1904 West Derby. No such person, but if it's the Winifred born 1903, her father Edward Francis Lloyd born Whittington Salop has a father John Lloyd born Llansantffraed-ym-Mechain who might just be the John found on the 1841 aged 10 in nearby Llanfechain, but not on the 1851 where his siblings are born Llanfechain. It's not enough to go on.

And how do I approach this lady and tell her that her tree is wrong? The above text is longer than Rootschatters like, and the full details (available if anyone's interested) would be much longer, and I don't know how experienced she is. Any advice?

Mods, please don't move to the DNA board just yet. Chris

This thread is getting no further takers in the Common Room so I thought it better to move it here. Earlier posts can be found there in the thread "Lengthy Conundrum". I'm hoping that DNA experts might be able to at least narrow down who is N's father - this is for her, not me.

Please find enclosed a mini-tree in Notepad listing all known deceased descendants of Elizabeth Roberts, and known living ones in disguise where relevant. Three DNA matches are shown, as are a number of men who could be N's father, marked by an asterisk. These are by no means complete - the ?s refer to redacted people and unknown descendants (if any) of men who were single in 1939.

VH is N's late mother, displayed on the same possible generation line as her father. To recap, VH was a student in Birmingham in 1966 when she became pregnant with N. She later married another man who brought her daughter up. VH always refused to discuss the matter, but it was always believed that the father was an older man with a family, rather than a fellow student - but even if he was, he would not be younger than V.

The three DNA matches centiMorgans vary presumably because each is from a different generation. The father surely cannot be CW's brother or stepbrother because the match would be much stronger. Arthur Stenson junior only had a daughter (until he remarried in the 50's anyway) so the father must surely be a Hancox or a Lee?

The trouble is that the matches are all from the 2nd marriage onward, but most of those people lived in Nottingham and nearby, none went to the West Midlands conurbation, where all the Lees lived. The men starred in those later branches all had young families in the 60s - not that that would stop a man having an affair, I agree, but to do so in Birmingham would require a fair amount of stealth.

The exception is Joseph S Merchant for whom we have 1932-1990 but no marriage - he could be anywhere but N thinks he'd be too old to be her father, but maybe he lied about his age?

So the question is, do N's matches make a Hancox father more likely, or is a Lee father an equal possibility? (TB has not replied, PH has but has no knowledge of a link.) It's a shame there are no Lee matches but that branch has only been on the tree a short while, hopefully there will be some at some point.

Thanks in advance, Chris for N.

Since writing the above I've deduced that CW's brothers could be in the picture, but that pHs father JH and uncle GH are probably not, because if they were N's father PH would have more cMs in common with N than he does. I couldn't work out if the same logic would apply to the descendants of Harold and Gertrude Hancox.

No matches yet from anyone in the Lee branch.

Some time ago I found a basic, example family tree which showed the descendants of one family, with each named person on it being given a colour-coded symbol. So a parent might have one colour, a grandchild might have a symbol quartered red, yellow green and blue.

I'm want to use it, maybe modify it, to show a younger cousin how DNA matches relate - how a half-first-cousin can have a similar cM value to a first-cousin-once-removed for example. I thought I saw one on Ancestry but I may be mistaken.

(Mods: not put on the DNA board, because that's not what the query is about)

I may have solved this one but I'd like Rootschatters feedback, there are so many variables. Bear with me please - I give full info so people don't do unneeded searches.

My relative George Thomas Cox was registered in Warwick district in the first quarter of 1889 and baptised 3rd February at St Mary's Warwick. His mother Mary Lewthwaite was from Middlesex, his parents married in Woolwich where his elder sister was born, his father Thomas died in 1890, his mother remarried to James Mackonachie (spelling varies) in 1892 in Greenwich, and in 1901 he is with them in Greenwich as a Mackonachie, though on Ancestry someone has helpfully added a correction that he is a Cox. In 1911 he is in the Army in India (Rifle Brigade) born Salford Warwickshire which might mean Salford Priors but which I think is a mistake for the Saltisford area of Warwick town (His brother Thomas Albert gave his address as Saltford, Warwick when joining up later).

Thomas Albert didn't survive the war, but I know George did because I found an "attestation" for him from the Rifle Brigade dated 1919 which, stupidly, I didn't save and now can't find. And that was the last of I saw of him - no death except in Thanet 1934 which would be a year out in age - except that I saw a George T Cox  in Wandsworth on the 1939 married with an Elizabeth E born 1899 and a Daphne G b 1919 presumably a daughter - and this George's biirth date of 7/1/1899 was very close to my George's baptism. However I could find no marriage of a George T to an Elizabeth E in the time period, neither could I find a birth record for Daphne G Cox, so I put the matter aside.

Then I got access to the 1921 census at FindMyPast. I know that requests for this are prohibited, but surely I'm allowed to give a brief outline of what I found? George Thomas Cox 32 and Elizabeth Ellen 22 are boarding in Southend. He's born Salford Warwick, which makes me confident he is my George. He has the same profession as one of those he gave in 1939.

But who is Elizabeth Ellen born Bardfield, Essex? FreeBMD (searching without surname) finds plenty of those born in Essex around 1899, but none found in Braintree district where Great Bardfield is. I next tried Daphne G, missing in 1921, and the best birth record I could find was Daphne Georgina Gilbey, illegitimate, registered Dunmow district in the right quarter.

I trawled for Elizabeth on censuses and found that she may well be Elizabeth Ellen Gilbey born and living in Little Sampford, Essex, a daughter of Charles Gilbey - and this fits a birth record in July quarter 1899 in Saffron Walden district which is where Little Sampford was - and also fits the birth date she gave in 1939 as a Cox. Moreover, by 1921 Charles and family, though given as living in Great Bardfield, were in fact at an address in Little Bardfield, which was in Dunmow district.

So I think this is my George and his never-married partner. Do you agree?

There's a further problem with Daphne Georgina Gilbey, later Cox. I can't find her in 1921 - she's not with either grandmother - and I'm not allowed to ask you to look for her. (Daphne Georgine Rice in Colchester and Daphne Coe in Dunmow are not her.) The 1939 gives her future married names Pound and Moore,but I can find no marriage for her to a Pound as either a Gilbey or a Cox, though I found her 1973 marriage to a Moore as Pound.

More seriously, is she George's daughter? She was born 10/7/1919 exactly 9 months after the Armistice, but I think I've read that it took a long time to get all the soldiers home, and "regulars" like George would not be demobbed. Although he could have been on leave at the right time. He could have just taken up with a young woman with a baby - but why was she given the unusual middle name Georgina?

If anyone's had the patience to read through all of the above, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks, Chris