I match T.N. at .36%, and 23andme estimates that we are 3rd to 6th cousins. He matches my mother at .99% (3rd-4th) and her brother at 1.86% (2nd-3rd). My sister is a .89% (3rd-5th) match for T.N.; my cousin C. is .42% (3rd-6th); another cousin C is 1.17% (2nd-4th); cousin M. is .98% (3rd-4th); and cousin J. is .48% (3rd-4th cousin).

Who is this guy?

So far, T.N. is the only person who matches all the members of my mother’s close family that have tested with 23andme. He accepted my share request, but has not responded to messages, so all I know about him appears in his profile. Which raises more questions than it answers. T.N. lists France and Norway as his countries of origin and cites Strasbourg, France; Oxford, England; and Durham, North Carolina, as places in which his family has lived. He shares the ultra-common R1b1b2a1a1 Y-DNA haplotype with my uncle and his sons, but I wouldn’t base any assumptions about our kinship on this.

So: is our link to T.N. through my mother’s mother? Her father? At this point, there’s no way to know. It’s time to follow up on my inclination to ask M., one of two living cousins on my maternal grandfather’s side, to test with 23andme.