Sam, I think you are confusing two different things, the generation estimate that you see for autosomal DNA on gedmatch, and the genetic distance reported for a Y-DNA test. A generation number of 4.0 on gedmatch would be a reasonably close match (around 3rd cousin), but a distance of 4 differences on a 37 marker Y-DNA test is a much more distant relationship. The person you found on FTDNA has a genetic distance of 4 on a 37-marker Y_DNA test, and doesn't show any match at all on the autosomal test. So I think Letha is correct - even if she did upload at gedmatch, it is very unlikely that you would see anything useful, the relationship is probably too distant for you to see a gedmatch autosomal match at all. Summary: genetic distance on a Y-DNA test is not the distance in generations. Paul Rakow > > From: Sam Sloan <[email protected]> > Subject: [DNA] Problems with Those Reluctant or Unwilling to Join > Gedmatch > > ANSWER: My name is Letha Chunn, and I?m a cousin of Michael?s and manage > his DNA testing. No, we do not have any connection with GedMatch, and are > not likely to. We also show no match to Arnout in our Family Finder > testing. His name simply does not exist there. That is likely because > your Y-DNA match shows a genetic distance of 4. In other words, the > likelihood of a common ancestor for you and Michael at 4 generations is > only 11.7%. At 8 generations, it is only 46.37%. The rule of thumb in > assessing Y-DNA matches is that one doesn?t pay attention to any that > have less than a genetic distance of two because you will never find a > common ancestor. The matches to pursue are those in the 0-2 genetic > distance range. That having been said, we are having great difficulty > finding a DNA match on Y-DNA in the 0-2 range. In fact, we have no > matches there. Even your match shows that Arnout is from haplogroup > R-M198 and Michael is from > haplogroup R-M512. Our surnames are different as well. Have you joined > any groups? Our Bishop line is from Maryland, and we have Michael in the > Maryland and Bishop Projects. His DNA is listed on those two sites. I > don?t know if you would qualify for membership if your family is not from > Maryland and your surname isn?t Bishop. > ===== > > MY REPLY: I disagree. I can almost always find the link as long as the > person is 4.0 or closer away. This is probably because I have working on > it for a long time and I have a full family tree. I do not have anybody > 2.0 > for less except for close relatives where I paid for them to be tested. If > I took your standard I would never have gotten off the ground. >