Connection

[Kerrill]

Hi, have just got a new match on Ancestry which tells me that he is a 1st–2nd Cousin
Shared DNA: 343 cM across 13 segments, his tree is open to the public so I can see all of his ancestors but I cant for the life of me find where we match, the town where I and my mother was born matches with his but that's as far as I can get.

[LizzieL]

Have you double checked his tree.
I have a fairly close match whose tree on the face of it looked OK and I couldn't find any connection to mine.
But when I checked more thoroughly I found the man he had put down as his maternal grandfather died in 1917 (details of the man's parents and wife with names and addresses were on CWGC site so definitely right man) and his mother was born in 1920. I have narrowed the natural father down to a branch of my family but not a definite person yet.

[Kerrill]

Thanks Lizzy,
                     there is a unknown person on his tree so will have to write and ask him if he has any hearsay from within his own family .

[Janethepain]

Have you checked your joint matches??  If any are in your tree, or you can link them to your tree, this should indicate the likely branches to look at.

Having said that I have more than 1 match, without a tree, who don't respond to contact, who match with lots of my matches in one particular branch. Despite knowing where to look, I cant find anything to help me. Doesn't help that their user names have no particular information you can use! No helpful info. there at all!!

[guest189040]

Message them, even if it shows that they have not logged in for a while

Then select the person from your DNA matches.

Then click on Shared Matches.

You will see a list of other close matches that shard DNA with you and the person concerned, do not do anything yet.

Now click on Group

Then click on Create Custon Group

Type in a Name like the .... "persons name" AND me

Then select a colour marker.

Apply this marker to all the people listed

You can then look through all the marked matches to see if any of their Family Trees share a Common Ancestor and or have a surname you recognise.

You can then use this coloured marker as a filter to only show the people you are interested in.

What I did was to apply Common Ancestor to filter and group all the people together then applied a colour coded group marker when I had created a linked branch to them.  I then worked through all 30 with a Common Ancestor and now have them all in my Tree.

As it is my own 364cM 13 segments match has no tree and she is a mystery

This is as good as it gets if they are not responding to messages,

[Kerrill]

Thanks very much for all replies,  have followed your advice Biggles, but cannot remove the group now and to make things worse the colour's were not working for some reason so had to use a colour that I already use for another group.

[guest189040]

It may be an Ancestry hiccup.

I have just gone into DNA matches and clicked on the first listing Add/Edit Groups

Then clicked on the pencil icon beside the Group I wanted to change and then I changed the colour of one this Group

[Kerrill]

Yes it was a hiccup have sorted it now, thanks again.

[Petros]

I got a similar match, albeit without much of a tree. Looking at shared matches can help you narrow down the likely connections.  And considering the age of individuals can eliminate some of the relationship possibilities.

On this basis my unexpected 339 cM match can only be a half 1st cousin but people may not be aware of certain events in their family history.