Karen is one of my shared DNA matches. She is a known descendant from my immigrant Neill ancestor. Looking at her
“shared matches” I immediately recognize many other Neill descendants based upon their usernames. I assume that the shared matches with Karen are also Neill descendants or connected to me through the Neill family.
One of these matches I share with Karen is Tom. He must be a Neill as well. Somewhere.
When I look the matches I share with Tom, Karen is there and so is her sister who also tested. But those other Neills that I shared with Karen and those other names I shared with her that I can’t figure out but who are probably Neill descendants? They aren’t there. Not one of them.
The other matches I share with Tom? Where are the rest of the Neills? While they all might not be there at least some of them should. Who are they? Do I recognize any names? Sure. A few names I recognize and others are ones I have tagged as “figured out” They aren’t Neills. They are Trautvetters–or at least have connections to that family.
And Tom. He’s not a descendant of a Trautvetter-Neill marriage. There’s twentysome of us and I’m the only one whose done a DNA test.
In researching Tom’s tree, his great-great-grandfather was actually a Trautvetter who was a sibling to my Trautvetter ancestor. Why does he connect to some of my Neills? Because his great-grandmother’s sister (totally unrelated to me and on the other side of his family) married a Neill and that union eventually produced Karen and her sister. So Tom is related to at least two different segments of the Neills but not because he’s actually a “Neill” himself. He’s related because two different relatives of his happened to marry descendants of Samuel and Annie (Murphy) Neill.
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my sister in law and I are matches to a third person but we aren’t a match to each other.