It’s only one test. While the submitter and I are both third great-grandsons of Clark and Mary (Dingman) Sargent, it’s important not to get too excited about a match. Finding one other relative can help with some DNA sorting, but there are limitations.
To begin with, even though we are 4th cousins, the amount of shared DNA (7.5 centimorgans) was at a level that AncestryDNA predicted that we were between 5th and 8th cousins.
I need to remind myself of a few things:
- Not all descendants of Clark and Mary (Dingman) Sargent will necessarily be DNA matches for each other. This particularly true if they descend from different children of the couple. The Sargents married in the 1830s in Ontario and testees are likely five or more generations removed from them. That’s a lot of “passings” of DNA in the interim.
- The three DNA submissions already in AncestryDNA from the Sargents’ granddaughter, Ida (Sargent) Trautvetter [daughter of their son Ira] who all match each other may not all match with this descendant of the Sargents’ daughter Emmar.
- Shared matches with this person may be connected to me through either Clark Sargent or his wife Mary Dingman. For some reason,the “relationship chart” autogenerated at AncestryDNA from our trees does not include Mary. We both descend from her as well.
- Just because I share matches with this person does not mean that that match has to be related to me. In this case, given that Clark and Mary are the only ancestry I have that originated in New York and New England (and the other families are located significantly south of that area), there probably is a connection.
At this point I do not know if other descendants of Clark and Mary have done DNA testing at AncestryDNA.
Three descendants of Clark’s granddaughter Ida Trautvetter (including me) have tests at AncestryDNA. We all share DNA. This descendant of Clark and I have a shared match with one of those other descendants. The other descendant of Ida is not a shared match with this test. That’s not surprising.
Finding a new match I can figure out is great. I just always need to remind myself of what it means and what it does not.
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