Thoughts on a 5th Generation DNA Match

[Kaybron]

For a number of years I have been trying to find out the parents of my maternal grandmother.  My grandmother went by the name of Ada Olive Grey Smith.  In Census data and on her marriage certificate she could be born anywhere between the years of 1879 to 1883.  The earliest I am able to find Ada is in 1901 in Gillingham, Kent.  The one consistent thing is that she gives her birthplace as Linton, Kent.  A number of people on this forum have attempted to find Ada but have not been successful. 

I have been able to separate my paternal and maternal matches after my mother's niece did a DNA test for me and I have also put together a "dummy" tree to see how some of my maternal top matches are connected (149Cm to 43Cm).  This has been quite successful.

A couple of days ago I started looking at an Ada Mary Waghorn, born 1880 in Edmonton, Middlesex.  She appears in the Maidstone Workhouse in the 1881 and 1891 Census.  Her mother died in 1881 in Maidstone.  I have also looked at her parents and grand parents to get an idea of her ancestry. On my main tree I changed my grandmother's name from Ada Olive Grey Smith to Ada Mary Waghorn.  Looking at my matches, using Ada Mary Waghorn as my grandmother, I have come up with 2 sixth cousin matches (8 and 9 Cms).  Our common ancestor is our 5th Great Grandfather. 

Are the matches that I have come up with by changing the name of my grandmother from Ada Olive Grey Smith to Ada Mary Waghorn reliable?

Regards Kaybron

[Carmella]

Hi,

I generally find small segments quite tricky to work with...  whilst some small segments are genuine, there are lots of other possibilites e.g. sticky segment, geographical segment, pile up zone etc.

There was a discussion thread on the DNA board a while ago about small segments on which somebody posted this article:

https://thednageek.com/the-small-segment-debate-is-over/#:~:text=For%20years%2C%20a%20heated%20debate,community%20about%20small%20DNA%20segments.&text=The%20precise%20definition%20of%20%E2%80%9Csmall,not%20trustworthy%20for%20genealogy%20purposes.

One scenario where I have been able to use small segments is when they form part of a large cluster including larger DNA matches... e.g. I have a 50+ cluster of matches ranging from 6cM to 20cM where everybody descends from George & Mary born 1728 and 1733. 

[Kaybron]

Thank you Carmella for responding to my post.

I will read the article and perhaps not get my hopes up too high that I have discovered a major break-through in my research.

Regards Kaybron