I often see posts and blogs about DNA shaky leaves and DNA circles but up until about a month ago I’d never had a leaf and to date I’ve never had a DNA circle. It’s not from lack of trying. Each and every day I work on my genealogy, expanding my tree and gathering all of the collateral families.
So if your new to Ancestry DNA then let me explain. A DNA shaky leaf is different from your typical shaky leaf on Ancestry, which give you a hint of a record that may or may not be your ancestor. A DNA shaky leaf appears when you have connected an ancestor in your tree that is also connected to one of your DNA match’s trees. Once you have the shaky leaf you can click on it and the next screen will show you who you are connected with and provide a tree showing the path of each of you to your common ancestor.
DNA circles are similar but with an added twist. If you have a DNA circle then it means that you all have the same ancestor in your tree and that you are also genetically connected through your DNA. Not necessarily to everyone in the circle but to some of those in the circle. So you may be connected to Joe and Joe is connected to Jill but you may not be connected to Jill. The only caveat to this working is that you have to be an Ancestry subscriber. Another caveat is that you all have the same ancestor in your tree; right or wrong. So if you have several DNA cousin matches but they don’t have the same ancestor in their tree as you do, no matter who’s right or who’s wrong then you won’t get a circle.
So growing your tree across as well as up.
Happy hunting.