How identifying DNA matches has helped me improve my family tree Part 1 What matches did I have?

 In my last post I  briefly wrote about why I did a DNA test. In this post I will add some background. 

At GEDMATCH and MyHeritage I had a long list of matches but it was almost as useful as an empty index I needed to work out what I was going to do with these.

I did not expect to get any close matches when I did my test and wasn't surprised that the closest matches were possible 3rd cousins. 

In retrospect, I probably should have tested with Ancestry first as they have a large database and do not accept uploads from other testing companies. I also have cousins who have tested with them and it is something I am considering doing at some point. 

I didn't do much with the results for a long time. I added my data to WikiTree but was not expecting to find anyone I shared matches with on there. I then got a match on GEDMATCH with a known cousin who has since joined WikiTree and we are shown as sharing DNA.

Things at Living DNA have moved on and I now have matches on their website. I have a 2nd-3rd cousin match and two 2nd-4th cousin matches. Of these matches, the first one also matches with one of the latter ones, I will say more about this in another post. The 2nd-4th cousin matches are also on GEDMATCH and I have managed to find out where we connect.

It can be complicated to work out where the shared ancestor is whether you have a tree or not but looking at shared matches can often give you a clue as to where to start. The further away you connect the more difficult it can be to find any connection.

Relationships can get very complicated and just because someone has a DNA connection to someone in your tree it does not mean they have a connection to you or your ancestors. See WikiTree contributors, "William Ponton (1846-)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ponton-37 : accessed 14 February 2023). He is a half-brother to my ancestor as they both have the same mother. However, one of the matches is connected by his father and has no DNA connection to his mother.