The most likely case would be that they match each other on some other line as well. So they might be ninth cousins to you, but actually fifth cousins to each other. -----Original Message----- From: Andreas West via <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thu, Oct 29, 2015 1:43 am Subject: [DNA] Why is it that my U.S. cousins all shares less DNA amongst them but more with me? Hi everyone, I hope to hear some of your views on the following: I'm seeing for a lot of my triangulated groups for my maternal side (they triangulate with both my mum and me, that's how I know which side) that the U.S. based (and been there for many generations) cousins have lower genetic distance and SNP's (hence shares less DNA) amongst themselves (means within the other U.S. based cousins) than they do share with us (and my mum is basically 99% German with some faint traces of Bohemian and maybe Volga Germans (​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Germans). Given my mums ancestry it's pretty clear that our common ancestor was German and they are all descendants of German immigrants that went over the pond somewhere in the last 200 years (from the first German settlers to maybe the 18 hundred migrations). So if that same ancestral segment was split up through generations (given the size of max 20 cM with a median of 10 cM for our matches in the TG's) then why is it that the randomness of DNA seems to favor more the German connection (us) than the U.S. connections (the other descendants of immigrants)? >From what I read it was common practice for the first settlers to marry within their own nationality/language/religious groups for the first couple of generations before mixing. Given that these settlers were mostly from small villages (which were overpopulated given the size of farms & food availability) consisting of "extended family" and they keep sending messages home about who much better the new world was, thus more of their close kin was following over and again cousin marriage happened. Whereas in Germany the poor living conditions either led to death or those remaining there been forced to move to a better place within Germany, in combination with the start of the industrial revolution and what are now big cities with lots of jobs (we just see this as a global phenomene happening again → the building of mega cities). So they had an opportunity to mix their DNA more than those immigrants in the U.S., correct? I'm wondering if anyone of you has some similar stories or theories as to why it's so. Like I wrote DNA is random, yet I see this happening way more often than not (the higher percentage of DNA with us Germans). This is a big mystery to me. Any feedback and comment is welcome. Thank you! Andreas (WEST) born BASSO My ancestors: [http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Basso-Family- Tree-23](http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Basso-Family-Tree-23) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message