pedigree collapse

[Biggles50]

If we stand back and initially ignore pedigree collapse, what do we see in a 53.3 cM match?

We are looking at a possible MRCA at GG GP level and that is for a Full Third Cousin or 3C1R.

For a Half Cousin they could be a Half 3C.

In the DNA tests we Manage there are 5C and 4C relationships at the 50cM level.

Now with Pedigree Collapse and if there is a Double Collapse then the 53.3 cM is possibly skewing the relationship predictor and in reality the MRCA is probably much further in the past.

Do also Note that the ftDNA test is constructed primarily to look at 5 generations.

Build trees, and do take an Ancestry test, and if you have siblings then having them take an Ancestry DNA test as well should help especially if the DNA data is uploaded to ftDNA.

There is no easy solution in this case.

[Talacharn]

I am the only of remaining. There was a paternal first cousin in Cardiff, with no contact since late-1960s and now I have found a birth registration and nothing else. (When my uncle died, his wife felt my family were not good enough.)  I have two maternal first cousins and no contact after the mid-1970s. There are a few second cousins on both sides. the only one I contacted had a DNA test and was directly related to A and B, but he died about a year ago.

Thank you all for your contributions. Apart from adding a few new names, I am not sure how much Ancestry will offer me. With too many common names it is difficult to identify the right person. I will keep searching and filling my family tree. It can be strange how new information arrives. On Rootschat I have mentioned looking for a paternal great-great-grandfather in being the named father of an illegitimate child. Helping someone in America who made a wrong assumption about my great-grandparents on his published tree, I now have a new lead with the right name and a precise location in being a hamlet, but he is too young, so I am starting to look for an uncle.