Dear Lori, The In Common With ("ICW") tool shows you the people that share DNA with both you and your selected match.  There are several possibilities for how these people are matching you and your match.  Let's say your match's name is Mary, and you run ICW Mary, and you and Mary have an ICW match named Tom: 1.  Tom is related to you and Mary through the same common ancestor that you share with Mary.  2.  Tom is related to you through a different ancestor than you share with Mary, and related to Mary through a different ancestor than she shares with you. If you, Tom and Mary are matching on the same segment of DNA, then you are sharing a common ancestor.  If you're lucky, you'll be able to confirm who that is by looking through your trees.  However, sometimes (actually most times) you won't be able to find the common ancestor because it will be too far back in time, or your tree or your match's trees will have gaps in them. Segments below about 30 cM, and even up to 50 cM, can be very distant.  I generally don't work with segments that are smaller than 20 cM, unless there is a much larger segment overlapping. Just because you, Tom and Mary don't share DNA on the same segment doesn't mean you're not sharing a common ancestor.  DNA is passed randomly over all chromosomes, and a distant ancestor can pass DNA to one descendant on one chromosome and to another descendant on another chromosome. Hope this helps. Barton On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 06:23 PM, Lori wrote: > I am still working on finding the parents of my elusive 3rd > gr-grandfather > Ephraim Fisher. I now have someone to work with. She is also a > descendant. > I tested at Ancestry, uploaded to gedmatch and also sent my results to > FTDNA, where I found my cousin. > > I have read some of the questions and answers in the learning section > but am > still unclear. I click on my cousin's name and then click on 'in > common > with' and this brings up about 68 names. Does this mean there are 68 > people > who have 'something' in common with the two of us?? I use the > chromosome > browser and see several of the 68 all meet at chromosome 8. Does this > mean > we have a common? I understand it may not be Fisher but the large > family he > married into. > > > Also, top of the list of 68 is a lady I was able to talk to on the > phone. > She and I connect only on chromosome 11 but nowhere else. So another > question is why does she appear on the list of 68? From my reading I > think > that maybe I should ask my known Fisher cousin to look at her matches > to see > if she connects with this other person. Correct? > > There is a lot written about this subject but it mostly seems to be > about > the science behind it. > > ~Lori > > > ===== > If you would prefer digest mode to mail mode, drop a note to > roots-admin@rootsweb.com and ask for the digest... > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Thank you for answering my question. I've read it through several times. And I think you've answered other questions for me. Lori -----Original Message----- From: ROOTS [mailto:roots-bounces+america4821=myactv.net@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of BARTON LEWIS Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 9:45 AM To: Web Roots Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] FTDNA Dear Lori, The In Common With ("ICW") tool shows you the people that share DNA with both you and your selected match