Genealogy wouldn’t be the same for me if I didn’t have my DNA-matched cousins on Ancestry.com “turbocharging” my research. Many of these distant cousins have built out their public family trees far enough back that they often unknowingly help me confirm a connection or overcome a research roadblock.

Earlier this week I introduced yet another Martin Trantham. I wondered if any of my DNA cousins could provide evidence that this Martin and his descendants were related to my Martins. So, I ran a quick surname search in my DNA matches and did the same thing in my father’s. I do this periodically because new matches appear almost daily. If you’re wondering, my father has DNA matches that I don’t simply because Ancestry.com won’t display matches below a certain amount of shared DNA.

Lurking in my father’s DNA matches was a distant cousin, “*_mccown87”. According to her family tree, she is a descendant of Margaret Trantham and Reuben Roundtree of Mississippi. BINGO! Margaret was the oldest child of Robert Trantham, one of the three children of the newest Martin Trantham in the bunch. Margaret and Reuben appear on pages 2 and 3 of Herbert R. Trantham, Jr.’s genealogical study. As such, I may not know exactly how this branch aligns within my family tree but the Tranthams of Tennessee and the Tranthams of Mississippi were almost positively related to one another.

In much the same way, DNA has also helped me confirm a connection to one of the former occupants of the White House. But, that’s a story for another day.

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: Based on Herbert’s research, I estimate that Margaret is my 2nd cousin, 7x removed, give or take a generation
Common ancestors: The Tranthams or Trenthams of North and South Carolina

References:
Trantham, H. R., Jr. (date unknown). Descendants of Martin Trantham (Trentham) of South Carolina. Unpublished manuscript.