DNA Analysis

Hermy · 21-08-2022 3:27pm

Would it also be the case that Breton DNA gets mixed in with Irish/ Scots rather than French?

Mick Tator · 21-08-2022 9:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119501541#Comment_119501541

I do not believe so, it would be more likely to be mixed in with Northern Europe and England.

Apart from the legal DNA issues in France, the Breton/French question is politically sensitive, like Spain's Basques and Catalans.While some Bretons believe themselves to be distinct Bretons who live in France, others believe themselves to be French first with Breton heritage.

This is an interesting blog on French DNA https://www.myfrenchroots.com/what-french-dna-looks-like/

Mick Tator · 21-08-2022 9:40pm

Another link https://www.myfrenchroots.com/dna-testing-in-france/

VirginiaB · 22-08-2022 12:47am

Brittany is one of the Celtic nations so I would think that would have an effect on DNA. They are very strong in their Breton/Celtic culture, fwiw.

Spain is another nation where Ancestry does not test--don't know why. The two northwestern provinces, Galicia and Asturias, where my Spanish ancestors are from also have a strong Celtic history.

Hermy · 22-08-2022 8:13am

Another good French resource - thanks for the link Mick.

p15574 · 22-08-2022 4:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119500126#Comment_119500126

Do you have Donegal though? If so, I'd suspect Donegal ancestors emigrating to Scotland and their descendants being in the Ancestry DB as "Scottish"

VirginiaB · 06-10-2022 5:54pm

I just noticed that Ancestry has added Parent 1 and Parent 2 to all my shared matches. It's helpful with my more distant matches, narrows the search down. A few are marked Unassigned. I don't know if this feature has been added to everyone yet.

Mick Tator · 07-10-2022 10:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119709915#Comment_119709915

It happened overnight for me. From a quick look it looks like a great feature. I had already classified a few hundred of my top matches on each side using my known tested matches. I made no errors on my maternal side, just four (<1%) on my paternal but I think these might be matches sharing DNA from both sides. I need to study those four more closely and also learn if there is an easy way to change all the ‘Maternal Line’ and ‘Paternal Line’ tags I've used to Parent 1 or Parent 2.

55Gem · 07-10-2022 11:47am

The little ! in a circle. Find a match your 100% sure of click on the little circle and it will offer you the chance to accept the side they have assigned, that will change your Parent 1 and Parent 2 to Maternal and Paternal.

Although I'm not sure that's what you want....

Mick Tator · 07-10-2022 4:05pm

Thanks but that is not what I want - I saw the i 's - what I need is a 'change all' function, as I've several hundred to change.

It's in Beta still so maybe it will be a tweak later -I've not yet had a chance to examine it fully.

Now.........if only they had a way of getting matches to respond to an email!!!

Mick Tator · 04-11-2022 7:00pm

That was easy -clicking on the i and accepting the change automatically converted all to that format.

Mick Tator · 04-11-2022 7:00pm

The allocation to maternal or paternal lines by Ancestry appears to be very accurate. Out of hundreds of matches I’ve encountered just a handful where a result differs from what I had already allocated. One, a lady with a 9cM match, has a detailed tree containing paternal line male relatives from c1800 and also has several surnames with marital connections on that side, all from the same area of the county. She also matches a paternal line cousin and has no matches in my maternal line. However, Ancestry is saying she is a maternal line match.

Several of the ‘unassigned’ matches appear easily identifiable, e.g. one 42 cM match has 25 paternal, no maternal and 5 unassigned shared matches.

L1011 · 04-11-2022 7:16pm

The last ethnicity/region update now actually has some representation for my mother's side - previously you'd think my parents came from the same area of Ireland, when they come from quite far away

Haven't looked at the origin sides yet. Would be interesting if some of the people where we can only make vague assumptions are shown to be the other side - possibly incorrectly of course.

Hermy · 05-11-2022 10:10am

I'm a bit confused by this new function.

Ancestry has assigned two distant matches to Parent 1, 289 distant matches to Parent 2, and the remaining nearly 7000 are unassigned.

All of my close matches, bar eight I assigned relationships to myself, are unassigned even though, with one or two exceptions, I know what the relationships are and that they're on my maternal side.

The eight I assigned a relationship to have the i in a circle next to them but clicking the i doesn't give me any options - just a pop-up saying "This is a label you selected for this match".

55Gem · 05-11-2022 1:13pm

Are you saying your reassigned them after they appeared as unassigned?

Then I think the little circle with the i is just to let you know it was your choice and their system at this stage cannot confirm you are correct. I think it's usually red.

On the other hand, if you want to assign an unassigned you need to open up that match and click on Edit Relationship.

Hermy · 06-11-2022 10:05am

I assigned relationships to ten matches (3 second cousins and 7 third cousins) and to the best of my knowledge this was done before the new Beta phase appeared.

What's confusing me is that the only matches it has assigned relationships to are distant matches while my closest matches - a handful of first and second cousins - have been left unassigned.

I'm wondering now should I remove the relationships I assigned and leave it to Ancestry to figure it?

Mick Tator · 06-11-2022 11:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119839880#Comment_119839880

No, I'd do exactly what you have done and leave it so. Ancestry will continue to tweak their tools and I'd bet the 'i' matches will slowly migrate to your description as the tool is modified.

As said above, the ‘i’ is triggered when the designation is at variance with Ancestry’s categorisation. They have divided my matches into 8,000 paternal. 7,000 maternal and 2,000 unassigned. In the ‘unassigned’ cohort I’ve got just eleven matches with 25cM or more. It is clear that several are assignable (by comparing the ‘shared match’ function). If I mark one of those ‘paternal’ or ‘maternal’ the ‘i‘ will appear and state ‘this is a label you selected for this match’.

Hermy · 06-11-2022 12:55pm

Thanks Mick.

Just looking at my brothers test results - not adopted so different matches - and it's as you describe at #942 above.

Clicking the i gave me the option to assign a given match with a known connection to the paternal side and from there everything else followed suit.

I wonder does my French paternal ancestry have something to do with it given I have few if any confirmed paternal matches and there's very little research on that line either in my own tree or anyone else's on Ancestry?

pinkypinky · 06-11-2022 6:30pm

I was going to suggest the French thing, Hermy, but didn't get around to it. There's so few French people in the databases that must be playing a role.

p15574 · 30-11-2022 11:09am

I landed on this page from a remote (0.6%) DNA match - a pretty unique and interesting intro on the site. I don't envy them their task though - looking at the tree, the woman concerned was born in 1845 so DNA since then is pretty diluted. Not sure what "war" might have been involved - the "Mexican War" was 1846-1848, so perhaps that, but very distant from where she was (Missouri or Illinois), slightly less distant for some of the Texas Comanche wars.

VirginiaB · 10-02-2023 2:27pm

In the last couple of days, I have gotten almost 30 new DNA matches from Ancestry. This is on top of quite a few in the last couple of weeks. Is this happening to anyone else? Unfortunately, most have no trees. Those I can identify offer no new information. They are all 'unassigned' but if there are shared matches, I can usually tell which side they are on.

I made the interesting discovery that, even if Ancestry says 'no matches', in a day or two, shared matches appear. I learned this yesterday when I had a match I knew was my 3rd cousin, yet it said 'no matches'. I checked for her in the match list of a known shared cousin and there she was. Today she has a list of 15 shared matches thru the 4th-6th cousin level.

As I get each new match, I check the page and make a note. Now I'm wondering how many 'no matches' I have written when matches actually appeared several days later.

BowWow · 10-02-2023 4:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120224020#Comment_120224020

Results on those who got DNA test kits for Christmas?

VirginiaB · 10-02-2023 6:43pm

I wondered that too altho I've never had so many in such a short time, including past Christmases. My Ancestry sub just renewed last week for a princely sum and I also wondered if that had anything to do with it. Not that I'm paranoid...😂

Hermy · 10-02-2023 7:07pm

I got a handful of new matches across several kits myself in the past few days so I’m assuming it’s Christmas kits bearing fruit as they’ve been few and far between this past year.

VirginiaB · 17-02-2023 4:11pm

My Ancestry new matches continue to appear in unusually high numbers. Two points--new to me at least--which may be helpful to others:

1--As noted earlier, when a match first appears, there may be no shared matches tho such matches do appear several days later.

2--Today I have a new match, 4th-6th cousin, and clicking 'shared matches' showed seven matches. But when I clicked on the new match's name to see if there was further info on her profile page, it said she was not a DNA match to me. I'm sure that will be fixed in a few days but worth mentioning.

pinkypinky · 17-02-2023 9:33pm

I had the first new match over 50cM in a long time today. Was able to identify her quite quickly.

Mick Tator · 18-02-2023 12:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254909#Comment_120254909

That’s heartening. I’ve had no luck for months.

The best in recent months was a 127cM match on Ancestry, no tree, marked ‘unassigned’ but I can identify him from shared matches as my maternal side and probably from a particular line. Messaged him but no response.

I also had a ‘common ancestor’ 19cM match but marked unassigned, so I’m reading that as Ancestry is using Trees rather than DNA for identifying common ancestry.

In the last week I had 60-odd matches, every one of them ‘unassigned’.

CMs Matches.

8 17

9 16

10 11

11 6

12 6

13 1

14 3

17 1

21 2

Mick Tator · 18-02-2023 12:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120253680#Comment_120253680

Perhaps she was the manager of a kit, not the person who tested?

VirginiaB · 18-02-2023 5:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120256793#Comment_120256793

No, as Ancestry always notes if the test is managed by someone else and who it is. Sometimes they're a match too, sometimes not.

VirginiaB · 18-02-2023 5:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120256771#Comment_120256771

Ancestry doesn't assign matches to a parent when the match first appears. My last update for parental assignments was November.

DNA Analysis

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