Getting lost

[freya]

This sort of topic has no been covered by others, but..frankly I am getting lost and confused. Lockdown??
I have an Ancestry DNA test at Ancestry which I have loaded also to Myheritage, Gedmatch, DNA.land and FTDNA. I find very different matches at each of those sites.
The info about likely origins of my ancestors varies quite a bit, Ancestry misses a complete area involving southern europe which all the others identify. I know that there are lots of doubts about using DNA for finding out about this sort of thing, it does not really surprise me therefore.
But..I have a very interesting match originating from an Ftdna Y-37 test which is mirrored at Gedmatch. It appears to be one which MAY have southern European roots. I have been trying to sort this out for ages but I cannot pin it down. Its also one of many where the originator is uncommunicative!
So...the question....as my target match took a Y-37 test does it mean that I must match to someone in his direct paternal line, i.e his father, fathers father etc etc or can it come from a side branch of his family?
This may be a totally stupid question, frankly thats where I am at the moment!
Can anyone help me out of my confusion?

[Ruskie]

I am not sure how you can have a match between someone who took a Y-DNA test and your autosomal test results, but as you say the match “originates” from an FTDNA Y- DNA test there must be more to it. 

How close is your match with this person? How many cms do you share?

Have you looked at the other people this person and you match with to see if you can work it out that way?

Looking for an illusive Southern European ancestor may be a fruitless exercise. What percentage of “Southern European” do the various companies estimate you have?

[freya]

Hi, I match to 75cm and longest block is 22. I have checked common matches, so far without any success. I am not looking for Southern Europe specifically, in fact other than this I have not had any other matches in that region. This match stood out as it seemed to come from “left field”. Various sites say I have 10 to 15% Southern Europe, ancestry says 0!
Freya

[Ruskie]

In that case, 75 cM is a reasonable match.

Such a shame when people aren’t interested in communicating. I think a lot of people have someone else managing their accounts, which may be another reason emails or messages are ignored or missed. Is it possible/likely that the match non English speaking?

It might be worth trying again.

[freya]

Hi, agree with everything you say. I am thinking that he may have also taken the Familyfinder and Y37 tests. He is an English speaker for sure!
Freya

[Craclyn]

Can you explain what you mean about a Y-37 match being mirrored at gedmatch? Gedmatch only has autosomal results, not Y-DNA. What is the genetic distance on the Y-37 match? It could be that the two males involved have their connection thousands of years ago, way beyond the timeframe that you can cover with autosomal testing. The autosomal test may be matching them on a completely different line.

[freya]

Hi, it looks to me that this person also took a Familyfinder test which is what he put on Gedmatch. The Ftdna site just shows that he took a y-dna test but I do not think that is correct, as you state for Gedmatch. What I meant about mirrored is that he also has a test on Gedmatch. The original question was if I could match a y-dna test. I guess the answer is NO unless a male in his directline also fathered someone in my paternal line. I think that is very unlikely.

[Craclyn]

If I were you I would focus on the autosomal results. You have no guarantee that your autosomal match with this person is going to come from your direct paternal line. Try to resolve the question of which line it comes from before you spend money on running a Y-DNA test for a male in your direct paternal line.

[freya]

Hi, yes I agree. Even if I didn't though there is no other person in my paternal line (as far as I know anyway)!