DNA Match Puzzler

In the previous blog I shared my DNA results and lack of  confirmed matches.  On Monday there were 67 4th cousins and now three days later there are 69.  As more and more people have the test done, these numbers have the potential to grow.

I am not willing to wait for anything to fall in my lap and decided to start to analyze those matches that are deemed as "Possible range: 4th - 6th cousins".
I created a spreadsheet and entered each match that I shared with my paternal uncle and another one shared with my daughter.  Coming to the conclusion that perhaps any match with my paternal uncle and his daughter would obviously be on the paternal side of the family tree and if those same matches were also shared with my daughter then I could mark them as paternal matches.  So any match only shared with my daughter and not shared with my uncle would maybe matched on the maternal side of the family.  (Paternal - Marlow, Baker  Maternal - Palin, Davis)

I was able to confirm a few matches on the paternal side when comparing the trees online - but nothing on the maternal side.

On ancestry.com you can search for members by their user name but you can also do a search for any member that maybe searching for the same surname.  Eager to find Palin matches, I did that blanket search.  24 names came up and out of that 24, I know maybe about 8 of them.  I clicked on each name to see if the user had submitted a DNA test and if there was a match.

There was one!  A "Possible range: 5th - 8th cousins" match!

This is such great news - I was over the moon with excitement - finally a "Palin" connection!  As you can see in the above picture you can see where I had spoken with Steve in the past trying to find the connection.  According  the DNA, it is saying that the possible range of connection is 5-8th cousin.
What that would mean is that the common ancestor would be a 4th -6th great grandparent.

However, when I had figured out the connection to Steve it was very loosely based.  Steve would be my 3rd cousin 5x removed of wife of 3rd cousin 4x removed.  How ancestry came up with that is

Stephen Bosley 3rd cousin 5x removed of wife of 3rd cousin 4x removed
Brenda Hankey (1928 - 1999) mother of Stephen Robert Bosley
Gertrude Emily Palin (1896 - 1980)mother of Brenda Hankey
John Palin (1853 - )father of Gertrude Emily Palin
Robert Palin (1820 - 1890)father of John Palin
Joseph Palin (1789 - 1870)father of Robert Palin
Joseph Palin (1739 - 1814)father of Joseph Palin
John Palin (1702 - )father of Joseph Palin
Alice Palin (1672 - )mother of John Palin
Margaret Unknown (1639 - 1673)mother of Alice Palin
John Palin (1671 - 1724)son of Margaret Unknown
Samuel Palin (1703 - )son of John Palin
John Palin (1728 - 1772)son of Samuel Palin
Elizabeth Palin (1755 - 1806)daughter of John Palin
Thomas Palin (1755 - 1808)husband of Elizabeth Palin
Joseph Palin (1731 - )father of Thomas Palin
John Palin (1708 - )father of Joseph Palin
John Palin (1685 - 1717)father of John Palin
Elizabeth Bathoe (1659 - 1697)mother of John Palin
Thomas Palin (1681 - 1726)son of Elizabeth Bathoe
Thomas Palin (1714 - 1800)son of Thomas Palin
John Palin (1749 - 1833)son of Thomas Palin
William Palin (1794 - 1875)son of John Palin
Arnold Henry Palin (1842 - 1918)son of William Palin
Charles Stapleford Palin (1884 - 1932)son of Arnold Henry Palin
Barbara Helen Stapleford Palin daughter of Charles Stapleford Palin
Susan Marlow

I checked the connection via tribalpages - it said we were not connected or more precisely none found.

The tribalpages site may not take into consideration a link via marriage - but ancestry does.  Even still I would think that a 3rd cousin 5x removed of wife of 3rd cousin 4x removed does not equal 5th -8th cousin.

So what does this mean?  I think there are three possible answers.

1. Steve and I have another common ancestor that we have not found as of yet.
2. I have made an error placing Steve in the family tree with the ancestors that I thought were correct.
3.  3rd cousin 5x removed of wife of 3rd cousin 4x removed does equal 5th -8th cousin.  

Regardless of what the answer is, there is a DNA match!

You can find Steve in the tree here