Where to from here with DNA results and paper trail

[Kaybron]

I had a DNA test with Ancestry several years ago.  My highest match is with my first cousin who I asked to do a test so I could work out connections with my mother.  The cousin is the daughter of my mother's sister.

I do not know who my maternal great grandparents are.  My grandmother was not open about her parents and the earliest she can be found is in 1901 aged 20 working as a domestic servant.  I have not been able to find anything prior to 1901, (birth/baptism records, census material) and information on official documents after 1901 has not lead to anything about her background. The name of the father given on her marriage certificate can not be found.  I have spent many years trying to work things out through traditional paper records and then decided to turn to DNA.

The highest match I share with my cousin is 149cM over 10 segments.  I have sent emails to this match and they do not reply.  His tree has 13 people on this and these are all but one marked as private.  I have managed to work out who this person is and have started constructing a tree with his ancestors.   The match is about 10 years younger than me, his father born in 1918 and his mother around this time. My mother was born in 1919.  My grandmother was born somewhere between 1880-1882.  His grandfather in 1867 and grandmother in 1874.  Going back further, his maternal and paternal great grandparents were born in 1836.

When putting the 149cMs and the paper record together, at what level should I be looking for our connection.  I have used the DNA painter tool and have some idea where I should look but would like some advice from others who have some expertise in working with DNA.

My mother died about 6 years ago and she does not have any surviving brothers and sisters.

Regards Kaybron

[Romilly]

Hi Kaybron,

My first thought is, - have you uploaded your DNA from Ancestry to any other Sites?

Gedmatch is free to upload to. My Heritage is free to upload to, but you have to pay an unlock fee to view your matches, £29+ VAT. Also FTDNA and Living DNA can be uploaded to from Ancestry.

In my experience it ‘widens the net’ being on several Sites.

Best of luck, Romilly.

[Milliepede]

My grandmother was not open about her parents and the earliest she can be found is in 1901 aged 20 working as a domestic servant.  I have not been able to find anything prior to 1901, (birth/baptism records, census material) and information on official documents after 1901 has not lead to anything about her background. The name of the father given on her marriage certificate can not be found. 

Can we have another look for you?  If you care to post a bit more information about her, full name, where born, who she married and what father she put down. 

[rosie99]

Is this your earlier post about her
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=327396.

[Kaybron]

Hi Rosie99,

Yes this was an earlier post.  Unfortunately this was not the correct Ada Smith.  I sent away for birth records and did extensive research into this Ada.  This Ada married and then with her husband went to America.  She lived there for several years, had children and then died at an early age.  This was in the early stages of my research and after coming across an Ada Olive Smith I was quite excited and thought this was naturally my Ada.

My Ada first appears in 1901 living with a Fanny Topley in Kent.  Ada gives her birth place as Linton, Kent.  Ada married my grandfather twice (William Thomas Hammond), in 1904 and 1906.  On her marriage certificate she gives her father's name as Albert John Oscar Smith (deceased) a farmer.   My grandmother used the name Ada Olive Grey Smith.  Her birth date was believed to be 14 July or August 1880. 

I have looked for a number of years for A O G Smith and sent away for a number of birth certificates but have not had any luck with these.  I have also paid for searches to be made where the records for births at Linton, Kent are held, also without any success.


Regards Kaybron

[Kaybron]

To add to my previous post, I have been putting together a tree for my closest match tracing back their ancestors to see if I can find something.  My 149 cM match has a surname of Spong.  Surnames associated with this are Hammerton, Hill, Sarfas and Hemmon.  This has been an interesting exercise and may lead to something.

My next closest match that I can connect to my grandmother is 63 cM.  This person has connections to Barlow and Cronk surnames.

Regards Kaybron

[Rufous Treecreeper]

I'm not sure I can offer much as it sounds like you are doing a good job already.  I thought I'd have a go anyway. 

My experience with Ancestry DNA matches has thrown up some intriguing results, some cases I've cracked and others I haven't.  I've found the coloured buttons very useful to group matches into families.  Also the search function for names alone and with a birth location (country or parish) if it is a common name.  Organisation of your matches into groups I've found extremely useful and using/constructing associated family trees to see where each match fits into the family tree.

It is sometimes the very small percentage match that can pinpoint the shared ancestors too.  For example I had a mystery group who matched very strongly to my maternal paternal line.  The ones that had trees allowed me to isolate the probable NPE to an area and timeframe but the possible fathers where a group of cousins and their father's who were brothers.  It was only when I was searching DNA matches for those who had one of the ancestral names from this group that I was able to work out which brother's sons would have been the father and therefore the generational pairing it went back too.  This was because the tiny match only matched through one ancestral name, which was the maiden name of one brother's wife - Goacher.  For the tiny match who descended from the Goacher family to match to me and one of the mystery matches it meant the mystery match had to have Goacher ancestry.  Which showed me which brother and his wife were the ancestors.  As there were only two sons old enough to father a child at the time in question it narrowed it done again.  Known lifestyles of the two possible fathers made one (my 3x great grandfather) the most likely Daddy. 

I hope this example can offer you some help in working out how to solve your mystery.
Best of luck,
Marlene   

[Rosinish]

I have found this to be useful...

https://www.yourdnaguide.com/leeds-method

Annie

[Kaybron]

Thanks Rufous Treecreeper and Rosinish.

I have been colour coding on Ancestry.  I will try the Leeds method as this may lead to something.

I will keep working away with both DNA matches and also paper records and see what I can find.  Interestingly I did come across a Spong and Barlow connection when looking through Ancestry.  I think with my grandmother her mother or father might be connected to a Spong and on the other side of her family there is a Barlow connection.

Regards Kaybron