I'm not sure I really understand this lack of matches

[Annie65115]

I've tested with Ancestry and have well over 1000 matches down to the lowest level, but not many at higher levels.

I've read that if you use the Leeds method to cluster, you look at matches down to around 90cM - but that only gives me a handful of matches and is not helpful!

If I extend down to 50cM, I have 35 matches in total.

15 of those are from my paternal grandfather's side
10 from my paternal grandmother's side
6 from my maternal grandmother's side
and a big fat 0 from my maternal grandfather's side (which is actually quite easy to trace on paper back into the 1700s so it's not as though I don't have names to look for!). So just 3 clusters to account for 4 grandparents.

Now I know the obvious suggestion is of a NPE. But if that were the case, surely I would then expect a fourth cluster of higher matches which I didn't recognise? And all I have is 3 matches between 50-64cM to account for that 4th grandparent.

My maternal grandfather (the missing line) was one of 4, and the only one to have a child who reached reproductive age. And his father only had 1 sibling. So I'm not expecting close cousins. But his mother's family was a lot larger so I'd have expected someone somewhere to be interested in their family tree and perhaps to test!

So what's happened here?

[Biggles50]

Only having 1000 is low.

A DNA test the we manager has their Maternal family born in the EU and has very few DNA Matches.

I have over 25,000 matches, my Wife over 26,000, another managed test 21,000.

If you have only just tested then the numbers of matches should rise.

If it does not contact Ancestry and they may send you another test kit.

I suggest using Ancestry’s Grouping feature as per my explanation in post #28 in this post of this thread of my method.

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=863488.27

If you do have an NPE who just so happens to have a Father from a Country where DNA testing and records are not very common then yes there may be little if any matches.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Two NPE parents and an NPE grandparent for me. It's not the quantity that suffers in my case but the half relationships that result do impact the quality.   

Overall I have 20k matches on Ancestry but only 20 above 100cM
1x target tested half sib @1,872
4x target tested h1c and h1c1r @ 319-385cM

15x matches (12 unknowns & 3 known), between 100 and 200.
 

[LizzieL]

I only have 17 at 90 cM and over. Three weeks ago it was only 14 until my first cousin and her two children tested. When I first tested it was about 7 or 8. It just depends how interested your close relatives are in their family history.

[Annie65115]

It's my mother's paternal line that is "missing". Her maiden surname was a name which described an ancestor's trade, and I can quite easily trace the line on paper back to the 1700s in the midlands. I reckon they were bog standard Anglo-Viking stock.

I remembered late last night that my mum had her DNA done too so I looked at that. She does have hits on her paternal line (phew!!) but someone who I was in touch with long before DNA testing, who is my mum's 2nd cousin x1 removed, still only shares 48cm with her.

She was an only child. Her father was the only one of his siblings to have a child who reached reproductive age. Her grandfather had a brother who had children; but again, there were only 2 of them in that generation.

So maybe it's just that I don't have enough cousins on that line who are close enough to show up convincingly on DNA testing!

[PrawnCocktail]

Same here. My father's maternal grandfather was an only child, who married an only child(!). Doesn't make for many matches, especially when we suspect that his father may also have been an only child! We've been looking for his (my 2g grandfather's) birth and parents for 50 years.

I've had 4 cousins contact me. One took a DNA test, and found she was adopted. The other three vanished into the woodwork when I mentioned "DNA test".  So no help there.

I have a few matches who have the fairly unusual surname in their trees, nearly all with roots in one village in Norfolk. And one friend, who looked startlingly like my father, turned up in my matches last year. He matches two others, and all three are descended from one illegitimate lady in Hackney. They match none of my other matches at all. But that is all I have after several years waiting. 

I have dozens of matches in my mother's tree. One couple have 35 matches descended from them! But my father's tree is much poorer. What with only children, and illegitimate children, it's been much more challenging.

[Biggles50]

My Half Sister and I share the same Father but on her Mother’s side there are supposedly 739 matches with only one over 20cM.

She knows her Maternal Grandfather’s name and that is all.

Not one DNA Match is showing as a Common Ancestor.

Genealogy can at times be like looking for a needle in a haystack but without the haystack as a starting point.

Good luck.