DNA

Ethnicity on DNA tests

Miss W. Using DNA ,

My regular readers know that I am doing a bit on DNA at the moment. My parents, my brother and I have all tested with Ancestry. But I have also uploaded our raw data to FTDNA and most recently MyHeritage. It is interesting to make comparisons between the different results.

Here are my results:

Ancestry DNA

With Family Tree DNA

With My Heritage DNA

It is the same raw data from Ancestry uploaded to the other two sites. They each use different filters or algorithms to get their results. The only one that really surprises me is the 1% Nigerian with My Heritage. Can’t wait to find out what my dad’s results are with his unknown background.

MyHeritage works on 42 ethnic groups around the world. More information found here.

Ancestry looks at 150+ regions of the world.

Readers: If you have tested and uploaded results to other sites, have you found any interesting results? Are there any other sites I should be uploading my data to and why?

DNA and Gedmatch

Miss W. Using DNA ,

Following on from my last post, I have raw DNA data from Ancestry stored in a file on my computer and I have now uploaded it to Gedmatch.

Why did I do that?

Gedmatch has a lot more tools for manipulating the data gathered from your DNA. Most of the tools are free but you can also pay a small amount monthly to use some more precise tools.

Once you have registered and uploaded to Gedmatch, take note of your number. If you have tested with Ancestry, your number will start with A. Here are the Gedmatch numbers of the kits I run. Hopefully I might match some of yours.

  • Sue A702006
  • Mum (Phyl) A141289
  • Dad (Bob) A380974
  • Ruby (cousin) A984734
  • Dorothy (hoped was cousin but not) A400283
  • Brother (Phil) A076075
  • Kevin (half uncle) A215065

Tools I have used

The first tool I used was the One-to-many. From this I could see all the people who matched some part of my DNA. It told me about how many generations we were apart and gave me an email address to contact those that were close. It also told me how many cM of DNA I shared and what the largest segment was. The bigger the numbers, the closer the person is in your tree as you can see from my example.

The first five matches are those relatives I asked to test but notice Dorothy is not there from my list. If she was going to be a match, she would have been similar to Ruby at about 3 generations back. Both Ruby and Dorothy are descendants from William Smith (my whaling captain from Samoa) and they match each other. My dad matches Ruby but not Dorothy.

I mainly use the data from the autosomal columns but here is a great post about how X-DNA can help you narrow down which branch of your tree the match might come from. I will need to do this to check the few X-DNA matches I have.

So I now have a list of my autosomal matches. What do I do now?

If I click on the hyperlinked letter A for Lachy’s results (see previous image), it takes me to the one-to-one tool. I don’t make any changes on this form and this is what I then find out about the chromosomes we share.

Lachy and I share DNA on 4 different chromosomes. On one chromosome we share in two different places. The largest segment is 29.8cM and the total is 77.4cM. How can this help me work out the relationship?

I then head to this relationship chart which was updated in August 2017. I actually have this printed and saved so I can refer to it easily. Here it is as a jpeg for printing.

From the chart I can see that Lachy with a total of 77.4cM will fit in the 2C2r area for averages but he could also be closer if you look at the range.

Is Lachy on mum or dad’s side of the family? First take note of Lachy’s gedmatch number. A197294 this means I might be able to find a tree on Ancestry to help me with the match.

To check which side of my tree he is on, I am now going to compare his kit with mum’s kit using another tool. People who match one or both kits. If there are people matching both, then he is on mum’s side of the tree, otherwise he will be on dad’s side.

Wow! I have a huge list of people who match both mum and Lachy.

How am I going to start organizing all this information to make it useful to me? The best bits to use are the actual chromosome numbers and the start and end of the segments of the chromosome locations. I decided to use a spreadsheet where I just copied all mum’s one to many test results – I then added extra columns to include chromosome numbers, start/end locations and SNPs. This is now starting to look workable.

Readers: Which tools on Gedmatch have you found useful and why?

Progressing with DNA

Miss W. Using DNA ,

I have been trying to connect all my DNA matches from Ancestry where I tested the DNA of my mum, dad, brother, half uncle, 2nd cousin, possible 2nd cousin and some cousins once removed.

It is easy to work out the close relatives who I have asked to test but once I get to 4th cousins and further back, it is difficult to find out which branch of mum or dad’s tree they come from. What I need to be able to do is find the individual segments of chromosomes that match more than one person and then I might be able to find the precise branch and ancestor the match belongs to.

From this you can see I have a total of 124 4th cousins or closer who have tested with Ancestry.

Of those 124, I have worked out where 24 of them are placed on my tree (using my database on my computer).

Of those 24 matches, 12 of them have me linked on their trees on Ancestry. To be a shared ancestor hint, both people need to be on both matches trees on Ancestry.

But how can I work out where those other 100 cousins are located in my tree? Many of them don’t have trees on Ancestry or they have a very small one but only for living people so it shows as private when I look at their tree.  A few have private trees so you need to ask permission to be able to see their tree.

One of the disadvantages of Ancestry DNA matches is they only show how many cM (centiMorgans) over how many segments you share with your matches. To be able to match certain segment areas, I need more specific information than Ancestry gives me.

This is where the site called Gedmatch comes in. Once you have uploaded your raw data, it allows you to make one-to-many comparisons with others who have also uploaded their data. This could be people who have tested with other companies like Family Tree DNA or 23 and me or My Heritage.

My next post will be about using Gedmatch and how it helps you narrow down your matches to particular common chromosomes segments.

Readers: Have you tested with Ancestry? How is your research going there and how many shared ancestor hints have you worked out so far?