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

[IgorStrav]

Hi all

As I plough through my Ancestry (and 23andme) DNA matches, sorting them, plugging in the scale of match to the DNA painter, and filling in my tree with remote cousins, I just wondered what was the largest size match you couldn't find the link for.

On 23andme, I have a match of 100cM (which for me is right at the top of my list - third largest match behind two of 100cM plus and I know where they fit).

I've been in touch with this person's son, and got his parents' names and built a tree to follow his family through right to the early years of the 19th century with (I believe) some degree of accuracy, and sources.

I've made a list of the potential degrees of relationship I might have with him, and done an Excel table to try and pin down which relatives we are likely to share, and looked at each of them individually.

However, as yet I cannot see a link at all.  It's infuriating as it might shed light on my otherwise really difficult East London maternal tree - perhaps our link is where the blanks are that I've not been able to fill in (though I can't theorise exactly where, yet).

So - my question is, do many of us here have relatively recent brick walls which would make a 100cM relative difficult to match?

Or is it just me.

[Flemming]

Do you mean highest cM match that you can't place specifically in a line, or not in a line at all?

I have a 100cM match who I share with enough other people to know which line they're in, but they don't have a tree and haven't replied to a message so don't know exactly where they fit. Ditto for another one at 65cM. Then there are two at 49cM who match each other as well as me, one with an extensive tree, the other with a small tree, but no idea who they are or which line they fit in

It would help if more matches would give you a clue when you ask them...  At least yours speak to you 

[DavidG02]

Do you mean highest cM match that you can't place specifically in a line, or not in a line at all?

I have a 100cM match who I share with enough other people to know which line they're in, but they don't have a tree and haven't replied to a message so don't know exactly where they fit. Ditto for another one at 65cM. Then there are two at 49cM who match each other as well as me, one with an extensive tree, the other with a small tree, but no idea who they are or which line they fit in

It would help if more matches would give you a clue when you ask them...  At least yours speak to you 

This is me. I (now) have  a fair idea of where they fit .

At 113cm I thought this would be simple. I emailed them and gave a list of names and they couldnt match/recognise any.

Doing some twiglet research listing GGrandparents children to families I think I can place them. Current privacy laws mean I cant confirm (through BDM records) the link

Or alternatively I could be wrong and they are part of an NPE that I havent found

[IgorStrav]

Well, because it's a 23andme match, rather than an Ancestry one, I can't recognise the shared matches with the person, as no trees are shown, and there are no recognisable names.

So no, I can't associate this 100cM match with a line.

Yes, I've got lots of smaller cM matches on Ancestry where I can link them to known lines (although I don't know where they fit).

And lots where I can't.

But this seems to be a large match relatively speaking, I've done their tree for them, but still can't see where we match.

And yes - lots of people don't reply to me either! 

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

[Craclyn]

96 cM on AncestryDNA. I know which line it is on and who the individual is, but am still working on how it actually relates to my brick wall great grandfather.

179 cM on 23andme, but I have not spent much time on looking at that one yet. All I know is that is behind the same brick wall as the one above and is not responding to contact.

66.8 cM on MyHeritage. A new match. I know it is on my maternal side and am exploring a common surname.

99 cM on FTDNA. Another recent match. Not even sure yet which side it belongs to as there are matches in common with both sides.

43.28 cM on LivingDNA. The only match I have on there that is not a kit I have uploaded. I have not bothered with this one yet. Will probably make contact soon as they have recently opened up for messaging.

126 cM on gedmatch. I very rarely spend any time on direct analysis of gedmatch matches so have not even looked at this on yet.

[IgorStrav]

Well, you're keeping quite calm, Cracklyn - well done!

Let's hope that 179cM one helps with the brick wall - it should do!

I can see I'm not alone.......

onwards and upwards

[Craclyn]

It is an interesting and challenging brick wall Igor. My great grandfather Robert Webb, who we were told was from Cornwall, seems to have landed on the planet as a pitman in Northumberland in his mid 40s, claiming to be from Oldham. Over 3 census records and two marriage records he does not have a consistent birth year. The range covers 12 years from 1849 to 1861. I strongly suspect there has been a name change in the move from Lancashire to Northumberland. Gradually circling in on him and have several matches that are converging on the surname Fitton in the Oldham area. Difficult to tie the matches together though as nearly every one I tackle fizzles out with an illegitimate child born to a lass working in the cotton mills and Fitton is fairly common in that area.

[Ruskie]

Igor, have you both uploaded your raw data to a third party such as My Heritage? You might find some different common matches which may help you.

[Ayashi]

My mother's DNA results garnered a 3-4th cousin with 107cM across 6 segments. It was amazingly frustrating to me, as neither myself nor her daughter could figure out where the link was. She had one illegitimate in a common geographical area which was my main focus of interest but as the shared matches kept rolling in, not only were they all on my side of the tree but all descended from the same couple. It eventually turned out that there was one person on her tree who was descended from this couple... her grandmother's brother-in-law ...

I do have one with 108 on 5 segments who only has 9 people in his tree. I believe I know which branch he comes from, as his mother has a name from my tree and he has shared matches, but his response to me enquiring about his ancestry was simply "yes, my mother was an Uglow".