My husband has had good luck with his Family Finder results. His ancestry is early colonial but with lines going back to France, The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, England and Scotland as well as a few other countries in continental Europe. Principally he is about 25% French, about 25% German, about 25% Dutch and the other 25% includes about 10% English. He has at least 20 matches that go back to his loyalist ancestors who left from New York City in 1783 and came to New Brunswick. They are all in his Parlee, Folkins, Burt, Allen and Crouse lines. He has corresponded with them through FT DNA contact. For myself I do not have any concrete matches other than my brother. I come from a smallish family with my father being an only child and my mother's only sibling did not have children. Back the next generation my maternal grandfather was basically an only child as none of his siblings survived to adulthood, my maternal grandmother had four siblings with only two of them with children and they are all American and not yet into testing, my paternal grandmother had only half-siblings and no one has tested (they all live in England still), my paternal grandfather had eleven siblings but my line and the line of his youngest brother is the only one with whom I am in contact (they live in England and have not yet tested, his other siblings did have children but they did not and have died except for one brother also in Canada but I haven't been able to get in contact with his descendants). I can go back another generation with almost a similar story as my family lines are small going back. My three grandparents were born in England and lived there to adulthood and beyond for my father's parents as he too was born in England and came here as a child of nine years in 1913. In Family Finder most of my matches are colonial America although a few of my surnames do pop up and I am able to give possible hints to people researching their line. One was able to go back to his Ellis line in Dorset which rather thrilled him! He is still working on the direct connection between my Ellis and his (my Sarah Ellis was baptized 5 Aug 1756 at Winterborne Stickland the daughter of Ellis Ellis and Sarah Wellspring who were themselves married 7 Mar 1738 at Winterborne Stickland). Ellis (baptized 22 Jul 1719 at Winterborne Stickland)'s father was Thomas Ellis and his mother Mary Bound and they married 27 Dec 1703 at Winterborne Stickland. Success stories are occurring and mostly for Americans I suspect. Until more people in England test and they do need a reason to test linking lines is not going to happen any to quickly. For instance, I know my ancestry well back into the 1600s and earlier for almost all of my lines (all English; some Scot). I tested because of the National Genographic Project producing a world wide migration map but I became thoroughly drawn into the idea of testing to understand my deep ancestry and that of my Blake family. yDNA testing my Blake line produced a new twist actually. My Blake lines goes back to a Mr. Blake married to Jone Blake who left a will in 1527 naming their children of which one was Nicholas Blake who also left a will in 1547 and so it continues. My only even close "match" is 9/12 and the individual with I2a2b traces back to Ireland. One is left to wonder why my ancestor came from Ireland to England in the 1400s or was it that someone in my line went to Ireland. Since it is not a perfect match and we are separated by a thousand years give or take more people testing would certainly illuminate this line. To go with that are all the Blake genealogies which make use of my Nicholas in an absolutely incorrect way (thanks to the writings of Horatio Somerby a noted fraud writing genealogies for Americans in the 1800s). More people testing their Blake yDNA would be absolutely wonderful. Elizabeth (Blake) Kipp, BA, PLCGS BLAKE-one-name-study, PINCOMBE-one-name-study Guild of one-name studies #4600 Webpage: http://www.kipp-blake-families.ca/ Blog: http://kippeeb.blogspot.com/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Debbie Kennett" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 3:40 PM Subject: Re: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Kimberly Powell blog post on AncestryDNA > My impression is that all the confirmed cousins are found in colonial > American lines as these people tend to be related not just on one line but > on multiple lines. I've got about 500 matches at 23andMe and my mum and > dad > between them have about 150 matches at FTDNA, but I still haven't been > able > to identify a single shared common ancestor. It doesn't help from my point > of view that most of my matches, and especially those at 23andMe, are with > people in America who don't know where in the UK their ancestors are from. > Even with my few matches with Brits and Australians I've still not been > able > to find a link.