One of the newest genealogy tools and misunderstood results in our genealogy research is DNA – the process itself and the results.
Have you done your DNA and been disappointed with the results? Michael John Neill on his Rootdig blog discusses the probabilities of shared DNA.
In his post he states that he probability that 5th cousins have no detectable DNA relationship is 69.8%. and also there is a .56% chance that there would be no DNA relationship to any individual 4th great-grandparent. That’s a good chance. The chance that there is no DNA relationship to a specific ancestor increases as the number of generations increases.
Even if you have no discernable DNA connection to a “paper” relative, that does not mean you are not related, it just means that you don’t share enough DNA to prove relationship.
Read Michael John Neill’s complete post here and be sure to also click on the link to the ISOGG statistic page for more information on cousin matches.