I seem to be lost in trying to connect my DNA matches (Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe) to my documentation on my genealogy database. As of today, I have 51,308 matches on Ancestry, 5,000 matches on 23andMe, 5,701 matches on FamilyTreeDNA, and 13,458 matches on MyHeritage [that’s 75,467 potential cousins!]. Of this group, I have selected 223 matches to put into my research binder. Of these, only 10 have hit a point that I can find no reason other than “we just have DNA, but are not related” to stop looking. My notebook of confirmed matches now numbers 114, a little over half of the research binder population. So, I am making progress.

I find that I start with the ancestral couple that Ancestry “Thru Lines” or MyHeritage “Theory of Relativity” predicts and then, using Census, Birth, Marriage, Death, Obituary records work down the line to verify that the assertions of those AI applications are confirmable. Since both of the vendors base their relationship theories on posted pedigrees, I remain skeptical and need to actually find the documentation to support the relationship.

And then I have found a Kaninchenhöhle to drop down as I go deeper into my German ancestry [Wuerttemberg to be more exact) with new information.

This effort has somewhat detracted from getting my “Hotchkiss, Lee, Munn, Tilden and other related families” project ready for publication. The goal to have this completed in 2024 is still in place. I have finally gotten to the point where the added research and expanding beyond the original manuscript is complete, the first draft has been generated and the editting has begun.

Research into Warham Lee, Sellers Family, and Sprague Family projects continues and these have taken the biggest time hit from the Rabbit Hole.