This week I joined the Scottish DNA group on Facebook. They have a very cool “Matchbox” tool, which lets you compare your GedMatch matches against a list of GedMatch numbers for all the group members.

I compared both my matches and my father’s. As expected, Dad had more matches, as he’s genealogically closer to my Great-Grandparents who emigrated from Scotland, William Wood and Nellie Rust, than I am.

But here’s where it gets weird: about half the people on my match list don’t match my father. So either someone on my mother’s side is Scottish, or I connect with all those folks outside of Scotland. Mom does have a few branches of her tree that have been in North America since the mid-1700s at least, so there are many opportunities for someone to marry a Scottish immigrant.

This may be one that’s solved through DNA Painter. Since these are all GedMatch matches, I can identify what segment they match on. I have discovered that at least one match seems to be on a pile-up region on chromosome 7. I have significantly more people who match in that spot than in other spots on chromosome 7, or any gene. Which means that it could be from an endogamous community of the past. Or it could just be from a population that likes to test, I suppose. Maybe it’s the gene for genetic curiosity!

At any rate, I foresee some time spent happily digging, trying to find connections!

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay