Help with theory

[hurworth]

Where did you test Towdlass?  Has anyone more closely related to your paternal grandmother also tested, or your siblings and cousins, or any descendants of your gt-grandmother's siblings?

[brigidmac]

Could the father of her children be the man she eventually married ?
You couldnt eliminate either theory unless you can find third or fourth cousins who connect to that lineage ..
I havent read the article but am guessing that descendants of an incestuous relationship would have a higher cm connection than predicted ones .
If that makes sense    ie 3rd cousins could show up closer to 2nd cousin amounts

 it would be interesting if anyone had examples of that
 But they probably wouldn't want to share

[Towdlass]

I did my DNA test with Ancestry. The nearest relative I have on my results list is my half cousin. She does share the same grand mother though and so this would affect her too. All the rest are related on my mothers side but only a couple of those. Mainly it's all 4th - 6th cousins. Does any of this help at all? The man my gt.gran eventually married was younger than her and would have been 11 and 14 when her children were born. One of the first things I checked because it would have been a nice closure to the situation. 

[hurworth]

A half-first cousin is very useful for DNA - you share the same grandmother but have different grandfathers?

Have any descendants of your gt-grandmother's siblings, or her father's siblings tested?  You may find that other relatives have tested at FamilyTreeDNA or MyHeritage, so you could upload there too.

[Towdlass]

I really have no idea as I only know them through my family tree searching. I'll see what I can find out.

[Towdlass]

My gran and her sister were both born out of wedlock. Her sister was born in 1879 and my gran on 6th Jan 1883. So I had a look at the 1881 census and made a list of all the men on that road of a possible age (some more possible than others it has to be said) I have been going through them one by one looking for any with matching DNA using Public Members trees on Ancestry. It's tedious but I thought it worth a try. However, I have had a hit but I'm not sure that it can be a DNA match for the reason I'm looking for. The match is only 7cMs across 1 segments. What do you think? If he was my great grandad it would be a higher number wouldn't it?

[brigidmac]

7cm does seem small if your match is the same generation but would make sense if you were once or twice removed

I have a7cm proved match which goes back to 4 xgreat grandparents
But most at that amount are 6th cousins

Ps I admire your Detective work looking at names of all local men

[Towdlass]

Thank you brigidmac I feel I deserve that pat on the back. It is so tedious, especially when there are no guarantees that it will bring forth an answer. I am now in touch with the lady who has this neighbour in her tree but don't know yet what relation he actually is to her. The 7cMs refers to the connection between she and I doesn't it? If he is a distant relative then I suppose that could be the reason why the cMs are so low? I find DNA quite difficult to get my head around, I must admit. One minute I think I've got it, I understand what it's about, but then I lose it again. Hey ho!   

[brigidmac]

When you say you are going through the names one.by one
Do you mean you are putting the Surnames into the DNA search filter.
It also shows if any of your matches with private trees have that name ...
It took me ages to work that out .

And that even if they.have unlinked trees you can sometimes. Find the names on there.

Good luck
Look forward to hear how you get on

Ps. Before dna test  my mum looked at potential men for her mum's birth father turned out that one she'd discarded was his father .so when we had DNA and traced 3rd cousins or half 3rd cousins she had found a great grandfather as well as a grandfather . The ethnicity helped us too.