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- #How can i sort my dna matches how to
- #How can i sort my dna matches full
- #How can i sort my dna matches series
Unluckily for us, it had only one visible name: let’s call him Jake. Luckily for us, ichantalbrown had posted a family tree. But it’s often best to learn as much as you can before contacting someone, if only to make sure you’re on the right track. So who was this person?Īt this point, we could have messaged ichantalbrown and asked how she fit into our tree (how to kindly and delicately contact matches will be covered in Part 3 of this series). The thing was, when I asked my Mum about the username, she didn’t recognize it. Meaning that my Mum has dozens of cousins and I initially figured ichantalbrown must just be another one of them. Now, my Mum comes from French Canadian farming roots and although she herself was an only child, she was an anomaly as most farming families back then had loads of kids. Those are a lot of options, but we can immediately rule a few out: we know ichantalbrown is not my mother’s great-grandchild and probably not her great-grandmother since my mother was born in the 1940s and all of her great-grandparents would have passed away before the time the test was taken. I checked my Mum’s account and sure enough, ichantalbrown shared even more DNA with her: 800 cM to be exact, a 1st cousin according to AncestryDNA.īut as we now know, Ancestry relationship labels could use some work, so I turned to the Shared cM Project, spearheaded by genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger, which tells you more specifically the types of relationships you might have with someone based on the amount of DNA you share.Īccording to his chart, ichantalbrown could be any one of the following with respect to my Mum: AncestryDNA had listed her as my 2nd cousin, but keep in mind that AncestryDNA’s labeling can be misleading: a match may be some sort of cousin, but they may also be an aunt, uncle, great-grandparent or great-grandchild… Ichantalbrown shared 464 cM of DNA with me (cM stands for centimorgans and can be thought of as a unit used to measure DNA: the higher the number, the more closely you’re related). Luckily, both of my parents have tested their DNA, so it was relatively simple to determine that she was a maternal relation: ichantalbrown was a shared match between my Mum and I but she didn’t share any DNA with my father. Here’s how I identified her connection to my mother.Ī user named ichantalbrown matched me at AncestryDNA (for privacy reasons, I’ve fictionalized all of the names in this example). But one close match popped up last year, who proved very different from the rest. Although an only child herself, she has a few dozen first cousins, so we expect to see a lot of close matches in her DNA results. I’ll use my Mum again as a real-life example about how DNA matches can solve mysteries (thanks, Mum!) My Mum is pretty much as French Canadian as you can get, with family lines extending back hundreds of years in Québec.
#How can i sort my dna matches full
Sometimes, it’s easy and your match will have attached a full family tree (thank you to those people!) Other times, there are no family trees, and no recognizable surnames or locations. The trick is figuring out where a new match fits into your tree. If your DNA results match you with a new-found half 2nd cousin, this person could be another great-grandchild of that unknown father. Let’s say your grandmother was an “illegitimate” child whose father was unknown. Your DNA matches are incredibly useful for solving mysteries and breaking down “brick walls” in your family tree. So how is knowing who you’re related to helpful? The information and numbers here are much more reliable than those offered in your ethnicity results. Here, I’ll describe how I solved a century-old mystery using the real power found within your DNA.Īlong with your ethnicity estimate, you’ll get a list of genetic matches: people who share some of your DNA, indicating a shared ancestor from whom you both received the same bits of DNA. In my last post, I wrote about taking a huge grain of salt regarding ethnicity results you may have received from a DNA testing company.
#How can i sort my dna matches how to
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#How can i sort my dna matches series
This is the second article of a 3-part series focusing on your DNA results: