My Trails into the Past

I have not looked at my matches at Family Tree DNA in a long time. For this post, I’ll concentrate on my paternal side. My dad’s ancestry is half Irish and half German.  Closest Match My strongest match is my dad’s sister at 1962 centimorgans (cM), with the longest block at 167 cM. I also match 107 cM on the X chromosome. The 1962 cM is consistent with matching at a half-sibling, uncle/aunt/niece/nephew, or grandparent/grandchild. [1]  Next Closest Matches My next closest match is a 2nd-4th cousin range at 170 cM. Our longest block is 28 cM. There is no X match. I have communicated with this person in the past and she is my second cousin once removed, a granddaughter of my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan’s brother.   The third closest match is also at the 2nd-4th cousin range with 117 cM, 42 cM as a longest block, and 10 cM on the X chromosome. I don’t know this person and they provided no surnames. Since she was an autosomal transfer, I found her on Ancestry DNA. Her...