So many clients who have registered their DNA think their DNA matches are useless because they are too distant.
“They are all 2nd cousins and beyond!”
Well, good news. Those distant cousin matches can actually be more helpful than you think.
When you start scanning your DNA matches and see name after name that you don’t recognize, it can throw you off. What’s even more confusing is that most DNA databases guess the relationship you share with each of your matches. Sometimes that guess is correct. And sometimes it isn’t.
For example, in my own DNA match list, I have a half aunt who is listed as my 1st or 2nd cousin and several 1st cousins once removed who are listed as my 1st or 2nd cousins.
Many of these database providers use general “best guess” relationships, based on the DNA you share with each of your matches. For example, all of my thousands of matches in one database are listed as one of the following: 1st-2nd Cousin, 2nd-3rd Cousin, 3rd-4th Cousin, or 4th-6th Cousin. These categories don’t always leave room for removed/half/great cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, etc.
So don’t seal a database’s suggested relationship in stone. It might be right or it might be very wrong.
It is also a misnomer that you can’t figure out closer familial relationships with distant cousin matches. You can!
I describe it to my clients like this.
If your closest match appears to be a 2nd cousin, then I will dig into that match’s family tree to identify his or her four sets of great-grandparents (because 2nd cousins share one set of great-grandparents).
I will use common ancestors from other DNA matches to try and pinpoint which of the four sets of great-grandparents my client descends from.
Once that is established, I move forward in time from that great-grandparent couple because I know my client descends from one of their children. Again, I use other DNA matches to try and narrow which line my client descends from (often by cancelling out the lines they don’t descend from).
It’s all about identifying common ancestors and moving forward in time.
So if you have registered your DNA and think it’s a wash, think again. The answers are in there somewhere. It might just take a bit to suss them out.