Shortly after receiving my dna results, I availed of a free online course at the Ancestry Academy titled DNA 101: An Insider's Scoop on AncestryDNA Testing found here https://www.ancestry.ca/academy/course/ancestry-dna-101. I found it extremely helpful, and learned a few tricks that I was able to put to use to locate living relatives based on my dna.
Before I get into how I was able to do that, I should say that Ancestry provides you with a list of people who have also taken the test and who have some dna matching your results. The greater the genetic match, the greater the likelihood of a closer relation. Additionally, if you both have a family tree on Ancestry with the same data, it can determine whether you both have the same person in your respective trees. I had one such genetic match that showed me exactly which couple someone else and I are both descended from, based on our tree data. But otherwise I was a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of going through dozens (or more) genetic matches to see if I could find a match manually since nobody else had similar data to mine.
Here's where the online course became very beneficial! One of the topics covered was how to use the search feature specific to genetic matches. I hadn't availed of the search feature until that point, but once I did I found it extremely helpful. You can search by surname or location, or both, so that you get a short list of genetic matches who also have that search criteria in their trees. Searching through 1 or 2 results is much less daunting than the prospect of searching through dozens!
As an example, I entered search criteria "Ireland" and "Murray", the surname of my great-great-grandmother Mary, which resulted in one matching tree. When I had a look through that tree, I discovered it contained a William Murray from Ireland whose parents were Thomas and Mary. My Mary had a brother named William, and her parents were Thomas and Mary, so I had a look at other information including spouse name, birth and marriage dates and more specific locations. I was able to determine that the person who posted the tree and I were not only genetic matches, but I had located the specific family we were both descended from, thanks to the search feature. I sent the contact a message, and we've been able to further share information, including documents and photos, via email. This has been mutually beneficial, as we are both able to fill in some missing information for each other, and if we had not both taken the dna tests, we may never have been in contact!
As I am able, I intend to enter each of my known ancestors' surnames and locations to see what other contacts I can make. Once I receive the results of my close relatives' dna (currently being processed), I intend to do the same with their results. I look forward to gaining new insight and information through these additional dna results!
Heather
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