My very first third cousin match is also a non active member with her "Last logged in Apr 26, 2015" status. She did leave me with some helpful information before she stopped coming. Her mother and fathers names. At least I think they are her parents. Her mother had not dates or places associated with them, but her father was born in 1919 in Franklin County, Georgia, USA. If I assume he was around 25 when she was born, that have her born around 1944 and she would be close to my mothers age. In order not to offend anyone, I am going to call this cousin Cousin A.
Ancestry has decided to give us the amount of centimorgans we are related. I match Cousin A 135 Centimorgans shared across 8 DNA segments. So what does this mean? (besides the fact that it would be nice to know which segments those are) According to the Table on ISOGG, it means I am looking at somewhere between Second cousins 1x removed, Half second cousins and Second cousins, first cousins twice removed. Either way, when I look at the chart on ISOGG, I see that I need to be looking at her Great Grandmother or 2x Great Grandmother. (This would translate into a 3x Great Grandparent set for me, because I am a generation after her) She doesn't have that info, so I had to build it.
This is a my research cleaned up. In my research tree, I built out the Phillips branch to see if anything lined up and there was no matches or familiar names or places. Most importantly, this connection does not seem to match anything remotely close to my maternal tree. This is my closest paternal clue.
When I researched the Fabris branch I discovered that John Fabris immigrated and there was no info beyond his birth or death dates easily available. (Oh great!) As I continued to research, I discovered that this Crowder line seemed to catch a few cousin matches. See the purple arrow?
I am going to take a moment to discuss my multi layer annotation system. I like to mark the ancestor and cousin with those purple arrows I made in Paint and attach them to the ancestor and the cousin that matched to them. I also keep a spreadsheet of my matches on the side, but it is nice to know when I am looking in Pedigree view which ancestors have hits. I can see at a glance where I want to go next with my research this way.
Back to understanding the DNA..
I understand that catching a cousin match does not necessarily mean I actually have this ancestor in common, it simply means that me, Cousin A and this cousin all share DNA and THEY have that ancestor in common. It does, however, mean I am searching up the correct branch. So let me take a look at the cousin that matched.
Cousin B matched on Michael Nicholas Crowder. When I looked at Cousin A's shared matches, I see Cousin B on our list. Cousin B has a predicted relationship of 4th Cousins. She and I share 21.7 cM over 2 DNA segments. In this configuration I have her sitting in a 3rd cousin 2x removed location. That seems to line up with the data ok. I am going to leave that as is and move on.
It is too early to assume that Arie Crowder and Peter Maxey are my possible grandparents just yet. I need more proof than two cousin matches, I think. So I kept pushing this tree back in time to see what happens.
Cousin C matches Moses Clark. He does not match Ann Stevenson because his grandfather is from Moses's second wife. My predicted relationship to Cousin C is 5th to 8th Cousins with a "Good" confidence. We only share 6.3 cM on one segment. This is not a strong connection. He is only a half cousin, so I shouldn't expect much, I suppose. In the current configuration he is a 5th cousin 1x removed. That agrees with the data, so I am leaving that also.
According to Ancestry, I have one shared match with Cousin C, but it isn't Cousin A or Cousin B. It is a 4th cousin match I have no usable information about, yet. Does she match on something other than the Hannah Clark/Arie Crowder connection? This is just something to keep in my notes as I move on. Right now, I need to concentrate on this particular problem.
Cousin D is where I start to get a little confused. This cousin has a predicted relationship of 4-6th cousins with an extremely high confidence. We share 31 cM across 2 segments. Her sister shares 26.8 cM across 2 segments, also predicted to be a 4-6th cousin with extremely high confidence. I know it is D's sister because they administer through the same account. This is a cousin with 2 common cousin matches I have no useful information about, yet.
They match me on Robert Crowder and Lively Hastings. That would put them at 4th cousin 3x removed. That data does not add up to this match. It does, however give me "evidence" on my match with Arie Crowder and Peter Maxey. Yes? No? I don't know. What do I do with that?
Cousin E is another 4-6th cousin match. Very High confidence. 22.2 cM on 2 segments. I have one shared match with her and it is none of the cousins mentioned earlier. She matches on Henry Young and Elizabeth Kedey. She is sitting at the 4th Cousin 2x removed position. That is checking out with the data just fine. She matches with Cousin Lou. I will talk about Cousin Lou later.
Cousin F is a 5-8th cousin match. High confidence. 16.0 cM shared on 1 segment. Our ancestor match puts her at 4th cousin 2x removed. It is the same distance as Cousin E, but we share less DNA on fewer segments.
Incidently, Cousin F and I have a shared single cousin match with a locked tree. I am going to be patient with this particular shared match, because her tree seems to be growing. When she first came aboard, she had no tree. Maybe when she is ready she will unlock her tree for the rest of us to see. In the meantime, I will give her space to hunt down her relatives. I have no real information to offer her, so that seems to be the best course of action.
While I am looking at this, I recognize the Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett from my NAD collection on Ancestry. Hmm. I know I am going to get some connections on that one for sure. Maybe that wasn't so full of crap? When I first saw it, it just looked like a lot of random names and places.
Speaking of which..
Cousin G is a 5-8th cousin match with a High Confidence. We share 13.6 cM on one segment. We match on Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett! She is at the 3rd Cousin 4x removed spot. That checks out.
And lo and behold, this cousin matches Cousin A and Cousin E on the shared matches! The real bummer about these Shared Cousin Matches is that you have to dig into the 5-8th cousins and test each one individually to see what 4-6th cousin they match. Other 5-8th cousin matches might also match, but I will never know that.
Cousin H is a 5-8th cousin match with High confidence. We share 13.6 cM on one segment. Another match for Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett. She also matches Cousin A in shared matches.
Cousin I is a 5-8th cousin match with High confidence. We share 13.0 cM on one segment. He matches me on Robert Crowder and Lively Hastings and has a shared match with the Cousin E sisters and a cousin with no tree.
Cousin J is a 5-8th cousin match with High confidence. We share 12.4 cM on 2 segments. She matches me on Robert Crowder and Lively Hastings in a 5th Cousin 2x removed position and has a shared match with Cousin A and Cousin B. There is a third cousin that has matched some of the others, but his tree is only 4 people and there is no information to be gained from it yet.
Cousin K is a 5-8th cousin match with Good confidence. We share 11.3 cM on 2 segments. He matches on Walter Maxey and Nancy Catherine Doshier in the 4th Cousin 2x removed position. His shared cousin match is a locked tree with no response (that also has a shaky leaf)
Cousin L is a 5-8th cousin match with Good Confidence. We share 7.3 cM on 1 segment. She matches Robert Crowder and Lively Hastings in a 7th cousin position. We have no shared cousin matches.
Cousin M is a 5-8th cousin match with Good confidence. We share 6.8 cM on 1 segment. He matches Henry Young and Elizabeth Betsy Kedey. He also matches Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett. I am not sure which one is driving this particular match. He has two shared cousin matches, but one is an empty tree and the other is a locked tree with no response.
Cousin N is a 5-8th Cousin match with Good confidence. We share 6.6 cM on 1 segment. He matches Walter Maxey and Nancy Catherine Doshier. He is in a 4th Cousin 2x removed spot. Another cousin match to the cousin with no tree.
Cousin O is a 5-8th Cousin match with Moderate confidence. We share 6.3 cM on one segment. This is another match that has both couples: Walter Maxey and Nancy Catherine Doshier as well as Henry Young and Elizabeth Betsey Kedey. This one also shares a mach with Lou.
Cousin P is a 5-8th cousin match with Moderate confidence. We share 5.8 cM on 2 segments. A match on Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett as a 6th cousin 1x removed. A shared match with the locked tree.
Cousin Q is a 5-8th cousin match with Moderate confidence. We share 5.6 cM on 1 segment. A match on Peter Doshier and Alley Pritchett as a 6th cousin 1x removed and a match on Henry Young and Elizabeth Betsey Kedey as a 6th cousin, They also share a cousin match with Cousin E.
Wow.. that is a lot of cousin matches!
So lets recap and sum up what is happening here. In order to see if I do actually match Cousin A on Peter Paul Maxey and Arie Elizabeth Crowder, I have to match both people on their maternal and paternal side.
On Peter's side we have 18 paternal matches and 7 maternal.
On Aries side we have 9 paternal matches and 1 maternal
Not one of these matches have uploaded to Gedmatch or FTDNA, nor are they interested in doing so. The very best I can do is keep casting the net and seeing what I can fish up on Ancestry, comb through the nasty trees on FTDNA to see if I can find a match with an identifiable chromosome, and scour Gedmatch for anyone that might have changed their minds.
This represents several hours of research. For now, I am going to assume that Peter Paul Maxey and Arie Elizabeth Crowder are my paternal 3G Grandparents. This is just the set up for the real confusion. This was the easy part. If there is an error in my method, or my understanding, please please please let me know. I need to understand where I am going wrong.
And now for my promised note about Cousin Lou.
Cousin Lou is a 4-6th cousin match who matches a lot of what I believe are my paternal cousins. I have made a mirror tree, analyzed her ancestors, looked at her places and done everything but memorize the thing. Absolutely nothing matches anyone that matches her. I don't know if this means she has an NPE or if she has accidentally attached herself to the wrong branch of a family in her research. I have no idea. Every time I download an update of my matches, I run her tree through a comparison of all trees just to see if she will match up to ANYONES tree that I match to. Nothing. She has sat there since day one and in well over a month of research, not once has she ever matched up to even a useless connection in the 1600's. Good ol cousin Lou. She's always trying to be included in the party, but never quite makes it in the door.
