I am working on a historically endogamous region of Southern Italy (Caulonia, Reggio Calabria). The DNA results are sometimes confusing, and I'm trying to get more information on what to expect.
One problem I have run into is that even when we get a close match in DNA terms, it seems harder to find the MRCA than I would expect...in one case I'm working on now, in terms of the paper trail, it's really looking like there isn't one within the last 7 generations -- but that defies logic, since the amount of DNA shared puts these two people much closer than that -- a predicted 3.2 generations to MRCA.
I'm a little unsure how to even ask this question, but it seems like with an endogamous population, it would make sense that the apparent strength of this relationship might be deceptive. Perhaps the connection is actually weaker, but it looks strong because they share large segments from several different common ancestors.
Does that question even make sense? I'll be happy to provide examples of what I'm seeing to support my question, I am just trying to figure out if I'm even thinking in the right direction. If anyone has articles or videos specifically about DNA in endogamous populations, I would be very interested. I haven't yet found anything that answers my budding questions.
Thank you!