DNA and missing links

[les.the.paperman]

My 2xgreat grandfather on my direct family name was illegitimate in around 1820. I have his baptism, with his mother's name, but she was recorded simply as 'a parish girl', but almost certainly not from the parish where the baptism was held. Unfortunately her name, both given and family, were quite common in many nearby parishes in the area around where the baptism was recorded so I can't pin any one candidate down. It also doesn't help that the baptism was in a town right on a county boundary so the mother could have been from either county. I've been searching for more information for around fifty years now, without success.

However, with the advent of DNA testing through Ancestry I've now got many matches in the right area of the country and, after double-checking many of them, and the trees that they have available, I'm getting there, I think. In many cases I've expanded those other DNA-matched people's trees for myself to get back to the right era and area. Several 'common ancestors' have appeared but never on the correct line, or they stop short of what I already know.

But I just can't make that final connection.

Where I've got links to people on the relevant censuses that are equally linked to my DNA matches should I try entering some of them into Lost Cousins. Obviously I can't quote any specific relationship, though the DNA match must mean they are 'blood relatives', no matter how distant.
Is it possible that this might throw up a little more information? However, I don't want to confuse the system if such 'matches' would have a detriment to the way it already works.

Advice please,

Les

 

[peter]

I've got links to people on the relevant censuses

What sort of links are you talking about? I ask because you go on to say that you don't know how you are related to them.

Bear in mind that just because someone is related to one of your DNA matches doesn't necessarily mean that they're cousins of yours - they might not be on the right line. And there's also the possibility that the DNA match is spurious - either wrong, or much further back than it seems.

If you're targeting a particular 'brick wall' the first step is to compare your matches with those of known cousins who share that 'brick wall' - see this article from 11th December. Also search ALL of your matches for the surnames and places that you now believe may be relevant - there will be many that don't show up as shared matches, and therefore might have been missed. They might well have more extensive and/or more accurate trees than the ones you've looked at so far - as your 'brick wall' ancestor is 4 generations back you're talking about such distant cousins that whether they have 8cM, 18cM, or 28cM with you is largely irrelevant.