Mumford DNA-husband, my mum & their parents

[Ruskie]

Lisa, if you haven’t already done so, it might be simpler if your firstly concentrate on just a few of your /your Mum’s highest cm Mumford matches. I can imagine that looking at so many with the same surname on several sides of the family must be a bit overwhelming.

Do any of the higher matches have trees online? Have you contacted any of them? Can you build up their trees (as you would do your own) to see if you can find your common ancestor/s?

[Lisa in California]

Background: I joined RootsChat in 2009; I have posted a number of topics regarding my Mumfords and have found out a lot about them.  My ancestors lived in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, England (early 1800s) and before that in Great Dunmow, Essex (“starting” c1738).  This topic was started only to question why my husband and mum and both sets of their parents have matches with Mumfords.  I want to clarify this so no one duplicates any efforts. 

Hi Ruskie.  Thank you for your interest and great questions.  I tend to be very chatty so I will try to be concise.

Unfortunately, I believe all of my mum’s and husband’s matches have very low cMs.

Looking at my husband’s matches, a good number of them have trees that go back to early English settlements in America (when and where their Mumford names are found).

The three of us have matches with people who have the following in their trees (if correct research has been done by others, of course):
Mumfords born late 1500s, Canfield Parva, Essex, England
Mumfords born early 1600s, Rhode Island, America
Mumfords born mid 1600s, Abingdon Parish, Washington County, Virginia, America

While looking for additional details to post, I found the following:
Husband has a match (through his mother’s side) with a direct descendant of my James’ grandfather. The match was through this person’s paternal (Mumford surname) branch until 1920.  However, my husband only shares 15 cM, 1 segment.  So if the tree is accurate, the match should be quite early, correct?

There are a lot of online trees for all of our matches.  I believe I only contacted two people (who did not write back).  I hesitated in writing to more as I couldn’t verify the accuracy in their trees so I started researching other branches.

There are at least a few trees that clearly show my Great Dunmow ancestors so I can tell how I am related to them. However, the problem is that I cannot determine how any of those trees could tie in with my mum’s ancestors.  It is possible that there are links somewhere with my husband’s ancestors as I’ve not fully researched his branches.

I’ve rambled.  My apologies.  I do need to sit down and closely look at my mum’s matches.  Perhaps I’ve missed something.  I could be very wrong but I believe the link (especially with my husband) is somewhere in the 1700s or late 1600s, if that is possible since it was so long ago.

Thank you for your interest, Ruskie.

[brigidmac]

Thought I'd share link to one of Lisa's posts with lots of dates and facts on it

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=640956.msg4878504#msg4878504

Btw Lisa on 2 posts you said you are looking at the 6 photo matches
I hope that's not the only way you look for new matches or you will miss the ones without photos .

Every week I look at matches and use the option in top right to chose newest to oldest rather than the default. Top matches

Like you I use name search ..never spelling variations...if there are 3 spellings do each one separately and don't forget to try putting Mumford in tree owner name option instead of name in trees .that way you will also see any direct Mumford descendants who have no trees . Unlinked trees + private unsearchable trees .

[Lisa in California]

Hi brigidmac.  Thank you for pointing out additional items!

Thank you for finding and putting up the link. Although it is wordy, at lease that link was concise.

The six photos displayed on Anc*try: that isn’t the only way I search, but thank you for asking.  I mentioned it elsewhere as the photos were how I found the (possible) connection between my husband and me.  When I saw one photo in my DNA “results” and then saw the same photo in my husband’s, I thought there was a mistake.  Eventually, I found several more photos that were in both of our results. I don’t remember if I found “duplicate” photos for my mum’s results.

Newest to oldest: I’ve never tried that option.  Thank you for mentioning it!

Variations: while I have used variation for other (uncommon surname) branches, I believe there were so many Munford results that I gave up looking at the results and haven’t tried Mumford variations since.  I will try again tonight; it will be interesting to see the results.

I will look for the tree owner name option.  I don’t believe I’ve ever used that option.

Thank you so much for the very helpful advice!  It is wonderful to read suggestions offered by you and Ruskie.     

[Ruskie]

There’s nothing wrong with being ‘chatty’ Lisa. Sometimes it is necessary and useful.

I will have a look at your other Mumford thread/s later.

I don’t have Ancestry so any of my suggestions are just vague and general. I try to keep it simple (not always successfully I’m afraid) as DNA can be quite a complex topic and I don’t want to confuse you or myself further. 

Have you tried your 15 cm match in dna painter:
https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4
Relationship estimates are a useful guide but also a little mind boggling, I find. 

I’m sure this has been suggested or already done, but have you uploaded your raw data to other sites such as FTDNA , My Heritage etc? Sometimes useful matches can pop up.

[Lisa in California]

Hi Ruskie.  I’ve looked at dna painter in the past but didn’t get too far.  I just looked again and I think that site will have to wait for me to have a nice, hot cup of strong tea while I peruse the site.    Thank you for suggesting it.

I did upload to GEDmatch but I almost found the site more confusing than DNA explanations.

I just looked through GEDmatch again and at this time, it’s just too much to absorb. Perhaps once things settle down at home I will have the patience and time to understand how the site can be beneficial to me.

Thank you for continuing to offer suggestions! 

[Ruskie]

I’m the same as you with Gedmatch. I dip in and out not really knowing what I’m doing.

Many people find it useful. There is quite a lot of information on the internet explaining various features and how to use it.

As for DNA painter - when they start lisitng possible relationships along the lines of half fifth cousins three times removed, my eyes start to glaze over.  I use known relationships as a rough guide eg if I know my 61cm match is a fourth cousin and it from there.

That probably explains why I don’t have much success with my matching efforts.

[brigidmac]

I put my mum's ancestry results on gedmatch and my cousin did his then I had technophobe  panic attacks so never did my own also I didn't realise you could actually look at shared results on there

Thought it was a way other people could find you via email if you matched .

You've both inspired me to try again in new year when computer , internet + my brain  will hopefully be working better

[Ruskie]

Look online for simple instructions on how to use it Brigid. On my last dabble, I discovered that when you look at the table of your matches there is a column which tells you which company the person tested with which might be useful. Oddly enough only a couple of my higher ones tested with Ancestry.

There are plenty of people here who can help you too of course.