Earlier this week I set out to better understand why the common ancestors of so many of my DNA matches on Ancestry.com are still complete mysteries to me. So I created a scorecard so I could keep track of the ancestral “holes” in my family tree. I’ve now completed my father’s side (scorecard below) which obviously represents 50% of the overall task. I suspect my mother’s side will look much the same.

A blue square represents a known male ancestor and pink square a known female ancestor. A yellow square represents an ancestor whose identity is unknown. Yikes. Although I have successfully identified 100% of my 2nd and 3rd great grandparents, 6 4th great grandparents, 19 5th great grandparents and a whopping 86 6th great grandparents are missing. Remember: this represents just HALF of my ancestors.

I’ve been doing genealogy for over a year now. When I first started I encountered people who said they’ve been researching their family trees for 30 years or more. I remember thinking at the time: what on Earth is taking you so long?

Silly me.

Happy Birthday, Mom. Thanks for inspiring me to uncover the yellow squares!

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: Ancestors
Common ancestors: 7th, 8th, 9th, etc.