Ethnicity vs. skin tone

[darkerhorse]

Are you thinking your matches have Italian DNA but no Italian surnames because they all share a common ancestor missing or masked?

[darkerhorse]

A person born out-of-wedlock in your family tree would still share one parent with your ancestors compared with an adopted person in your family tree who would share no parents with your ancestors.

All other relevant things equal, wouldn't a hidden adoptee affect your ethnic mix more than a hidden out-of-wedlocker and therefore accentuate the difference between the ethnic mixes of your DNA and your paper trail (unless their ethnic backgrounds happened to be identical)?

[MarcuccioV]

Are you thinking your matches have Italian DNA but no Italian surnames because they all share a common ancestor missing or masked?

I wouldn't say that's the only theory, but it IS in fact the predominant one.

[MarcuccioV]

A person born out-of-wedlock in your family tree would still share one parent with your ancestors compared with an adopted person in your family tree who would share no parents with your ancestors.

All other relevant things equal, wouldn't a hidden adoptee affect your ethnic mix more than a hidden out-of-wedlocker and therefore accentuate the difference between the ethnic mixes of your DNA and your paper trail (unless their ethnic backgrounds happened to be identical)?

Either could be a potential scenario. The problem is with random replication, it doesn't work exactly like your mathematical model, so it would be very difficult to narrow it further from the science (DNA) alone...

[MarcuccioV]

Not to kick a dead horse here (pardon the pun), but 8 new MyHeritage matches (all paternal) this morning. 3 have Italian ethnicity. No Italian surnames in ANY of the 3 trees.

It's just bizarre...

[darkerhorse]

But how close are all those matches?

Wouldn't distant DNA relationships open up the probability of a common ancestry like Italian coming in through spouses?

[MarcuccioV]

But how close are all those matches?

Wouldn't distant DNA relationships open up the probability of a common ancestry like Italian coming in through spouses?

Naturally, that possibility (even probability) exists. And in some (if not many) of the cases it likely is.

However, in most of the cases the percentages are equivalent to what they should be to fit the generational separation.

Firstly, there appears an unusually high number of matches that have Italian ancestry. No other ancestry (aside from the north Europe mixture) even comes close.

Secondly, as we've discussed, most often this ancestry is not reflected in the matches trees. In those that do, it still is difficult to make any connection as I have no idea of a surname to research.

I'm certain that there is a common ancestor somewhere as I would not expect to find so much Italian ethnicity in an otherwise non-Italian family.

Finding that ancestor (and related family branch) is the challenge I face...

[darkerhorse]

Have you given up on Pepe the boarder from Indiana?

[darkerhorse]

What if you reverse your wife's logic and look for an olive-skinned woman where Frank was a boarder in 1880 while being married with his wife and family living elsewhere?

[MarcuccioV]

Have you given up on Pepe the boarder from Indiana?

I haven't given up on any possibility.

[darkerhorse]

Can you post the link to your family tree on Ancestry.com?

[MarcuccioV]

Can you post the link to your family tree on Ancestry.com?

I'll see if I can. If so, I'll send via PM.

[MarcuccioV]

What if you reverse your wife's logic and look for an olive-skinned woman where Frank was a boarder in 1880 while being married with his wife and family living elsewhere?

This one I can eliminate as I have many genetic matches to his wife... But only one to Frank himself (through his other daughter, Pearl)...

[darkerhorse]

So, you can rule out Frank having a tryst in Ohio?

[MarcuccioV]

So, you can rule out Frank having a tryst in Ohio?

Yes, because how then would I have genetic matches to not only his wife, but also gens down both her paternal & maternal lines as well..?