DNA Analysis

pinkypinky

I returned both kits I had from them in the regular post with no difficulties.

mindhorn

Anyone here have experience with figuring out an adoption connection? Received an email about a close match and this person matches my dad (potential first cousin at 1,088.5‎ cM). The person has since been in touch but doesn't have a whole lot of info. Grandparents on his mother's side don't match any of my records and he mentioned then that his father was adopted (I have his birth name but I haven't come across this surname in any of my research before).

Obviously possible that the connection is on his mother's side but the fact that he and my father share quite a bit of DNA suggests that maybe it's on the adoptive fathers side...not sure how to approach this one.

55Gem

Shared matches and geography is I find the key.

With a test of a friend I manage a matches mother had an unknown father, for about two years I got no where trying to figure out how they matched other than it had to be on my friends mother’s side by shared matches and where they all lived. Than a person related to my friend whom I personally know did a DNA test and also matched the unknown father match, with the help of that match I could work out which family the father was from but not which of two brothers.

on my own test a son of an adoptee matched with me, from shared matches the link was clearly on my mothers side and appeared to match to her mothers family, as the child was born in a town in America two of my mothers uncles emigrated to and having no other relatives in that area it appears more than likely one of these uncles was the father.

and yet another on my fathers side where the match found one male from a family had lived in the right place at the right time.

pinkypinky

I do this work professionally.

@55Gem is spot on that the shared matches are important, but also look at the ages of people. There's several possibilities for that level of match, and you should consider them all.

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4/1088

When you look at the shared matches, do you recognise any names that can pin it to a side of your father's tree? On the basis of what you said above, there's nothing to rule out either side of either person yet.

mindhorn

Thanks, both. They uploaded their results on MyHeritage so unfortunately I don't have as many matches there. It's going to cost them but I have mentioned that it might be worthwhile getting an Ancestry kit.

I recognise only two of the shared matches and they're both on my dad's side of the family.

JDERIC2017

Hello looking for your thoughts on this close dna match?

This person thinks they may be half siblings but not 100 %. how can we be sure. We think they shared a father who is now passed. Thanks

DNA1.jpg

pinkypinky

What are the genders of the people?

If both women, then they would share a X chromosome from their father. You could upload them both to Gedmatch to compare.

What are the relative ages?

Shared cM project gives a few possibilities and many can be ruled out on age grounds. See here.

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4/1517

JDERIC2017

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121851493#Comment_121851493

Thanks for the reply. Man and woman, 56 and 63. will look at link also. Thank you.

pinkypinky

MyHeritage has enabled sharing your test results (similar to what Ancestry does).

I've done a quick video explaining how to do it.

This will be very useful for professionals who are trying to help people and stay within the terms and conditions.

Jellybaby_1

My most recent discovery is that its not only Mr. Genealogy who has a Youtube channel, Ms. Genealogy also has a Youtube channel. See ye on Youtube! 🙂 I don't have a MyHeritage account so I won't be accessing that.

pinkypinky

MyHeritage has a huge DNA database. Their Irish records are limited (although they are promising something in the pipeline) but it's a must-use for DNA work. I just solved a double unknown parentage mystery through a match there. (My client had an unknown father, it turned out he did too. For ages, things didn't add up, and there was some age confusion about a key individual, but we got there in the end.)

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697026#Comment_121697026

I have just today got the results back from 23andMe, very accurate compared with my own knowledge. Two of the health pages that I would have been particularly interested in give 404s so I have contacted them about that. Some of the traits are entertaining but mostly correct - I think 2 were not accurate.

My family background shows me as mostly from a fairly specific area of England with a bit of French and some Scandinavian. All of which I might have guessed at, though I was expecting a small level of maybe northern African which came up a minute fraction, < 1%. I am 99.3 northern European. Traits and health also very accurate - since I am in my late 70s I know about pretty much all the issues I might have, and they correspond with my experience, apart from the two that I cannot access.

The free post was accepted no problem.

mindhorn

Something seems to have changed recently enough on Ancestry. I used to be able to see all the connections to my DNA matches but now it's only showing a few and advising that you need to become a member to see the entire list.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121990300#Comment_121990300

Yes, they've decided to do a cash-grab. It has been exceptionally unpopular

mindhorn

Pain in the…

pinkypinky

Agreed, but it is quite a small charge: $30 for 6 months.

55Gem

It’s like you bought a 3 piece suite and after a few years the shop decided it’s selling each piece individually from now on so they come to your house and take the sofa and one armchair, saying you can rent them back.

They can stuff them where the sun never shines.

When My Heritage started charging for extra features for DNA uploads from other sites they didn’t take the features away from existing uploads.

Ancestry should have restructured the price and product for new customers and left the existing ones with what they bought.

I paid Ancestry for the DNA test available at the time, taking abilities of the test away is unacceptable, no doubt there was something buried in the terms and conditions which covers them but would anyone knowing buy anything that was going to suddenly be reduced to next to useless at the whim of the seller.

Hermy

It does seem like sharp practice.

And any increase from zero, however small, is a significant increase in my humble.

pinkypinky

I'm not trying to justify them at all. I agree it's crappy to offer it for free and then change the structure, but companies want to make money, so I'm not surprised. If you have an Ancestry subscription, then you don't have to pay for the DNA stuff on top.

55Gem

When did they offer it for free?

We paid for it, it was part of the DNA package. We paid in full, no one is asking for anything for free just what we paid for.

I have never wanted or needed a subscription to Ancestry and I won't be forced into getting one to view something I've already paid for.

Mick Tator

Ancestry is owned by Blackstone, a global investor / asset manager. Both L1011 and I have - as far back as 2020 (maybe earlier?) said it was only a matter of time before they started sweating the Ancestry assets. I’ve maintained for a long time that Ancestry’s business is down, judging by the number of new matches I’m getting. They need to drive revenue, so it’ll be interesting to watch what they do next – they seem to have given up pushing ‘check your pet’s DNA’ and ‘Traits’.

My Ancestry sub is expired, they also ‘turned off’ my maternal/paternal match identifications; luckily I had marked them and also made notes, still recorded/accessible.

pinkypinky

They absolutely have not given up on the dog DNA. They had a big stand about it at Rootstech!

VirginiaB

I do have an Ancestry subscription, at a princely price—over $400 a year, fainting as I write. It includes Fold3 which I only use for NY and Brooklyn city directories and the basic newspapers.com, very useful for Brooklyn. With DNA, some time ago, I went thru all my matches 16 cM and above and noted how many matches, if any, date I checked and which parent. I get a number of matches each week, almost all useless, but I note the same info for them every day. So hopefully I'm covered if my subscription ever lapses.

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121998163#Comment_121998163

Soon to be renamed 'Poochtech'? 😉

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004887#Comment_122004887

I've set the bar at 14cMs and set the filter as 'unviewed'. A Melanie Reid match at 14 cM remains my top match most days I get one or two matches above hereach week, generally only those >20cM have a shared match. I also enter a note if the match has possibilities - e.g. 9/23 mesgd No tree Prob ABC line - m's John A and R McT (which translates as date of match, message sent, match has no tree, probably ABC ancestral line because he matches John A and R McT who are known to match the ABC line).

I wonder how long some of those functions will remain……