u/englishevenings

Pretty much, my mum and I have both done a DNA test, and to my knowledge, we are your typical people of rural to town British Isles stock going back multiple generations. However, when I was looking through my DNA matches, I was consistently seeing matches from this mid 1840s to 1860s couple from Rutherford, North Carolina, who were around Spartanburg, South Carolina, and that sort of border area between the two states. I was born in the early 2000s, for context, when it comes to placing the matches.

I proceeded to look at the parents and grandparents of this couple, and I saw that I also had unique DNA matches with all the different lines this couple descended from, such as their grandparents who were born in the late 1700s. Most of them seem to follow a Russell, Virginia, Amelia, Virginia, or Mecklenburg, Virginia, to North Carolina and South Carolina type of path, and I had matches through every line.

For fun, I did some research into this couple and their line for a bit, and I added them as ancestors to see how many matches I had. In total, through this mid 1850s couple, I have over 40 matches through this random couple alone, with a large amount appearing through ThruLines. Looking at the shared matches page, there are definitely quite a few more who just have not built a tree, or whom I cannot link yet.

It is such a range of matches. They are all in the 8 to 50 cM range. Annoyingly enough, the ones with less tree information are usually the higher matches. Usually, they average out at about 30 cM or so. They all descend from this couple, who had children from the 1850s to the 1890s. With the grandparents of this 1800s couple, I usually share about 10 to 20 cM, but with the 1700s ancestors, it is much harder to place them.

There is one match in particular with whom I share three segments, and they share three of the grandparents of that 1800s couple, which fits with me sharing all three of those segments.

I was wondering whether this is typical for someone from the UK to experience, perhaps due to colonial settler endogamy, or whether the particular numbers and situation of matching a wide variety of lines, including all the ancestral lines of this mid 1800s couple, is more unusual. I find it very interesting and quite random.

I can answer any more questions if needed, but I find it quite interesting how randomly connected I am to this family.

After I got my mother and myself to take a DNA test about a year ago, I have since been trying to use my matches to link at least the first two pages of my tree fully. However, I quickly realised that my grandaunt had the exact DNA amount of both a half grandaunt and a half aunt for my mother.

This led me down a rabbit hole with the DNA matches, and I quickly came to realise that my grandmother had a different father to the one she had always known throughout her life, up until he died in 1985. After months of research, I discovered that her biological father was a married man who was a competitive fisherman and worked in various professions throughout his life in the local area. He only passed away recently in 2022.

Ever since then, I have had a dilemma. My family tree on Ancestry, Findmypast, and similar sites is public, as I have some very old photos, stories, and records on there that I would like relatives to have access to. Many of these are things people would not easily find elsewhere, so I place quite a lot of importance on keeping my tree public.

However, I have many close relatives who use Ancestry, including descendants of my great grandparents, who often check my tree. I am worried about them seeing the NPE appear in the public tree if I list my nan’s biological father as her father.

My grandmother’s sister previously found out that her own father was a different person as well, and she began sharing that information. My nan was heavily upset by this and became quite argumentative towards her sister for identifying with the new father.

I am therefore worried about potential confrontation, as I have many relatives on that side, both from the NPE family and the family I grew up with. I am unsure how best to approach this, as it is a very sensitive subject. I do not want them to unexpectedly come across my NPE research, but at the same time I want people to have access to my photos and records.

I am sorry I cannot provide a photo but I remember it very freshly in my mind and can answer more questions if needed.

I am located near the Warwickshire in a fairly rural area and when I went to let my dog out and saw this very beautiful bird, it walked on the ground and vaguely reminded me of a female peacock in how it walked and was pecking at the ground

The primary colour was a light shade of brown, had quite a long thin beak a bit like a hummingbird, it had a mohawk on its head that was an orange/brown with black tips on the top of it, and the bottom of its wings had a black and white pattern which went to about halfway up its entire coat, and when it started flying the tips of its wings where that white and black pattern.

It was a very beautiful bird and I sure have not seen anything like it before