I’ve been writing up some of the DNA analyses we’ve been working on recently, using BanyanDNA to build trees of matches and evaluate different hypotheses.

The three cases we’ve focused on all involve trying to establish how our family connects to clusters of DNA matches that appear to form a distinct family group. To do that effectively, we need to research the unknown cluster independently, build a tree that places all the matches in relation to one another, and then form hypotheses about the likely relationships. BanyanDNA then evaluates each hypothesis against the strength of the DNA connections between matches, using the number of shared centimorgans as the measure.

Here are the links to the three cases:

• The Alcock family and the Haddenham family in Nottinghamshire
• The Rogers family of Northamptonshire and the Hewitt’s of Clapham
• The Ximenes/Hemmings of South Wales and families from the Cabo Verde islands