Q Is my new ThruLine on to something, or... not?
RICHARD WRITES: Dear Karen I have a query regarding DNA and how to interpret it as I get lost in the scientific mumbo-jumbo very quickly.
My problem is identifying my 3x great-grandfather. My 2x great-grandmother, Lizzie Fowler, was born in 1863, daughter of Fanny Fowler (1843-1896). She was illegitimate and nobody was entered on the birth certificate as the father. My sister and I are Lizzie’s only living descendants. Fanny later (1873) married a guy called Thomas Hamlett (b. 1838). They had no children so far as I am aware, although Thomas who was a widower had had two, prior to marrying Fanny.
I have long had no knowledge of who Lizzie’s father was, but I did wonder if there was a possibility that it was Thomas and that maybe, just maybe, their relationship had predated their marriage and was underway while Thomas was previously married. So, I entered Thomas into the vacant slot on my Ancestry.com family tree to see how Ancestry reacted.
Two weeks ago it generated a ThruLines match between me and Thomas in that it said that it had found a common ancestor between my tree with Thomas and some other person – the link being Thomas’s grandmother.
To my mumbo-jumbo infected mind that seems to me to be that Thomas must be in my tree else that link would not have been
generated and that therefore he is the missing 3x great-grandfather. Or maybe I just don’t understand DNA properly and there are other explanations possible.
I’m wary of accepting of accepting free gifts (ie ThruLines and hints) offered
