Unfamiliar names in my Grandmas DNA test

[Jadea55]

I recently put in a DNA test from my grandma to Ancestry.com, there are a few names that keep recurring and we have no idea who they are. Also the names that we do know don't seem to appear, and I can't find one match that leads to my grandma. I know her parents and have records for them but can't find anymore information further back. Would someone be able to point me in the right direction on what to do? Thanks in advance!

[Guy Etchells]

I recently put in a DNA test from my grandma to Ancestry.com, there are a few names that keep recurring and we have no idea who they are. Also the names that we do know don't seem to appear, and I can't find one match that leads to my grandma. I know her parents and have records for them but can't find anymore information further back. Would someone be able to point me in the right direction on what to do? Thanks in advance!

Any advice really depends on how experienced you are, how far back you have managed to push your tree, where they are from (what country) and dates, etc.
For instance you mention you have records for your grandma's parents, does that include their marriage certificate, does the marriage certificate mention the fathers' names?
Unknown names normally come from the collateral lines (families who have married into your ancestors families).
Clues about who they are may also be deduced from the amount of DNA they share with your grandma.

The forum is very good helping others and in giving detailed advice but more information has to be supplied for you to receive advice relevant to your family.

The basic rule is you work back from the known (yourself, your mum & dad, both sets of grandparents etc.) to the unknown.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy

[Ruskie]

What you have experienced is quite common. Some members of some families just haven’t taken DNA tests. Uptake in the UK is still behind America for example, so if your family stayed put, you may have fewer matches.

Many of the matches I have, have come through the female line - so they have taken their husband’s names, which in some cases were unfamiliar to me.

Guy is correct in saying that if you have an extensive paper trail, it makes matching a bit easier.

It can just be a waiting game - new matches are likely to come along as more people take tests.

It could also be worth uploading your raw data to sites such as My Heritiage, where you might have different matches.

[Jadea55]

I recently put in a DNA test from my grandma to Ancestry.com, there are a few names that keep recurring and we have no idea who they are. Also the names that we do know don't seem to appear, and I can't find one match that leads to my grandma. I know her parents and have records for them but can't find anymore information further back. Would someone be able to point me in the right direction on what to do? Thanks in advance!

Any advice really depends on how experienced you are, how far back you have managed to push your tree, where they are from (what country) and dates, etc.
For instance you mention you have records for your grandma's parents, does that include their marriage certificate, does the marriage certificate mention the fathers' names?
Unknown names normally come from the collateral lines (families who have married into your ancestors families).
Clues about who they are may also be deduced from the amount of DNA they share with your grandma.

The forum is very good helping others and in giving detailed advice but more information has to be supplied for you to receive advice relevant to your family.

The basic rule is you work back from the known (yourself, your mum & dad, both sets of grandparents etc.) to the unknown.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Guy

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Unfortunately I'm not very experienced but I am dedicating a lot of my time and trying to become as experienced as I can.

For my Grandma's line I know her parents and siblings, her mothers maiden name but that is all I know. I know they immigrated to America from Scotland but don't know when. I pick up their trail when they immigrated back and I have 1 record form America which was my grandmas baptism.

The confusion at the moment is that she has 3 very strong DNA matches. Myself, her niece and her second strongest match (stronger then her niece) we have no idea who they are or how they are related. I have reached out to them but they never got back to me. I'm stumped at how I can figure out how they are connected, a common ancestor search through the DNA brings up 2 names consistently but I'm not sure if that is a coincidence or not.

[Jadea55]

What you have experienced is quite common. Some members of some families just haven’t taken DNA tests. Uptake in the UK is still behind America for example, so if your family stayed put, you may have fewer matches.

Many of the matches I have, have come through the female line - so they have taken their husband’s names, which in some cases were unfamiliar to me.

Guy is correct in saying that if you have an extensive paper trail, it makes matching a bit easier.

It can just be a waiting game - new matches are likely to come along as more people take tests.

It could also be worth uploading your raw data to sites such as My Heritiage, where you might have different matches.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Unfortunately with my grandma there isn’t much of a paper trail and the dementia has taken her memories. She remembers her mum and dad but doesn’t remember their middle names (I have managed to figure out her mums)

Her family was from Scotland they immigrated to America for a period of time then back to Scotland.

I don’t really know how the DNA works but
I’m her granddaughter and our shared DNA is 1,839
The next (we don’t know who they are) is 953
Her Niece is 933

I just feel with such a close match we should know who they are or be able to figure it out.

I haven’t heard of uploading raw data so I will certainly look in to it!

[Guy Etchells]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Unfortunately with my grandma there isn’t much of a paper trail and the dementia has taken her memories. She remembers her mum and dad but doesn’t remember their middle names (I have managed to figure out her mums)

Her family was from Scotland they immigrated to America for a period of time then back to Scotland.

I don’t really know how the DNA works but
I’m her granddaughter and our shared DNA is 1,839
The next (we don’t know who they are) is 953
Her Niece is 933

I just feel with such a close match we should know who they are or be able to figure it out.

I haven’t heard of uploading raw data so I will certainly look in to it!

The fact that your grandma's family came from Scotland is a benefit for you their certificates (birth,  marriage & death) contain more information than English certificates.
Cheers
Guy

[Neale1961]

If you are happy to give the names, dates, places for you Grandma’s parents, there are many here on the forum who are both knowledgeable, and very willing to help.

[Ruskie]

It sounds like you need to get working on that paper trail Jade.

You don’t need your grandmother to remember anything, as Guy said, the Scottish certificates are very helpful.

The site you need is Scotland’s People. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

You need to register and buy credits to view certificates, but the cost is very reasonable.

To try the site out, if you know your great grandmother’s name, try looking for her marriage on Scotland’s People. If you find it and download the certificate, it will tell you details about her husband and her parents. You should also look at siblings and their families, as the matches can be from side shoots. 

DNA Painter will give you some idea about what sort of relationships to consider for a 935cm match. https://dnapainter.com/tools8

It is also worth contacting the contact again .... however unless you have a more detailed paper trail you still might not be able to work out how you match as you still might not recognise the names.

In addition keep in mind the possibility of “affairs” which can make the search a bit more complicated.

Added: I agree with Neale - if you would like help, post the names, dates, places, etc here and we will try to help. Don’t mention names of anyone still living (as that is against rootschat policy). If you would like to tell us the surname which appears in your matches, then do so, but do not include anything identifiable.

[brigidmac]

I had similar for my aunts dna so worked back from grandparents to identify all her cousins

At that level it could be another neice * tho I would expect higer

Modified
 ... ...maybe one of her grandparents had a daughter who married twice

A useful technique once you have built up your tree with plenty of known names is to look at your shared matches then your shared matches of shared matches and colour code groups according to which great grandparent they match .and who matches the recurring surname you keep finding .