When you have unusual names in your background (Rampley is unusual and it’s my great-grandma’s maiden name), it can be tempting to think that when someone with that last name is a DNA match to you that the connection has to be through that family.
That may not necessarily be true. It probably is, but it’s not a 100% guarantee.
I haven’t figured out the connection with this person (they don’t have a tree). We have approximately 50 shared matches and the 6 that I have figured out are connected to me through my Rampley line or the DeMoss family (the wife of one of my Rampley ancestors). Based on those DNA connections, this DNA match and I likely share ancestry in Harford County, Maryland (where my 3rd great-grandfather Rampley was born in 1803).
It should be noted that two male members of the Rampley family married into the DeMoss family. I descend from one of those marriages (my 4th great-grandparents). This DNA match could descend from the other one.
The match was on AncestryDNA which is an autosomal test and the probable connections could easily go back to the 5th great-grandparents. I have four fifth great-grandparents from there–three who were probably born there and probably had siblings/cousins in the area. One was an immigrant with no relatives in the area (he was a convict transported from Britain). I do know that while my immediate branch of the family left MD in 1817, many stayed.
So it’s possible this person and I have more than one genealogical connection even though we’re only showing one section of shared DNA according to AncestryDNA. The DNA that we share may not be “Rampley” DNA at all.
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