My crystal ball is broken.

[John McCoy]

The distinction to be made is "patrilineal" versus "paternal", and "matrilineal" versus "maternal".

Patrilineal and matrilineal refer to your "direct" paternal/maternal lines. Patrilineal as a genealogical concept happens to be the same lineage as your Y chromosome ancestry, if you are a male, and also, in at least some cultures, the traditional lineage of your surname. Matrilineal happens to be the same lineage as your mitochondrial ancestry.

Paternal and maternal encompass all of your paternal or maternal ancestors respectively.

These and other terms used in genealogy are frequently confused (as far back as the 15th Century, I discovered recently!), so genealogists have to be alert for errors in their usage.

[Carpathian]

Paternal and maternal encompass all of your paternal or maternal ancestors respectively.

These and other terms used in genealogy are frequently confused (as far back as the 15th Century, I discovered recently!), so genealogists have to be alert for errors in their usage.

Thanks, John. Virtually everyone alive had a mother and a father, whether they knew them or not, unless there were more modern methods involved in their procreation. So despite the terminology, let's not parse words. For everyone who can recognize their line of descent it all comes down to only two sides involved: being that of either maternal or paternal.

[ltd-jean-pull]

I haven't heard from the original correspondent again.

But there's good news. I'm communicating with a wonderful match who is just as interested (obsessed) as I am, and she writes coherent e-mails. She uploaded to Gedmatch on Tuesday from Ancestry and is processing at FTDNA.

From the mutual matches we've narrowed it down to one pair of my gtgt-grandparents and her one set of her gtgt-grandparents. I suspect our two gtgtgrandfathers are related and in both cases we have no record of them before they emigrated to different parts of the world. Her gtgt-grandfather's surname is my gtgt-grandfather's middle name.

It won't be solved by lunchtime, but I'm hopeful we will crack this one sometime. The test of her grandmother (who descends from the same gtgt-grandparents) is being processed at the moment. If she shares four times as much DNA with us as her granddaughter I'll be ecstatic.

[Kohlehydrat]

(...) I am always reminded of my mother's experience at the Seattle Public Library many years ago (decades before DNA testing was advertised on TV), when a woman arrived at the genealogy desk, breathless: "I need to get my family tree. My husband is double parked."

priceless!

[ltd-jean-pull]

I've heard from him again. I still don't know his kit number! They share one little 8cM segment of DNA. I explained that this is a distant match and likely to be at least a couple of centuries ago. He vehemently disagrees with this.

[dna]

I've heard from him again. I still don't know his kit number! They share one little 8cM segment of DNA. I explained that this is a distant match and likely to be at least a couple of centuries ago. He vehemently disagrees with this.

He must have read somewhere that there is a non-zero probability that very little can be shared between 3rd-4th cousins.

Non-zero probability is not the same as something being likely...


Mr. W.


P.S. Not a lost cause, but it might be difficult to find a convincing example.

[ltd-jean-pull]

I really don't care whether he agrees with me or not, but he tested with the V5 chip at 23andMe, and my relative tested at FtDNA. They match at GedmatchGenesis. With these being such different chips I think he should look at his much closer matches.

In the meantine he's asked where in the world we live (which I answered), and has requested a full family tree back to before everyone emigrated to the colonies.

If he was a closer match I'd be happy to look into this further, but it certainly would help if he also shared where HE lives, and his GedmatchGenesis number.

[Carpathian]

I really don't care whether he agrees with me or not, but he tested with the V5 chip at 23andMe, and my relative tested at FtDNA. They match at GedmatchGenesis. With these being such different chips I think he should look at his much closer matches.

In the meantine he's asked where in the world we live (which I answered), and has requested a full family tree back to before everyone emigrated to the colonies.

If he was a closer match I'd be happy to look into this further, but it certainly would help if he also shared where HE lives, and his GedmatchGenesis number.

In today's world everyone wants and expects to receive a lot whilst giving little or nothing in return. True sharing usually involves mutual understanding and reciprocity. The altruistic amount of anything that anyone is willing to give away is something of a personal decision.