Descendancy research is the key. Work it back, then work it forward.

It took months of collecting common DNA matches of several 3rd cousins but I was able to triangulate and discover and then verify with YDNA and XDNA our previously unknown 4th great grandparents. This was a decades old brick wall line.

Second time around, and it's making more sense to me now... Thanks so much for these videos, Diahan.

Always keep going.

Thank you, Diahan! Excellent as usual! I am not new to genetic genealogy, but by no means, an expert either. Watching these videos will help me refocus! I've been up against my mother's Dietrich family (brick) wall for so long I've felt a bit like a ship floundering at sea! 😉 I've tested at all five companies you mention, though most of my attention goes to Ancestry DNA and FTDNA (Big Y-700). My ancestors all arrived in North America after 1850 and have no choice but to look for overseas records for Germans in eastern Europe, which at this point don't seem to exist thanks to the aftermath of WWII. My goal is to find the origins of my 3 x great grandparents who left their Germanic homes about 1786. So you see I'm at the limit of at-DNA and probably too far back with Y-DNA. So I suppose it's like a DNA "black hole" Since my grandparents ancestors were purely German, Norwegian, Irish and French, it has been easy to create groups for them on Ancestry DNA. Since my focus is the Germans I had a couple sub groups for a couple of the great grandparents. But I also have several groups that I can't identify, other than that they are in Mom's Dietrich line. So I assume they are from ancestors beyond my 3 x GGPs, if that's possible. I probably don't have as many generations as many people researching their ancestors. The interesting thing for me, is all of the DNA matches I have in Pennsylvania, especially Berks County, even though I have no one in my direct line in PA. My direct line cousins are mostly in the Dakotas or those that have moved to the west coast states. Our Big-Y700 match is a Dietrich whose family has always lived in Berks county. Our research says they came from Wolfskirchen, Alsace in 1751. We are both in the Dietz-Dietrich project on FTDNA. So far I haven't found record of my ancestor in that area. Interestingly I have a DNA match on Ancestry with 29 cm who also matches with 3 of my siblings and who has this same (Wolfskirchen) Dietrich family in her line. But the shared matches do not include my Dakota DNA cousin. Its a seperate group. I figure it can't be a Dietrich match from far back, so I'm trying to build out her tree as much as possible. Even though her tree is already quite extensive. Anyway, despite the frustrations of trying to solve this mystery, I must say I love genetic genealogy. It's so much fun -- like being a "Sherlock" attempting solve a case (a very cold one in my case). I hope all the newcomers watching your videos will pay close attention and take encouragement from all your great advice and find genetic genealogy as enjoyable as I do! 🙂. Thanks again Diahan!

I was following along and sort of making sense of everything but you lost me once I go to the part where you say "ask the wife."