I agree about lines dying out. You only have to think of the huges numbers of medeavil surnames that have gone. I think it was reckoned in Tudor times that approx 50% of families fizzled out without descendants. This is likely to happen in my own branch, where sib's child is the sole great grand child from our side of the family.
A friend, who has a better scientific background than I, points out that some genes overwhelm others. Not talking about recessive genes, and I haven't a clue at which stage this happens, but at some stage one of your parent's genes is more likely to go forward than another.
The majority of my matches are with Dad's side. Clearly this means that more of Dad's relatives have tested than Mum's.
Granny came from Norfolk, with the vast majority of her ancestors from within ten miles of Holt. I must have less than a dozen verified matches for her side, and all under 10cM.
She came from traditionally large families, so I feel there must be more factors at play than just an unwillingness to be DNA tested by my Norfolk relations.
After all, NMEs are far less likely to occur than NPEs!
I am marking my tree where I have a DNA match
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