DNA Thru Lines Potential Breakthroughs

Did you hear all about it yesterday? Both Ancestry and My Heritage announced new DNA tools. That combined with Diahan Southard's 'Connecting Your DNA Matches' presentation that was live streamed by RootsTech made for a BIG day in my DNA world.

In Diahan's session, she discussed using Blaine Bettinger's Shared Centimorgan Project to help verify relationships suggested by DNA. Even though I was aware of and had contributed to Blaine's project, I had never used the results to analyze my cousin matches. During her presentation, Diahan talked about using a spreadsheet to keep track of this data. 

Thus, I tried to create my own spreadsheet based on Diahan's presentation. So far, I haven't found any 'surprises' in the amount of shared DNA. However, I am finding an advantage to this type of spreadsheet for DNA matches. This type of spreadsheet will help me keep track of how I am related to my matches. Below is an image from my new spreadsheet. I have blacked out the identifying information for my matches.

While working on this spreadsheet, I was also going thru my Ancestry DNA 'ThruLines'. As I progressed thru the generations on my CRAWFORD line, I made a couple of discoveries. First, the DNA thru line for my 3rd great grandfather, Nelson Crawford, only showed matches thru my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. 

It did not show any DNA matches thru any of the other children of Nelson. This would explain why we never had a DNA circle for Nelson! I have Nelson's children and grandchildren in my tree. 

At this point, I only have two explanations as to why matches aren't showing thru any of Nelson's other children. The first is that no descendant thru those lines has tested. The only other explanation I have is that some trees have those other children listed as descendants of James and Martha Crawford of Warren County, Indiana and not as descendants of Nelson Crawford. This second theory will require investigating!

As I made my way back another generation on my Crawford line to James Crawford of Preble County, Ohio, I discovered another potential granddaughter!

DNA Thru Lines suggested THREE potential DNA matches AND pulled data from two OTHER trees. When I looked at one of those other trees, I discovered Matilda Caroline Stoner as the mother of William Edward Fields. According to the ThruLines tree, Matilda Stoner would be a daughter to Polly Crawford and a granddaughter of James Crawford. I don't have Matilda Stoner in my tree. However, she could be a daughter of Polly Crawford that I've missed in my research. Thus, I've contacted all three matches and the tree owners to see if they can help verify or disprove this connection. 

These may be little clues, but they are clues I would never have found prior to Ancestry's DNA ThruLines. Try it for yourself and see what you can discover!