DNA Matches and Surname Analysis
Are you a member of any surname groups on Facebook? Have you noticed posts asking whether you have a particular surname in your family tree?
Recently, the Thompson Genealogy group had a couple of intriguing posts. One post asked about the surname NAIL, prompting me to check my RootsMagic file. Initially, I found no one with the NAIL surname in my tree. However, when I searched my list of DNA matches, I discovered over 100 matches with the NAIL surname in their family trees.
I filtered these matches to identify possible common ancestors, narrowing the list down to three matches. Unfortunately, these three matches trace back to three entirely different branches of my tree:
- John Reed & Mary Buckles – 4th great-grandparents on my mother’s side
- Major Simon Gerrit VanArsdale & Rachel Banta – 5th great-grandparents on my father’s side
- Jeremiah Browning & Cassandra Farmer – 5th great-grandparents on my father’s side
As I continue grouping my DNA matches, I’m hoping these “dots” will offer more clues about how I’m related to these NAIL matches. So far, with only about half of the groups finished, the results don’t look promising. Here’s what I’ve found regarding DNA matches with the NAIL surname in their trees:
- Ralston/McCormick Group (paternal side): 1 match
- Hammond/Fisk Group (paternal side): 3 matches
- Currey/Harris Group (paternal side, including the VanArsdale line): 1 match
Interestingly, my Ricketts/Reed Group (133 members) and Foster/Ostrander Group (379 members) have no matches with the NAIL surname in their trees.
Another Facebook post asked about the GOBLE surname. Again, I found no GOBLE individuals in my RootsMagic file but identified over 100 DNA matches with the surname in their family trees. Here’s a breakdown of the results for GOBLE:
- Foster/Ostrander Group (paternal side): 2 matches
- Ralston/McCormick Group (paternal side): 2 matches
- James Ralston & Nancy McCormick (3rd great-grandparents on my paternal side): 1 match (common ancestors)
- John Reed & Mary Buckles (4th great-grandparents on my maternal side): 1 match (common ancestors)
- Mary Stanley (5th great-grandmother on my maternal side): 1 match (common ancestor)
- Benjamin Rush & Dorcas Vickory (5th great-grandparents on my maternal side): 1 match (common ancestors)
When sorting these matches by paternal and maternal sides, the results were fairly balanced, with over 50 matches on each side.
These Facebook inquiries, combined with my DNA match analysis, have highlighted an important conclusion: I’m likely not related to these THOMPSON researchers through my THOMPSON line. Despite having a tree that extends back to the 1700s in the United States and over 100,000 DNA matches, searching my matches for surnames alone has not proven very helpful.
Instead, grouping my matches as recommended by Your DNA Guide has been far more effective in understanding how my DNA matches connect to each other—and ultimately to me.