Judy, That's the thing. The whole intermarriage/endogamy thing messed things up. 74 cMs would be just one cousin, and it wouldn't be a 6th cousin in a regular population. A 6th cousin in a regular population shares 9 cM on average and the range for a 6th cousin goes up to 21 cMs, not 74cMs!!! Endogamy fragments the DNA so it's hard to get decent blocks to work with. Yes, it seems like the total amount of DNA in common should count for something. It's what we are working on trying to find out. Although I attend DNA conferences, lectures, and classes, not all of the classes are about endogamy. We are a bit different. And it seems like the endogamous populations are different too. Jewish, Hawaiian, Mennonites....I've been in their classes too and conferred with many of them. They each see it a little bit differently. It takes a long time to get the right data that we need to figure it out. I can't force people to DNA test. People interested in genealogy DNA test. After a while, they ask another relative to DNA test. Then another. After building that, the fuzziness becomes a little less fuzzy. And hopefully, will be clearer one day. Right now, we are still asking people to DNA test. We are still in survey or census mode. So it's kinda fuzzy. Ultimately, we need good representation from every single freguesia on all 9 islands. That will bring it into focus. Right now, there's some pockets here and there and those are starting to come into focus. Many people DNA testing think that all one does in take a DNA test and presto! There it all is. Most of us who have done genealogy for years have only built our trees back in time. Maybe we had a few select ancestors where we had all the kids with all their spouses. In doing DNA, you really need to do whole family or cluster research, where you have to get your ancestral couple, all their kids and all their grandkids with their spouses. Then when that surprise 3rd cousin match shows up, you have a vague idea of how that match might fit in. Most people just sit there and wait for the DNA to magically make a tree for them. It doesn't work that way. DNA and traditional research must be used together.
You're on the right track though. Keep plugging away and let us know what you are figuring out. Many heads on this will be needed! Thanks, Cheri Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 7:50 AM, Judy Thompson <judyte...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thx for the responses. I will be contacting you Cheri re situations like > the one below once I am sure all the links have been found. > > I have one match that shows as 2nd-4th cousins with 74 cms in common and > we found 9! different links so far, closest is 6th cousin and I believe > more than one link is 6th cousin. I often find multiple links to my > matches. Most of the 9 links are from a set of my paternal great > grandparents who are married and also blood relatives but at least one is > to a maternal grandparent. On the other hand I have a confirmed 3rd cousin > x1 match that also has 74 cms in common, with seemingly only 1 link but a > step relationship is also a cousin one so even that is complicated. The > match was easy as I knew her relatives. It seems to me that amount of dna > in common should count for something but not sure what. > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
