Bob, I have written you several times with examples of paper trails that did not reveal all that DNA did. Why does it matter to you so much that people accept only your point of view? Elizabeth On 6/16/2018 10:18 AM, nyc-roots-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > And if you had a paper trail DNA would not give you anything that you did not already know

I have to agree with Elizabeth. I have spent going on 20 years researching various branches of my family by following paper trails. Sooner or later, the trail always goes cold. In my situation, in some cases that was in the 19th century and in some cases that was in the 16th century. More to the point, documents,  whether due to damage, poor handwriting, omissions, mistakes by the original scribe or someone who later copied them, have to be decoded by someone (us), who can in turn make errors. I personally have given up attempting to correct wrong information about my Timms family tree posted on Ancestry. The errors are often so egregious that I have to wonder how they were made. But my point is that someone thought they had correctly followed a paper trail. That takes me to DNA. A few years back another paper trail researcher and I reached the same conclusion with respect to where our particular Timms trees last connected. Using my Y DNA and the Y DNA from her first cousin sent to Family Tree DNA, we proved our connection. Since then, through Family Tree DNA, I have "discovered" another very distant cousin in Australia who spells his name Timbs. As I understand it, Ancestry and 23andme test autosomal DNA only. I will not attempt here to explain the difference between the various types of DNA tests (autosomal, Y, and mitochondrial) but I do recommend that everyone consider reading up on the limits and benefits of each type of test. So, in summary, I believe that serious researchers should take advantage of whatever tools are out there, while recognizing the limits of each one. Roger   Original Message   From: knowltonew@earthlink.net Sent: June 16, 2018 11:59 AM To: nyc-roots@rootsweb.com Reply-to: nyc-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] dna vs paper trail Bob, I have written you several times with examples of paper trails that did not reveal all that DNA did. Why does it matter to you so much that people accept only your point of view? Elizabeth On 6/16/2018 10:18 AM, nyc-roots-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > And  if  you  had a paper  trail   DNA  would  not  give  you anything  that  you  did  not  already  know _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/postorius/lists/nyc-roots@rootsweb.com/ Archives: https://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/hyperkitty/list/nyc-roots@rootsweb.com/ Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY  Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

Roger, Very much my experience. I have found cousins that I would never found except for DNA. Plus I am working on finding my great grandfather’s biological father. DNA is the only way I will accomplish it. Gail Sent from my AT&T iPhone. ~ Gail ~