Searching DNA Matches by Surname

A very useful tool on the Ancestry DNA website is the ability to search my DNA matches by surname. This only works for those who have a family tree attached to their results. Searching by surname brings up all my matches who have that surname somewhere in their tree.

When I searched for “Dell,” for instance, the search engine displayed over 50 matches with that surname. I then had to look at each match individually to see which ones matched my Dell family.

The matches are grouped by predicted relationship, with my closest relations at the top. Each entry has the person’s name, the likely range of relationship to me, the likelihood (confidence) that they are a true match, the amount of shared DNA with me, and the number of people in the tree. These are the details for one of my 3^rd cousins:

Possible range:3rd-4th cousins
Confidence: Extremely high
Shared DNA: 101 cM across 5 segments
1,689 people

To the right of each match is a green button which says, “View Match.” This particular entry has a green leaf to the left of the button, which indicates that I share a common ancestor with this person.

When I click on “View Match,” I am able to view the person’s tree (if it is public). I can then attach a note to that match, indicating what I discovered, if anything. In this case, I noted that this match and I share ancestry with Jesse W. Dell and Susannah Parker, our great-great-grandparents.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, for years I have been trying to connect my ancestor Nicholas Dell to John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling. I had a lot of strong circumstantial evidence to support this connection, but had been unable to prove it.

With my DNA results and the search by surname tool, I was finally able to prove that my Nicholas Dell was indeed the son of John Nicholas Dell and Eve Dorothy Yingling. John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy had 9 children (6 sons and 3 daughters), all of whom were named in Bible records and/or estate documents.

When I examined each of my Dell matches, I came up with many who descended from my Nicholas Dell and his wife, Barbara Barnhart. However, there were also quite a few who descended from several of John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy’s other children, not my Nicholas. This proves that I am also descended from John Nicholas and Eve Dorothy. Thus, my Nicholas must be their son.