I feel so bad for those who look and look and can't find bio fam. I know some personally who long to know. As a 54-year-old adoptee, on the other hand, I never cared at all-and DNA tests connected me with ALL of them, because they were looking for me. It's crazy what this technology can do!

my Pop was adopted and I had my DNA test. I am finding family I never knew about and also my Pop never knew about. Amazing!!!

Crista - Using your case study I have identified a set of 3rd great-grandparents for my grandmother's cousin based on a 4th cousin match! It's so easy!

Great video... I also was adopted. Been a member of Ancestry.com for about 10 years. DNA has opened so many doors, that i recently had a dna match with people(4th cousin) i have known my whole life. Simply a great video.

Great presentation Crista. I had to figure out some of these approaches on my own. I wish I had seen this video when you made it. It would've saved me many hours of trial and error. I have had great success with checking those close cousins you speak of. One cousin got in touch with me and shared her tree with me and illuminated 10 generations on my birth mother's family. All I had before that moment was just a name, a possible grandparents that turned out wrong. Yet, she couldn't have reached out if I hadn't at least started a tree with unknowns and wrong people. Now, when I do a Thru Lines or Cousin Search, rather than being on a desert isle by myself, I am on a great sailing vessel full of people. I did know a great deal more about my birth father's family and even met them. The far off cousins have been very helpful in showing me the which sibling is my direct relation and who were the uncles and aunts. This has been a fascinating and illuminating journey.

I am a birth mom. I placed my daughter for adoption 22 years ago. I am currently looking for her. I just sent in my Ancestry DNA kit in hopes that I can find her.

Crista, this is a very impressive analysis and a good use of the available tools. We should remember to always thoroughly investigate the known information fully (your cousin's biological mother) before stepping off into analytics. I would compile an exhaustive background check into the mother, as one or more points in her history may very likely become connective evidence later in this process. Or, you might just get lucky and find someone in her background who knows the answer. Please update us on this case in the future.

very impressed with your comprehensive and thoughtful research, Crista.

Amazing work, Christa! I wish you success in this research :) It was very interesting, even though I don't have adoptee in my tree, not that I know of at least. I hope ancestry decides to open up the dna tests in italy, too, I want to help my unknown italian-american long lost cousins!

Great tips Crista! Thanks. Searching for the birth parents of an adoption from over 100 years ago. Very challenging!

I got so excited to watch this video that I actually sprained my toe and had to go to the hospital to have it fixed.

Excellent tips - I applied these and located my adopted grandmothers biological family that she tried to find during her life but never was successful at locating.

Thank you so much this is very Helpful

Allot of really information and details on how to address dealing with cousins and direct family members. Great job on communicating thru this media.. ed

Well I found 2 DNA cousins on both sides of my family. One was adopted and we are pretty sure she is my uncle's (mother's brother) bio daughter since Mom only had one brother and the only maternal cousin old enough to have fathered her had done an ancestry test and he matched her as cousin like me. The other (my father's side)it seems found out her father was not her father. I know it had to be one of my paternal cousins (16 total my grandparents had 10 kids-9 of whom had children)who is her father since we matched at 535 CMs and she had tested her sister and she came back as half sibling. Anyway after all that she talked to her mother, come to find out her mother knew and so did the man she considers her father. They had split up. Her mother got pregnant and then they got back together and decided to raise her as theirs. So unfair of them to have never told her. She is 24 years old. All I have to say people, is do not hide secrets like that from your children.

Excellent tip to CREATE A TREE even if you don't know any in it except yourself. When someone comes along and they see you have NO tree they might immediately think "move on". If there is a clue that you have "UNKNOWN PARENT", and on they might think "ahhhh....I think I will stick around, maybe make contact, maybe I can help". Thank you for advice to not create new trees, just modify by merging. I know I get confused with linking then unlinking. Is that bad? My DNA process has kicked me into one tree, keep it, modify it. Crista is the best! I trust your comments, and NO I won't add my pets to my tree. 😜 (comment from a past video made my Crista) -Lesley, member of the adoption constellation who has helped friends find family and can give a thumbs up to all tips in this video

I never understood how I could apply the mirror trees to my mother's situation but I am GLAD that I did not. Had I done that, I probably would have assumed the wrong families. Yes, plural, since we come from an endogamous group and these families I had already their genealogies in my database. I was smart enough not to do that, did find my mother's biological family despite having many deceptive CLOSE PREDICTED cousin matches. And now that I did find her family and they confirmed my mother's existence, my mother's other matches on her father's side all match up. So basically DNA relatives confirmed our connection.

I have 2 of these situations... not adopted, but unable to find parents... name change? NPE? siblings married?... so dna tips are helpful!

This helped me solve my Dad's mysterious DNA matches. Turns out his mother had him by a guy that was not his father. I was able to id the guy.

One year ago I found out via Ancestry DNA that my full sister and myself had different bio Dads thus she is my half sibling. Ancestry has been updating my matches and through those matches, I have some close ones. But my frustration is that these close matches (first, second, third and tons of 4th-8th cousins) do not respond to my messages even though I am nice and sweet about it all! All that I need to confirmation of my findings since I believe that I have found my bio Dad (now deceased). I'm sorry to say that I recently took the 23andme spit test with the hope of finding different matches in which to connect with and maybe receive some answers. These matches really don't understand just how important their replies are to me.

Brilliant

Thanks, very helpful in identifying which of two brothers is one of my ancestors.

Crista, this was such an interesting video - thanks! I have a question for you (or anyone) regarding your discouraging the use of "mirror trees." At 3:25, you speak of an alternative to detaching/attaching entire trees by instead detaching/attaching different parent groups within the one attached tree. How do you do this? Thanks for your help!

This video almost made me cry,I've been thinking for years that I would never be able to do a DNA ancestry test since I have no biological family around me & it has been bothering my soul for some time that i would just never know. I know I'm overly dramatic,but you literally just changed my life,lol.

Thank you soooooo much ! I greatly appreciate all of the information you provided. #Familytree

There is so much to learn and you are a good teacher. Where do you get the icons? (you added the two children with slash to identify that he probably had no children). Thank you

That's exactly what I did trying to find my adopted great-grandfather and I'll be darned, my dummy person had 19 brothers/sisters. UNREAL

Did you check the possibility of 1/2 1st cousin? I just had a case that had the same amount of DNA and they were 1/2 1st cousins.

I haven't finished this video yet. I am hoping it will help me. I have discovered that one of my great grandfathers was a bigamist, married to my great grandmother in one state and to another woman, complete with a full family with her, in a neighboring state. Various documents make me wonder if he is my actual great grandfather, or if this other man (same surname but no relationship I can find) is my great grandfather. DNA results are starting to lead to the other man. So far I have not gotten any DNA results pointing to the legal great grandfather. Unless not one single descendant of the bigamist has taken the DNA test, not one of his descendants has matched with me. Looking forward to this video in hopes it will help me. Thanks.

I'm trying to determine my daughter's paternal family. Her dad is adopted and not cooperative with our search. I have determined that it was a partial familial adoption as she has matches that link her to her dad's adopted maternal grandmother's parents. Appreciate all the tips I can get! Thanks

Question, when searching for parents of an individual and youre unsure of which side the DNA matches maternal or paternal are on, but have identified the top say 15 DNA matches within a certain family of which you're researching, what do you do? I have my theories but I'm unsure if I should add one theory. I've several mrcas. Should I just add them based on my theory and see what happens being I can disconnect them and make them floaters in the tree. Yes Leeds method has been done

Crista at 13:37 you indicate that there is a chart on the isogg.org wiki that maps out the relationship between cM and the potential relationship... Can you provide a link to that? All my attempts to find it have failed. Thanks for the video!

Got it! My 2,3rd cousin is my Daddy!!! Thanks

Thank you so much for these videos. I have a question about who to add to my tree. If I have an aunt related to me through blood, should I add her husband's ancestors? or just him, since his ancestors are not blood relatives of mine? The reason I ask is because I started adding these relatives, and Ancestry keeps giving me more hints for them, but I feel I'm investing time to research their trees and these ancestors are not blood relatives of mine. Thanks so much!

Love the video! Wish Crista was one of my cousins. I have two clusters of cousins from 2 family lines.... but still unsure where to plug in the two sets of potential couples. I volunteer to be used as a future case study!

Great video Crista, you make it very clear. I've just taken the test and not yet got my results but am keen to build the right Ancestry tree to help me try to find my mother's father who is completely unknown. I have three trees on Ancestry currently, one for each of my other 3 grandparents, in each case using the grandparent as home person. I don't want to combine them for now. I have started to build a new "DNA tree" with myself as home person and just the basic direct blood line ancestors on all 4 lines. Obviously I have to call the missing 4th grandparent "unknown grandparent" following your idea. Is this the best way to go about it? I have attached the test to myself. I assume I have to make the tree public and searchable for best results, or does this simply confuse others, since all the people on it are duplicates of people already in a tree of mine? Hope that makes sense!

It's so reassuring to see that as I've been stumbling through this process on my own with no guidance, I've been doing it correctly and drawing some of the same conclusions that are discussed here. My primary question at this point is how far back is too far back when considering leaf hints on your attached DNA? I have been able to identify one set of my unknown-father's great grandparents (my 2nd great grandparents). I've traced all 12 of their children, and all of their children, and most of the individuals who would be in my father's generation. I have found that I share a few different sets of 4th and 5th great grandparents with several 5th-8th cousins. I have a few possible fathers that when they are attached to my tree as a father, I get leaf hints on all 4 of his grandparents ancestors, but they are distant (going back to my 5th great grandparents). Is that too far back or indicating a possible IBS situation rather than IBD?

I would love to know: --Do you have any tips for getting relative (no pun intended) strangers to DNA test for you? (How to help them understand what you're doing, etc.) --Have you had issues with these experimental trees causing confusion with people who copy them thinking they're accurate? --Do you have any tips for where to start when the adoptee is "upstream" from the testee? (My g-grandmother, for instance, was adopted. I can't test her because she's deceased, but the starting point would, of course, be different than if your matches are to the individual who's search for parentage.)

Crista, when you have multiple mirror trees within your main Ancestry tree, would you always leave the DNA attached to the same home person (and just attach/detach the home person to various mirror tree ancestors), or could you move it around onto different branches of that same tree, without "going to the back of the queue"?

GREAT video and thank you so much for sharing.. Even though I've been an Ancestry member on and off for years, I do not understand these matches. I initially wanted to try and find my biological father, mother refuses to provide any information. I need help with the Ancestry webpage family matches. Two matches only show "close family" and not type of family. One individual shares 2,071 centimorgans with 58 dna segments The other family member shares 1,972 centimorgans with 57 dna segments. I am not familiar with the surname shared by these individuals. What do the match dna amounts/numbers really mean... Any assistance in trying to understand the family dna connection is greatly appreciated

Okay, I get that it's a good idea to start a tree and I believe you said that as you found matches, particularly those with trees, you place the people who seems to be of the appropriate generation into the tree in one of the appropriate places so that, in this case Thomas Cummings is placed in the position of of the tester's great-great-grandfather by way of his unknown father (that calculates because he already has his mother) to his father to his father. After that all assumptions seem to be made on the assumption that the position is correct and that, further, it is a son of the couple. But what if it isn't? What if the connection through the unknown grandmother or one of the other great-grandparents? Do you just keep looking for the connection and possibly move Thomas Cummings and Catherine down a place or two on the tree?

Thank you for the suggestions and I will check on them. I did contact Amherst Co., VAfor a list of William Williams and I was given a long list of several names but no details to help me determine which would be the one I wanted. I did wonder if it would behelpful I had given information on his son, Roger Williams, dob: abt. 1724. He fought in American Revolution. This gave me a list of descendent and it was very helpful. It assured me that I was not descended from Roger Williams of Rhode Island. This tied in with the information I already had. Jeanne Mead

Crista, thank you for the video. I am part way through and your cousins story in my story so far. I have only gotten to the part about the 2nd cousin match and finding out they were also adopted.I have that too! I also now haw another person that popped up 3 weeks ago with the same amt of shared centimorgans that the adopted guy and I share. she is not adopted but no one fits any of the people I have narrowed my family to. ( I am down to know figuring out my grandmother, just not my birth father) About how many centimorgans does your cousin share w his adopted match? this is where I am struggling a bit. not sure how we can chat in more of a private 'space'

I've almost given up hope of finding my Mom's father. Your videos give me some hope again.

I took the AncestryDNA test since I never met my father and my mum was adopted. I had a 986cm 1st cousin match. Long story short I was able to get my dads info from my mum which started to tie in some DNA results, then I was able to get my mums birth family from the other set of DNA matches. The 986cm match doesn't fit anywhere and neither do their matches, and they haven't been online in a long time and haven't responded to messages. I'm so curious to know where they fit in!

Crista, I am enjoying your videos, but I have so many questions. I am the founder of a search group that started in 1988, Search-Finders of Idaho. We need to get caught up on searching with DNA. Is there a way to contact someone who can answer some basic questions about methodology?

I have a question. Im trying to find a link to my passed adopted mother that I can peg as 'her side' and not my well documented dad's side. Do you suggest starring results to eliminate people? or starring results to include possible matches. I just recently had a bit of a setback that linked ALL of my strong hits to my dad side. DNA is a bit thuggish!

With my dad's 3rd cousin matches 5 of them are from the same 2 common ancestors so my dad would share a great great grandparent with them but how do I figure out which set of gg grandparents to add to my tree?

I took the ancestry DNA test, and I've reached out to 2nd cousin matches attempting to solve the mystery of my grandmother's biological parents. Unfortunately, I've gotten nowhere. Matter of fact, attempting to contact matches on ancestry, familytreedna, and myheritage, has been almost a total failure. I'm sure that some of these people took the test just because of the ads, but have no real iinterest in genealogy.

I need help. My husband was adopted in Brazil. Birth certificate shows adopted parents as his parents. Results show 3 cousins. Trying to find answers. But stumped. Can you help,m

Hi I need some clues to find my mother’s father mother line which daughter out and also my father maternal lines too?

When I click on that "i" it does not show centimorgans. Is this a feature just coming out?

Wow, this is interesting. How about Indigenous people? My grandmother has Indian in her, I have some information but it does not say what type of Indian or tribe, I do have a band number of my great grandmother from a document that was from the mission she stayed at when she was young. My cousin had sent my grandmother some documents and pictures, and she had stayed at a mission in L.A. I looked it up but there was more than one type of tribe at the mission at that time. Is there a way to find out what type of Indian or tribe she came from? My dad was the cut-off where he could not receive any help because his blood is too far down the line but my grandmother was able to receive help from the tribe. I've narrowed it down to a few, but are there any free web cites where I do not have to pay to find out the info I'm trying to find out on her? Any help would be great. Also, my dad's sister passed and my parents adopted my first cousins who are now my sisters. They have different dads, both fathers fought for custody of each of my cousins, but the judge was in favor of the girls going with our family it's complicated, but, we finally found the younger ones father and when she went to go see him after 43 years he had passed away 1 month prior. there are still lots of questions left unanswered as the lady who answered the door was his third wife and had told her that he had a daughter and always talked about her.that was nice to know though but her has a sister and we are having a hard time trying to find her

1.4M members in the Ancestry DNA base ... how does this relate to FamilyTreeMaker being put to pasture?

Hi, so I commented on another video. I have done the test . I got back several 2 and 3 rd cousins who I can not find out how I am related . One of the 3rd cousins has replied to me and said that from what she can tell my father is on her mothers side . I have a “father “ and it doesn’t seem to be him . I am not sure where to go from here . I don’t know how to add these to May tree or where to start !

How can I find my great great grandparents from Spain? Did Spain have a census? My great great gradnmother was born around 1772 would she be listed in the census? I don't have any information about her or my great great grandfather. I asked my grandmother about them, and she didn't have much information.

I been having the hardest time try to find my husband parental side he never meet them at all he really wants to aleast know something of his father we don’t know his birthday etc so it’s super hard I’m praying so hard we found out something before his 33 birthday 6/20 his dna already came back on ancestry just don’t understand how to match who and what

I have one parental 2X unknown biological great grandfather. I have DNA from my father and see quite a few possibilities to ID the biological 2x great grand father but its difficult and I've build several trees for possible persons. I'm starting to think I need to split my father's paternal line in to a separate tree (off course keep the full tree) to help better focus the possible person. What do you think about that method? Next I'll have to figure out how to copy a entire parental line into a separate tree. Any opinions. I have very good detailed and accurate trees but this missing 2X great is likely the reason there is a surprising Scandinavian and Northern England high percentage in my fathers line.

How does someone attach a matched person to my tree. I have often wondered.

How can I look for my bf of my closest match is a 1c1r who has not listed any information whatsoever? She won't respond and her immediate family has very little public information. Any suggestions plz?

I am having trouble finding information on my mother's side of the family I have birthdates and where my mom and grandparents are from but cannot find any information beyond that. I took the DNA test and still no luck.

Hi there, My daughter just bought me an Ancestry DNA test. I'm really looking forward to seeing any possible results that may lead me towards finding links to who my biological father may be, or anything pertaining to a paternal history... Hopeful, as I've been searching for him on & off for the better part of thirty years. I had friends use their Ancestry account a while back to help me put together my mom's side. So that info is in their account. And then my daughter, of course, used her email to order the kit/test for me. My question(s) to you: Will it be difficult to start/link my OWN personal tree when I receive my results when any info, purchases, are under other persons? Will there be any confusion with the (leaf) hints to possible DNA matches once this test is submitted? Thanks in advance! :)

this is only help if you pay for the monthly account... the test did nothing to help me on my search. but hope ithelps people who can pay for it.

What if it shows 10 in 1 segment? How close is that

How can I determine who my grandmother's parents were? I took the test and so did my half uncle. I have access to his DNA as well as mine and I still can't figure this out!

Crista, what surname did your cousin's husband type in for himself??? I'm having a hard time figuring that out, since the surname I know is not his biological surname.

Watching video notice Zimmer surname Mary Josephine "Topsy" Zimmer 1892-1994 who my grandfather parents

Crista, there is a woman who is mixed. All she knows is that her father was black and her mother white. I am black so I will assume that our match is from her dad. We are an extremely high match on Ancestry and so far, everyone in that category, I have been able to find the match as long as there is a family tree. The other guy that matches us both is also black. She knows nothing about her side and the guy didn't really know and hasn't gotten back to me to give me any answers to what he possibly knows rom living relatives so we are stuck I think. Can you help me figure what else we can do

My husband is adopted and knows his birth name. He is waiting for non-identifying information and is matched with a second cousin on Ancestry. My question: on his tree, should he put his birth name or his adoptive name. He has been in contact with his second cousin and she thinks they are related on her father's side because his birth name is Jewish and she doesn't recognize it. Any help would be so appreciated.

My Grandfather Charles Ishamel Klock was with The Three Rivers Valley Okla. Sybil Klock his wife williams maiden Mcelrath mother was Cherokee resistered . .her uncle H. Mcelrath was registered. mother mane Daisy Dean Mcelrath. was adopted by Charles and Sybil. doing a DNA to find out what I ma as there was hard feelings between families. So I know I am Indian just don't know an;ything else. there are several Klock trees on here. waiting on DNA. thank ou

My great grandmother had a different father than the rest of her siblings but I only know a potential last name. Should I just put "unknown biological great great grandfather" in my tree at that spot?

This is more complicated than any concept I have encountered 🤦🏾‍♀️ I thought a video would walk me thru it easier but I’m even more confused. I’m only able to build out the maternal side and still am no closer to finding my biological father and his side of the tree. Beyond frustrating at this point

would like to further study of DNA submitted by son David L. Seidel

I found my birth mother and half sister 30 years ago. I know who they are. I lost contact. My half sister showed up immediately on Ancestry DNA AS A FIRST COUSIN. I know this is not true. How is it she was listed as a first cousin and not my half sister? Please help.

I am looking for my great grandfather. So my mother's father has the surname of his mother not his father and his parents weren't married. On Ancestry, she has someone who is listed as a second cousin to her and a third cousin to me. He too isn't helpful. My question is how can I use a third second cousin to find my mothers grandfather? I have asked around in the family and no one has given up any info. Im guessing there is a family secret or they just don't want to shame the family. Either way I am determined to figure this out.

Crista, I can't figure ow the isogg wiki and the centimorgan chart to plug in your match to see how they are related. Could you be a little more explicit please?

Can I link my DNA to my sister's tree?

Can this be used even if not adopted and you dont know who one of the parents are?

Many of my matches have higher dna% because my tree resembles more of a vine....

Would you happen to have information on Fain/Fainyance family that could answer myquestion and could be listed with Isabella Fain who married Jacques Dondonneau3 March 1613 in the Calvinist Temple in LaRochelle France. I have an ancestor namedNicholas Fain, born in Ireland abt. 1730. His father could be William Fain, b. abt 1698in Ireland and grandfather, Charles Fain, b. abt 1670 in Ireland. I would love to haveinformation when the first Fain left France. It could be prior to the inquisition andpersecution in France about 1685 or thereafter. Jeanne Mead

I gotta know did you figure out who your cousins father is?

Found out my dad isn’t my dad.... closest match is a first cousin. Tried figuring out which of his uncles could be my dad but none make sense as they would have been significantly older than my mom. Can’t figure this out. Super frustrating.

A distant 5th cousin's DNA did not show up with mine. Why?

I wish this was a little more step-by-step rather than so specific to this individual. I feel like I watch 20 minutes on these videos only to realize it's not at all applicable to my circumstances.

Looking for parents of William Williams who was born in Amherst, VA about 1698 and died 03 March 1761 Cumberland, VA. He married (?) about 1725 in Amherst, VA. She was born about 1702 in Amherst, VA. They had a son named Roger Williams, born about 1724 in Amherst, VA. I would like to know where William's parents came from in England (?) and to where in Virginia (?) they settled.

I started trying to piece together clues and talk to people years ago to try to find my biological father but no luck..my mom passed away 2 years ago and took it to her grave. I know nothing at all not his nationality, name, age nothing!

I see a lot of DNA tests out there but not all of them have trees. The more information out there the easier it will be to break through brick walls.

Hop scotch

i do have another son terry thomas that my mother made me give up for adoption his adopting mother is lucy

IF YOU ONLY KNOW YOUR FATHERS NAME? WILL THIS BE ENOUGH.. I KNOW NOTHING ELSE...