TOP TIPS: MULTIPLE MATCHING
I am often asked what happens when a DNA match is related to you in more than one way. Here is an example using ‘Tom’, who recently appeared in my mother’s match list. Tom was also a match to my aunt and uncle.
My maternal great-grandparents were Henry E Overfield and Sarah J Powell, who married in 1903. They weren’t the only marriage to happen between the two families when Henry’s brother Job Overfield married Sarah’s sister Alice Powell in 1907. Tom is the 2x great-grandson of Job and Alice and therefore a 2nd cousin twice removed to Mom. However, Tom is 2nd cousin twice removed two times over! Mom and Tom share two MRCA (most recent common ancestors) couples: Henry and Job’s parents Levi and Mary Overfield and Sarah and Alice’s parents Joseph and Hannah Powell.