What is considered a match?

[kenr1946]

Hello fellow Ryan searchers.  After having the DNA test completed I looked up the page that has all of our information in column form.  It is fascinating and yet leaves a lot to be answered.  Do we know what constitutes  a match?  It looks like those who are descended from an ancestor such as a 3rd grandfather match closely.  If they are 15 generations apart will they still match that close?
Ken

[dryan73]

Hi - posting my pedigree. There are way too many "Ryan" relations to include on this so I am keeping it to the direct line in each generation, ie, my father, his father, then his father (my grandfather) etc and not including siblings/uncles/granduncles etc, some of whom emigrated to the US. In our family the eldest son has always been called John Patrick Ryan so these are all different people. The area of Limerick we are from is where most Ryan's in Ireland originate, therefore every family takes a second name to distinguish them. We are known as the Ryan "Bawn's".

John Patrick Ryan b. 1764 d. 1796 buried at Abington, Co.Limerick, Ireland. m. Ann <unknown>. They had one son.

    --> John Patrick Ryan b. 1795 at Cappamore, Co. Limerick, Ireland. d. <unknown>, at Cappamore. m. <unknown>. They had four sons.

        --> John Patrick Ryan b. 1841 at Cappamore, Co. Limerick. d. 1926 at Cappamore, buried at Abington Co. Limerick. m. Margaret Abraham at Cappamore 2 March 1891. They had one child.

            --> John Patrick Ryan b. 1894 at Cappamore, Co. Limerick. d. 1966, Limerick. m. Margaret Finucane at Cappamore 10 Feb 1925. They had nine children.

                --> John Patrick Ryan (my father) b.1926 at Cappamore, Co. Limerick.  m. Bridget (Bridie) McMahon 14 July 1965, Limerick. Bridie and John currently reside in Limerick, Ireland. They have four children.

                    --> John Patrick Ryan (my brother) b.1969 Limerick. m. Emily Russell 31 May 2003, Co. Limerick. John and Emily currently reside in Co. Limerick. They have two sons.
                   
                         --> Jack Matthew Ryan (John's son, my nephew) b May 2004, Limerick, Ireland.

[aufo50]

HI everyone -

I am confused by my matches on the FtDNA site.
I have quite a few matches at the 67 marker level.

Most of my closest Y-DNA matches are Ryan - yet I have only one very distant match in my actual surname - Dwyer.

I have the closest 111 marker at 9 steps with a Cannady.

I am beginning to wonder if my ancestors were Ryans rather than Dwyers.
Could that make sense?
I have no indication of where my ancestor was born in 1821 - only Ireland.

Thank you