From my perspective research can be easier when your family has lived in the same small area for generations. There are fewer records to learn about, it’s easier to become intimately familiar with the history and the culture. Sometimes it can give a researcher tunnel vision, but generally speaking it saves time when your research never leaves the same geographic location.

It can be problematic when working on your DNA results though.

The problems generally speaking can be fall into one of two categories (or both):

• you and/or your DNA match descend from a 18th century ancestor more than one way–perhaps three or more–this makes sifting out the DNA matches more difficult
• you and a DNA match share more than one set of common ancestors

Those are two areas of concern when looking at DNA matches and information from someone who has ancestry in the same location for two hundred years or more. Multiple relationships abound and not all of them may be known.

As mentioned in an earlier post, three of my great-grandparents (my Mother’s grandparents) descend from the same 18th century Ostfriesen couple. In reviewing the tree of her other grandparent, I discovered that I have several blanks. It’s possible that she also descends from that same couple–given the geography of where her family lived.

And that would only compound the confusion with my matches.