I always thought that the common ancestors found in the shared matches where my common ancestors., What a reality check. I've been looking at it all wrong this whole time.

I've taken the DNA Skills workshop and the Y-DNA workshop with you. These videos are a nice short refresher when I haven't been doing the DNA for a while. Thanks!

I think what you've missed out is that even when looking at the trees of your matches look out for surnames in their tree that you have in your tree. This would be my next step, it definitely peaks your interest, even if it might be wrong). It might be that you don't have the maiden name of a female ancestor and all the matches have a certain person that keeps popping up that you don't have in your tree so triangulating the amount of DNA, the name that appears in all the matches, and a surname that is already in your tree at about the right distance back is a good way of guessing where they may fit into your tree. That said this is the best case scenario. It relies on all the trees being correct, there may be mistakes in them, and in all of them if one made the mistake first, adding someone into the tree that shouldn't be there, and then everyone else saw this and copied it into their tree. I know this is possible because I've done this, removed the person, but many of my matches, especially those that I've been in communication with copied my mistake, but after removing the person I'd added on a false assumption it is still in their tree and many others above copied them (is like a virus spreading, once or there is hard to get back)!!! It's like Harry said in the movie When Harry Met Sally once it's out there it can't be taken back, call the police!!! So this is a great technique to use, but he wary, be careful!!! Unless verified through records that confirm it don't believe everything you see on other people's trees, just as they shouldn't for you, not through blind faith alone, even if you trust that person (they may be a family member).

Love these short videos. I've learned so much more, because it's a condensed version and you don't fill overwhelmed. I've watched many others. After awhile you kind of check out some when so much information it brought to all at one time. I really enjoyed all three videos.

Well, when I got my results back from 23 and Me looking at my relatives I honed in on a 3rd Cousin who has my married surname, in his case it was his birth name. I contacted him and the mystery was solved. We had even meet when we were younger, it turns out that he and my late Husband are 1st Cousins because their Fathers were Brothers, he and his Sisters are my 3rd Cousins through our Mothers who were Cousins. Never saw that coming. My 3rd Cousin, Rick Yohn lives in CO, but his Sisters also my 3rd Cousins still live in the same county that I do and we were all born in the same county.

My problem is a lack of second cousins, except on my Acadian line that has so much endogamy it's a real challenge.

What if you have no known 2nd cousins.