What's the largest cM DNA match you have where you can't identify the link?

[Flemming]

Could there be double cousins involved? I have a 90cM match that wouldn't fit until I went further back by a few generations and found their 4x great grandfather was the brother of my 4x great gran, and their 4x great gran was the sister of my 4x great grandfather. Sounds simple in retrospect but it took a bit of work to get there.

[DavidG02]

David - it's so frustrating isn't it!  It should jump out at you, you'd think.  No names they recognise?

Yeah , I had thought I had given them enough. I usually email my 16s

8 paternal and 8 maternal

[Althea7]

Not as much as 100cM, but I have one match where we both have our DNA test on Ancestry, MyHeritage and Gedmatch.  On Ancestry we share 58cM across 5 segments, estimated 4th to 6th cousins.  On MyHeritage we share 79.6cM, largest segment 42.1cM.  On Gedmatch we share 82.4cM, largest segment 42.8cM.

We both have quite big, well-researched trees, and he has given me guest access to his tree, and we think we know roughly where the connection could be, but over a year later have not been able to pin down the common ancestors, and I wondered if we are looking in the wrong place. The odd thing is that he only shares about 22cM on Ancestry with my uncle, who I share the typical amount expected for an uncle match.  He barely shares anything with my cousins, who are children of a different uncle.

Another person shares a tiny bit of DNA with him on some of the sites, she is also on Ancestry, MyHeritage and Gedmatch, and I share a bigger amount of DNA with her which is picked up by all three sites.  She too has a well-researched tree, and we think we know the connection.  But the amount of DNA she shares with the other person is so tiny it is difficult to find and nowhere near the top of her lists.

It is one match that sticks in my memory as something I would like to solve one day. I did as much research as I could on that area of my tree in an attempt to solve it, even working down descendancy research to see if we got any other common matches.  I seem to have picked up more DNA in common with him than others who share the same ancestors.

[Kaybron]

I have 149 cM across 10 segments.  The person only has 3 in their tree so quite difficult to work out.

Frustrating because I have a large brick wall and DNA is really the only way I can work through this.

[ansteynomad]

One of my matches on Ancestry shares 291cM with me over 10 segments.  I also have a number of other matches who match with her and with each other, who all go back to a marriage in the mid 19th century between two people I've never heard of.

I really don't know where to start with this and to make it even more annoying, these people are my best matches!

[Mart 'n' Al]

Anstey, I doubt that I am the only one who would love to hear more details of this.

Martin

[ansteynomad]

Martin

It's so frustrating.  I have enough matches overall to fill the King Power Stadium, but all but four are distant.

I have one second cousin, who I know, then another second cousin and two third cousins who are all connected to each other, but completely unknown to me. I then have distant matches with each of them and that list is substantially the same.

It's been suggested that they should be descendants of a grandparent's sibling, but the dates don't fit.  I'll be honest.  I don't know where to start.

[Craclyn]

Ansteynomad, If you have identified the common ancestral couple for these matches then you are making good process to finding the solution. Start building trees for this couple. Work downwards, sideways and back in time. More and more matches will fit into place and you should eventually be able to see how this branch links to your tree.

[Sinann]

226 cM across 12 segments on Ancestry.
My 4th highest match. She turned up last week, haven't a clue who it is and so far no reply to message.
Nothing to give a clue, I'll wait a few weeks and try a second message, from shared matches she's on my father's side.