Can Thru lines be wrong?

[Phoenix]

Eg could some duff genealogy lead you to a common ancestor A (who is one or neither of your ancestors) when neither of you have found the link to a true common ancestor B?

I already know that Thru lines is repeatedly trying to get me to acknowledge a stranger as an ancestor!

[Merry]

I'm certain the short answer if Yes!

OH looked at some results on his thru lines to 'prove' his ancestor was the daughter of a particular couple, as she had left home by 1841 and wasn't baptised and never married, so we had worked out her parentage from a process of elimination - all the other potential parents had a daughter of the same name who we could positively identify as a different individual.

OH found several people whose DNA was the right degree of cousin match and where the most obvious link (looking at their trees) was the parents we had selected as his ancestors - 'Eureka' we said!

However, delving deeper I pointed out that there were several other ways he could be related to his DNA matches, mainly because of the small gene pool in an isolated spot in the New Forest meant a large amount of intermarriage between families (I call the area Little Norfolk!), I think it would be difficult not to be related to the couple we are pretty sure are his ancestors, as their descendants make up a significant percentage of the people living in the area for the next 100 years.

[Phoenix]

Thanks, Merry.

I'm hoping for that sort of thing in Norfolk, but no potential cousins showing there as having tested their DNA with Ancestry.

[Jill]

Yes, Thrulines barks up the wrong tree quite easily. I am somehow connected to a young man who has hitched a lift on a tree by adopting a distant relative of mine with the same name as his ancestor. I can disprove his tree quite easily, but we have a genetic link somewhere, but not as Thrulines "thinks".

[Phoenix]

Thank you, Jill!
I've found several people who could be relations down different lines but only have one segment of DNA. I can see we will get our genes as muddled as our trees.