Fee-based genealogical database websites are great about telling you what they have. They are not so great about telling you what they do not have–because that will not encourage a person to subscribe to the service. The sites are not obligated to tell you what else could be “out there” that they do not have. Never assume any site has “everything.” That’s true whether it is a fee-based genealogy site or a free one.
You have a fairly close DNA match who has a short tree attached to their results. Let’s assume that your tree through the more recent generations is pretty accurate and you match all your “known” close relatives who have tested at DNA levels consistent with the perceived relationships. And yet this close match makes no sense at all. It could be that the DNA match’s tree has an unintentional mistake, perhaps a parent that was believed to be a parent was not. Perhaps a grandparent they thought was a grandparent was not. Keep yourself open to this possibility–again this is assuming that your own tree is correct. Also tread lightly when suggesting that the submitter has an error in their tree–especially when the potentially incorrect parentage is recent. […]
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