Dear Jim and others, It is clear that if we get enough people tested and pair their documented genealogies with their genetic data that we can reconstruct significant portions of our ancestors' genomes. A recent study by the team at Ancestry.com used "several hundred individuals with an 18th century couple as a known MRCA ... to tile together these individuals' IBD segments" and was "able to reliably construct the ancestral couple's four haplotypes in large genomic regions with high coverage of IBD segment." See http://www.ashg.org/2013meeting/abstracts/fulltext/f130120903.htm. What Ancestry.com did in this situation is clearly what the genetic genealogy community needs to be doing on a large scale. Sincerely, Tim Janzen -----Original Message----- From: autosomal-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:autosomal-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Jim Bartlett Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2013 7:30 AM To: autosomal-dna@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Matches with a common surname Linda I agree with Tim that surnames are OK. By talking it up, among BARTLETT researchers, we've uncovered two dozen descendants of my line who have atDNA tested - across all 3 companies. By collaborating, we've determined that while we don't all match each other, we do match some who match others. And we are identifying signature segments from those ancestors. As cousins, we share names to look for in our match lists. If, a big IF, we can get some some people atDNA mapped to the 80-90 percent level, those will be great roadmaps (or DNAmaps). Additional matches on known segments can bevpointed directly to a proven ancestral line. This will help break right through brick walls. At that time a great increase in synergy will occur - helping each other fill out our DNAmaps. Jim