Linda- The most amazing aspect of all this is that it PROVES you both made no errors in this lineage/research because science backs up the connection. If any questionable heritage might be found in the research (non-paternity events, etc.) you can now rule out any doubts that might have existed for either of you. I LOVE when that happens! Joan In a message dated 5/29/2010 11:05:05 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Folks, Today I got my first identifiable match at www.23andme.com . I share strands of DNA with a few others, but we don't have surnames in common and their genealogy is probably not back far enough to spot the common ancestor. Today I got a message from a potential fifth cousin. She and I descend from different children of Frances Beatty Black (1825-1917) who married Mary Martin (1825-1918) in western Pennsylvania. Mary Martin was born in Aryshire, Scotland and migrated with her family. Frances descends from the brother of the Rev. John Black (Antrim to Pittsburgh) and another well known American Covenantor line: that of John Beatty, whose family left Ulster in 1729 and settled in Wallkill, New York. Frances is my great great grandfather. These people lived long and bred often so there is probably a lot of their genes loose in the American population. Now if those others match on the same segments, we know our relationship and could do some genealogy to identify it. Linda Merle