I was one of the early birds to join the Family Finder program at FTDNA, and as an “old hand” (but far from expert) genetealogist I was prepared for a long wait for any worthwhile results. I have had a lifelong interest in my maternal grandfather’s family (MARTIN) and I still remember sixty and more years ago listening to the old folks talk about early times. My Martin line seemed exciting – early settlers in Texas and before that frontier life in Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois. Over the years I’ve discovered that my Martin ancestors include three generations of frontier preachers and (at least) one colorful rogue. The good news for my research was that quite a bit has been written about the Martins, at least from the late 18^th century on; the bad news was that there were several Martin families in the same areas at the same times and to make matters worse most of the men had common names (John, William, James, etc) and they tended to recycle the names each generation.

     By conventional means, I had found a paper trail back to my 3^rd great-grandfather James Scott Martin, but knew only that his father was John Martin, possibly from Virginia – and there were perhaps dozens of John Martins who might be “mine”.  One other clue was the family story that my great-grandfather Thomas Jefferson Martin and great-grandmother Anne Marie Attebery were related in some way.

     The first set of Family Finder results included two matches for me, both at the 5^th cousin and beyond level. I emailed both of my new distant cousins and within 48 hours had exchanged ancestral surnames. One match hasn’t revealed the connection yet, but the other match revealed a Martin connection, and my new cousin’s family tree shows that our common ancestors are John and Sarah Isabel (Scott) Martin – the 4^th great-grandparents I had been looking for. As a bonus, I have discovered that Thomas Jefferson Martin  and Ann Marie Attebery were both great-grandchildren of John and Sarah Martin, and thus second cousins. I am thus doubly descended from John and Sarah.

     I know that this discovery could have been made by conventional means, without the aid of autosomal DNA comparison, given enough time, effort and luck. However the speed and ease of this discovery is very impressive, and I’m looking forward to more discoveries as the Family Finder database grows.