Totally agree Mike, I did an autosomal DNA test with FTDNA a few months ago and have so far had two successful and verifiable results confirming my ancestry in Devon on two different branches both being on my paternal side. One which confirms a connection back in the 1650s to a common ancestor with a 40% compatibility only, but he like me had a wide ranging tree and another to a one name study via a common ancestor in another name, but all work in progress. I have worked from verifiable sources the whole 16 years of my research and in the majority of cases have numerous different sources to back up my closest ancestors. The answer to finding matches in my humble opinion is to follow both female and male lines and add in siblings and their spouses and children, etc and their wider families for as far as it is feasible or you wish to do. I shall use whatever sources, including DNA which help me 'nail' down my ancestors wherever they are. Jean Hodges -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Fisher via Sent: 11 June 2016 09:57 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DEV] DNA testing That's a very head in the sand view. I shall carry on finding Devon cousins and solving problems with DNA + paper records. Mike On 10/06/2016 22:57, blackmore terry via wrote: > One thing I've noticed with regard to DNA testing, while it does prove > that there is a link between two people with known DNA, there is one > flaw. Unless we dig up all known named graves in say Devon and take > DNA samples we are unlikely to ever know exactly who in ancient Devon we could actually be descended from. > DNA will show exactly where the generations join, but not who they > were. To me there is only one possible way of knowing our ancestory is down the female line. > Only one person can be the mother of a child, but any male can be the father. > This still depends on if the information we have is of the correct mother. > Unless we invent time travel, sorting out our family pedigrees will > always be one of a lot of guess work. > ------------------------------------------ > The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon > http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/ > and > the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon > can be found at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=devon > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/ and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=devon ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message