Looking for Zebras in Genealogy
- Leslie Ryan
- Jun 27
- 2 min read
I've heard from wise TV doctors that when you hear hoofbeats, you should think of horses before you think of zebras. Meaning, sometimes the mysterious illness is NOT something rare, but, more than likely, the young doctor in training should be looking for the common everyday illness to diagnose. However, when doing genealogy, we often ARE LOOKING FOR ZEBRAS!
As you may or may not recall, for the last few weeks I have been looking for the biological father of a very endogamous Mexican family. This family was part of a large group of people that had been in the Rio Grande Valley since it had been part of Mexico (way before 1846). My client has over 50,000 matches. When we look at those matches in Ancestry, there are 3,803 PAGES with over 600 pages of matches at the minimum of 20 cM.
But there was this ONE match at 947 cM, that was NOT part of the endogamous family - a zebra! This is my client's third closest match. According to Blaine Bettinger's Shared cM Project (link at bottom), that puts us in the range of a half-nephew or a grand nephew.
The DNA donor's name and their immediate ancestors are Private in the linked tree, but a deceased grandmother and her ancestors were charted.
Feeling like CeCe Moore, The DNA Detective of TV fame, I built up the grandmother's tree. I scoured the internet to learn the identities of the Private family members. Geographically and logically, I narrowed the biological father possibilities down to three brothers. One was too young, the middle one was working at his family ranch miles away from the Rio Grande Valley, and the oldest was in the military stationed near where my client's mother was living. Bingo!
The moral to our story is, if you're a doctor in training, don't look for zebras. If you are a genealogist, LOOK FOR THE ZEBRA in your herd of matches!
NEWS of interest this week for WikiTree users! You can now link that tree with your FamilyTreeDNA test! FamilyTreeDNA had announced earlier it was using MyHeritage for tree building, and now they have expanded to WikiTree too. Here's a link to read up on Why and How: https://blog.familytreedna.com/connect-wikitree-dna-matches/
I hope your own family tree is bearing lots of Summer fruit! I'll be canning peaches this next week, but would gladly welcome a break to answer an email from you! Hit me up for a FREE, NO OBLIGATION review of your tree and your brick walls using the email address below.
Thanks for stopping by and for subscribing,
Leslie Ryan
Additional information:
My blog about Endogamy Too Many DNA Matches: https://www.whoicomefrom.com/post/too-many-dna-matches
The DNA Detective, CeCe Moore: https://www.cecemoore.com/
Blaine Bettinger, the Genetic Genealogist:
No compensation is received for any links or referrals herein.
No copyright infringement is intended.
