Anyone with DNA knowledge/expertise - Family Puzzle!

[Littlebn20]

Good morning all.

I am a bit of an enthusiast when it comes to Ancestry but really struggle to understand DNA matching and what it means so I am looking for a little help.

My Nan was given away as a baby and through Ancestry we have managed to correctly identify her birth mother and learn that she had a half sister. We were able to do this as we knew her Mum's name and got a DNA match to a lady who would have been my Nan's half Niece. The match segment is 469cM.

My mum has a similar match on what can only be my Nan's biological fathers side however unlike with her biological mum's family, this side is unfortunately unwilling to help, so I am having to do the work myself and I am honestly finding it to be completely mind boggling. The match with this individual is 406cM so think that we must be matched in a similar way, in that one of her grandparents or possibly a grandparents sibling, or even great uncle could be the father. All we know is that he was Irish and somehow related to this woman. Have I got that right? To my mind that should mean that it wouldn't really be too hard to suss out but I just want to ensure that I am barking up the right tree.

For anyone with Ancestry access, I have put together a tree here, with the female entitled XX X as the DNA match, including her parents and what I know of her grandparents. Is this the right way to go about things? Any other tips. I have asked every single shared match (some who are also very closely matched with us both) if they would help, or knew what the connection might be but unfortunately every single one of them is either unwilling or unable to help. I am quite naive when it comes to this stuff.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/175219644/family/familyview?cfpid=422272636152

Unfortunately I have limited details on Doherty line.

Any tips or advice would be gratefully received. Many thanks

[aghadowey]

Surprisingly, there are lots of family trees with a person names 'XX X' so I can't identify yours but Doherty is one of the most common Irish names so it may be difficult to find the correct family in records without fairly precise details to start with.

This will give you most likely possibilities for a match of 406cM-
https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

[Littlebn20]

Thanks, I will check it out 

[brigidmac]

Do the matches who have not helped all have closed trees or no trees ?
Have you looked at shared matches of their shared matches ..their may be clues in snaller matches with large open trees .

We found my grandmother s birth father's name from a court record for patsrnity payments confirmed by dna links to descendants of her grandparents.but i think we were lucky .

Is DOHERTY the presumed fathers surname or ? i looked at your tree but it has mother unknown for bridget DOHERTY.

[Littlebn20]

That was good luck, I am rather envious. As you rightly say, the trees are private or non-existent! Of the much lower DNA matches, loads of them (at least 12) have a John Langston born in 1822 in their trees but that could be a red herring as it doesn't seem to lead me anywhere. There are a few other names of interest that pop up but I am guessing that they are typically related to the Doherty line. The problem is there are just so many Doherty's it is night on impossible to find the right one. Some seem willing to help until they find out there is an illegitimate child involved so I try to withold this information until the last possible moment.

[brigidmac]

Ive just looked at Bridgette's workhouse admission from the tree do you know about her "parent " that she was dischaged to does it say john Birtles ?
Is he at address that she was admitted from ?

Another trick you can try is to just put place names in DNA searches for matches
Were both parents from Ireland ? If they were from different towns the shared matches on each side may reflect this .

[Littlebn20]

Good tip. The workhouse record was a bit speculative to be honest, but I will follow up with that
name Birtles.

[aghadowey]

Which workhouse is the record from?

[Littlebn20]

It says South Dublin Poor Union if that is of any help?