I've been trying to make sense of the pile-up regions and matches in my Family Tree DNA test results. I'm not making any progress in figuring out how I'm related to any of them so I thought I'd try to illustrate the problem in the hopes of getting ideas from readers and to be able to work with or ignore them in the most efficient way. Listed below are my top twenty-two DNA matches on Family Tree DNA, along with the total number of matches I have in common with them and the number of matches that are calculated as 5th cousins and closer. I've highlighted the matches I'm now labeling "pile-up matches".
Mother
Total 336
5th cousin or closer 37
Maternal Aunt
Total 196
5th cousin or closer 27
Maternal Aunt
Total 111
5th cousin or closer 19
Maternal First Cousin
Total 72
5th cousin or closer 16
Paternal First Cousin
Total 227
5th cousin or closer 41
Paternal Second Cousin
Total 266
5th cousin or closer 37
Maternal Second Cousin
Total 18
5th cousin or closer 8
Unknown Paternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 41
5th cousin or closer 5
Maternal 4th Cousin
Total 19
5th cousin or closer 5
Paternal 2nd Cousin Once Removed
Total 24
5th cousin or closer 6
First Pile-Up Match 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 134
5th cousin or closer 36
Unknown Maternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 6
5th cousin or closer 4
Second Pile-Up Match 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 30
5th cousin or closer 21
Unknown Maternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 21
5th cousin or closer 11
Maternal Fourth Cousin
Total 13
5th cousin or closer 8
Unknown Paternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 16
5th cousin or closer 5 (including one known maternal 2nd cousin)
Unknown Maternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 26
5th cousin or closer 4
Unknown Paternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 16
5th cousin or closer 5 (including one known paternal 2nd cousin & 2nd cousin once removed)
Third Pile-Up Match 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 200
5th cousin or closer 47
Unknown Paternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 8
5th cousin or closer 3 (including one known paternal 2nd cousin once removed)
Unknown Maternal 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 18
5th cousin or closer 12
Fourth Pile-Up Match 2nd-4th Cousin
Total 142
5th cousin or closer 32
Eleven of the next 28 matches are on the pile-up regions of my DNA and, with the exception of two of them, all match between 100 and 200 matches in common with me. None of these matches match any of my known cousins of any level on my father's side. They don't match with my mother so they have to be on my father's side.
You can see by looking at the numbers, the total number of matches in common with these pile-up matches rival the number of in-common matches I have with my closest matches. I have close to the same number of matches in common with them as I have with my maternal aunts and first cousins. They dwarf the number of matches I have in common with known second to fourth cousins. In addition and more confusing, I have as many close matches, fifth cousins and closer, as I have with my aunts and known close cousins. One of these pile-up matches has more close matches (47) with me than anyone who has tested that is known how they're related to me (max of 41).
I don't appear to have this pile-up problem with my Ancestry DNA test. I have very few matches on my father's side on my Ancestry DNA results. The overwhelmingly vast majority in my Ancestry results are on my mother's side. Does that mean these pile-up regions are worthless? These are people I share 12-30 centimorgans of DNA with in the longest block and between 21 and 70 centimorgans with in total. To me, this is too much DNA in common to completely ignore. Still, they are almost impossible to work with and get in the way of meaningful work on matches that are not in these pile-up regions.
Do you have suggestions on how to either work with these matches or keep them from getting in the way of my working with other matches?
--Matt
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