Acceptable information sources to use for DNA confirmation

Question

I have undertaken an Ancestry DNA test and have several matches  who are 2^nd or 3^rd cousins on my paternal side.  They are not on WikiTree and their details are private on Ancestry, although their parents, or grandparents, and great grandparents are enabling me to be totally confident they are family matches. 

We are in NZ so I cannot obtain NZBMD details because these are only given for births at least 100 years ago, marriages 80 years and deaths 50 years.  As my matches living and well under 100 years old these are not accessible.

How can I use these matches to document the WikiTree DNA confirmation?  Could I request birth and parent details from the matches and cite these are personal recollections?

Comments

Hi Alistair,

I'd suggest adding a "dna_confirmation" tag to your post, in case someone is following that tag/feed and may be able to help.

Here's what I do ...

I have encountered DNA matches for which the DNA test results are attached to the wrong person in a tree. So I usually reach out to contact DNA matches (if I haven't already) that I intend to use for confirming relationships at WikiTree. If they respond and confirm their knowledge of their relationship to a close deceased sourced ancestor (such as their parent/grandparent) in their line to the MRCA(s), I accept that "personal recollection" as evidence. If they don't respond, and if I'm unable to find evidence (obituaries or other sources) confirming the relationship(s) in question, then I don't use the match for confirming here.

For confirmations here for which the match is not a WikiTree member, I usually build/source the relationships down toward the match in their line from the MRCA(s), but I generally stop before creating profiles for any living individuals, since I have no desire to manage privacy-locked profiles other than the profiles of my close relatives. I confirm all the relationships between me and the MRCA(s), and I generally confirm all the relationships between the match's nearest deceased ancestor and the MRCAs(s).

In the DNA confirmation statement for such a match, I usually protect the match's privacy by referring to them as "a grandchild of <their deceased grandparent>". While I believe it is permissible here, I don't personally like to use initials of living people.

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Hi Rick,

Excellent!  Thank you very much for your explanations.  These are very clear and I feel I can proceed now with confidence.