I have a Daniel Johnson" who I have as my second great-grandfather. His son, William James Johnson, is a Civil War veteran from South Carolina. We found his Dad using 1850 Census records. William J. JOHNSON is reported as his son. Those records are convincing, but for others, I do an Ancestry DNA match search, looking for "common ancestors" and "public family trees" as filters. Then I do a search, looking for the desired surname and location/state. By using this technique I have identified even fifth or sixth cousins, further confirming a suspected ancestor. Dowden-595.