DNA testing hasn’t been very fruitful in terms of breaking
through any brick walls.
Yet.
When I did Family Finder at Family Tree DNA, there were so
many matches and so few obvious connections, that I almost wondered if it had
been worthwhile. The closest match percentages seemed so low it hardly seemed
useful.
Then I asked my mom to get tested. I’d read that going
closer by one generation could make a noticeable difference, so thought it
might be worth a shot.
I got her results today and actually found one of her 3rd
cousins once removed. His match to her was 84.66%. It was her closest match
after me and there was a likely connection in his family names. In his tree, I
found the exact point of the connection. I never looked at him in my list of
matches because it was only a 48.49% match to me. There were just too many for
me to analyze at that match level. Now, of course, I realize I need to
reconsider the importance of the percentage.
I scrolled through more of my mom’s matches and saw a name I
was familiar with from my research. It was not a direct ancestral name, but I
knew it was my 2x great grandaunt’s married name. As I reviewed the list of
family names for this match, I saw many of my own distant family names, but
most exciting for me was seeing one of my brick wall names. I hope he has more
info than I have and I hope is responds to my email.
Now to figure out where on my dad’s side the gene pool
deepened. My mom came back 100% European. I’ve got 4% Middle Eastern. Going
back only a few generations, that percentage could become very significant. My
hypothesis is that it’s my Swiss line where this happens. My earliest Schwab
ancestor was the salt distributor for his district and also ran a tavern,
perhaps exposing him for foreigners.
I’ve been looking for inspiration for a novel. I think I found it.
