Damn it… I think my parents could be really really distantly related 🤦‍♀️

[Familyhistoryaddict33]

I only met my bio father last year, was never hard to find, just didn’t have a relationship, I took my mother’s name at birth. Parents are both from the same ish sort of area in southwest England. I know little about my fathers family history but the surname is really quite uncommon and originates back to a very small area and they kind of branched out over the decade/centuries.

anyway, I’ve found a 9 times great grandparent who has the same surname as my bio father and comes from the very same area they originate from meaning that it’s probable that there could be a genetic link between them.

I know that this would be very very small connection and pretty much insignificant but it still fascinates me regardless!

to add I have one ‘both sides’ match on ancestry however I have a lot of matches that are labelled maternal or paternal only but share matches on both sides, particularly really distant matches, so this may explain that!

@RedToothBrush "Its interesting to see the split you have by country. I haven't done that, but I'm intrigued now."

There's a simple way of doing it. Add each match to a group based on which country they live in. I have a group for "Lives in UK" and a group for "Lives in USA" etc.

Then on the DNA matches page there is the option of "Filter". Click on that and then click on "Groups".

This will then give you a list of each group that you have created and, also, how many people are currently in each group. So you don't have to keep counting up the numbers, Ancestry will keep track automatically.

My dad was adopted so I knew there wouldn't be a DNA link with any of his relatives bar some weird coincidence. Cue a weird coincidence - I'm actually related to his adoptive family through my mum. The grandmother and my mother's grandfather came from the same small town in Co Armagh, and some of my fourth cousin matches bear the granny's maiden name (an unusual name). She was closer kin to his family than he was! Life is so weird sometimes.

Ahh I have my tree set up in groups based on the branch of each great parent. It makes it easier to then find matches within that branch.

You can have more than one group for each person.

For example, I mentioned the name Stinchcombe above. I also have a group for those with Stinchcombe in their tree. So, for example, I can see how many Stinchcombe matches there are in the UK and how many in the USA.

I also know that a US Stinchombe match will likely have one set of ancestors and be more closely related to the others with Stinchcombe in their tree. Conversely, UK Stinchcombes are related through a more diverse bunch of Stinchcombe ancestors.

For others reading this who don't have any groups set up, there is a simple explainer here:

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/Grouping-and-Filtering-AncestryDNA-Matches#create

You can create up to 64 groups. Although I'm not too sure if that may be 64 per account or 64 per DNA test (if you have more than one DNA test linked to one account eg I manage the DNA tests for both my parents).

My parents were 4th cousins which they didn’t know and was only discovered when a cousin started to do the family tree. They’d been married for 30 years at that point 😁

I do. My problem is I've used all 64 up!

My grandfather was from East London and even then I have found the same very unusual surname appearing in multiple places. Haven't found the common ancestor but I suspect it is very far back.

9x is to extremely distant.
Anyways gedmatch has a feature to check if your parents are related. Gedmatch is a free dna uploading site.

I find that mad no one knew until the wedding. Yes I don’t know all my 2nd cousins, but I know my cousins, my parents know all their cousins, so if I met someone and them introduced them to my dad for example, he would surely say ‘hang on, you are my cousins son’?

'Free'
What are the privacy terms?

There's no such thing as 'free'