I often bounce around, alternatively using between Ancestry.com, Gedmatch, FamilySearch.org and 23AndMe.com as I go down various rabbit holes in search of my familial roots. I’d been focusing on 23AndMe for a month or so. Two weeks ago, I logged into Ancestry to see if the new profiles I’d seen in 23AndMe also existed in Ancestry. I saw a several new profiles and clicked on the Shared Match button. And was I surprised! The Shared Match button previously showed how closely you matched a particular person and the profiles of other people that you and the shared profile both matched. Also displayed was the amount of shared DNA and the kinship relationship for you and the various profiles. But you could not see how closely each of the shared match profiles matched each other.
That was how the Ancestry, Shared Match tool used to work!
Ancestry has updated the tool so that it is similar to the 23AndMe tool which allows you to see the match between you and match A and match A and match C, D, etc . This is a total game changer. Right off the bat I was able to figure out how 2 close DNA matches were connected to my family and to each other. Before the tool was updated, I could only speculate on the connection, but as they say, “DNA does not lie.”
I next began using the shared match tool to focus on the connection between my known Calvert County, MD family to a large number of DNA matches in Drew County, Arkansas and Monroe County, Alabama. These connections are still too complex to figure out and still seem to point to cross matches between my mother’s parent#1 and parent#2.
The tool has also helped me focus on several DNA profiles that include branches that include the surnames of Banks, Donelson and Lambert. These branches lived in Washington, DC and Virginia. Hopefully, I can use the tool to connect these closely related people to my Gibson, Hill and Morgan family members who came to Louisiana from Virginia.
I think I am close to nailing down the ancestral roots of another branch on my family tree. I just need to stay focused and work one branch at a time!
Best,
My Maryland-Louisiana Roots 