When no surnames match your DNA matches.......

[Jill Eaton]

I'm finding it a bit frustration trying to identify surname matches on Ancestry. I get an estimate of say, 4th to 6th cousin yet can't find some surnames that match the ones in my tree.

Probably the sort of question that will irritate the more experienced Rootschatters but does that mean the link is more likely to be a maternal one since women changed their surnames and I may simply not have researched back far enough to identify them?

There is always the chance of course that men identified as the father or no father identified at all might be the missing link - hence non matching surnames.

So my question is how much time do you spend searching for a possible link when an obvious one is very hard to identify? Do you assume that because Ancestry has stated a link around the great grand, grand, grand-parents level that it's a definite family match and search accordingly?

[sugarfizzle]

"So my question is how much time do you spend searching for a possible link when an obvious one is very hard to identify?"

This would be something only you can decide.  Personally, I individually look at all 4th to 6th cousin matches and closer. If they have a public tree I try to find the connection and look at shared matches.  If they have no tree or a private tree, I look at shared matches.

If no joy there either, I make a note such as 'No connection found. Shared match with xyz' and leave it at that. Sometime in the future I may revisit. It may be that either me or they have come across a brick wall.

''Does that mean the link is more likely to be a maternal one since women changed their surnames and I may simply not have researched back far enough to identify them?"

With 3rd cousin estimate, you only have 16 (perhaps 32) names to compare.  With 4th to 6th cousin estimate, you have the potential for 128 5G grandparents (perhaps 256 6G grandparents) to compare.
If either of you have missed out on even one of them, that could be the connectIon, so could be either maternal or paternal.

"Do you assume that because Ancestry has stated a link around the great grand, grand, grand-parents level that it's a definite family match and search accordingly?"
I know exactly how I connect to all 3rd cousin and closer matches, bar one. One 3rd cousin, shared 2G grandparents, has no tree, but using shared matches I have established what I think the connectIon is, but my match does not know names beyond his grandmother.  I periodically look for further information about her birth, which does not appear in GRO birth records, but my match does not appear to be very interested in his maternal line.

His grandmother has the surname Smith (which could make searches very difficult!!), but shared matches with several members of Laversuch family lead me to believe that she was daughter of one of the children of Fanny Laversuch who set up family with a John Smith (no marriage found).

So I will always try to connect with a 3rd cousin or closer, and will make an effort even when nothing appears straight away.  4th to 6th cousins are a different matter, I connect positively with the top ones, some of the others I have no idea of the connectIon.

Regards Margaret

[roderickpaulin]

725 matches at 4th cousins or closer - and I attempt to figure all of them out plus many more at the 5th-8th cousin range

[Nanna52]

Oh heaven help me.  I have a relatively recent unknown and seem to have a large number of matches with no matching surnames or surname matches that don't come from the same area mine do.  I will plod through them and see what I can find, it will take me ages I know.  Of course not getting answers to messages is not going to make it any easier.
Jill I found one link with my great grandparents where his link to them was 3 X great grandparents.  My mother was 35 when she had me, her father 40 when she was born.  Grandfather was number 11 and the brother my cousin was descended from was 18 when grandfather was born.  We showed as third cousins.  So take into consideration how quickly your ancestors had their children when working out how far back to look.

[DavidG02]

725 matches at 4th cousins or closer -

I am at 250 and have these in a spreadsheet of chromosome links. Just to have them handy.

I have linked some and others not.

Of those further distant I still check for surname connections or if possible trees . I dont stress too much about them as sometimes the distance is too great ie some American trees that all go back to the 1700s means the connection for my UK family that split up and headed to Oz is too great for now to get into too much bother.

Again I take this for the long haul and not a short genealogical fix that is going to immediately solve all of my questions

[sugarfizzle]

725 matches at 4th cousins or closer -

I am at 250 and have these in a spreadsheet of chromosome links. Just to have them handy.
I have linked some and others not.

A cousin of mine can beat both of you, she has 1000 + 4th to 6th cousins, whilst I have a measly 156.

I don't think she has checked them all out, way too many! She is of half Hawaiian descent, where the amount of intermarriage makes it almost impossible to sort out who is a genuine identical by descent connection and who is only identical by state. Even her American and British names are difficult to find amongst the Hawaiian names, her only option to find genuine matches on this side of her tree are by surname and place search.

Unfortunately she doesn't match with me to any great degree, if I lower the threshold at gedmatch, we share about 3cM, insignificant. Yet we are 4th cousins once removed.

I just keep chipping away at my matches and am genuinely excited when I confirm a family line.

Regards Margaret

[JACK GEE]

Hello Jill Eaton,
i am linked to a DNA tree to a match that was before surnames were common.
The tree is attached to William Cecil [Lord Burghley] and names such as Howells, Hyatt, Word, Webb, Harris, Gilbert, Parry and various Cecil spellings [Cessill.Circle etc]. Our DNA hotspot  is the Ewyas Lacy Hundred in Herefordshire and the Wales border.

All of the above names have DNA links to this area but the DNA providers with the exception of 2 are  US based.
Our task is to marry the known papertrail to the DNA trees.

Cheers
Jack Gee