The big news at Ancestry is that they have Enhanced Shared Matches. My understanding is that means that tells you of your shared matches with another person, you can now tell how those shared matches match each other.
In order to access this utility, you have to sign up for Pro Tools:
I suppose the other tools are helpful, but all the talk is about the enhanced shared matches. I am interested in a match on my Hartley side where I can’t find a connection.
Hartley Enhanced Shared Matches
I’ll start with a match I do know about:
Kristen and I have a pretty good match of 42 cM at Ancestry. We are third cousins once removed. Our common ancestors are Greenwood Hartley and Ann Emmet. That means that our shared matches should be along the Hartley or Emmet Lines.
Now, instead of a Shared matches selection I have this:
Here is the first page of what I get:
Heather is my daughter. Lori and Jonathan are my sibglings. The next two people are my father’s first cousins. I note that Joyce has a good match with Kristen, so that is interesting. I have access to the the results for these people, so it isn’t telling me anthing new, but it is helpful to have this in this format to compare in one place.
Some Unknown Hartley/Emmet Relatives
I have to go to page two of my shared matches with Kristen for this:
Jennifer has been a question mark in my mind as she has no tree. Notice a tree icon with a line through it. Emily is a known relative. She is my 3rd cousin twice removed. She shows as a 1st cousin to Kristen, but this is estimated by DNA. She would have to be a 1st cousin once removed to Emily in real life.
I haven’t yet figured out what the plus button is for.
saudet
I haven’t figured out how I am related to saudet. saudet shows as having a 63 cM match to Kristen and possibly a half 2nd cousin once removed or 2nd cousin twice removed. Here is her tree:
saudet’s mother was born in 1928. Kristen’s father was also born in 1928. That means that a second removed relationship is not likely. Looking at the tree, it is my assumption that I am related to saudet on her maternal side. Her paternal side is French Canadian. In addition Gonsalves and Rogers come from Portugal – though Rogers does not strike me as a Portuguese name. Further, Xavier and Saulles are from Portugal. That leaves the lines of John and Alice Shadlock.
Here is a photo of Elizabeth Shadlock:
Let’s go back and look at Kristen’s tree:
If Kristen and saudet are third cousins and they are both related to me, then the connection would have to be at the level of Able Burrows or Mary Ann Hartley. Actually, it would have to be at the level of Mary Ann Hartley, as I am not related to Abel Burrows.
An Audet/Pilling Connection?
Jack shows up on my shared matches with saudet:
Jack has Pilling in his tree:
Jack has that the John Pilling in his tree born 1824 was from Trawden.
My Father’s Cousin Joyce
I can go back a generation to my father’s cousin Joyce. Joyce and saudet have a shared match named Ruth:
Joyce and Ruth have a common ancestor:
Here again, we see the Pilling family. That means that my best guess is that saudet is related to the Hartleys on the Pilling side. Mary Pilling had a child before marrying Robert Hartley. That means that Ruth has no known Hartley ancestor. However, the exact connection between Pilling and Audet is somewhat of a mystery.
Here is another shared match between Jocye and saudet:
Richard also has Pilling ancestry on the Wilkinson side. Mary Pilling married a Wilkinson after Robert Hartley died.
This depiction is incorrect at Ancestry as Mary Pilling should be at the top of the tree. However, again, the common denominator is Pilling. This ensures that the connection is on the Pilling side. I must say that Elizabeth Shadlock’s baptism record is somewhat irregular.
My understanding is that Elizabeth’s mother was Mary Shadlock and the father was shown as William Walker. However, if William was the father, then why didn’t Elizabeth take his name? In addition, the baptism appears to be four years after the birth which is unusual. Also John Pilling was a sketchy character. He lived in the New Bedford but abandoned his family and returned to England with money that he had from a food cooperative.
Mystery Match Lee
Lee is another person of interest. Lee matches my at 22 cM at Ancestry. He has Hartley ancestors in the Colne area. Lee also matches my father’s cousin Joyce at 23 cM. Here is Lee’s tree:
Lee has:
- Margaret Hartley from Colne
- Robert Horsfield from Colne
- Samuel Thornton from Colne
- Alice Irving from Colne
- William Wilson from Colne
- John Clark from Colne
- Margaret Simpson from Marsden
That would be a lot to check into.
I have that Joyce and lee have a shared match with Rebecca:
I also have a note that Rebecca has a Shackleton in her tree. However, Rebecca’s tree only covers her maternal side:
Also Thomas Shackleton was from Heptonstall:
Perhaps not too far from the Colne area, but not too close either. His father was from Wadsworth which is interesting as it looks not too far from Trawden:
Here is my Shackleton web page:
There is a slim chance that Rebecca’s John and my ancestor John could be the same person. Interesting possibility. I also notice that Rebecca has a Betty Greenwood in her tree and Nancy Shackleton in my tree married a Greenwood Pilling.
Another interesting shared match between Lee and Joyce is Kevin:
Kevin has a small match to Joyce, but a large tree:
Kevin does not show any Shackleton ancestors. In fact, his ancestors are not from Lancashire but mostly from Yorkshire. This suggests that the connection between my family and Lee’s could be in Yorkshire rather than in the Colne area.
Summary and Conclusions
- I looked at two mystery matches on my Hartley side using Enhanced Shared Matches
- I gained my certainty on where these matches should occur.
- One match is certainly on my Pilling side
- The other match is most likely in Yorkshire and possibly on my Shackleton side
- I would like to try some of the three other methods suggested by Jim Bartlett in a recent post he wrote. He calls the method I used in this post as Focus on Specific Problems.