Like everyone else, I have the full complement of matches who don't answer, matches that seem to be more than unlikely and matches that are tantalizingly close, but no cigar. And yes, it is discouraging, but tonight I got a refreshing "gift". One of my matches who lives in Poland e-mailed me and he has found one of his Polish ancestors was from Germany and shares a rather unusual German surname with me. Now not only was this a surprise from a man living in a country I have no ancestors from, but also a surprise that I didn't have to do all or the majority of the footwork. However, I think this is only the second time anything like this has happened. Roberta Estes -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Diana Gale Matthiesen Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 10:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] atDNA Survey On my mother's side, I have deep New England colonial ancestry, with dozens of couples in my ancestry who arrived during the "Great Migration" of the 1630s. What probably depresses the number of matches I have is that my father's paternal grandparents were Danish immigrants, from a small family with few descendants (in Denmark or the U.S.). In fact, I just realized... Except for the known cousins I deliberately tested, all of my confirmed FF matches have been with people who also share these well known, prolific New England progenitors. I'm getting just the result one would expect, that is, the most matches where I need them the least. How discouraging. Diana