#dnacousin

🤭

An example of my use of the DNA icons mentioned in my previous post. Excuse the awful blur, this is an NPE research tree. I did not know how the home person matched to the NPE. I had a number of shared matches to the home person & the NPE, who linked to this tree. In order to see a pattern I added the DNA images. All matches lead me to the MRCA being the home person’s great grandparents or great great grandparents. The NPE matches the home person at 325cM and according to the DNA Painter Tool this is possibly a 2C. All shared matches lead to the great grandparents being the NPE’s link to the home person here. Having identified the great grandparents children, I found that there was a daughter who married a man with a common surname in the DNA matches. This lead to confirming the NPE’s paternal line. This “home person” cousin was very helpful & found me on Facebook - a great source to find living relatives & see old family photos! 🧬🌳🙌🏼

This icon, found via Google search, is useful to attach to a cousin in your tree to show a DNA match. With unknown DNA cousins, I usually start with a private research tree on Ancestry. You can make the tree private and not searchable in settings. Once I have built out a DNA cousin’s tree far back & out enough, to where I have managed to link them back to my tree, I add their branch & attach this DNA image as their profile picture. I also add the cM & and any information that’s useful such as the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) and shared matches in the facts under DNA match. This allows me to easily see a DNA cousin in my tree. I sometimes use other icons to link various DNA cousins to a common ancestor if I am working on an unknown DNA match such as an NPE. I’ll make a separate post on that process.