CeCe - our Maker gave humans the ability to choose our reaction to what happens - given this ability, I choose to enjoy. Thanks for the feedback - it makes my (long) day.... Jim Bartlett On 11/17/11, CeCe Moore<[email protected]> wrote: I love your attitude Jim! CeCe [1]www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com [2]www.studiointv.com ---------------------------------------- > Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:31:20 -0600 > From: [3][email protected] > To: [4][email protected]; [5][email protected] > Subject: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Finding Real Ancestors [was Numbers differences between FTDNA and 23 & me] > > > Mary Alice, > > I agree with you! > > I can assure you that the Common Ancestors (husband/wife) that each of my > atDNA matches and I agree upon, are not just surname matches, they are real > people with birth, marriage, and death dates and places and, in all cases, > at least two children: one child is my ancestor and the other child is the > ancestor of my match. They are the same family for both of us in the same > place and time. Each and every person in each of our direct lineages is a > real person (incidently with a unique ahnentafel number). Almost all of > these lines can also be found in trees at GEDmatch.com; FamilySearch.org; > and usually other on-line sites as well as genealogy libraries. > > Are these 100 percent guaranteed, bet-the-farm certainties? Who can say that > about any genealogy. And besides that, there could easily be an NPE in one > or both of our lineages. If so - then clearly the atDNA segment we share > could not have come through this line. There is always that possibility. > These situations can only be uncovered by detailed Y-DNA and mtDNA testing > to veryfy each and every paper link. > > There is also the possibliity that our shared atDNA segment came from a > different Common Ancestor. In fact several of my atDNA matches and I have > more that one set of known Common Ancestors - so a DNA segment could come > from either one of the lines (but not both). I have now documented at least > 7 sets of cousins (from first to 8th) among my ancestors. So a match with > one of them in the path to theCommon Ancestor provides two possible paths > for the DNA segment to come down to me. > > The difficulty in finding a Common Ancestor is mostly due, IMO, to not > knowing all of our ancestors! At the 4th cousin level, I don't know 12.5 > percent of my ancestors; at the 5th cousin level 25 percent; 6th cousin > level 43 percent; 7th cousin level 58 percent, 8th cousin level 69 percent, > etc. That represents a LOT of places a Common Ancestor could be hiding - > maybe just beyond a brick wall, maybe well beyond that. It's no wonder we > don't match many of our atDNA matches. But that won't stop me from trying > ... References 1. http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/ 2. http://www.studiointv.com/ 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected]