Maybe this is why I am having so much trouble with FF. I know my ancestry, but my matches don't. I sent about 60 e-mails to 2-4th cousin matches earlier this week along with a detailed chart of my mother's ancestors back to the 3rd-5th great grandparents. Of course, I have gaps as most of us do. Gaps are inevitable in Virginia's burned record counties. What is not inevitable is tracing lines in burned record counties back to the 1600s and I have quite a few of those, too. Since 2nd to 4th cousins share ancestry no further back that 3rd great grandparents, I felt sure some of these matches would recognize one or two of my lines, but alas, I was wrong. I did get many replies, but no clues. The most likely was from someone in Scotland who said his ancestors came from Galloway where my mother's 2nd great grandfather Kevan was born. Lindsey PS I tried GEDMATCH, but am a bit disappointed. I like the Are your parents related? tool, the Phasing tool which I intend to use once I get my results, and the Lazarus tool sounds interesting if I can find enough relatives on the same line to try it, which doesn't seem likely at this point, but FTDNA's match lists and ICW tool are easier to use and results for the Heritage tools at GEDMATCH are wild.

Family Finder does take time and work. In my own tree I have sufficiently different ethnicities that to some extent I was able to map out portions without asking for family trees; of course, having tested an increasing number of family members has been a big help. I have been able to guess a few people's connection by looking at surname lists, but mostly not, due to patronymics and overly common surnames. This morning I'm embarking on a big new area--I was able to get a FF test done for a man listed in the Todd project as having a shared ancestral couple born in the 1770s, and his results are now available to me. One of his matches also matches one of my Todd descendants (he himself does not come up as a match for anyone I've tested but the three match on the same basic segment), and his closest match lists a couple of familiar surnames with the right locations. However, it'll be a big jigsaw puzzle working with his DNA especially given that FTDNA hasn't matched him to anyone else I've tested. Just keep chipping away at it and the discoveries will come. On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 9:51 AM, Lindsey Britton via < genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > > Maybe this is why I am having so much trouble with FF. I know my > ancestry, but my matches don't. I sent about 60 e-mails to 2-4th cousin > matches earlier this week along with a detailed chart of my mother's > ancestors back to the 3rd-5th great grandparents. Of course, I have gaps > as most of us do. Gaps are inevitable in Virginia's burned record > counties. What is not inevitable is tracing lines in burned record > counties back to the 1600s and I have quite a few of those, too. Since 2nd > to 4th cousins share ancestry no further back that 3rd great grandparents, > I felt sure some of these matches would recognize one or two of my lines, > but alas, I was wrong. I did get many replies, but no clues. The most > likely was from someone in Scotland who said his ancestors came from > Galloway where my mother's 2nd great grandfather Kevan was born. > > Lindsey > > PS I tried GEDMATCH, but am a bit disappointed. I like the Are your > parents related? tool, the Phasing tool which I intend to use once I get my > results, and the Lazarus tool sounds interesting if I can find enough > relatives on the same line to try it, which doesn't seem likely at this > point, but FTDNA's match lists and ICW tool are easier to use and results > for the Heritage tools at GEDMATCH are wild. > > ------------------------------- > 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 > -- Karla Huebner calypsospots AT gmail.com