Dear cousins I don't yet know but hope are out there,
Up front, I have to say I'm sincerely grateful for all the cousins I've connected with through genealogy! I treasure our kinship, our friendship, and the shared history of our ancestors.
But I can't help wondering: Do I have more cousins I haven't yet found?
Of course I'm using conventional methods to trace all the branches of my tree. I've also hopped on the genetic genealogy bandwagon, posting my results to multiple sites. New matches pop up regularly.
However, as shown above in last week's Ancestry DNA matches (sorted by date, not relationship) most are not even close. At best, if I followed up on this lot, I might find a 5th cousin. And only one of these matches is in the "good confidence" range.
Even more discouraging, just 4 of this week's crop have bothered to post any kind of family tree. Two of those are private trees, making it difficult to check out potential relationships. The latest matches on other DNA sites are also distant cousins, and therefore not high on my priority list.
When Family Tree DNA finally delivers my long-awaited mtDNA analysis results (delayed three times already), I want to use that data to focus on my maternal line.
So, dear cousins I don't yet know, I hope we connect with each other. Don't be a stranger.
Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for the #52Ancestors prompt, "so far away," my starting point for this post.
Isn't it frustrating to find potential cousins and they either have no tree at all or else their tree is something like 1-10 people and they mark all of them, even the home person as private! That is one of my pet peeves. Unfortunately, if they do that, they aren't going to hear from me because I'd spend my life contacting all of them. Hope you have much better luck than me.
ReplyDeleteLinda, you are so right. If the cousin connection seemed closer (2d or 3d cousin), I'd make a real effort. But chasing after 5th cousins who don't have trees posted (or have private trees only) doesn't seem worth the time and trouble.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, how did you find the "last 7 days" page? I have never seen that and can't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI have been working quite a bit with AncestryDNA lately. I do think the more distant ancestors are the ones who will hopefully help us break through "brick walls." Also, the relationship predictions on Ancestry are often further out than they actually are, though a 5th-8th prediction might not be worth your time. However, I would work with those that say 4th-6th cousins. :)
Dana, I discovered by accident that we can sort DNA results by most recent, not just closest relationship! So I tried it and that’s how I got the screen shot on this post. Maybe I’ll look at those who are 4th cousins, as you say, hoping for a breakthrough.
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