Why I Prefer Researching Dead Ancestors

It started out so innocently. "Let me find one new DNA match to research." A few hours later, I have a 6th cousin who's a registered sex offender and had planned several murders. I'll take a pass on adding his name to my family tree.

Years ago I jumped on the chance to upload my AncestryDNA zip file to a site called FamilyTreeDNA for free. I hadn't checked that site for new DNA matches in a long time, so I logged in to see what's new.

Discovering this living 6th cousin is making me run back to my dead ancestors.

Scrolling down the list, I found someone with the same last name as my great grandmother, so I opened his tree. I also found a tree for the same family on Ancestry. I consulted the Ancestry tree because it has plenty of source citations.

I saw that my DNA match's grandmother also had a last name from my family: Ricciardelli. Researching the grandfather with the familiar last name did not lead back to my family. So I got to work on the Ricciardelli side.

That name comes from Santa Paolina, Avellino, Italy. My 2nd great grandmother Colomba Consolazio was born there. And she had a grandmother named Colomba Ricciardelli. I've added my closest relatives from this town to my family tree. But there are so many more relatives I can add.

This DNA match gave me that chance. I got to work adding birth, marriage, and death dates to the ancestors on this Ricciardelli branch. It was easy to see that the Ricciardelli line provides my connection to this DNA match.

After I went up my match's tree as far as I could, I came back down to add U.S. source citations. I added facts and citations for:

• censuses
• draft cards
• immigration records, and
• Social Security Death Index records.

When I came down to a generation that's about my age, I realized the family moved from the east coast to California. I love California's records! If you know their mother's maiden name, you can find birth records through 1995 and death records through 1997. These records show the person's:

• full name
• full date of birth or death
• mother's maiden name
• county of birth or death.

Need some DNA research tips?

• 4 Practical Methods for Identifying a DNA Match
• What Good Are Distant DNA Matches?
• How to Use Ancestry ThruLines for Research Leads

I got to the point where I knew my DNA match was the son of one of 4 brothers. But I couldn't tell which brother it was. I took another look at my match's tree on FamilyTreeDNA and realized I know his mother's maiden name! In the California Birth Index I found two people with the correct mother's maiden name. One of the two, a female, owns the Ancestry family tree I used for my research. The other person, a male, has a middle name that made him a good prospect for a regular internet search.

The results made me push myself away from my desk. The crime he attempted, and the criminal content in his possession, were the last thing I expected to discover. There are enough facts there for me to be sure this 6th cousin and the registered sex offender are the same person.

But things get more interesting. Remember I found California birth records for a brother and a sister. My FamilyTreeDNA match does not have the criminal's name. His test account has a description that is very helpful. It says that my DNA match is the uncle of the brother and sister from the California Birth Index. But the account is (was?) managed by the sex offender. He says he and his sister (whom he names) are trying to get past a brick wall on their paternal line. To do this, they convinced their uncle to take a DNA test.

The family tree connected to the DNA test doesn't have the uncle as the home person. That was throwing me off by a generation. The home person is the criminal, and IT SHOWS HIS NAME. This should be private since he's living. His sister's name is private. His parents and uncles' names are private. But his name is there despite having no death date.

I don't know if this peculiarity has any connection to legal proceedings, but it's all very creepy.

In the end, I marked the uncle as a DNA match in my family tree. Then I added a private note, one that will not appear in my online tree, explaining what I discovered.

This was not the playful genealogy romp I expected. I'll continue building out this Ricciardelli branch from Italian vital records. Then I'll find some more dead people to hang out with.

Does Your DNA Control Your Traits?

Mom is a pessimist who gets mad when I share Dad's optimistic opinions. But is that my fault? Or did I inherit my optimism from Dad?

My 2012 AncestryDNA test gives me access to 93 genetic traits. These are physical, mental, and emotional tendencies built into our genes. And Ancestry can tell you which parent gave you each trait. Check your Ancestry account to see if Traits is available in your DNA menu. It seems new AncestryDNA tests do not include traits unless you pay an extra $20 for your kit. This is from the Ancestry website:

"Some DNA features require an Ancestry subscription. Traits inheritance is not yet available for some customers. Access to Traits is included with AncestryDNA+Traits and in any active subscription."

This month MyHeritage launched their own DNA Traits. Choose Traits from the site's DNA menu to generate your traits report. It works on your MyHeritage DNA test, no matter when you bought it. It also works on another company's DNA test that you uploaded to MyHeritage in the past. You do not need to buy a new test. Right now, MyHeritage DNA Traits are available as an add-on for $19.

What do your DNA traits say about you?

Let's take a look at some of my traits based on my 2012 AncestryDNA test. The categories are not identical on Ancestry and MyHeritage. But I'll choose traits that are similar. Note that MyHeritage gives me only 40 traits.

Sweet or Savory

I love sweets. I crave sweets. When I want a snack, I always go for the sweet snacks.

• AncestryDNA says I'm "somewhat more likely" to prefer sweet over savory. It says this trait comes from my maternal side. (Tell that to the chocolates Dad eats every night.)
• MyHeritage says that I'm only "slightly more likely" to crave sugar. MyHeritage also shows exactly which genes contribute to each trait.

And speaking of DNA tests:

• 4-Tool Combo Solves a DNA Problem
• What Do You Think You Are?
• Do Your DNA Ethnicity Results Make No Sense?

Morning Person or Night Person

Over the years I've evolved into a morning person. I slept very little in high school. I would go to bed, then sneak out to the family room to watch a movie at 2 a.m. In college I hated early classes, but I had no choice. And I got my best creative ideas as I drifted off to sleep.

By age 40 I realized I was no good mentally after 9 p.m. If I did any work after that I was going to make mistakes. By age 50 I started getting up by 6 a.m. and working for a couple of hours before getting dressed. That's still my routine, and I love it.

So if I am an early bird, was I fighting it from age 14 to 40?

• AncestryDNA says I'm "more likely" to be a morning person, and it comes from my paternal side. It's interesting that they say I'm more creative during my non-peak hours. If my genes make me a morning person, it makes sense that my creative inspirations happen at bedtime
• MyHeritage says I'm quite a bit "more likely" to be an early bird.
• AncestryDNA says this trait is about 17% genetic and 83% environmental.
• MyHeritage says it's about 50/50. Either way, this seems to justify how my sleep habits changed over time.

Physical Traits

AncestryDNA shows your likelihood to have a host of physical traits. I like that it shows which parent passed which traits down to you. Some traits are intriguing.

• My lighter eye color comes from Mom's side, which I could have told you.
• The thinness of my hair strands comes from Dad, which I would have guessed.
• My curly hair comes from Mom (I knew that), but it's much curlier than my DNA suggests.
• My light complexion comes from Mom's side, which is also pretty obvious.

I don't have these types of physical traits on MyHeritage. The closest they have if the Fitness category. This covers traits such as:

• endurance
• muscle mass
• power
• strength

I score well only on endurance. I am, to quote Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator", a puny human.

Personality Traits

AncestryDNA says I'm more confident (inherited from Dad). But I'm unlikely to be optimistic (inherited from both parents). I have to disagree, as would my parents. And it says Mom's side makes me more likely to take risks. Oh no it doesn't.

It also says Mom made me an introvert. That's for sure. And MyHeritage DNA Traits agree that I'm quite the introvert.

My DNA seems to want me to play a musical instrument and be quite good at it. I can think of three times in my life when I tried to learn a musical instrument. It did not go well.

One very helpful feature of the MyHeritage DNA Traits is their advice on how to improve in certain areas. Since our traits come from genetics and our environment, we can work to change them. For example, they say my memory is very good. MyHeritage says we can improve our memory performance by:

• being active
• getting enough sleep
• eating well
• exercising our minds through reading, puzzles, and active learning.

I don't have an infallible memory for little details like Dad. Or a word-for-word memory of conversations like Mom. But I read and do puzzles like crazy. And doing genealogy research requires active learning all the time, doesn't it?

MyHeritage DNA Traits and AncestryDNA Traits results provide links to scientific references. This makes it easy for you to learn more.

Can DNA Traits Help Your Research?

Here's what MyHeritage says about these tests: "Trait reports reveal how your genetics influence your personality and characteristics, from taste preferences and sleep patterns to exercise response and more. They don't provide medical or diagnostic information. They offer a fascinating glimpse into many characteristics that make you unique."

Here's what AncestryDNA says about these tests: "These tests have no medical purpose. Nothing in these trait reports are a diagnosis of a health condition or medical disorder. These reports are not a substitute for medical advice. Before making any lifestyle or dietary changes, or if you have any questions about how your genetic profile might relate to your health or wellness, please contact your healthcare provider."

For the most part, DNA Trait results are more entertaining than anything else. But, if you never knew one or both of your parents, your AncestryDNA Traits may be more useful for you. If you wonder where some of your traits came from, AncestryDNA can tell you which parent passed them down to you. (Note the parental side works only if you can separate your closest DNA matches by parent.)

Check your DNA accounts to see if DNA Traits are available to you. You're more than your ethnic pie chart.

How to Use Ancestry ThruLines for Research Leads

The other day I found myself looking at Ancestry ThruLines® for the first time in a while. That's when I hit on a way to kickstart more growth in my family tree. I scrolled way down my list of direct ancestors to my 5th great grandfather. His name is Biaggio Trancuccio from Apice. That's the Italian ghost town whose vital records I've indexed so they're searchable.

Don't have an AncestryDNA test? MyHeritage has a similar feature. Choose Cousin Finder™ from the Discoveries menu. Find an interesting match and click View relationship.

What a pleasant surprise it was to find DNA matches among Biaggio's descendants. I have 2 DNA matches belonging to Biaggio's son, Giuseppe, my 4th great granduncle. I've already documented Giuseppe and his 9 children in my family tree. But I haven't looked into the marriages and descendants of the 9 kids yet.

Take advantage of these evidence-based line of succession genealogy hints.

Thanks to ThruLines, I have some evidence of Giuseppe's direct descendants. I can use the names I see on ThruLines, search the vital records, and make my way down to these new DNA matches. Note that ThruLines shows these direct descendants based on other family trees. Maybe the builders of those trees have discovered more than you have.

Start With What You Know

In ThruLines, I see that my DNA matches descend from Giuseppe's son Angelo, my 1st cousin 5 times removed. I can use the town's vital records to find all his children. I'll start with the 1878 birth record of my matches' ancestor, another Giuseppe. His birth record tells me who his father Angelo married. Knowing her name is Teresa d'Oro, I can find the couple's other children.

Going through the vital records, I found 9 children for Angelo and Teresa. Later I'll document Teresa and her family, but first I'll look at ThruLines again. My DNA matches descend from Angelo's son Giuseppe and his son Salvatore. Salvatore and his siblings were born too late to be in the online Italian vital records. This would be the end of the paper trail, but one of the DNA matches doesn't have an Italian last name. There's a good chance I can find the family in U.S. records.

Jackpot! Salvatore was born in New York and is well-documented. That means his father Giuseppe came to America. The search results for Giuseppe are an absolute treasure trove. He came to New York in 1902, single. Census records from 1920 through 1950 show me his children's names. He married a woman called Florence.

Take advantage of a different kind of genealogy hint that puts you on the right trail.

You've Got to Get Down to Climb Up

The real game-changer is the New York, New York Extracted Marriage Index. I see two mangled names with a 1911 Bronx marriage certificate number. At first glance, this seems to me to be Giuseppe Trancuccio and Fiorentina Frusciante. The transcription says Torentino Truscianti. But my knowledge of Apice names tells me it should be Frusciante. And Fiorentina is a common first name in the town.

I found the 1911 marriage certificate on the NYC Municipal Archives website. The clerk wrote Giuseppe's last name as Trangucci—exactly like the transcription. His birthplace is Apice, and his parents are Angelo and Teresa d'Oro. This confirms his identity. His wife's name, it's clear to me, says Fiorentina Fruscianti, born in Apice. Her parents are Sabato and Rosa Verginio.

With these details, I can climb cousin Giuseppe's Apice-born wife's family tree.

Turning to the Apice vital records, I found Maria Fiorentina Frusciante. She was born in 1893 to Sabato Frusciante (who is already in my family tree) and Rosa Virgilio. The last name Virgilio is not an Apice name, but it's clear she was there. She and Sabato Frusciante had 5 children besides Maria Fiorentina in Apice. Three of them married in Apice.

Be Ready to Pivot

So far, ThruLines looks correct. One of the DNA matches should be my 4th cousin twice removed, and the other, her granddaughter, my 6th cousin. I know exactly where they fit in my family tree. Now it's my job to use available records to prove it.

But something is off. ThruLines lists the older match (who died in 2017) as the daughter of Salvatore Trancuccio. Her obituary and her last name say otherwise. Evidence says she was the grandmother of the younger DNA match. But there's no connection to the Trancuccio name. Was the older match born out of wedlock? She came from the same New York borough as my Trancuccio clan, and she was born 5 years before Salvatore married.

She and I share 3 matches I've already connected to my 3rd great grandmother from Apice. I know we're related, but every record says otherwise.

She made it onto the 1940 census as an infant of 0 months. But there's a twist. The head of household is her mother. There is no husband listed, but there are 4 children, ages 7, 6, 5, and 0. In the 1950 census, my match's mother is a widow, but there's a new child who was born in 1943. The more I dug into this family, the less I understood.

In the end, I won't add these DNA matches to my family tree. I'll add notes to my DNA match list and drop the matter. If it is a case of misattributed parentage (I hate that phrase), I don't want to make any assumptions. But all is not lost. The leads generated by ThruLines have helped me expand my family tree and deepen my roots in the town of Apice.

Keep Expanding

Everything I found through this exercise gives me more leads to follow to expand my family in Apice. And it's all thanks to an Ancestry ThruLines line of succession from my 4th great granduncle. It would be easy to spend weeks harvesting these leads. And a lot of fun.

See Your Ancient DNA Origins on MyHeritage

I've taken only one DNA test. In 2012 I tested with AncestryDNA and then convinced my parents and husband to test. Later I uploaded the 4 AncestryDNA tests to MyHeritage and other DNA websites.

Last week MyHeritage released a new feature. "Ancient Origins" sets them apart from the other major DNA websites. (You'll find it in the DNA menu on MyHeritage.) I've traced my ancestors as far back as the late 1690s using a paper trail. They lived in one small section of Southern Italy from at least that time. Let's go back further. Here's my Ancient Origins Breakdown.

Trace your DNA origins through ancient times on MyHeritage.

Bronze Age

In this most ancient time frame, MyHeritage says I'm:

• 50.4% Anatolian (3400 BC–1500 BC), which is modern-day Turkey.
• 29.2% European Farmer (6300 BC–2800 BC), which covers most of Europe. My highest concentration is in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.
• 13.4% Western Steppe (3300 BC–2600 BC), north of the Black Sea with the highest concentration in Russia.
• 7% Canaanite (1800 BC–1100 BC), along the Eastern Mediterranean shore. My highest concentration is in Lebanon.

Iron Age

In this still-BC time frame, MyHeritage says I'm:

• 46.6% Anatolian (780 BC–30 BC), modern-day Turkey.
• 44.2% Italic and Etruscan (900 BC–200 BC), hurray! Here's where my Italian roots begin. The highest concentration a bit north of my ancestors' paper trail.
• 9.2% Phoenician (1000 BC–330 BC), with the highest concentration in Lebanon.

Roman Era

Now we're coming out of BC times into AD times. This is where it gets exciting for me. MyHeritage says I'm:

• 94.4% Roman Italy (20 BC–600 AD). This covers the entire Italian peninsula with the highest concentration around Rome.
• 5.6% Roman Sardinia (400–500 AD), still Italy, but off the western coast on the island of Sardinia.

This pleases me to no end.

Middle Ages

No surprise for me here, but a lovely confirmation of my ethnicity. MyHeritage says I'm:

• 100% Italian (650–1450 AD). I was a blonde-haired blue-eyed baby, so people never suspected I was Italian, but holy cow am I Italian! I do know that my rare maiden name of Iamarino existed in my grandfather's hometown in the 1400s. This new MyHeritage feature confirms the absolute depth of my Italian roots.

My parents' DNA tests show very similar Ancient Origins in each era. They each have trace origins I did not inherit—Germanic and Sub-Saharan African.

Make sure you watch the Ancient Origins video clips. Most genetic groups have an AI video clip of a person from this area talking about their homeland. Mine all looked a lot more Italian than I do. Although, if I ignore their coloring, I do see a similarity in facial structure.

My husband is a different story. His parents' families came from Japan. His first AncestryDNA result said he was 100% Japanese. He still is, but now his test shows 3% Southern Japanese Islands and 97% Japan.

But the earliest inhabitants of Japan had to come from somewhere else, right? So what does MyHeritage show for my husband's Ancient Origin Breakdown?

By the Middle Ages, Paul was:

• 84.4% Japanese, without touching the Japanese islands in the south.
• 14.8% Sinitic, which is Chinese and doesn't quite reach North Korea.
• 0.8% Southeast Asian. This covers an area that touches Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Indonesia.

His breakdown was almost identical in the Roman Era, but going back to the Iron Age, China takes on a larger role.

• 60.4% Sinitic (Chinese).
• 20.4% Amur River, which is the part of China (and Russia) closest to northern Japan.
• 14.2% Jomon, which is Japan before they called it Japan.
• 5% Southeast Asian, covering the same territories I listed above.

In the Bronze Age, Paul's map looks much the same as it does in the every other era. But the concentrations are more specific.

• 52.6% Yellow River, which is an area of China west of Beijing.
• 15% Amur River, which is in his Iron Age breakdown in a somewhat higher percentage.
• 14.6% Liao River, which is the part of China west of North Korea.
• 14.4% Jomon. It seems some of his ancestors were always in Japan.
• 3.4% Southeast Asian, in a smaller percentage than he had in the Iron Age.

Taken altogether, Paul is overwhelmingly Japanese. But he does have ancient roots in China, and a few in Southeast Asia. He's almost as concentrated as I am.

MyHeritage Ancient Origins offers more than the Ancient Origin Breakdowns I've explored above. There's also a Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer Breakdown you may find interesting.

You can also explore the Sample Database to learn more about any of your genetic groups. For example, I looked into Phoenician, which came up on my map as Lebanon. It is in Lebanon, but also to a small extent in Sardinia, Italy. And Sardinia is in my Roman Era results.

The Genetic Distance Maps show where you are on a scatter plot of different DNA groups. My map is Southern Italian. But I have genetic similarity to Central Italians, Ashkenazi Jews, and Greeks. My parents' maps are almost identical to mine. Paul's map is Japanese with genetic similarity to Koreans, Chinese, and Tibetans.

Who else in the world has similar DNA to you?

I would love to see your Genetic Distance Map if you're much more of a mixture than we are. What type of cluster are you in if your four grandparents came from very different places?

Another Option

Yes, Ancient Origins sets MyHeritage apart from all the big DNA competitors. But there is another website for ancient results. I never wrote about it because I didn't know how trustworthy its results are. I uploaded my DNA tests to mytrueancestry.com a long time ago. Now I can compare the results to MyHeritage to see if they're reliable.

My True Ancestry says I'm:

• 25.1% Roman, with origins that match the Italic and Etruscan group from MyHeritage. It even says the Etruscans were from Anatolia…Turkey!
• 12.9% Hellenic Roman, which is Southern Italians who came from Greece. No doubt.
• 9.06% Carian, which is a subset of Anatolian…again, Turkey.
• 7.5% Ancient Greek.
• 6.88% Byzantine Empire. The sprawling Byzantine Empire included Italy, Turkey, the Middle East, and Greece. That tracks with the MyHeritage results.

The information on MyHeritage is more robust, but My True Ancestry is a good option. It's easy to upload DNA kits. You'll need to make a separate account for each DNA test using different email addresses.

Paul's results on My True Ancestry are:

• 35.8% Tokugawa Shogunate. That's Japan.
• 28.2% Licchavi Kingdom or today's Nepal. This is the one I had doubts about, but it isn't far off the areas shown on MyHeritage.
• 17.4% Han Dynasty, covering parts of China that mesh with Paul's MyHeritage results.
• 14.9% Three Kingdoms of Korea (the bottom of South Korea). The MyHeritage Genetic Distance Map does show his genetic similarity to Koreans.

The percentages are different between the websites. But I now have a higher opinion of My True Ancestry than I did before. With a free account, you can also see Modern Populations. I'm all Italian and Greek. Paul is very Japanese and bits of Chinese. There's even a genetic distance map.

I do prefer how MyHeritage breaks down the time periods with such precision.

Tell me what you think of your results on MyHeritage or My True Ancestry.

A 15% discount for readers of Fortify Your Family Tree!

And speaking of DNA tests:

• This Number is Crucial to Your DNA Match Research
• How to Use DNA Matches to Go Beyond Vital Records
• 4 Practical Methods for Identifying a DNA Match

Are Ancestry Pro Tools Worth the Money?

When I heard you can sign up for Ancestry Pro Tools for one month and then quit, I knew I had to try out their new features. My main interest is to see how my DNA matches match to one another. This can help you understand which of matches share a common ancestor with each other. That can help you see where they fit in your family tree.

Here's how the new features of Ancestry Pro Tools stack up. Are they worth the price?

The other Pro Tools give you desktop-like tools for your online-only family tree.

What's Included in Pro Tools?

• Charts & Reports. Family Tree Maker (FTM) provides the same reports as Pro Tools. I'm sure other family tree software programs do, too. A computer-based family tree program is better than building your tree online in so many ways.
• Tree Mapper. This feature has a cool visual representation and several types of filters. But I can do this in the Places tab of FTM. Or you can get really fancy and use this free program.
• Smart Filters. If you use MyTreeTags™ on Ancestry, this is a nice way to see everyone with a particular tag. But I don't use the tags. I didn't see any filters that offer me something I'd like to do but can't do in FTM.
• Tree Checker. This tool's main finding about my tree is that tons of people have no documentation. Yeah, tell me about it! I've been creating source citations for weeks. It also thinks I have 7,040 possible duplicates. I don't. We've all seen towns where everyone has the same name. As I scroll through this list of people, it's plain to see they all have different birth dates. This feature isn't helping me. It can also find many types of errors, and that may seem like a big help. But we already have Family Tree Analyzer to do that for us.
• Tree Insights. These factoids are not something I can generate within FTM, but I've used Family Tree Analyzer to do so. I can't say it's useful. This tool is showing me:
  • the top 5 surnames in my tree
  • the 5 longest-living people in my tree (they're only that old because I can't find out when they died)
  • the 5 couples with the most children
  • the 5 youngest brides or grooms
• Fan Chart Settings. I like the look of the Fan Chart in Ancestry much more than the one in FTM. But the Pro Tools add-ons to the existing Ancestry Fan Chart don't do anything very useful:
  • You can choose the number of generations to display (4, 5, 6, or 7). I have more generations than that.
  • You can show Family Lines, which gives a different color to each of your 4 grandparents' ancestors. I think the non-Pro version does that.
  • If you choose the Hints setting, it uses varying shades of green to show you who has a lot of hints and who has few or none. The Photos setting and Sources setting does the same thing. A range of colors show you the haves and have-nots.
  But check out the more-detailed fan chart I created a long time ago using Charting Companion software.

For me, none of those tools are worth a recurring cost. That brings me back to the reason I jumped on a $7 sale for one month of Ancestry Pro Tools: Enhanced Shared Matches.

For years I've wanted to know why my parents share some DNA with one another. I had to see what Enhanced Shared Matches could do for me. (Note: Each of my parents took an AncestryDNA test, and I manage their kits.)

After a long and frustrating day of comparing Mom and Dad's DNA matches, I came up empty. My problem is the family's IBS segments—that's Identical By State. All my ancestors came from the same small geographical area. These small bits of shared DNA are more from the land itself than blood relationships.

My parents' shared DNA matches need to be my focus. As I worked through them, I hit so many with dead ends in their tree that I couldn't resolve. Do those dead ends hold the magic key?

I don't want to lose the extra insights from Enhanced Shared Matches, but I don't want to pay for it again. What to do? Make a new spreadsheet, of course!

Step 1. Document their Shared Matches

Looking at Dad's shared matches with Mom, I find a list of 21 people, but I'll exclude myself and make it 20 people.

I'll start a new spreadsheet with Dad in column A and Mom in column C. In column B, I'll enter the name of each shared match. I can also add what I know about them, if I've figured out their relationship to me.

Capture and analyze the insights of Enhanced Shared Matches in a spreadsheet while you can.

In each cell of the spreadsheet:

• I'll list the number of shared cMs and Ancestry's predicted relationship.
• I'll note which side of Dad and Mom's families they're on: Maternal, Paternal, Both Sides, or Unassigned. I have to view Mom and Dad's match lists separately for this.

The first big surprise is that I see a lot more shared matches when I view Mom's DNA test. What the heck? I started with Dad's match list because he has more matches than Mom or me. Nine shared matches from Dad's list are not in Mom's list at all.

It makes sense that this is a built-in 20 cM cut off. The 9 people in Dad's list only have fewer than 20 cMs shared with him. The 30 or so people in Mom's list only have fewer than 20 cMs shared with her. I should concentrate on the 11 shared matches with whom both Mom and Dad share 20 or more cMs. The low-cM shared matches must be Identical By State.

These people with the smaller amounts of shared DNA escaped me in the past. I don't know if the Enhanced Shared Matches Pro Tool is the reason I'm seeing them now.

Step 2. Document Highest Shared Matches of the Top 11 People

In the same Excel workbook, I'll document the shared matches of my parents' top 11 shared matches. I'll view Dad and Mom's tests one at a time and note who each person shares with them. I'll add the number of cMs, predicted relationships, and side of family as before. To increase my chances of success, I'll add only the strongest shared matches of the 11 people. They have to share 139 cMs or more. (I chose that number after consulting the Shared centiMorgan Project.) That way, these matches should be no more distant to my subject people than 4th cousins. Plus, I'll skip any matches if they share less than 20 cM with my parents.

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My goal is to find the best common connections. After documenting the first person's shared matches, I found something interesting. He's a close match to another one of the 11 top matches. Now I have 2 people from the same family who match both my parents. Is this the break I needed?

In the end, I'm left with 5 people who share DNA with both my parents and have close matches in the original list. I've already fit 2 of them into my family tree, and I find no connection to Mom's family. Plus, the one who shares 116 cM with Dad is actually more distant than expected. He's Dad's 4th cousin on one side and 5th cousin on the other.

While my parents' shared matches are tantalizing, every clue is pointing toward their being Identical By State. The most amazing thing is how their IBS families came together in a one-block stretch of Morris Avenue in the Bronx, New York.

Before I finish this month of Ancestry Pro Tools, I'm going to keep going through my DNA matches to learn what I can using the enhanced tools. It's a huge help when you can see that this match is the mother of that match. But I don't plan to renew my Pro Tools subscription.

Which Numbers Help Solve a DNA Match?

Trying to solve a mystery DNA match? An extensive family tree is more important than the centiMorgans (cMs) you share. Often it's only when you place a match in your family tree that you see your true relationship.

When you look at the different values assigned to your DNA matches, which number matters most? My answer isn't what you'd expect.

When I want to figure out a new DNA match, I consult the Shared cM Project tool created by Blaine T. Bettinger. You can find it on the DNA Painter website. The tool can suggest your likely relationship to a DNA match based on the number of cMs you share. The chart itself tells you:

• the average number of cMs you might share with a type of relative
• a likely range of cMs you can expect to see for each type of relative.

My family tree has tons of cousins with more than one relationship to me. Our roots are so deep in one little town that we're related to everyone who lived there. I want to see how all the intermarriage in my little towns might affect my DNA numbers.

Seeing How Your DNA Matches Score

For this exercise, I copied Bettinger's Shared cM chart into a spreadsheet so I can add cM values for my DNA matches. (This copy is available for you to download.) For each match that I added to the chart (in red ink), I included the hometown(s) of our shared ancestors. The town name showed that I have a higher number of shared cMs with cousins connected to Pastene, Italy.

One reason for this higher amount of DNA may be the small size of this hamlet. It's basically one street! Families were intermarrying there for hundreds of years. My great grandparents Giovanni and Maria Rosa came from Pastene. Some of their descendants and their siblings' descendants have tested with AncestryDNA.

I must say I expected to see lots of DNA matches with cMs that went far above the range in the Shared cM Project tool. Since I have multiple relationships with so many people, I thought the cMs would stack up higher. In reality, I found only one match who went above the cM range—a 6th cousin twice removed.

This DNA match (A.S.) shares 58 cM with me when the average for our relationship is 13 cM and the range is 0 to 45 cM. Here's why our shared cMs are high. A.S. and I share:

• my 5th great grandparents Innocenzo and Anna (that's the 6C2R relationship)
• my double 6th great grandparents Giuseppe and Maria (that makes A.S. my 7C1R)
• my 7th great grandparents Pasquale and Maria (that makes A.S. my 8C1R)
• my 7th great grandfather Giancamillo (that makes A.S. my 8C2R)

It seems shared cMs alone can't predict complex relationships every time.

This chart shows a higher concentration of shared DNA coming from one of my ancestral hometowns. What will yours show?

Exploring Another Variable

"Unweighted shared DNA" is a factor when you have deep roots in the same place or ethnicity.

If you have an AncestryDNA account, you can view this value for any DNA match in your list. Click the blue, linked description beneath their relationship label. For instance, for my 3rd cousin, I see "82 cM | 1% shared DNA."

Looking at my DNA match A.S., I see that we:

• share 58 cM across 3 segments
• have a longest segment of 30 cM
• have 60 cM of unweighted shared DNA—2 cM more than the 58 cM of shared DNA.

You may be as curious about the unweighted shared DNA as I am. Here's AncestryDNA's definition:

Unweighted shared DNA is the total amount of identical DNA two people share, including DNA that is shared for reasons other than a recent common ancestor, such as being from the same ethnicity or community. Because of that, unweighted shared DNA will almost always be larger than shared DNA for distant relationships that share 90 cM or less.

So that's why so many DNA matches appear to be closer than they are. I knew there was some extra DNA just from having deep roots in the same soil, but this puts a value on it.

To test this out, I looked at the DNA breakdown for lots of my identified DNA matches. In general, the unweighted shared DNA for my 3rd cousins or closer was exactly the same as their shared DNA. Many of my more-distant cousins had from 1 to 5 cM more unweighted shared DNA than shared DNA. But some of the distant cousins didn't have any extra unweighted shared DNA at all.

Searching for the Magic Number

Unweighted shared DNA isn't enough to help us understand our relationship to a DNA match. So I looked at the third value: longest segment length. DNA experts say you should be able to identify a match with a longest segment of 50 cM or more. But I have only 40 matches with numbers that high.

Here's a small sampling of the under-50 shared cM DNA matches I've identified and placed in my family tree. These are not people I know or grew up with. Most have a very small family tree online. But thanks to my family tree, I found their grandparents or great grandparents.

• 5C1R, 48 cM, longest segment 10 cM
• 9C, 27 cM, longest segment 12 cM
• 5C2R, 41 cM, longest segment 13 cM
• 7C, 30 cM, longest segment 14 cM
• 6C, 26 cM, longest segment 15 cM
• 3C1R, 39 cM, longest segment 16 cM
• 5C1R, 24 cM, longest segment 18 cM
• 5C, 26 cM, longest segment 20 cM

Notice we share from 24–48 cM, and our longest shared segments range from 10–20 cM. AncestryDNA categorizes these matches as 4th–6th cousins or 5th–8th cousins. I was able to get so much more specific despite those short longest segments.

Well would you look at that? Here I am, yet again, hyping the value of a gigantic family tree. I like to crack new DNA matches to see what happened after the Italian vital records end. Who came to America? Who went to Canada, England, or Australia? Do people with roots in my Italian towns live near me today?

In the end, the best way to crack DNA matches is with your extensive, full-blown family tree.

And speaking of cracking DNA matches:

• Genealogy Skills Make You a Keen Detective
• 4 Best Ways to Learn from Your DNA Matches
• 4 Practical Methods for Identifying a DNA Match
• Follow Up on Genealogy Clues and Leads

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4 Practical Methods for Identifying a DNA Match

It's important to have a handful of DNA tools available so can you choose the best one for each situation. Here are 4 methods for identifying a DNA match that you may not have tried yet. I recommend you consider each one and put them to good use.

1. DNA Painter

You can "paint" your DNA matches onto your chromosome map to see how they may relate to one another. To do this, you can use a free DNA Painter account, but you must also have an account with one of the following:

• GEDmatch
• ftDNA
• 23andme
• MyHeritage

I used DNA Painter's chromosome map to visualize the fact that my parents share some DNA. I discovered that another match overlaps my Mom's position on Dad's 9th chromosome. That makes the other match worth investigating, and I learned that only because of this tool.

Learn how to use the chromosome map painter in your DNA research: "How to Find Your Strongest DNA Matches."

Use 1 or more of these 4 genealogy methods to crack your DNA matches and fit them into your family tree.

2. Use a Spreadsheet to Identify the Right Branch

This spreadsheet is perfect if your family tree has pedigree collapse or endogamy. I have pedigree collapse because my paternal grandparents were 3rd cousins. My 4th great grandparents are direct ancestors of both Grandpa and Grandma. It's pedigree collapse because you could say I'm missing a pair of 4th great grandparents.

I also have endogamy in my family tree. My ancestors all came from small, somewhat isolated neighboring towns. Almost everyone married a neighbor, generation after generation. (See "The DNA Problem We Aren't Talking About.") As a result, I'm related to people in my tree in many ways.

This spreadsheet helps root out DNA matches who match me only because we have roots in the same town. We're not related. The idea for this spreadsheet comes from DNA expert Kelli Bergheimer.

Be sure to see the section titled Are Your Matches Really in Your Family Tree? when you read "This Spreadsheet Sorts DNA Matches By Branch."

3. The Leeds Method

I discovered back in 2018 that my parents share a little DNA. All these years later, it seems they must be no closer than 5th to 7th cousins. There are no vital records that can take my family tree back that far. If the right towns' church records ever become available, I may be able to make progress. But chances are, I'll never find my parents' common ancestor.

But that's my story, not yours. For you, Dana Leeds' "Leeds Method" may be exactly what you need to see where each DNA match belongs in your family tree. That is, which of your 4 grandparents is your connection to a DNA match. I recommend you give it a try. To find out how, read "The Leeds Method May Have Solved a Big Family Puzzle."

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4. Good Old-Fashioned Family Tree Building

Last weekend I decided to do some genealogy research to fit a celebrity into my family tree. When Tony Danza was on an episode of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "Finding Your Roots," I was watching closely. When I found out he was the guest, I wondered if his name was originally Iadanza. That's a name I have in my family tree.

It turns out Iadanza is his ancestors' name and they came from a town I know. Pietrelcina (hometown of the famed Padre Pio) borders my 2nd great grandmother's hometown. Many people from Pietrelcina married people from a few of my ancestral hometowns.

A TV screenshot helped me find the birth records of Tony Danza's grandparents. I worked my way through the Pietrelcina vital records to build out their family tree. After a while, I saw that the parents of Danza's 4th great grandfather were already in my family tree!

So is Tony Danza my cousin? Nah. He and I have 18 different relationships at this point, but each one is by marriage.

I had fun with this exercise and it illustrates an important point. Digging through records and doing the research, you can place that DNA match in your family tree. See how in "Don't Rely on Your DNA Match to Do the Work" and "Don't Give Up When Your DNA Match Has a Puny Little Family Tree."

Piecing together families through vital records is what I live for! It's fun, challenging, and leads to tangible results in my family tree. Don't expect quick answers because you bought a DNA test. Your DNA matches are another tool to use in building your family tree. See if these 4 DNA methods can help you crack more of your DNA matches.

This Number is Crucial to Your DNA Match Research

Another day, another look at my mom's DNA match list. This time I wanted to find the first still-unknown person in her list worth researching. A video by DNA expert Diahan Southard encouraged me to research a match who shared a long segment of DNA with Mom. That means looking past the total number of shared cM to see the longest "segment" of shared cM.

You can find the longest segment length by clicking the amount of shared cM to see more details. This is true on most if not all DNA websites.

Researching a DNA match led me to 5 more children of my 3rd great uncle. They were born in another town.

Increase Your Odds of Success

I began this exercise by looking only at matches who showed a family tree. A quick look at a few trees told me who they were. "Oh, that's my 3rd cousin through Immacolata Leone. Noted."

The match I chose to research has my great grandmother's maiden name in her family tree. Saviano. I'm always interested in finding another Saviano. And they've been hard to find.

This match shares with Mom a longest segment of 27 cM. Diahan Southard didn't specify a longest-segment range worth researching, but her example showed 32 cM. So 27 cM is pretty close.

Do the Research Yourself

First I had to figure out my connection to her ancestor, Giuseppe Saviano. This match supplied an exact birth and death date for him in her family tree, but no locations. I knew the dates would be a big help.

A search on Ancestry told me Giuseppe came to America and lived in Cleveland, Ohio. I know lots of relatives who wound up in Cleveland, including my father. I found Giuseppe in someone else's Ancestry tree. He had the right dates, Cleveland as his place of death, and San Nicola, Salerno, Italy, as his place of birth.

My absolute first thought was, "I wonder if he was really born in San Nicola Manfredi." (That's in Benevento, not Salerno.) Why would I think that? Because that town borders the town where my Saviano ancestors were born. I know there was a decent cross-over between the two towns. And I have all the San Nicola Manfredi vital records at my disposal. I've found many familiar last names in the San Nicola Manfredi vital records.

So, was Giuseppe Saviano actually born in San Nicola Manfredi on 1 Jan 1889? Check the documents—yes! Here he is. And Giuseppe's U.S. World War II draft registration card confirms he was born in San Nicola Manfredi on 1 Jan 1889.

But the true brick-wall busting moment came from the other facts on that birth record. Giuseppe's parents were Giovanni Saviano and Giuseppa Sarracino. I know that couple! They're in my family tree!

In my tree I saw Giovanni was my 3rd great uncle. He's one of only two siblings I've found for my 2nd great grandfather, Antonio Saviano. They come from a little hamlet called Pastene in a town called Sant'Angelo a Cupolo. The town was part of the Papal States, so they didn't keep civil records before 1861. Don't get me started on that. I could cry at the dead ends that causes me.

I'd already found 6 children for Giovanni and Giuseppa. They were all born in Pastene or in greater Sant'Angelo a Cupolo. One of their daughters came to America in 1898 with my 2GG Antonio Saviano and his family. She died in 1901. But I don't know anything else about the other children.

Expand Your Search Area

Thanks to this DNA match and a hunch, I now know Giovanni Saviano and Giuseppa Sarracino moved to neighboring San Nicola Manfredi. Or maybe the borderline moved and they stayed put. Either way, they had 2 more sons in San Nicola Manfredi in 1889 and 1890. I went through the birth records year-by-year looking for more. What I found tells me that Giuseppa died and Giovanni remarried and had 3 more children.

I wish the last 3 were born at the same address as the previous 2, but they weren't. I do know this Giovanni Saviano is the only one around who's having children during these years. And, like his brother (my 2GG), his occupation changes all the time:

• 1875–1880: farmer
• 1882–1885: merchant
• 1889: shopkeeper
• 1890–1896: industrialist
• 1898: farmer again
• 1901: shopkeeper again

The best thing about this discovery is that I've found Saviano cousins with roots in Ohio.

Lessons Learned

What lessons have I learned from this research?

1. Don't frustrate yourself with DNA matches who show no family tree. Unless their shared matches have a story to tell, you may get nowhere.
2. You may not find your connection to a DNA match with a short "longest segment." I don't know where the cutoff is, but you've got a better chance of success if their longest segment is about 30 cM or more.
3. When your DNA match's family tree has sparse details, research their ancestor yourself. You may be more interested in genealogy research than they are. Or they may prefer to limit how much information they put out there.
4. Spend time with online maps. Know the names of the towns surrounding your ancestor's town. Take a peek at records for neighboring towns to see if any last names are familiar to you.

I'm thrilled to make some kind of progress on my mother's dead-end branch. While I can't see vital records from their town before 1861, I may find traces of my family in neighboring towns.

Digging Into a DNA Match's Family Tree

A while ago I uploaded my AncestryDNA test results to Geneanet.org for free. I like their website because I can upload a complete replacement tree after I do a lot of work on it on my computer. (See "A Major Family Tree Change to Fix an Ongoing Problem .")

The good thing about having my DNA test on that site is access to European DNA matches I may not find on Ancestry. I don't have any close matches yet, but one match, Giovanni, has a family tree that reeled me in right away. I recognized the last names as coming from Circello, Italy. That's the hometown of my 3rd great grandfather Francesco.

Finally I had a strong reason to use my vital records database for the town of Circello.

I've been spending time making a searchable database of Circello vital records. They records are all available on the Antenati website. (See "How to Use the Online Italian Genealogy Archives.") On Saturday I randomly noticed a man in my tree from my paternal grandfather's hometown. I saw that he married a Circello girl named Pasquala Gigante in the 1890s, so I decided to build her family. And I got very far. I added all 8 of her great grandparents and 6 of her 2nd great grandparents.

Pasquala has no blood relationship to me yet. And her husband is the cousin of the husband of a cousin. I would love to find a true connection between Pasquala's Circello family and my own.

Find Your Entry Point

When I saw Giovanni's family tree on Geneanet, filled with Circello names, I had to investigate. Could I find a way for his tree to connect to mine? As I clicked around his tree, expanding different family units, my mouth fell open. There was the very same family I'd built into my tree earlier that day! The woman whose family I added to my tree, Pasquala Gigante, is my DNA match's great grandaunt.

Giovanni's family tree is very impressive. It goes back so far that I can tell he knows how to get the most out of Italian vital records. (See "The Italian Genealogy Goldmine: 'Wedding Packets'.") I can use his tree as a guide while I view the town's vital records to confirm names and dates. I'll start by adding Pasquala Gigante's siblings. I'll find spouses and children, and put lots of families together using the vital records.

After hours of piecing together Circello families, I still don't know why Giovanni is my DNA match. This is common with people whose ancestors spent several hundred years in a small town. Once again, I believe our shared DNA comes from the soil itself, and not a specific shared ancestor. (See "What Good Are Distant DNA Matches?")

With 3 key points, you can expand your family tree and tie into that of your DNA match.

How to Get Started

Even though I haven't solved this ancestor jigsaw puzzle, I enjoy the daylights out of this type of project. And you can, too. Here are the basics for diving into your DNA match's family tree:

1. Concentrate on DNA matches with a multi-generation family tree. There's no use wasting time on someone with a 1-person family tree. And they're out there.
2. Search every branch for familiar last names and places. If their hometown is one of your ancestral hometowns, you need to explore some vital records.
3. Find a solid starting point. I was lucky to spot someone I'd added to my own tree hours earlier. Be sure to choose a person with lots of data points: a birth date, spouse's name, parents' names, children's names. Those extra facts will help you make a positive ID.

You may find, as I did, that your DNA match has connections to your family tree even if there's no direct relation to you.