I have new DNA cousin "matches". This is a very important avenue of DNA testing for genealogy and ancestry that I have simply missed until recently. Up to now, I've concentrated on DNA testing for general ancestry (or ethnicity as some businesses will call it). The problem was that I first tested with 23andme, and simply, using their heavy USA customer base, and user unfriendly "experiences", I couldn't find any DNA relatives that actually had paper trails that could correlate to my own.
One of the problems is I feel, is that an awful lot of Eastern English migration to the Atlantic Coast of North America, occurred very early - late 16th to early 18th centuries AD. As a result, although some generous matching systems (such as 23andme's) suggests much more recent shared ancestry, in reality, our links to our distant USA cousins are so old, that all they do is reflect that my distant cousins have Puritan, New England, and Virginian ancestry from Eastern England. Even for those that do claim to trace ancestry to those pilgrim fathers - I can't. Certainly not for the thousands of my direct ancestors for Generations 11 - 14. I don't think any of us can. Chuck in a bit of genetic folding, and all that these distant relationships is really telling us is, that we both have some ancestry from south east England between 300 and 600 years ago.
Then I tested with Ancestry.com, Ancestry.co.uk, AncestryDNA or whatever you want to call that genealogy mega-business. Their matching system is dumbed down to the frustrating level. No chromosome locations or chromosome browsers for painting. Instead however, they have the fattest database of testers and customers - some of whom, will like myself, be subscription slaves to their family tree and documentary genealogical services. Their matching systems may cut out chromosome data - but on the flip side, you can browse trees, surnames, ancestral locations, of your DNA matches. As a consequence, I've found 14 matches that share DNA, with predicted relationships - that correlate to a paper trail relationship.
In addition I am now scouring GEDmatch, 23andme, and FT-DNA Family Finder for more relative DNA matches. I'm recording everything (including chromosome locations when available) onto a spreadsheet. The image at the top of this page demonstrates my DNA matches where they share ancestry so far. The darker the shade, the stronger the verification.
I'm starting to see how this is a better tool to understanding, or verifying ancestry, than any stupid ethnicity / ancestry composition by DNA. Family isn't always biological. However, finding a genetic correlation is the ultimate evidence to strengthen a tree. It's fascinating to see actual paper research turning up as segments of inherited DNA on matches.