alrighty. Need a little help here.

I had grandma tested (dob 1918) and myself tested (DOB 1971). She and I are showing the same close match (99%). For grandma the match showed as a 1st-2nd cousin and myself as 3rd-4th cousins. All good. Very exciting news.

I cannot find the common ancestor. This shouldn't be that hard given the "close" relationship.

I'm pretty good at data mining ancestor info. I gather information from many different sites and cross-reference my data. I can't even put the relevant ancestor line for the "match" (1st, 2nd, or 3rd cousin and in some places 4th generational lines) in the same geographic location. The names, places, etc aren't overlapping at all. Even if one of us had a traveling salesman in the family (or someone who 'dated' one), two people would have had to be in the same location at the same time. Also, we are talking about a time when people didn't hop in a car or airplane and travel for the weekend across state lines.

Plus, to share a common g or gg grandparent one would think that the times would line up a little. I'm really trying here but I'm clearly missing something.

The genetic match falls into a dob of the 1940s. Their g and gg grandparents are not on the same timeline as mine... much less grandmas. Now I realize that the match generational marker is a suggestion that denotes a "closeness" of a relationship but I got nothing on this one.

What is the percentage of error for the Ancestry autosomal DNA? Could a marker show an "accidental" match due to random single variations?

I'm honestly confused by the results. I have known cousins who tested their DNA through ancestry and they show up where I would expect them to. I've had ancestral DNA assist in sussing out missing lines. This one is making me shake my head... alot.... I have built independent trees using the DNA donors initial data and parent data. I grew my tree for the data match independently and never could find ANY cross-over match at all. I researched aunts, uncles, and cousins and traced their lines down to current time. I went back to the 1800s when the match would easily be 4th-5th match.

Please advise.

Shannon
The Keepers