One thing I have been helping with is a trick I use on AncestryDNA. It is not needed so much in the USA as they have many more matches than we have in the UK. As lots of people don't know how to use it, I want to share it with the wider world.
AncestryDNA provides a Shared Match list for each of your DNA matches. These are given if you share more than 20cM with the shared match and your DNA match also shares more than 20cM with your match. This means that even a useful match (at say 18cM) would not appear in your shared match list. When you have thousands of matches greater than 20cM (this is the cut off for 4th cousins or closer), you will always have several, if not many, shared matches to help identify which family line the match is on. In the UK where we have a lot fewer matches, we often have no shared matches at all with a match, or the level of shared DNA is much lower such that it is below the 20cM limit.
If you either manage or can view more than one DNA kit on Ancestry, there is a trick to spot shared matches with those kits below 20cM. If you find a DNA match that does include another kit in your family on the Shared Match list, click on the user name of the match (or the manager of the match).
In this case, the managed kit matches at 19.9cM across 2 segments so only just outside the cutoff of 20cM. This helps to indicate that the match is on this line of the family.
Several of my USA friends have been pleased to have this trick explained - hope it helps you too!
My husband a Canadian has over a 1000 fourth cousins.
ReplyDeleteI was born in England and have 210
What is the explanation for this.
It could be that he's from an endogamous population, making cousins appear closer than they are. Plus, DNA testing is more popular in Canada than in Europe.
DeleteEspecially challenging for adoptees with few close matches
ReplyDeleteHi Janet
ReplyDeleteI have seen people with over 6,000 4th cousins or closer and recently someone with only one! Most of us with recent UK ancestors have lower amounts of closer cousins as the test has not been available in the UK for as long as it has in North America, so not as many relatives have tested as yet. It also depends on how many people there are who you have some sort of common ancestor with who has tested and how much pedigree "die out" there is - some peoples families have many branches with no living descendants. Another factor is endogamy, some populations share lots of segment patterns due to the concentrations of these patterns, so they have a large amount of matches.
HTH - but many of us would be VERY happy to have 210 4th cousins if we were from the UK...
BFN
OOROO
Michelle
I guess I don't see how this is different than using the Google Chrome Helper Add-on. This gives a blue & pink icon on the far right side (by VIEW MATCH). My example is that I am admin for a relative's account. If we are both matched to someone, I believe the icon shows up. Then I don't have to go thru the process described above (by Amelia). Can you explain if there is a difference?
ReplyDelete