I need help with a dna match

[heilanlassie]

Second cousins share a set of great-grandparents. Since you know your great grandparents, the next step is to find out your match's great grandparents. If he doesn't know yet, then you or he will have to do the research.

Since you match a surname, I'd focus on that line first, so try to find out the parents of his grandfather, Jan Chyla. If they are Johann Chyla and Ernestine Merker, you're done and congratulations. From the other direction, try to find out all the children of your great grandparents Johann and Ernestine. Maybe one is named Jan and maybe that is your match's ancestor. *

As LizzieL mentioned though, if all the families came from the same area, you might be second cousins through a different line, not the Chylas. So you will need to research the other lines as well. Basically you need to research his family tree as well as you have done your own.

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DNA helps to identify where to look for common ancestors and can confirm or disprove the paper trail research, but DNA results alone can't name the common ancestor.

Edited to add:  * If your great grandparents don't match, then work backward another generation to see if you and he are third cousins. If the records just aren't there, then you just resign yourself to that fact and know that if they were you'd probably identify the common ancestor. That is the case with my own Irish ancestors - the DNA and the paper trail point to a common ancestor for me and a few others, and we can pretty much tell that that person lived about a generation or two before the records become available.

Unfortunately, the father of my dna match was orphaned at the age of 9, and didn't know much of his family background. He died in 1998, and my dna match has no one left to answer questions.
It's so frustrating.

[brigidmac]

Modified
Sorry repeated myself

Another of the possibilities is second cousins  once removed
Your match could be a descendant of your  great great grandparents 

But could be a generation removed from you ie   
2c1R second cousins a generation apart

[brigidmac]

As your father's are 21 years apart it seems  likely that they come from different biological generations
Unless they come from large families

For me most likely scenario is that your great grandparents are his great great grandparents

[LizzieL]

As your father's are 21 years apart it seems  likely that they come from different biological generations
Unless they come from large families

For me most likely scenario is that your great grandparents are his great great great grandparents

I thought that might be a possibility as well, or his 2 x  great grandparents, so a x x one times removed cousin

[brigidmac]

Heilen
I found your tree on ancestry

And others with franciskaek chilla but different spouses

More questions which might help in search

What religion were they
Did any of you or your relatives matches live in different countries or at a time when the towns were classified as a different country

Is there a tradition of passing names down to grandchildren ?

I recommend using different spellings for some  ancestors so they show on name searches .use the " also known as " tag for the one you prefer

[heilanlassie]

Heilen
I found your tree on ancestry

And others with franciskaek chilla but different spouses

More questions which might help in search

What religion were they
Did any of you or your relatives matches live in different countries or at a time when the towns were classified as a different country

Is there a tradition of passing names down to grandchildren ?

I recommend using different spellings for some  ancestors so they show on name searches .use the " also known as " tag for the one you prefer

Yes, I have two trees on Ancestry - one is my maternal (Scottish) line, and the other is my paternal (Polish) line.
My father only had one spouse, listed on my paternal tree (Agnieska Anhalt) - he wasn't married to my mother (I am illegitimate, but I was given my father's name on my birth certificate)

My father was Roman Catholic, as am I, and I presume his ancestors would have been the same.
Poland is a very Catholic country, even to this day.

I believe that when my father was born, the place he was born in was Prussia, and became Poland in 1920.

I'm afraid that like my dna match, I cannot answer many questions about my ancestors.
I only discovered the existence of my paternal family in 2011.

[brigidmac]

  I'm sure that DNA will help you
Have both you and your match linked your trees to your results with yourself as home person

If you add a chyla ancestor to the top of your tree ..with just the surname some thru line suggestions may get thrown up .

Also it helps if you transfer your results to gedmatch too ..extra possibilities of finding mutual relatives .
It helps if you know approximate dates that your father's left their birth  country
I see your father was the youngest of many children so my theory of biological generation differences may not be valid
It's good that you have a photo of him

[Ruskie]

If you also take a My Heritage DNA test you might find some useful matches on your paternal line.

I know that many people poo poo My Heritage for various reasons, but in my experience My Heritage is useful for Eastern European heritage, especially if they still live in Europe.

A quick example from one of my own Polish ancestors …. On Ancestry. myself and a known distant cousin have two only two common matches. On My Heritage we share over 100 (I stopped counting after getting past 100).

Just something for you to consider ….

[Biggles50]

If you also take a My Heritage DNA test you might find some useful matches on your paternal line.

I know that many people poo poo My Heritage for various reasons, but in my experience My Heritage is useful for Eastern European heritage, especially if they still live in Europe.

A quick example from one of my own Polish ancestors …. On Ancestry. myself and a known distant cousin have two only two common matches. On My Heritage we share over 100 (I stopped counting after getting past 100).

Just something for you to consider ….

There is no need to take a My Heritage DNA test.

The Op can download a copy of their DNA from Ancestry and upload the file to My Heritage.