I'm baffled too but I know the relationship. Any family member of Dad's great aunt that I have discovered over the years will not respond and I don't know why. I know statistically we wont get a response from everyone but a whole branch is not communicating. I'm beginning to imagine family secrets and fights.

I've checked my DNA results this morning and I now have:

One 2nd-3rd cousin who is accounted for. She is true second cousin - great grandparents in common and 315cM across 17 segments.

Two 2nd-3rd cousins with 291cMs over 10 segments and 248 cMs over 9 segments respectively. These two match with me and with each other.

I then have two 3rd-4th cousins who match with me, with each other and with the two 2nd-3rd cousins.

These are my closest DNA matches, so I have a cluster of four who are connected to each other and somehow to me, but I still don't know how.

Hobbs! Bring me an ice pack!

Sorry is it these you can't account for:

3-4 cousins who match with me

...and these other two you can:

Two 2-3 cousins with 291cMs over 10 segments and 248 cMs over 9 segments respectively

Or not them either?

I've edited my post. Is it clearer now?

Do these mystery cousins match any other DNA matches?

Do you have any other DNA matches you can tie up with each of your 8 great grandparents?

The mystery cousins are attracting other, more distant matches so yes, there is a cluster, which doesn't seem to help me. I don't know about the new one as she doesn't have a tree, but the other three are all descended from the same marriage, which doesn't seem to be anything to do with me.

The only match that I can definitively tie up with my great grandparents is the second cousin I know. Every other match is 4th - 6th cousin or more distant.

Trying another tack, I would like to know where my great grandfather Joseph Rowbotham/Roebottom/ Robottom was in 1851. He was born in Frieston (or sometimes Caythorpe) in Lincolnshire in 1819.

I've got him on the other censuses, but the Ancestry search is playing up again and even with wild cards a request for results born in Lincs and living in Lincs is giving me hundreds of irrelevant matches from all over the country, which is frustrating to say the least.

I'd like to establish that he wasn't anywhere near the small.circumscribed area of north Lincolnshire where all my mysterious matches originate.

Thanks

Assuming you mean Claythorpe not Caythorpe which is Lincolnshire but Newark way?
Which part of north Lincolnshire are you looking to find him...hopefully.

Sorry to say that wildcards don't work in the place / location fields on Ancestry any more, AN. I'll have a look for him though.

Could this be him:
Joseph Rowbottan b1815 CLAYPOLE??? could have been misheard?
AG Lab at Bracebridge, Lincoln
https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bi...ff=&ml_rpos=13