DNA to solve brickwalls?

[coombs]

Postage costs from USA always have to be added to that . & There can be a long wait for delivery then an even longer wait for results to come in

Coombes I  bought 4 in one go to save on postage costs for a cousin.sister +  brother in law & one for a friend

My sister decided not to take hers so
I actually have a spare if you'd like it for £60 plus whatever it costs to post from UK
They are very light and smaller than the boxes 10 years ago

Thanks for the offer for the £60, I need time to think about it though.

[LizzieL]

And also add anyone interested in family history but doesn't have their DNA tested probably inherited the Silly Gene. Family history without DNA is like watching a film without sound. 

Before the pandemic, I belonged to my local U3A Family History Group. I was the only one of the 6 of us who had taken a DNA test. None of the others (including the leader) had any interest in taking one themselves and thought that I was very peculiar in having resorted to DNA rather than "rely" on the paper trail.

[PaulineJ]

I've just submitted a test sample. What prompted it was the revelation that along with his wordly goods, my late dad (appears) to have left my siblings and I a half-sister (b 1949) . (whoops!)

She had managed via cousin-matching DNA to zero in on her great-grandparents, then her/our  grandparents. A first name matching dear old dad was in the adoption paperwork, and theres a limited pool of grandkids to choose from...

so if this is yes/no question (can it be done), i'm going to have to say, yes

[Biggles50]

And also add anyone interested in family history but doesn't have their DNA tested probably inherited the Silly Gene. Family history without DNA is like watching a film without sound. 

Before the pandemic, I belonged to my local U3A Family History Group. I was the only one of the 6 of us who had taken a DNA test. None of the others (including the leader) had any interest in taking one themselves and thought that I was very peculiar in having resorted to DNA rather than "rely" on the paper trail.

I also am a member of my local U3A and have given a couple of presentations specifically on DNA.

I did ask a series of questions before I started and a good proportion of the attendees had taken a DNA test, so I had a very keen audience for the last one.

I’m laid up at present but when I do go to meetings there are usually multiple DNA related questions asked by Group members.

DNA is not a subject that can be covered in one session, to do the subject justice then at least three presentations are required.

[coombs]

A distant cousin on Ancestry says that he has found out the origins and maiden name of our female ancestor Martha (c1720-2778) and got her maiden name through DNA testing in his words "I've gone through my, and my First Cousins, DNA matches and assigned them to my four Grandparents lines. Then for my Parental side I've listed all of the "Shared Matches" for each DNA match. From the Shared Matches I then can group together DNA matches. One of these Groups had people related to Abel and people related to Clinkard (from my notes there were 10-12 people in this grouping). The DNA matches tell me there was a marriage between the Abel and Clinkards."

Martha was born c1720 and died in 1778 and I have never before been able to find her maiden name due to not being able to find a marriage record. There was a Martha Clinkard born in 1722 in Garsington, Oxfordshire as well. Not sure what to think or take of the finding, can you connect links that far back?

[Biggles50]

A distant cousin on Ancestry says that he has found out the origins and maiden name of our female ancestor Martha (c1720-2778) and got her maiden name through DNA testing in his words "I've gone through my, and my First Cousins, DNA matches and assigned them to my four Grandparents lines. Then for my Parental side I've listed all of the "Shared Matches" for each DNA match. From the Shared Matches I then can group together DNA matches. One of these Groups had people related to Abel and people related to Clinkard (from my notes there were 10-12 people in this grouping). The DNA matches tell me there was a marriage between the Abel and Clinkards."

Martha was born c1720 and died in 1778 and I have never before been able to find her maiden name due to not being able to find a marriage record. There was a Martha Clinkard born in 1722 in Garsington, Oxfordshire as well. Not sure what to think or take of the finding, can you connect links that far back?

What the distant Cousin has done is use The Leeds Method as a base and if I have followed the text correctly they have extrapolated the results back into matches where there is likely to be very low levels of shared DNA.

To use data from my own tree my 5xGGP’s were born around the time of the Martha quoted in the text.  At this Grandparental level I have zero reliable DNA matches.

Where there is 10cM and below shared DNA with a match whilst the shared level might be right it might also be a false positive. 

Personally if I am researching a DNA match where the shared cM level is below 20cM I will always have a degree of doubt in the accuracy of the relationship.

Finally yes I do have low cM matches that link back to MRCA’s born in the early 1700’s but these do have a paper trail to support the DNA results.

Do note that in my posts I tend to use the term validate, on its own DNA cannot give the answer to more distant relationships it can only offer probabilities.

[coombs]

A distant cousin on Ancestry says that he has found out the origins and maiden name of our female ancestor Martha (c1720-2778) and got her maiden name through DNA testing in his words "I've gone through my, and my First Cousins, DNA matches and assigned them to my four Grandparents lines. Then for my Parental side I've listed all of the "Shared Matches" for each DNA match. From the Shared Matches I then can group together DNA matches. One of these Groups had people related to Abel and people related to Clinkard (from my notes there were 10-12 people in this grouping). The DNA matches tell me there was a marriage between the Abel and Clinkards."

Martha was born c1720 and died in 1778 and I have never before been able to find her maiden name due to not being able to find a marriage record. There was a Martha Clinkard born in 1722 in Garsington, Oxfordshire as well. Not sure what to think or take of the finding, can you connect links that far back?

What the distant Cousin has done is use The Leeds Method as a base and if I have followed the text correctly they have extrapolated the results back into matches where there is likely to be very low levels of shared DNA.

To use data from my own tree my 5xGGP’s were born around the time of the Martha quoted in the text.  At this Grandparental level I have zero reliable DNA matches.

Where there is 10cM and below shared DNA with a match whilst the shared level might be right it might also be a false positive. 

Personally if I am researching a DNA match where the shared cM level is below 20cM I will always have a degree of doubt in the accuracy of the relationship.

Finally yes I do have low cM matches that link back to MRCA’s born in the early 1700’s but these do have a paper trail to support the DNA results.

Do note that in my posts I tend to use the term validate, on its own DNA cannot give the answer to more distant relationships it can only offer probabilities.

Thanks. I would also not add the Martha Clinkard to my tree based on that. False positives, or probabilities.

Funnily enough I descend from her sister Agnes Clinkard born 1721, the paper trail says so anyway, through a different line of descent and no marriages to Abel's. Agnes wed John Andrews whose daughter wed a Tanner who in turn wed a Snell.