I have 266 2nd-4th cousin matches at FTDNA.  Four are actually 2nd cousins and I tested two of them.  The other two (mother and daughter 2nd1r) were easy to identify.   I should be able to identify any second cousin and most third or fourth cousins quite easily if my match has genealogical or geographical information.   I am willing to try to figure out the connection if matches have ancestry in certain Virginia counties, but when they don't know that they have Virginia ancestors, trying to connect them would be a huge waste of time.  This is the reason why I am not optimistic about autosomal testing although I continue to try. Furthermore, I am convinced that many of these 2nd to 4th cousins are actually more distant--hence the difficulty in determining how they are related.  Families who lived in the same burned record Virginia county  from c 1650 to 1850 and beyond moved in a small circle and often married their cousins, close or distant.  Lindsey  

I concur that a huge majority of the 2nd to 4th cousin matches are more distant than shown, maybe a lot more distant. Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 22, 2018, at 10:17 AM, Lindsey Britton via GENEALOGY-DNA <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > I have 266 2nd-4th cousin matches at FTDNA. Four are actually 2nd cousins and I tested two of them. The other two (mother and daughter 2nd1r) were easy to identify. I should be able to identify any second cousin and most third or fourth cousins quite easily if my match has genealogical or geographical information. I am willing to try to figure out the connection if matches have ancestry in certain Virginia counties, but when they don't know that they have Virginia ancestors, trying to connect them would be a huge waste of time. This is the reason why I am not optimistic about autosomal testing although I continue to try. Furthermore, I am convinced that many of these 2nd to 4th cousins are actually more distant--hence the difficulty in determining how they are related. Families who lived in the same burned record Virginia county from c 1650 to 1850 and beyond moved in a small circle and often married their cousins, close or distant. Lindsey > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community