A few ramblings based on my  AncestryDNA test:

• Helped one correspondent narrow down where her grandfather probably fit into the descendants of a third great-grandfather of mine. I won’t share the details of her story here because it involves her grandfather not being the man she thought he was. Literally.
• Confirmed that my Mary (Dingman) Sargent (born in the 1810s in Ontario and died in the early 1850s in Illinois or Iowa) fits into the Dingman family of Darlington, Ontario–which is what I thought. Exactly where she fits can’t be pinpointed, but the projected relationship suggests that I’m on the right path in looking into the Darlington families.
• Realized that not everyone submits a tree. That’s the result of how Ancestry.com markets  AncestryDNA. While it is frustrating, marketing increases the number of samples in their database.
• Made a connection with another descendant of my Neill great-great-grandparents. Looking at our shared matches has not yet produced any really new information. But there is always the possibility.
• Realized that not everyone responds. For a variety of reasons, not every submitter will respond. Some were only interested in their ethnic roots. Some may no longer access the email address to where message notifications within  AncestryDNA are sent. Some may have had “real life” issues to deal with. That’s simply the way it is and something I will have to deal with.
• Some relationships are difficult to determine based on the DNA. Some may be impossible. My maternal families intermarried several times and I’m related to some individuals in more than one way. Never assume that because you have found one paper connection that’s consistent with the DNA results that there cannot be more.
• You may realize more of your “closer cousins” tested than you realized. I was unaware that descendants of three of my four sets of great-grandparents have tested. If descendants of other set did test–we didn’t match. And based on other matches in my results, I do descend from those great-grandparents based on my DNA as well–just in case anyone was wondering.