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A DNA Match with No Tree? No Problem Case Study


(Updated 27 August July 2019) Thank you, everyone, for viewing this post.

 Everyone has a DNA match that doesn't have a tree. Don't get discouraged by this. There are many other ways to find that relationship to identify the common ancestor. A method I found very useful in my own research. This method might not work all the time, but 95% it will.
This was a session from Rootstech 2018. This method was created was by Lisa Louise Cooke and Diahan Southard. I tweaked the method a little bit, so all the steps won't be shown. 


Choosing Your Match

It's best to choose a male match because males don't usually change their last name. The trees can be either private or no tree at all.

Clues To Names in Usernames
This DNA Match shown below has a tree, but when I first did this method (Mar 2018) the match didn't have it at the time. One of the things to look at is the username.  Think about "Is the username a name or contain a name?"


In this case, the username looks like it could have a name. 







Searching For Your Match
I entered the DNA Match's username in quotation marks. I have 63 results now with quotations. Don't waste time looking at over 10,000,000 results surfing through the web when you'll end up finding unnecessary information that has nothing to do with your match. Use quotations, they will save your life BIG TIME. 😊


Using quotation marks in your searching will limit your results to the exact keywords in entered. In the 3rd result, it shows where William lives. Yay!


Some of the best people finder sites:
Mylife

WhitePages

TruePeopleSearch

Spokeo

Beenverified

Pipl PRO (Pay)
Once you have found the name of your match, it's time to search them using a 'people finder search'.
Finding Matches Parents
I used WhitePages to search for "William" and had 2 results. I clicked on his profile then scrolled down to the "Family and Relatives" section.

 I saw 2 people that were 80+ year olds. This could be the break to find William's parents. Lisa's tip is to think about if the names are a younger generation's name or older. BEWARE these are just clues, so this could be right or wrong.


The name Otis sounds like an older name and Jennie's older name.

I recommend researching both of the parents because the common ancestor you share with your match might be on a different line than you thought it is.
I searched Jennie with her location and got a home run.😄 One of the search results was an obituary for one of Otis' sister's that passed away. Otis' sister obituary had shown their mother's name. 



The last name is Pearson. I realized that Willie B. Pearson was one of the siblings of my 1x great-grandfather, George W. Pearson. Then I immediately went back to my tree to verify what I was thinking.


The relationship between myself and William is 2nd cousin 1x removed.
This case study was not very challenging, but for others, it might be harder to find your matches parents. If your match is adopted this method might not be helpful to you.


 Watch the full session and steps here.


Have fun in your genealogy research! 
I hope you try I for yourself. Tell me what you think of it. 
(c) Copyright 2019 Lacie All Rights Reserved
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