Finding DNA matches may be fun for some—hence those now-antiquated Ancestry.com ads about trading one's lederhosen for a kilt—but I have an entirely different focus for testing my family's DNA: a focus of hope. It's not that I want to meet family, although that would be nice. Nor do I use DNA test results to plug my 2,597 (to date) matches into my ever-expanding family tree. For me, the real treasure in using genetic genealogy discoveries is to find someone out there who knows more than I do about that particular branch of the tree we share in common.
Every now and then, I'm fortunate to hear back from a DNA match whom I've messaged with that question about their family. But I'm disappointed when the respondent gets to the answer: no, apparently I know more about that match's family than he or she does.
I'm holding out with my current exploration of the Laws family tree though. It has been encouraging to note that some near-doubtful branches on that expanded Laws family of Greene County, Tennessee, actually do match my test.
For instance, in working on the matches identified as descendants of Larkin Laws—whom I am theorizing was brother of my second great-grandmother Sarah Catherine Laws—I had run across some census records hinting at the possibility that Larkin had lost a first wife and, with second wife Matilda Oler, had raised an additional family. There was enough documentation for that second wife's children, but I still am lacking any record of a first wife; it's only the situation which intimates that Larkin was a widower at an earlier point. And the children from that earlier time period turn out to be the ancestors of some of my DNA matches.
Next step—and one taken with an abundance of hope—is to contact those matches to see if they know the rest of the story. After all, this is their direct line of the family. Maybe they'll know. Or maybe not. But it is always worth reaching out and asking. After all, somebody's got to know.
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