Desire Howland is my 9th gr-gr, but isn't a DNA match

Question

How do I confirm my Howland DNA? Desire (Howland) Gorham is my 9th great-grandma according to prior family research.

Comments

You could confirm auDNA matches to already proven Mayflower descendents, noting your MRCA's and cM counts. Such a match list may be good evidence, but unlikely sufficient to provide unequivocal proof of your own, direct ancestry

For males, a patrilineal Y DNA match at 67 STRs or more should provide the strongest evidence. For females and males, a mtDNA full sequence would be the next strongest.

I guess it would potentially be possible to unequivocally confirm an auDNA match to paternal or maternal-ine MRCA's of a Y DNA or mtDNA confirmed Mayflower descendant. Still a weak inference of direct ancestry, but lacking the mt or Y DNA, may be the strongest possible.

Answer 1

You need to add more people to your tree until you connect to the main community tree. But keep in mind that our Mayflower ancestors are 10 generations back (so Desire is 9 generations) and you will find little to no matches based on the fact that the amount of DNA is so thin. I also descend from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley from both their son, John Jr. and their daughter, Hope (Howland) Chipman.

Comments

Thank you for explaining the DNA  to me. I'm impatient to fill my tree, but I want to learn to do it correctly.

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Since auDNA diminishes thrpugh the generations, you could theoretically prove this by confirming with your close cousins, then find their close cousins who are farther from you but closer to them, and work your way out until youve confirmed the whole branch leading from the Mayflower ancestor.

The likelihood of enough people having tested and on wikitree to do that is probably exceedingly low.

You can shortcut by finding mtDNA (matrilineal) or YDNA (patrilineal) descendants and then work your way through auDNA cousins to them. Again, probably a long shot. And youd want to find several of those mt or Y testers from different branches to confirm that the ancestor had the same values and there isnt a weak link in the paper trail.

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I agree with the comments that each generation reduces the DNA matching regions by half, on average.  There is no guarantee of MT DNA match unless she is a matrilineal match to her 9g ancestor - that only daughters of Desire, and their daughters of daughters, etc, are her connection.