Much of my so-called “free time” this week has once again been spent on Family Finder.
My husband and I both participated in FamilyTreeDNA’s beta launch of their new autosomal test and while I’m still communicating with and actively seeking the common ancestors with many of our respective matches, I discovered yesterday that my husband has a confirmed match with a likely 4th cousin (either 3rd or 4th – waiting to hear the exact relationship between the other person who tested and the known common ancestors, which we’ve identified as my husband’s 3rd great-grandparents). Learning about this match has in the process allowed me to add substantially to our family tree.
And seeking the commonalities with matches over the last few days has re-emphasized two critical issues for me when it comes to using autosomal testing with traditional genealogy:
- For those who have the capability, I strongly encourage you to fill out and extend back your family tree as much as you possibly can. By doing so you’re not only making it that much easier to find common ancestors with your matches, you are also providing invaluable help to adoptees, those with adoptions and NPEs in their family lines and/or those who face a situation of sparse, unavailable or destroyed records. What goes along with that is having on hand and posting to your FTDNA account the list of surnames from your tree. If you’re an adoptee, please put that in the surname field so your matches know; otherwise it can be dismaying to have a strong match with somebody and not know if you have any information whatsoever to work with.
- I would also recommend compiling a location list of where your ancestors have been. If nothing else, it gives you shared locations you can focus in on.
While I’ve been studying Family Finder I’ve simultaneously been drafting our new Family Finder page for the Finland DNA Project’s website. It probably won’t be up until sometime next week and will be cobbled together from my own notes, observations/suggestions from project members and posts to DNA-Forums and the ISOGG list. As with so much else in genetic genealogy, it will be a continual work in progress.
Update 5/1: the person who tested is a 2nd cousin twice removed. The suggested relationship was 3rd Cousin, range 2nd Cousin – 4th Cousin, shared cM 101.03 and and longest shared block 45.11. I am particularly delighted this is on one of my husband’s Kentucky lines because they have been a troublesome bunch to sort out.
Posted in Family Finder, Personal History | |
