If you have an unknown great-grandparent or more distant ancestor

Learn how to set up your tree if you want to use WATO plus to help identify an unknown great-grandparent or more distant ancestor

Let's take the example of Shirley, who does not know the identity of the father of her great-great-grandfather Henry Thomas.

• Shirley has taken a DNA test, and has also persuaded her aunt Susan to take a test
  • Since Susan is one generation closer to Henry, she will be use Susan's DNA matches
• Shirley has used information and matches from various testing companies, including shared matches at AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, Living DNA, and MyHeritage, and the SideView feature at AncestryDNA
• This has allowed her to connect some of her and Susan's top matches into family trees

Her challenge is now to figure out which of these matches and trees are relevant to Henry Thomas's paternal side. This isn't a quick or straightforward process, but by recruiting other known cousins and descendants of Henry Thomas to test, Shirley has a sense of which trees are most likely to be relevant

Shirley starts by identifying the tree that has the strongest matches in it, since this is likely to contain the genetic relatives who are most closely related to Henry Thomas's father. She can create a new tree and work through the steps to set it up.

When she generates hypotheses or hovers over a node and clicks use as hypothesis, WATO plus will automatically create a trail down to Susan

The trail that will be created for hypotheses in this tree

Step 1. Set up the research question #

Screenshot of the research question form

In this form, Shirley can select father from the parent dropdown and enter her great-great-grandfather's name, Henry Thomas, and his birth year, 1844.

She would then specify Henry Thomas's great-grandchild and enter the name Susan.

Step 2: Input a family tree #

Shirley can then input a family tree as per the instructions on the if you have an unknown parent page.