AncestryDNA’s ThruLines: Finding a Strong Potential Ancestor Hint
AncestryDNA’s new ThruLines give suggestions of new potential ancestors that just might break through our brick walls! But, these are just hints; we still need to do the genealogy work to prove or disprove these are our ancestors.
Weak Potential Ancestor Hint
This suggestion showing Rynear Waldron as my possible 4th great-grandfather is fairly weak:
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- All the descendants are through one of his children, Nancy Waldron, who is my direct ancestor. It would be a better hint if the descendants were through several children.
- Rynear Waldron is from a tree that doesn’t have any documentation for Rynear Waldron being Nancy Waldron’s father.
This does not mean Rynear is NOT my 4th great grandfather. I should do more research before accepting or rejecting him. In fact, I have researched this man before and I’m leaning towards another man as the father of Nancy Waldron. But the research will continue.
Stronger Potential Ancestor Hint
The suggestion showing Elizabeth Leslie as potentially being my 4th great-grandmother is much stronger:
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- The potential descendants of Elizabeth Leslie are through three of her children including Sarah E McCaig, my 3rd great grandmother.
- There is some documentation and it points back to the same county as my Sarah McCaig!
- There are two potential siblings with descendants who are showing as DNA matches to myself. Although there is only one match for a descendant of Mary, there are nine matches for descendants of Jane which include three people sharing between 13 and 17 cM with me.
Next Steps?
The next steps include researching Jane McCaig and her alleged husband, Benjamin Potter, as well as Mary B McCaig and her alleged husband, Benjamin Thomas. While researching them, I can also research their possible mother, Elizabeth Leslie, and father, Samuel McCaig.
Even if I can tie all three of these ladies together as sisters, that does not prove that Elizabeth (Leslie) McCaig is their mother. That would likely require more research. But, this has been a brick wall for a long time and I’m excited to see these potential ancestors to research!
Thanks for this. I’ve had several potential ancestors come up through Thrulines that I had previously dismissed where they are several generations removed from my known certain ancestor, so the DNA matches are from siblings or aunts or uncles of my ancestor, not seemingly just trees with bad info. I’ve wondered how much stock to put into it, so it’s nice to see someone else agree that it seems like compelling evidence. Gonna do more research!
I’ve heard there are quite a few issues in particular groups, especially adoptees. We are anxiously awaiting the “white pages” which will give us a better idea of what information they are using to create the ThruLines. I think there will be some wonderful gems there, but we need to really pay close attention because there will also be a lot of BAD suggestions!
I already had suspicions that my maternal and paternal sides connected and that multiple branches from my paternal’s paternal and maternal sides crossed over to each other. I was right. Thru this I was able to see that my maternal side’s adopted parents really are blood relations afterall and can see generations back where it happened as well as how that side connected to branches generations back on my paternal side. Awesome! And since I did the paperwork and had the paper trail beforehand, it made it a lot easier to see and prove! So in addition to having found half of my mother’s biological family, I’ve also been able to cut across to add my adopted grandparents as cousins, on BOTH my adopted grandmother’s and adopted grandfather’s sides! So I feel I didn’t “lose” my adopted family just because I could biologically replace half of that side with found bio family, but actually that I gained them back even stronger, biologically!
Alicia, That is wonderful! I was reading a book yesterday – “The Girls Who Went Away” by Ann Fessler – and it was talking about how many adoptions actually took place within a family, though these were often secretive. I’m excited for you!