I have uploaded my Ancestry DNA results to Family Finder and I noted a predicted 2nd-4th cousin match at 63 centimorgans. On inspecting the comprehensive tree relating to my match, the only common pair of ancestors were my 5xgreat grandparents, who were separated by 8 generations from my match. How does this degree of separation get predicted at 2nd-4th cousin? Is there a nearer ancestor not yet discovered?
I would really like it to be true since it gives additional support to my research in an area of my tree where the paper trail is sparse.
FTDNA's matches are somewhat misleading. They include lots of meaningless small segments in the cM total. To get a better idea of the relationship you need to remove all the small segments under 7 cMs. I would then suggest you plug the total into this tool to get an idea of the range of possible relationships: