I do not understand why my DNA connections with a person does not carry on to his parents??

Question

I have a DNA connection with James Winslow-373 but it does not show my DNA connection for his father, Job Winslow-212 or his mother, Ruth Chase Cole-21718.  Am I not doing something right?

Answer 1

You haven't done anything wrong; DNA connections on WikiTree are only shown a certain number of generations back.  If you look at the connections listed for him vs. his parents, there are several other people on his profile who don't show up in his parents' profiles.  The ones that do still show up are probably a generation closer and still make the cutoff.

Answer 2

It's hard to tell, because your tree is marked private and we cannot see it. But my guess is, considering how far back in time James Winslow lived, that you are at the limit of how far autosomal DNA will propagate in Wikitree. Your test will only show up on profiles for people within 8 degrees of separation (your parents are 1 degree from you, grandparents are 2 degrees from you, etc.) Is James then your 6-great-grandfather? Your DNA test would then propagate to him, but no farther. This is reasonable, as it is very, very rare that autosomal DNA can be used carefully to gain a confident confirmation of a 7-great-grandparent.