Do you know all of your first and second cousins? How about their children—your once-removed cousins? I have to admit, I’m not great at keeping up with the younger generations. In contrast, my husband amazes me with how well he keeps track of everyone.
So, when a DNA match contacted him seeking help to figure out their relationship, it was both intriguing and surprising. This match, listed as a probable second cousin on Ancestry, shares 268 cM. Their shared match list includes my husband’s brother and several of his first cousins.
Having recently participated in the Shared Matches of Matches course by YourDNA Guide, I decided to create a genetic network to explore the connection.
The genetic network confirmed our initial conclusion: the surprise match descends from Arley Philbrick and his wife, Grace Sebring. Among the matches, there are nine connections to other descendants of Arley and Grace. Additionally, there is a match to a descendant of Robert Leslie (Nancy Harkey) and matches to descendants of Jacob Shrum.
However, Arley and Grace had 13 children, making it a challenge to pinpoint exactly which child the mystery match descends from. Solving this puzzle will require more information.