Using my DNA matches

[marquette]

After several months of bouncing around trying to figure out our (Dad, me, daughter, husband, sister-in-law) matches to different people on Ancestry and GEDMatch, I have finally decided on a plan forward!

I have given up on messaging random people and asking how they might link to our family – very few of them answer, even if they have logged in the last month.

I will use the "note" section to make a note of our common ancestors, the date and anything helpful; which you can look at on the first page, without having to access each DNA match every time.

I am going to go through all the Ancestry Hints on the DNA profiles (which are family trees linked to DNA profiles, not records hints) – this will let me update my family tree from where I left off each branch due to lack/privacy of records. By choosing the Ancestry Hints, it really cut down the number of matches, cutting out those with no or unlinked trees.

This will give me 2-3 or more generations forward. By putting the info into my old PAF database, I can easily calculate relationships between our shared matches as well.

Way down the bottom of Dad's hints list, at 8.1 centimorgans match, is my 3c1r (third cousin once removed). He is actually a half-cousin, if that makes sense; our ancestor had two wives, which is why the match is so small. But, it gives me hope to find descendants of my 4xg grandparents but that’s for later.

When Ancestry next has free US records, I am going to investigate a person called John Fleming Wakefield, who appears in the trees of several shared matches who have nothing in common with my tree – perhaps he is the link.

All this should keep me busy for a while – then I have to go back and fill in the family tree gleanings with proper BDM and other records, and follow them through as far as I can. I can already see one of my husbands matches has a screwed up family tree.

I can see a way to use them make use of the DNA matches now, but its going to take ages to get all the relevant records updated and confirmed.

Di