Ancestry DNA Match

[noland01]

Hi all,

Just looking for a little help/guidance re. DNA match's on Ancestry.

Have recently gone back to look at one particular group (90 or so matches) which ranges from 50cM to 8cM shared DNA.20 or so in the 30cM plus range.

It seems to be a closed group ie when I look at shared matches with any of them ,the same people come up time after time.
As none show a match to my mother's test would assume its on my fathers side.Have a good few confirmed matches 3rd/4th/5th cousins on all his lines (well back to 1800 or so as thats about the extent of Irish records)
All his family are/were from an area in Carlow ,Ireland less than 5 miles in any direction from where we still live.
None of this group show as a match to any known relative.

Annoying part is that all available trees(some very extensive but accurate?) show families all settled in the USA long before 1800 in most cases.None contain any names in my tree or even any remotely "Irish" sounding ones,All available details seem to indicate Texas,Mississippi,Alabama,Georgia Kansas area of the US.Also not one in this group seems to have any Irish connection whatsoever as far as I can see.
All bar one(87%) show as 10/20% ethnically Irish at most although this really indicates very little I think.

Have contacted a few but of those that responded none seemed to have any inkling and none had ever thought they had any Irish connection.
Started back on this as recently contacted someone who seems keen to figure it out if that is even possible.

Sorry for the long post but open to ideas etc.
By the way have DNA already uploaded to Gedmatch,My Heritage,FTDNA and same story with any matches there ie same people over and over as shared matches but no link to any known relative.

[NorfolkTrees]

Did you group them by hand or by using a clustering tool like GeneticAffairs? I wonder if the "auto-tree" function from GeneticAffairs would throw up any names you could start from.

It can be frustrating when you know yoy only need to stumble across one cousin to solve it!

Happy hunting.

[noland01]

I grouped them myself by shared matches.

Its by far the biggest group I have on Ancestry.For many of them I have 20/30 shared matches with every one just matching each other and no other people.

Frustrating thing is the amount of them and the amount of shared DNA.Of those with a family tree attached at least half have a Noland somewhere in it.Nolan/Noland being very similar makes me wonder if on the law of averages that's the connection but ?

Its the lack of any Irish link at all that's puzzling and some of the trees seem pretty well researched with records etc.They seem to indicate US based long before 1750/1800.

Really what I would like to know is how many generations back a common ancestor could be with the amount of DNA and if the fact that its almost all showing as only 1 chromosome is significant or not.

My own tree I am pretty sure of.Have accounted for all my grandfathers siblings(none left Ireland, in fact only he and one sister married/had a family)Likewise for my great grandfathers siblings have found all them in Parish register from c. 1833 to 1847 and have accounted for them all plus their children.
Have loads of matches on all other sides of the relevant family lines.

Never heard of Genetic Affairs so will have a look at it.Thanks for the suggestion.

[Craclyn]

Can you find an ancestral couple that is common to several matches in the group? If so, build out a tree from them and see if you can connect it to yours.

[noland01]

Can you find an ancestral couple that is common to several matches in the group? If so, build out a tree from them and see if you can connect it to yours.

Tried that but best I can come up with is a person with a similar surname to mine(well the side I think its the link) who was born in the USA according to any tree they appear in,pre 1750.
Would that be too distant to explain a 45/50cM DNA match?

[Galium]

Is it at all possible that the person the US trees link to was an immigrant?  From what you say it looks as though no one has a definite record of the birth of this individual. Is there anyone born where your own family come from who has the right name and maybe can't be accounted for without considering that they might have emigrated?

[noland01]

Just updating this as have a bit more time these days to look at this.

On Ancestry have approx 200 DNA matches in this group now.I know that US based people seem to make up the majority of tests on Ancestry but even so I think its unusual that not one shared match (from available trees/locations) seem to be from outside US.
Presume that's why the ethnicity part shows so little Irish.

Unusually for my matches on Ancestry anyone in this group seems to have 10/15 plus shared matches with me, even those who are in the 10cM to 20cM range.Click on a 15cM match and they can have 20 or more shared matches for me.
Have contacted a fair few and any who replied had no idea of any possible Irish connection.

One other thing that stands out for me is that all apart from 1 match have only one shared segment. Whether this indicates anything I have no idea.
Tried the building a tree bit but as Irish records cease to exist around 1800 and really are sparse pre 1820 or so its really leads nowhere.

i don't think I will solve this through records from my Irish side and looking at available trees online not too sure re. US ones.
More looking for someone who understands DNA matching etc who might give an indication as to what/how far back a connection might be.

[JohnDoe2020]

Don't get lost in Surnames, especially when your relatives emigrate to another country. There has been waves of migration from Ireland beginning in the mid 1600's. Religious persecution, conflict and famine fueled many of these migrations. There was discrimination when they arrived. Many people modified or changed their names to better assimilate. As you note records are difficult to find but not impossible.
Focus on the largest CM matches. When you are down at 10- you are working with a questionable match. At face value, a 20cm match would connect with you at GGG Grandparents, that's a long way back. Your comment about 1 segment is telling also. DNA is variable but that is a difficult relationship to establish.
Moving from DNA, (and I assume you are familiar with your grandparents surnames) try searching graveyards by surname. Many of the old headstones have multiple family members, which can open the possibilities for furthering your searches.

[mona lisa]

Our smaller DNA matches may be more important than we think. People had many children who often
had many children. Mothers died during childbirth etc. So these seemingly distant matches
could be from half siblings and their offspring during the years.