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At the time of writing this I have 106 DNA “Cousins” included in my Family Tree.  Most have been added by making use of Common Ancestor and Thruline hints after carefully researching each person suggested.  Also included is those where the hard slog Tree Build method has been used

There comes a point when one needs a strategy to deal with “New DNA Matches” and the following is what I do, please feel free to add your own process.

Every Monday I go into the DNA “Matches” section and in the “Sort” drop down menu I click on “Date” and the list then goes from the newest to oldest match.

I simply look through each of the new DNA Matches until “Last Week” shows.  If any seem worthy of further investigation I add a comment using the Note feature and assign it to a Group, one I have is labelled “Research Further”, I also have Groups labelled “English”, “Irish, “Italian” and one for each Grandparent line

Of the new matches in the prior week those with 20cM and more are looked at first, the Shared Matches checked and if there is a Shared Match who is in my tree, the new DNA match is placed in the “Research Further” Group and the applicable Family Group

I’ll look at DNA matches 20cM+ with more interest if they have a Linked Tree and one with sufficient people in said tree to hopefully give an idea of where I am likely to find the matches Ancestors.

If any DNA Match irrespective of cM value has a Surname of interest then they to are placed in the “Research Further” Group.

I’ll also Filter the DNA Matches using the Common Ancestor tag and again Sort by Date to see if there is anyone new who has not been given the “Star” from the Grouping Options, in my tree this signifies that the DNA Match is in my Family Tree and that all the DNA Tags assigned, as is the Relationship and that the Note that you see in the Match List includes the names of our MRCA.

Then in the days that follow I will look at the new batch that are assigned to the “Research Further” Group and either look into them in more detail, leave them, remove them from the Group or reassign them to the “Parked” Group which is waiting for them to develop their tree.  Those I think may be worthy of development will have a tree built around them if possible.  I’ve managed to build quite comprehensive trees from a DNA Match who has a limited content tree.

The next Monday we repeat.

Without doubt DNA testing can be a real benefit in validating each branch of your well documented Family Tree.

We researched ours for about 10 years before both my Wife and I took an Ancestry DNA test, and the results lead us to find many “DNA Cousins”, people who we never knew existed and to add their branch in our respective Family Trees.  Along the way we learned of the people in these “DNA Cousins” direct line, how they ended up where they did, how they emigrated to the USA, Canada and Australia, and of who they left behind.  All in all our understanding improved of the Social and Economic factors that drove them to radically change their lives with a voyages into the relative unknown.

Then the Bomb went off.

A high DNA match, a minimal family tree,  no response to messages, no contact at all.  It was time to build a tree around them, two years and a tree of 700 later we are still no nearer resolving the match, and they are still not responding to pleads for contact.

There are now 12 additional “DNA Cousins” of mine who are “Shared” with the high DNA match who all now reside in the “Irish Family Tree”, if that is not all, there are near on 100 other DNA matches of mine who also link to this Irish family but have yet to be added to the tree.

An NPE, that is Not the Parent Expected event has to have taken place somewhere in my fairly recent past, but where, and in which line?

Using The Leeds Method and then a Chromosome Browser, did not help as we did not have a term of reference by way of a true Biological Family Tree only a Genealogical Family Tree.  So I set about marking up a six generation Pedigree Chart where a Mark was placed on the MRCA (most recent common ancestor) between me and a DNA Match.  By the time I had marked all 100+ “DNA Cousins” on the chart there were glaring sections where there were no Markers, specifically on the branches from both of my Paternal Great Grandfather’s.

Time for a Y-DNA test, so I took one with myFTDNA and when the results came in I waited until their database and been scoured for matches.

Top of the list of matches was an American whose surname is the same as that in my “Irish Family Tree”.  Match numbers two and three also have the same surname.

So now emotions are mixed, I am not who I think I am.  The family Surname should not be the one that I was born with, nor should my Father’s, nor Grandfather’s, nor should my First Cousins who were born to the same Family Surname.  I have thought that it may be so for a couple of years but even so it does come as a bit of an emotional shock.

The “Irish DNA matches” resolve by why of their cM value beyond Grandparent level hence the effect on my First Cousins is probably as I have just described.  The lack of a willingness of any of them to take a DNA test is not helping in the quest to learn about our family and I am not sure if it will ever be resolved but I do know that Grandfather and his younger Brother did look different than their older siblings.

DNA testing can help you grow your family tree, it can validate each branch.  Despite what is happening to me emotionally I still firmly believe that unless you have DNA matches linking to a MRCA then the accuracy of that branch of your Family Tree has to be questionable.  You may have all the BMD records, all the documentation but as I have found it is meaningless without the DNA proof that substantiates your lineage.

It has taken us six years so far to learn and research about DNA and still I feel like I have only just scratched the surface.  Having a DNA test does not present the results on a plate, there is a lot of work to do to make the most of actually having the test and what to do with it.

So if you have not yet started your own “DNA Voyage of Discovery” then do think hard of the repercussions that may result if like me you get the unexpected DNA Match(s).

Thought that you may like to see the Chromosome Auto Cluster produced by My Heritage of my DNA Match’s.

I have redacted the names of the match’s but each square is one of my DNA Match’s which has been grouped together to indicate those who are Shared Match’s.

The top cluster with the ? is, in my case, a group of match’s who I have no idea how I relate to them.  Their lack of online trees does not help.

The next two are my Italian connection so no real problems.

The Irish, well there is the problem, highest cM match’s and all known but not in my tree as I do have an NPE but as of this date there are possibilities as to who may not be who the paper trail says they are.

The 17 & 20 clusters are my Grandfather’s lines.

The map is a bit like what can be produced by The Leeds Method, one has a group of DNA Match’s identified as shared with each other with the result that finding how they link to you should be relatively easy, the big if, is if any of them are actually already in your Family Tree.

I am unsure why I looked but I did.

I do not have my own tree there but I keyed in my Maternal Grandfather and found him, then I started to look around and his tree had error after error.  I then came forward and added his wife, she was not there so I created a new entry for her, then I entered he Father’s detail and up with a duplicate so I compared them and the info was correct, his wife was not, a completely different female.

I have his actual obituary and our family records so we know the maiden name of his Wife.  After correcting and adding why I zoomed out to tree view, and yet more errors, I corrected some then moved on.

I then looked at my Paternal side and there was my Great Grandmother with her Grandfather showing as her Father, he was listed as such on her marriage but whoever created the entries had been lax, I have her birth cert and no Father is listed.  The more I looked the more errors I found, I am always suspicious of a tree if a married female has her married name showing.

Anyone, everywhere I looked there was error after error.

Do take care if you have a tree on FS that others can amend.