GUIDER ROBINSON REVEAL

Got a new hint today. I do not know why I hadn't thought of doing this before, or maybe I have and this is a new test, but here is what happened.

So on GEDMATCH I have identified a woman that is related to the same MRCA as my and my cousin Vicki. This MRCA couple are both brick walls to me.

I researched this woman (GERALDINE REVEAL FRUMP) and was unable to find anything. I searched my surnames on Ancestry for REVEAL to now avail. Geraldine was actually illegitimate. Her mother's maiden name was REVEAL and her father's name was BROWN.

Well BROWN gets high hits on my 23andME test. (If you don't know, on 23andME they do this surname search where they compare listed surnames in your matches against the occurrence of those names in the general population and then give you a weighted average of the top 20 or so names. The idea being, the names at the top of the list probably occur in your tree.)  Brown, though a common name, has a high probability of being significant in my tree according to 23andME. Because of this, I searched up the BROWN line for Geraldine. Unfortunately, nothing panned out.

Now today, I decided to go into Vicki's test. She has kindly shared her DNA results with me on Ancestry. This means I can look at her results as if they were my own. When I typed in REVEAL for a surname search in her tree, I was pleased to find a match. And as I researched this match a little further found that her REVEALS also crossed into the REVEAL ancestors of Geraldine.  Also they are all from OHIO which is exactly the right location for my brick walls.   Also the REVEAL in the matches tree, was married to an Emmaline BROWN. Hmm... Looks very promising.

EMALINE BROWN   and WILLIAM IRVIN REVEAL   (1844-1933)

New Ancestry feature

So ancestry came out with a very helpful new feature. It does not do away with AncestryDNA helper, but is a great supplement.

Now you can get information from all your matches, even if they haven't logged in for years.

When you click on a match in the DNA list, you can now look at who they share in common with you.  It is the center button between pedigree/surnames and map/locations.  Very, very helpful, especially with those that do not have a tree or have not shared their DNA test with you.