I have come very late to the discussion but I think it is worth mentioning my recent experience. I had been interested in Autosomnal DNA for some time because of the difficulty in tracking down Irish ancestry but I had never done anything about it. I suspected that the number of people tested would not be great enough to throw up many relatives. This I have found to be the case. However a second cousin and I were contacted by someone who was trying to sort out the parentage of an illegitimate child who had been placed for adoption by my great great grandmother. They had originally thought the father was her brother but YDNA tests showed this not to be the case. They had now picked on my great grandmother as the likely mother which seemed somewhat out of character. They funded Autosomnal tests for the children of the child and for my second cousin and I. The match between the siblings was ten times the match between my second cousin and myself. My match to them was similar to my match to my second cousin but her match was only about half as strong. That however was more than twice the next closer match. We are still attempting to establish whether she is the guilty party or it is her husband. We may need to pin down a male descendant of our great grandfather for a YDNA test. I still feel as if we are feeling our way in the dark with this but we are learning as we go. I would say it won't automatically solve all your problems and it is worth taking the tree as far as possible (and certainly to three times great grandparents if you can) before doing it. Too many people are using the test as a short cut and it does not work. I would also suggest that you have tested the earliest generation that you can in your tree because that will allow links to be matched further back. Teresa

"out of character" is perhaps the key.... when it is out of character, than it is more likely to be hidden and if it is illegal, even more so. I am chasing one such family in my dna search where uncle and niece married defacto and had two daughters - in the 20th century - none of it recorded but otherwise open. Uncle and niece were the same age and brought up in the same household. Niece was one of nine children of parents who never married as he was already married (with family). The woman's line is Smith so very difficult to track. In fact have come to dead end. The first wife lived much longer than her husband and defacto. Every village seems to have a couple of unmarried women who regularly turn up having children recorded. I liked the story of the woman telling the health worker that her family of several boys were all called William ''isnt that confusing?" "no, they all have different surnames" Marg -----Original Message----- From: Teresa Callan via Sent: Friday, January 2, 2015 10:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [YORKSGEN] Autosomnal DNA I have come very late to the discussion but I think it is worth mentioning my recent experience. I had been interested in Autosomnal DNA for some time because of the difficulty in tracking down Irish ancestry but I had never done anything about it. I suspected that the number of people tested would not be great enough to throw up many relatives. This I have found to be the case. However a second cousin and I were contacted by someone who was trying to sort out the parentage of an illegitimate child who had been placed for adoption by my great great grandmother. They had originally thought the father was her brother but YDNA tests showed this not to be the case. They had now picked on my great grandmother as the likely mother which seemed somewhat out of character. They funded Autosomnal tests for the children of the child and for my second cousin and I. The match between the siblings was ten times the match between my second cousin and myself. My match to them was similar to my match to my second cousin but her match was only about half as strong. That however was more than twice the next closer match. We are still attempting to establish whether she is the guilty party or it is her husband. We may need to pin down a male descendant of our great grandfather for a YDNA test. I still feel as if we are feeling our way in the dark with this but we are learning as we go. I would say it won't automatically solve all your problems and it is worth taking the tree as far as possible (and certainly to three times great grandparents if you can) before doing it. Too many people are using the test as a short cut and it does not work. I would also suggest that you have tested the earliest generation that you can in your tree because that will allow links to be matched further back. Teresa ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message