Browning Family Y Haplogroup Breakthrough/The Major Strength of 23andMe

 

I do think Autosomal DNA testing is very helpful, but I actually feel more confident with Y DNA results when it comes to establishing relationships with more distant relatives. The fact Y DNA is only passed down to males through a direct line of male descent makes using this DNA test more difficult than the autosomal test which anyone can take and the results reflect all of our lines.

I'm a female so I've had to find males to test for lines I'm interested in. The autosomal test has been marketed much more than the Y and mtDNA tests. I don't believe people realize how useful the Y test is. This test can establish that men carrying a common surname are related. I have found I'm related to some of my autosomal matches through more than one family line, so this test isn't always helpful in proving how matches are related to you. 

I've been looking at our family's 23andMe results daily now because this DNA test was offered as a premium during the recent PBS pledge drive in the United States. 23andMe is a great place to collect up family Y and mtDNA haplogroups, which can be helpful in proving a relationship between cousin matches (Family Tree DNA is also a place where you can find these haplogroups if your matches have taken these separate tests. haplogroup testing is performed at 23andMe at no additional charge and is included with your autosomal results.)

I've been researching my great-grandmother Isis Browning-Forgey's Browning line since 1999. This was the only family line I found when FamilySearch first went online in 1999. When I saw the family group sheets linked to my great-grandmother I assumed that our relationship to these ancestral lines had been proven. There was no documentation attached to them. I've been trying ever since then to find documentation. Basically over 20 years, and haven't found any documentation to prove our relationship to this family (the family group sheet below is from June 1999 when FamilySearch first went online. It first went online in late May, but it was very difficult to actually search because the servers were always busy.).

Yesterday I noticed we had a match with a woman who had the surnames Browning and McPike in her list of surnames. Checking her shared matches she appeared to be at least a 3rd cousin of a man carrying the surname Browning. Doing a little research on both of these matches I discovered they both appeared to descend from Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike, our common ancestral couple originally from Tennessee. They also both appear to descend from William Jefferson Browning, the brother of my Browning ancestor Richard Washington Browning, who were sons of Nathan and Obedience ( I wouldn't have been able to trace these matches without access to the 1950 Census). 

Below you can see these 3rd cousins, on paper, share multiple autosomal segments with each other. Sharing multiple segments does suggest a valid fairly close relationship with matches. 

Our Nathan Browning is a proven son of Roger Browning of Greene County, Tennessee. Using naming patterns many researchers have surmised Roger was the son of Benjamin Browning of Maryland. Benjamin had a son named Roger who disappeared from Maryland records in the late 1700s and we believe he migrated to Tennessee. Roger of Tennessee's eldest son was named Benjamin which could be a clue to his father's name, because eldest sons were often named after the paternal grandfather. Of course Roger also had a son Nathan, our ancestor, and the name Nathan was also used by the Maryland Browning family. 

The naming pattern is the only thing we have linking the Tennessee and Indiana Browning family with Maryland. A Maryland Browning descendant had taken the Y DNA test. Up until now I haven't found a male in our Tennessee line who has a Y DNA test result. Now we apparently have one at 23andMe. 

The fact that our male Browning cousin matches us on the autosomal test is very helpful because it suggests there had been no break in the male line. I'm an administrator of a couple Y DNA projects at Family Tree DNA and have found non paternity events. It's good to have supporting evidence that a non paternity event hasn't occurred. If this Browning distant cousin had tested at Family Tree DNA a marker match would establish whether there was a non paternity event. 23andMe doesn't match markers. 

Since we are only basing our link to the Maryland family based on a naming pattern we have been in search of documentation confirming our relationship. No such documentation has surfaced. Y DNA, at this point, appears to be the only way to establish a relationship between the Tennessee/ Indiana Brownings and the Maryland family. A couple Maryland Browning direct line males have taken the Y DNA test at Family Tree DNA and are in the Y Browning Surname group at FTDNA. 

The Browning males in the surname group at Family Tree DNA are in the R-M269 Haplogroup which is the most common European male haplogroup. My heart skipped a beat a little when I saw our Browning matches haplogroup was R-U152. In order for there to be a chance of a relationship between these men they would have to be in the same haplogroup. As it turns out R-U152 is downstream of R-M269, meaning it's a more recent mutation and is a younger haplogroup. I believe in order to get this result at Family Tree DNA our matches would need more testing because the 37 marker test they took doesn't test for the SNP. It is very good that all these men share the haplogroup R-M269 but since it's such a common haplogroup we need a Browning male to take a marker test at Family Tree DNA to confirm they are really related. 

The fact 23andMe provides both autosomal and haplogroup results is their biggest strength. If they provided markers that would be even more helpful. 

If our distant cousin tested in another haplogroup, such as I for instance, the game would be over. Since he is in the right haplogroup, so far, the game is still on. 

Isis Browning-Forgey my great-grandmother

A PBS Genetic Genealogy Special/ +Are a bunch of shared small segments meaningful?

A PBS pledge drive special featuring a genetic genealogist that all of those in the genetic genealogy community have been following for years and is well known to us has been airing on PBS. Diahan Southard hosted this PBS special called "Your DNA Secrets Revealed". It features people who took DNA tests and found unexpected, surprising, health, relationship, or ethnicity results. Some of those participating in this show are also well known to those in the genetic genealogy community such as Jerome Narramore. Hopefully Diahan's enthusiasm about DNA testing encouraged people to donate to PBS, so they might sponsor more shows like this, and motivate more people to consider testing. I have noticed a drop off in the number of matches my family has been getting and would love to see more people test. 

What could a bunch of small segments shared mean? 

Every once in a while, looking at shared segments in chromosome browsers, I've discovered 5 or 6 small shared segments and wondered what the relationship with this match could be? I had heard that the more segments you share with someone the greater the likelihood the match is close as opposed to one large segment. 

There are several reasons why we might share a number of segments with a match including:

1. Endogamy, caused by ancestors who exclusively married within a small religious group or population group. 
2. Being related to a match more than once. 
3. False positive segments.
4. A close family relationship to your match. 

I'm finding matches that share 5 or 6 segments with me are close family. At least 2nd or 3rd cousin range. 

How do DNA companies define close relatives? The DNA testing companies generally place first cousins under close relatives, and sometimes 2nd cousins.  Aunts and Uncles are also under close family. Extended family generally includes 2nd and 3rd cousins. The rest are under distant cousins. 

When I first saw a particular match, illustration below, in the chromosome browser I didn't know what our relationship was? Some of the segments are small and could have been false positive segments? The largest is 20 cMs. 

Could be a close cousin or a more distant cousin? My paternal aunt's results answered this question. She shares 16 larger segments with this shared match. 

I contacted this match and found out exactly how we are related. This family lives in Austria and I had an idea of how we were related but not on which line until I heard from his nephew. This tester was a 1rst cousin once removed of my aunt. This family had photos of our family we didn't have. One of our best cousin finds. 

Not  long ago this Austrian family uploaded their MyHeritage kits to FamilyTree DNA. I discovered one of my first cousins at FTDNA shared even more DNA with this match than my aunt. My cousin shares 533 cMs with this match and my aunt 450 cMs. 

Why do I only share 90 cMs with this same match? Looking at my Genome Mate Pro segment map. I see that I inherited DNA from my grandmother's French Canadian family instead of my Austrian family like my aunt and cousin on some of those segments.

Four generations of our Austrian extended family have tested. Since I didn't share as many large DNA segments with the eldest member of the family, the uncle, I don't match with other members of this family. My cousin and aunt match all 4 generations. My first cousin is my aunt's nephew, not a child of hers, so he inherited his segments from his father, my uncle. They both match four generations of this family.

The uncle shared 16 segments with my aunt, but only 3 segments with his great-great-niece. 

A number of small segments can definitely be meaningful and, as in this case, the match is a member of our extended family. As we can see it's important to test older members of the family because younger members may not share enough DNA to show up in our results. Also testing as many family members as you can afford is very helpful because we all share different segments of DNA.

Using Ancestry.com LifeStory To Share Documents In A Timeline Format/Melvin Family Problems

I'm finding that LifeStory at Ancestry.com family trees is a great way to share the documents and newspaper articles I've collected. You can use Google Chrome. or another print feature that allows you to save the story as a PDF on your computer. You can bind a number of ancestral stories together using a PDF binder app. 

Since I have documents, articles, messages, saved in a number of places it is time consuming to access and information can get lost. I do have files on my computers for ancestral couples, but I haven't always been good about transferring information from downloads or flash drives to these file explorer folders. I decided to go through the 3 computers I have and my flash drives and attach my documents to ancestral life stories at Ancestry so I could easily review these documents in a timeline format. As I was doing this I found mistakes in my tree. I also found out I left out information which I have added. It was a very fruitful exercise.

I had forgotten about some discrepancies which I discovered again while reviewing the documentation in a timeline format. For instance below, my 5th great-grandfather, John Melvin appears to travel back and forth hundreds of miles in the early 19th century, when travel was slow and difficult. In 1810 he is living in Worcester County, Maryland, according to the 1810 Census. We then find John Melvin in Bracken County, Kentucky in 1812, many miles from Worcester Maryland. In 1814 we find John Melvin back in Maryland selling land with his wife Polly (see PDF below).

This discrepancy needs to be resolved. To do this I need to establish the John Melvin of Bracken County, Kentucky is actually the same man as the John Melvin in Worcester County, Maryland. 

John Melvin never left any information about exactly where he was born. The 1850 Census gives Maryland as his place of birth. John Melvin's children are listed below. The best way to establish exactly where the Melvin family came from is by researching his family members. All of the children state they were born in Maryland. 

I had never found a document that stated exactly where in Maryland the children were born? I began researching this line again and found a Civil War disability form for John W. Melvin at Fold3. I didn't think any of the Melvin children were in the right age range to serve in that war. John W. Melvin may have lied about his age in order to serve or the crossed out age on the form is his actual age and someone changed it in error to age 45. The age appears to have been recorded as 45, then 58, and then 45 again on the form. 

I have been able to confirm this is John W. Melvin of Bracken County, Kentucky. His wife applied for a widow's pension and she appears on the veterans' schedule for the 1890 Census in Bracken County, Kentucky. 

I feel confident that I have proven my Melvin family of Kentucky migrated from Worcester County, Maryland. Maybe John Melvin traveled to Bracken County, Kentucky before bringing his wife and children? I'm continuing to research this family in hopes of finding more documentation. 

I do like the LifeStory and how it presents my documentation and lays out a coherent story for my ancestors. It's a great way to share information we've collected and to refer back to this information while continuing research. Below is my grandfather Rudolph Kapple's LifeStory. I had forgotten about some of the information I collected about him before attaching information. 

Going through the documents in a timeline format has helped me find several gaps in my information. It's going to help improve my documentation for my tree. 

I've also downloaded the new version of RootsMagic and downloaded all of the information I just attached to the Ancestry.com tree to this program. I know for a fact, after losing some information from a computer crash, that you can't have too many backups. 

A Creepy Sanitorium Where My Grandfather Forgey Worked/and a scary canyon road

 

I grew up in the city of Hacienda Heights, California at the foot of the Puente Hills. To get to the neighboring city of Whittier roads had to be carved through the hills. The oldest road over the hills to Whittier is Turnbull Canyon road. It winds along 4 miles of this canyon from Hacienda Heights to Whittier. My family often drove from Hacienda Heights to Uptown Whittier to buy some really delicious ice cream. Unfortunately the great ice cream parlor went out of business decades ago.

During the day it isn't very ominous but at night the canyon is dark and can be foreboding. It's especially eerie in foggy weather.  A plane crashed into a hillside in the canyon, in 1952 killing 29 people, in foggy weather. In the evening tarantulas often can be seen crossing the road. Old abandoned restaurant ruins at the top of a hill look like the ruins of an old cemetery. This atmosphere has given rise to stories of devil worshippers meeting at the restaurant ruins, and other strange occurrences. You'll find references, and videos, on the internet referring to this Turnbull Canyon site as the "Gates of Hell". 

There have been urban legends regarding a sanitarium once located in the canyon where lobotomies, and electric shock therapy, were performed. These stories sometimes include eerie references to these patients wandering the canyon. 

Researching my family in the recently released 1950 US Census I was curious about the sanitarium my grandfather, Charles Forgey, worked at as a gardener. He worked at Douglas Aircraft in shipping an receiving during WWII, but he decided to work closer to his home on 4th avenue in La Puente after the war, The El Encanto sanitarium was practically within walking distance from where my grandparents lived. 

4th Avenue home

This sanitarium was right off of Turnbull Canyon road. It's not in the canyon. It's a few miles away. I believe the stories of a mental facility in Turnbull Canyon stem from memories of the old El Encanto. 

When I found the El Encanto patients listed in the 1950 census they weren't all elderly, which surprised me. The El Encanto today is a nursing home mainly housing the elderly. My grandmother was a resident of that nursing home for several years. 

After the new nursing home was built I remember touring the old abandoned building site with a security guard who was living downstairs in the empty 1920s mansion. I was just a child and remember him telling us sometimes you could see ghosts in the old windows. I was afraid to look at the windows after that. Certainly many people died in those houses from 1841 until the new nursing home was built. 

1920s mansion was turned into a convalescent and mental hospital 

I decided to use my Newspaper.com subscription to learn more about the old El Encanto. I was surprised to find out that mental patients were housed there along with elderly convalescent patients in the early days. In the 1940s and 1950s patients were housed in the 1920s Spanish Style mansion. Next to this 1920s mansion is an even much older 1841 adobe which was upgraded later by William Workman into an English style manor house. 

Looking at old newspaper articles I discovered some dangerous mental patients were housed in the sanitarium. This shocked me thinking my grandfather could have been injured by a criminally insane patient. Below are some sample articles about escaped patients from the 1940s and 1950s:

Dangerous patients kept in locked rooms with restraints when my grandfather worked there.

One of the mentally disturbed patients was suicidal. I'm sure the environment in the sanitarium was enough to drive anyone to suicide. My mother visited someone inside on the convalescent side of the hospital and said the conditions weren't great. 

Below is a photo of my grandfather Charles with his dog Frank sitting in the grounds of the old sanitarium. Outside the manicured grounds where empty fields. My grandfather probably shot rabbits with the rifle he is pictured with. 

The old houses, which once housed the sanitarium, have been restored and are now open to the public. The Workman Temple Family Homestead Museum, in the City of Industry, offers guided tours and hosts special events throughout the year. 

If you look into the old windows at night you might catch a glimpse of the ghosts the security guard saw? 

Happy Halloween! 

A link to one of the videos on weird happenings in Turnbull Canyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65pgeiUUVaM&ab_channel=RIVALZSS

Some Observations on the New SideView Technology DNA Match Feature

In August AncestryDNA introduced SideView which split our ethnicity results by parent. Now AncestryDNA is using the same technology to sort our matches by parent. 

The new landing page for the split matches is very nice and provides a visualization of  information by parent which links to more in-depth information.

My mother tested with AncestryDNA so I was able to separate my own matches that way. Of course her parents, who died in the 1970s, couldn't  take a DNA test. This feature is helpful in her case, and helps me with kits I manage because none of those kits have tested parents. Below you can see matches are now marked maternal and paternal. 

As far as the names frequently shared with matches they tend to be just common surnames in the population ancestors lived in. In my case they do seem to have some significance. Looking at other kits they don't seem to relate to our direct shared lines. Wray, Browning, and Holloway are names on my maternal tree. The others are likely just very common names. Adams should be on my paternal side. 

When I saw that my mother had matches who were related to both of her parents I was at first confused? Her father had colonial American roots and her mother was Nicaraguan? Looking at who the matches they are one niece and two grandnieces, so of course they are related to both of her parents, and of course I'm also related on both sides. 

Actually the information I found the most interesting is the number of matches by parent. My mother has 4,492 matches on her Nicaraguan mother's side. It's interesting that many people with Nicaraguan and Central American ancestors have tested. 

On her father's side, he had colonial American ancestry, she has 26,142 ancestors. I still think 4,000 Nicaraguan matches is really good considering when I tested nearly a decade ago didn't find many at all. 
All new features like these are helpful, but we still could use a chromosome browser which would definitely make AncestryDNA the best place to test. 

Viewing A FHL film Not Online via Zoom/ Online Consultations/My Irish research

Viewing a film with restrictions from California

A few years ago an Irish Valuation office revision book became available online via the Family History Library digitized films posted at their site. I assumed the rest of these films held by the Valuation office in Ireland would eventually be available also.  The film for my Huane family  land  has never been posted online. Apparently there is some sort of restriction on that film? Not sure why because it's held by the same office as the other films which are online. A Valuation office staff member emailed me and told me that they would be putting these online at some point. 

Above you can see some with a camera (are online) and some just a film icon (not online)

Recently I found out there were online consultations with research specialists who work at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. You can consult them if you are new to genealogy research or you have a brick wall you'd like them to take a look at and get some suggestions on research you may not have considered. 

Another service they can provide, during a consultation, is allowing you to view a film you can't view because of restrictions or you don't live near a Family History Center and your film isn't viewable from home. The time allotted for a consultation is 20 minutes, but if they aren't busy they can spend more time with you. One research specialist spent an hour with me.  

My primary reason for the Irish consultation I signed up for was to view the revision book film covering the townland of Fallakeeran, Co. Mayo. The Irish research specialist I talked to, Dan Poffenberger, had some wonderful suggestions for further research aside from just viewing the film. I had assumed David Rutledge was the owner of the land (as recorded on Griffith's Valuation). The research specialist pointed out that David Rutledge was likely leasing land from a large landowner. Knowing the name of the landowner can sometimes lead to the names of tenants, if the landholders records survived. My family was Irish Catholic and couldn't own land until land reforms were instituted. They rented land from David Rutledge. 

Irish deed books and indexes are online at FamilySearch. I checked to see if I could figure out who the owner of the Fallakeeran, Co. Mayo townland land was? I noticed that after land reforms allowed lessors to buy their land, with low interest government loans, the Rutledge family bought land the Fallakeeran land from a large landowner named Lady Eva Fitzgerald. If the Fitzgerald family papers still survive there could be more information about Fallakeeran and its inhabitants. 

I suggest being ready to take notes if you do one of the consultations. The first consultation I did I wasn't prepared and regretted it.  

I decided to order copies of these pages from the Valuation Office in Ireland. It cost 30 euros for the copies. The films the FHL has aren't in color. Changes to land ownership were recorded using colored ink. Different colors were used every year. In the far left had column (2nd image below) you can see the years changes were recorded. Apparently 1912 changes were recorded in light blue and 1916 changes in red. 

The cross out in 1912 of Thomas Huane's name shows a change of ownership. Thomas Huane's son Austin, who was the eldest son, now owns his father's interest in the Fallakeeran property. What his interest was isn't completely clear. I have not been able to find a deed transferring the 187 acres these families owned in common as recorded in Griffith's Valuation in 1855. Maybe the deeds transferring the land were never recorded? Recording deeds wasn't required. I was hoping the land would have been divided at some point but they continued to own the land in common. Holding land in common land was customary in this part of Ireland. 

The lowercase letter by the names of these land holders and tenants represents the house these families lived in. They each had their own house but held the land in common. The lower case e represents my Huane ancestors house. 

It appears the Ruttledge family purchased the 187 acres of land in Fallakeeran, after land reform, from the Fitzgerald family. In the case of my Mullen family they were able to purchase their land in 1909 when they received the certificate to the land. Most tenants owned the land by the1920s, the Huanes were the exception. 

In 1925 this 187 acres was transferred from the Ruttledge family to the Irish Land Commission. I need to do more research on this transfer. I believe at some point the Huane family did own some of this land, but I can't verify that. The land records online at FamilySearch only go up to 1929. Since I haven't found the Huanes in the deeds index, if they bought the land, they likely purchased it after 1929. The Irish Land Commission Records may be key to finding out what happened to this land. 

In 1926 Austin Huane's land was transferred to his son Thomas in a different color representing 1925 the common land was transferred from the lessor to the Land Commission

I would like to know the exact location of the land in hopes of visiting there in the future. I will likely order a copy of the map that corresponds with the revision books. 

Searching Record Groups At FamilySearch.org

 Lately I've been using the record type search forms to find records at Familysearch.org. It's a faster way to find the exact information I'm looking for. 

The first search form on the records link landing page at Familysearch.org searches all of the indexed records. It generally brings up an overwhelming number of hits. If you want to search a particular collection you can narrow the search by collections. 

Clicking collections gives you many record group options to choose from Often it's way more options than I actually need. Generally I'm searching for a specific record type such as marriage and death records in a specific place. 

I've been trying to locate vital records for my Chicago, Illinois family. Using the general search features at Familysearch.org takes too much time to sort when I'm just interested in the Cook County Chicago area. 

I had used the specific collection type search when I found it using Google search. You can get to the specific collection type search, for instance, by googling something like "Illinois death records" and adding Familysearch to get to a search form. That's the way I had been pulling up these search forms. The "Illinois Deaths and Burials, .1749-1999" search form has been very helpful  

I hadn't noticed that there was a search box on the search landing page for this kind of search. On my laptop I have to scroll down to see it. Just typing Illinois in the search box a menu for Illinois specific collections comes up. 

An even easier way to navigate through the many collections is to click browse collections under the search box. There are currently 3,127 collections. You can page through all of them, or you can use the search field at the top of the page. Below you can see the collections in red I have used for Illinois. To the left are categories you can use to narrow your record search. 

Sometimes the records aren't fully indexed and a link to browse through a collection is provided. Chicago Catholic Church records aren't fully indexed and you need to look through the books if your family doesn't show up in the search results. 

When you click browse links to the parish books come up. Some of the books are indexed and some you need to page through one page at a time. 

The search field by place is another great way to narrow down the number of hits. This search form is also available on the landing page when you click on search. This search form takes you to a page with a variety of search options. Again you can search by name and additional information or by collection. 

I've bookmarked search forms I use often. 

I've been able to collect up more family vital records using the Illinois collections at Familysearch.org. A summary of the information on records is a part of the index, but to see the original vital records you need to visit an LDS Family History Library or Center. There you can save copies to a USB drive or print them out. 

FamilySearch.org is the best place to find primary source records. I've collected thousands of records so far from their collections. I generally use the catalog more than searching using indexes because a majority of the records are not indexed yet. I have found more records using the indexes lately. Records are being indexed, and new records added, everyday. It's good to check back often if you haven't found the information you're looking for. 

Familysearch.org is my favorite site and it's free! 

Swiss Cheese Multi Layered Approach to Genetic Genealogy

We need tools to ensure we are interpreting our DNA results correctly. The best tools for this are a chromosome browser and well documented family trees.

In the case of a Pandemic the multi layered protection is used to plug any holes which may allow the virus through. The more layers the more likely holes are covered.

When using genetic genealogy to infer relationships we need to make sure we use multiple tools so we cover any holes which may lead to making false assumptions regarding how we are related to our matches. 

Some say there is no way to say for certain where the segments we share with our matches come from. True, we cannot say where they originally came from but we can say who we received the segments from in the past few hundred years. 

How do we ensure the segment is Identical by Descent?

Using shared matches 

Looking at the single segment I share with my match below without any context it's meaningless. 

Checking shared matches I add context for this matching segment. I tested my mother's DNA and she doesn't share this match but my paternal aunt does. Now I know the segment is from my paternal side. Since my aunt doesn't share this segment with our shared match I haven't confirmed it's IBD (Identical by Descent). 

People who dismiss the use of a chromosome browser state that the likelihood of relatives and distant cousins sharing the exact same segments is low. Since many of our 3rd great-grandparent and generations earlier ancestors left many descendants the chances of sharing the same segment with others is good. It's just a matter of odds. 

MyHeritage has some of the best DNA tools. Sometime after this first match showed up on my match list at MyHeritage I noticed an uncle of this original match showed up. Below you see my predicted relationships to my matches and their predicted relationships to each other.   

I now check the original matches uncle's information.  He is a generation back and shares even more segments with me. So now I have more than a single segment to compare with other matches. We see segments shared between my aunt and our original testers circled below. These segments are IBD and over 15cMs. My aunt being so close genetically to me we know the larger segments I share with her are IBD.

Do any other matches share these same segments? Yes, below you see another match who shares a portion of the same segment. This match doesn't match my mother either, so we know it's paternal. 

Looking at the chromosome browser to visualize the segments shared with our original tester's uncle we see she shares long stretches of DNA with him. 

Using shared Ethnicity as another layer

It was pretty easy to determine how these two matches were related to us. Looking at the shared ethnicity our matches are predicted to be Eastern European/Balkan, and they are currently living in Austria. They also share the same genetic groups. My paternal grandfather Rudolph Kapple was born in Austria. Looking at shared matches with trees they also relate through the Burgenland area of Austria. Do they all have overlapping segments? No, but some do. 

Trees are important but not always necessary

Having a well documented tree is important but not always possible. Can we confirm how we relate to this match without a tree? Looking at the trees a few shared matches posted they probably were related through my paternal great-grandmother Mary Kurta-Kappel's line? I contacted this match to confirm how these matches are related to us? Since the predicted relationship to my aunt was 2nd cousin to the older man I assumed they shared Kurt/Jost great-grandparents? Without a tree I didn't know for certain. 

A documented tree was unnecessary in this particular case because one of the matches had photos of members of my own family sent to them by my great-grandmother. She sent them to her sister who returned to Austria. My great-grandmother, Mary, lived in Chicago until her death. One photo, among others, was taken in Chicago and my aunt June, who I knew very well, was in the photo. 

Photo of Mary Kurta-Kappel and her grandchildren, June and Junior, owned by Austrian cousins

Testing close relatives and second cousins helps us to find IBD segments and confirm them. Two 1rst cousins once removed on my paternal grandfather's side tested along with second cousins in that line allowing me to collect a number of segments to compare with matches, as you can see below. I know these segments are from my paternal grandfather. My paternal grandmother was Irish, English, Scots-Irish, and French Canadian and not Eastern European. 

The segments I received from my Austro-Hungarian grandfather line up well with the chromosome ethnicity paint browsers at AncestryDNA and 23andMe. That is another confirmation that these segments are IBD.

A more difficult case

I would like to use DNA to try to identify a set of my mother's 3rd great-grandparents. I'm searching for Sarah Campbell's parents. I'm guessing her father's name might be James, but James may have been her brother and not her father? 

Sarah's maiden name was Campbell I assume she was of Scottish or Scots-Irish descent. With so many matches sharing this same early American Scots-Irish heritage ethnicity results aren't as useful. These matches have tested at Ancestry so I can't compare segments in many cases. A couple of these matches have also tested at other companies that share segment information. 

Without segment data for many of the shared matches at AncestryDNA well documented trees are important. Some shared matches have no trees. The few who do often aren't documented at all. If I were to use these matches as a form of proof I would need to document the trees and make sure we don't share another line in common. Having IBD segments and at least one or two people with documented trees to compare with alleviates the need to document additional trees. If you have IBD segments on a confirmed line, and at least one match has a well documented tree, documenting another dozen trees isn't as necessary. Shared segments can lessen the need to do extensive research on your matches undocumented trees. 

Sarah Campbell-Wray died before the 1850 US Census. She couldn't tell us where she thought she was born. A daughter of hers, on a later census, stated her mother was born in Tennessee. My mother has a number of matches with descendants of George Lafayette Campbell of Greene County, Tennessee. The trees posted for these matches aren't showing any other relationships to these families. 

I've been able to collect a few more segments shared by descendants of  George Lafayette Campbell.  I'm keeping a look out for more matches on this particular line and hope some will agree to share segment information if they tested at AncestryDNA. This would give me more segments to catch matches with. 

  

When looking at the trees I check to make sure I'm not just collecting segments of close relatives of my matches. Siblings and parents sharing the Campbell segments I'm interested in wouldn't be as meaningful as more distant George Lafayette Campbell cousins sharing the same segments. I have found the matches I'm comparing with are generally 3rd cousins and farther back. 

Can I trust their trees? Yes, I've found supporting documentation such as census and burial information. 

I have not been able to link Sarah Campbell with any siblings. If I could, that would also help break down this brick-wall. I wouldn't say I have been able to prove Sarah Campbell is related to the Greene County, Tennessee Campbells beyond any doubt. The DNA evidence is pointing in that direction however. I need many more matches and supporting evidence. 

As you can see it takes analysis and use of a variety of tools to ensure we are drawing the right conclusions regarding how we are related to matches. 

Segment information is important to collect because that is what matching is based on. It's a key piece of evidence just like a primary source document. You can use shared matches to predict how you are related to someone, but a  collection of IBD segments actually makes identifying matches much quicker and more accurately. Once you've mapped your segments you can refer to that map every time a new match shows up you are interested in. You can also add newly discovered segments. 

If you don't want to make a map you can generally use shared matches, with the chromosome browser, to identify the segment or segments. 

I would recommend testing, or uploading your results, at all of the DNA companies if you are trying to break down a brick-wall. The company with the best tools is MyHeritage and I would definitely suggest testing with them or uploading your raw data there. 

There can be holes, like those found in swiss cheese, when we use only one tool to trace our family trees. If we are interested in a tree with people who are genetically related to us DNA testing is necessary because of adoption and non paternity events. Of course in order to have a family tree we also need names collected from sources such as the census etc.. Layering all of this information we can produce a tree which accurately reflects our genetic family.