Do you build out your DNA Matches Trees?

I don’t always, but I try. As I was scanning through my AncestryDNA matches list of 4^th cousins or closer, I was looking for anyone who I hadn’t grouped. I came across two matches with the same last name, Rosie who matches me at 59cM across 6 segments and Sean who matches me at 41cM across 4 segments. Neither match has a tree. Both are newer members of Ancestry, only been members since February 2019. Sean hasn’t been on since March and Rosie was on last month.

Their last name didn’t appear too common and I haven’t come across their surname before. So I decided to search Newspapers.com to see if I could any mention of Rosie. I am always hopping I find a parent’s or in-law’s obituary that might have her listed.

I found an article about her husband Bob who is a Principle. He was being transferred to another school, seemed like a promotion and the article mentioned how long he was married to his wife Rosie and listed their three children, Erika and twin sons Aaron and Sean. BINGO! It’s a start. I still don’t have Rosie’s maiden name, however I have a husband and three children and one of the children’s names matches the DNA Match.

I decided to do a search on her husband’s name and came across Rosie’s sister’s wedding announcement. It listed Mrs. Bob Smith (Smith is a name I made up to protect the living). In the article it listed Rosie’s parents as Mr. and Mrs. Peter Italian (again a made up name).

So I take Peter’s name over to Ancestry and do a search on what I know, Peter’s name, where he lived, his daughter’s name. What I find is a 1940 census record with his wife and oldest daughter, not Rosie. I don’t think Peter is my blood relation, only because it last name appears Italian to me and I check an earlier Census where Peter is living with his parents and found both parents were born in Italy. Then I focus on Peter’s wife, Joyce who is born in Iowa. Another BINGO, this matches were this branch of the family hails from. This is based on shared matches of Rosie and Sean.

Ancestry gives me some hints for Joyce and I look at an earlier Census for her living with her parents and her mother’s first name is a name I recognize along with Joyce’s surname. I quickly check my genealogy software program and find they are in my database; however I have no children for them.

So starting with Rosie’s grandparents Leon and Winifred, I decide to research each child, they had only four. I follow down each child to their child and possible grandchildren using records from Ancestry and Newspapers.com. I also did a google search on another unique name and found Rosie’s nieces wedding page from 2013. It listed her name, her new husband and their wedding date. On the page was an congratulation from none other than Rosie.

Do I always have this much success on researching my DNA Matches trees. NOPE. My rule of thumb, I spend about an hour to dig up clues for the family. If I can’t figure out anything within an hour, I will move onto something else. Perhaps an hour is not enough time, however I have so many unidentified matches, and I figured I will most likely find another match that will probably be easier.

Lesson learned: Don’t ignore matches with No Trees however don’t waste too much time on them either.

Good luck in your research.