When One Searches at https://my.familytreedna.com/advanced-matches

[saltspring]

Hi Jim
Thank-you.
Those results had mixed names, when I did my fathers surname search within my results there were less. The ones below all have the Hamilton surname.
2 1's
4-2's
16-3's
9-4's
6-5's
10-6's
3-7's.

I think I have been in contact with the 1's, and one other distant match with a different surname. But I will contact some of the others this winter when I will have time to focus more on it. Thank-you again.

[Jim Barrett]

The 3 1's are a genetic distance of one, the 8 2's are a genetic distance of 2 and so on. The smaller the genetic distance the closer the genetic match and therefore to probable kinship.

I would start contacting those with a genetic distance less than four. I would also tend to contact those with similar surnames within that group.

You failed to mention how the surnames of the matches compare to your surname.

[saltspring]

When one who tested with Y-DNA67 does a search at https://my.familytreedna.com/advanced-matches, which matches are the closest? Would it be the ones that have the smallest number on the right side of the page, in the pale green box? Underneath Y-DNA67?
I have
3- 1's
8-2's
27-3's
15-4's
12-5's
11-6's
6-7's.

I was thinking of e-mailing some matches, but read somewhere on here that some people are not interested in hearing from distant matches. Then again, if they set their preferences to show their e-mail address to their matches, that is a green light... is it not?
Any advice welcome
Thank-you