DNA descendants for Sheldon-135 and Sheldon-395

Question

I see that I'm listed as an autosomal DNA match for Joseph Sheldon ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sheldon-395 ). I also checked Joseph Sheldon's wife Ruth Burdick and my name is shown there.

But then when I click on his father Isaac Sheldon, my name isn't listed under the list of people that match autosomal DNA ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sheldon-135 ). I also don't show up under his wife Susannah Potter ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Potter-390 ).  When you look at the people that do match under both Joseph and his father Isaac, they are the same people, but I'm not listed under Isaac or Susannah.

Any ideas on what this means?  Is it just an anomaly? Why wouldn't my name show up under Isaac and Shsannah when all the same people show up under their son?

Answer 1

Autosomal  DNA is set to propogate a limited number of steps up the ancestral tree. Sheldon-395 is your 6th gr-grandfather and that is apparently the set limit. Sheldon-135 is a step further away from you.  That is the only reason your test does not show on his profile.

Comments

What Karen said. That autosomal DNA "possibly connected" information is set to propagate eight relationship degrees, or eight birth events. That means up to 6g-grandparents vertically up the tree, and to 3rd cousins out the tree horizontally. With yDNA and mtDNA, since they don't go through crossover and combine from both parents at conception, they aren't limited to the degrees-of-relationship setting and will propagate through the tree as long as the specific paternal and maternal lines are unbroken.

It's also important to keep in mind that WikiTree never sees your actual DNA information, so there is no matching performed. What it does is look at the fact that you've taken a test, as entered on your own profile, and that others have similarly tested. Then it pushes that information through the tree as clues for additional research.