Can we say we confirmed DNA?

Question

I and a new auDNA match of mine are fourth cousins once removed. We have 0,5% DNA in common, 37 cM altogether, 4 segments, largest segment 12,2 cM.

We are connected on WikiTree now, because it was quite easy to find our common ancestor. Would it be correct to confirm our relationship path with auDNA or are there too many other possibilities that we share DNA, so that it is not certain at all?

Comments

On a side note, in my experience, when a 4C1R matches on 4 segments, they're usually related in more than one way (the second way being a more distant relation). I'm not saying that this is definitely the case for you, but it's something you might want to watch for. Even 3 segments only happens about 10% of the time.

---

Ok, thank you Frank. We have loads of Finnish DNA-matches, and none of us have known Finnish ancestors...

---

Interesting!

You remind me of how I have a number of Finnish matches myself - on MyHeritage. The thing is, I know that I have at least one 6th-great grandmother who is supposed to have been of Finnish descent. Back when New Sweden existed in America (later becoming Delaware) Finland was part of Sweden, and my particular ancestors from New Sweden are supposed to have been of the Finn variety.

But my grandfather is what I call an "ethnic Pennsylvanian". His grandparents were all born in PA in the early 1800s. All his great-grandparents were born in America (around 1800), six of them in PA, and one in NJ (right across the river from Delaware). Things start to get murky as I go further back, so there could really be all kinds of possible ways for me to have more Finns "back there".

---

It's very interesting. I seem to have Finnish ancestry on both my parents' lines, but there are no Finnish connections in any of the ancestors I have researched so far, and I think I have come quite far. 

I do have two ancestors with unknown parents though, both born in the mid 1800s.

In Sweden though, we have several places where Finns came to live in the 1600s and forward, so it could be that I descend from them. The places are called for example "Finnskogen" or "Finnmarken".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnskogen

Answer 1

Very cool that you found a cousin!  Anything past the third cousin level has to be confirmed using triangulation, which is a more complex process than the standard DNA confirmation procedure used for 3C or closer.  It's explained here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Triangulation  You'd have to find a third match descended from the same common ancestor (with documented paper trail), and show that you all match on the same chromosome segment.

Comments

Ah, I see, thank you very much Lisa!