Many Craven Cousins that are my Mothers and don't fit into her Family Tree any where

Question

Hello, I am going to try and write this so maybe someone reading this question might have an answer. My Mom, two sisters, and I all took an ancestry DNA test. A little history first. My mom had only one 1st cousin who had no children on her paternal side. My mother had an aunt on her maternal side who had no children. After our autosomal DNA results get back we get back a group of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins who all share the surname of Craven, but do not match any one of my mother's paternal or Maternal family.

I wrote down all of the Cravens that were in each of her mysterious cousins' family trees to investigate where they lived, and if any of them lived close to my grandparents, and great-grandparents. I found out that the closest Cousin (2nd), had a Craven Grandmother, and Craven GreatGrandparents that live a few blocks away in Durand Michigan from my mom's dad, and his parents. Now I am thinking that my great grandfather caused a craven pregnancy.

Just on ancestry.com, 15 people are 2nd Cousins with Craven grandparents. A couple of them have the last name of Craven.

119 people matched as 4th-6th Cousins that are genetically also Cravens.

What should I do to find the answer to this mystery?

Answer 1

Hi Keith!

Although it is possible that your theory is correct, it is certainly not the only possibility.

When Ancestry.ca says the match is a '2nd cousin', they also quote the amount of shared DNA expressed in centiMorgans (cM).  What they are saying is that that amount of cMs frequently is shared between 2nd cousins.  However, there is a range, and the further away the relationship is, the bigger the range is.

Here is a great tool for seeing the probable ranges of the different relationships, or, conversely, the probable relationships for the different amounts of shared cMs.

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4-beta

Enter the shared cMs in that tool, and you will see the range of likely relationships.

As for how to proceed next, if i were you, i would first look for the green-leaf hints and see if Ancestry's search engine or your cousins have managed to figure out your link.  Don't necessarily take it as gospel, but have a look, and verify it for yourself.  I suspect that you will find that these cousins are descended from a sibling of one of your ancestors.

If you or these mystery cousins have any pedigree collapse (ancestors who appear in more than one spot on your family tree), then they have a multiple dose of that family DNA, and will seem to be more closely related than you would expect.

If neither the cousins nor Ancestry's functionalities have figured out a link for you, there is nothing for it but to sketch out your mystery cousins' ancestors until you find the link.

I don't mind helping.  If you would like that, send me a private message.

Cheers

Shirlea