This weekend I have been working on my wife's DNA matches in our MyHeritage online geanealogy platform. A very helpful, graphical and powerful tool inluded is the Autocluster report. Margaret's is above. The coloured squares indicate groups of people who share a common ancestor (or ancestral line) with Margaret. Many of them are 4th or 5th cousins. In this report, 103 relatives have been assigned coloured squares. Usually the most accessible matches are towards the top and correspondingly the least accessible are at the bottom.

However, the second to last (dark blue) cluster in this report. highlighted with a yellow circle. gave me a surprise and yielded a new, confirmed match this weekend.

The blue squares contained the info below in the associated Autocluster spreadsheet...
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The figures in red relate to this new confirmed match. In the info available, this match was described as a 3rd or 4th cousin. The figures are:

• ​60.71cM (centimorgans) is the match size in terms of shared DNA - usually around 4th cousin territory.
• 225 are the number of ancestors available in the family tree attached to this relative.
• 18 describes the blue cluster - 18th from the top.

Upon closer inspection of this relative's available family tree I eventually recognised a couple who are in Margaret's tree also. Alhough linking relatives were absent from both! When I confirmed this I was able to deduce that the relative in question was a third cousin of Margaret's mother Helen, although their birth years are quite different: Helen - 1917; match person - 1955! In other words the 'match' is Margaret's third cousin once removed - 3C1R. 

A corollary to this discovery, on the basis that the three relatives indicated are in the same line, is that most likely they are all descended from the same ancestral couple - McMillan=Fraser. I deduce this on the basis that their matching DNA 44.97, 48.64 and 60.71cM means they are in same match territory.

Whereas I had previously doubted the likelihood of the Autocluster report lower level matches yielding good results, I move forward in my genealogical investigations confident that there are surprises to be found anywhere and everywhere as we closely examine the data and the various reports that help me to analyse it!

​Terry Alve

I use the MyHeritage online genealogy platform to assist my family research. This includes using the DNA matching facilities provided. In the last few years massive advances have been made in connecting personal DNA with that of relatives. Now I regularly make significant discoveries as I use various techniques to connect with relatives, including establishing who common ancestors are on the basis of discovering DNA matches.

Recently I have posted a page on this website to more fully describe what I am doing with not only my own DNA, but with that of other close relatives. I introduce the four relatives whose DNA I am working with, I indicate the six generations of relatives in my direct ancestral line, I provide a link to a very helpful DNA research video, I briefly introduce some of the MyHeritage tools available for DNA research and, I offer a case study about how I worked with one relative to advance their family research.

Communication is an essential part of family research. Often DNA matching benefits from dialogue to check hunches raised by the research tools. I talk about the various communication channels I use.