Dots Part 2

On By mcphilbrickIn DNA

Have you finished your homework from RootsTech 2023? I know that I haven’t! I’ve been working on homework for Diahan Southard’s presentation about DNA shared matches. With over 124,000 matches and who knows how many ThruLines I have a lot of dots to assign, which is why I’m not finished with my homework. However, I have made some observations.

  • Surnames — Searching DNA match list for a surname does not necessarily mean a biological relationship with that match.
  • Dots — indicate a biological relationship
  • Dots indicate that my colonial tree has places where different ancestral lines cross

For example, my paternal grandfather’s line is Crawford-Foster while my paternal grandmother’s line is Currey-Burke. If I search my DNA list for 3C Crawford Foster and 3C Currey Burke, I get a long list of matches that have dots for both sides.

Some of these matches have the Chenoweth surname in their tree, which I recognize from my FOSTER research. However, these dots indicate that I need to also look for a Chenoweth connection to my Harris or Currey lines.

This need to be open minded about how I connect biologically to a match was reinforced when I found a known Mentzer (mother’s side) 3rd cousin in a shared match list for my Easom Graves ThruLines on my dad’s side of the tree.

Like my Easom Graves ThruLines, there is a suggested line cross on my Osborn Bland ThruLines. While I haven’t proven the descendants, one of the suggested descendants is Mildred L. Briles. The BLAND surname is on my dad’s side of the tree while the BRILES surname is on my mom’s side of the tree. Those with the BRILES surname can usually trace their ancestry back to Conrad Briles of Randolph county, North Carolina.

Ancestry has placed this BLAND shared match on the maternal side of my tree even though it looks like this match should be unassigned.

While my homework is not close to being done, I have concluded that

  • I need to finish applying the dots since they reveal biological connections that I would not recognize otherwise.
  • I need to continue doing my descendancy research.

Thus, I have a LOT of work yet to do!