DNA Analysis

Das Reich · 12-11-2019 11:50am

I did with 23andme and it showed exactly my ancestry. I am very mixed from Brazil, having SSA, Native American, and also Scandinavian, Baltic and even some Irish and British ancestry (2%). Mostly is Southern European being Northen Italians the most close to me. My YDNA is quite common (R1B U152) being very common in North Italy. About 92% of non white Brazilians have European haplogroups, strange thing that I noted is that Scandinavian haplogroup I1 is very common among mixed people due to Dutch colonization. I think Brazilian mixed people are kind of similar to South African coloreds.

dubhthach · 13-11-2019 5:06pm

RobMc59 wrote: »

Having recently had an ancestry.co.uk DNA test I was slightly confused to receive a revised profile fairly quickly which changed my DNA makeup quite significantly.
As a total novice to the interpretation of DNA,could anyone give me any pointers on how to find out about 'DNA marks'.I saw this on a tv programme which traced people's ancestry,the programme was sponsored by 'ancestry'?

Part of reason for changes is due to better size reference sample. So for example I see:

Jan 2015: 3,000+ reference samples

August 2018: 16,000+ reference samples, 500+ possible regions

August 2019: 40,000+ reference samples, 1,000+ possible regions

Basically their calculators are only as good as the reference samples put into them. Over time one would expect more accurate results as more people in a particular region test. However you will have some people from lesser tested regions who might get very generic results still.

For example they only have 14 regions for asia! (19 if you include west asia)

Africa (108 Regions)
America (86 Regions)
Asia (14 Regions)
Europe (810 Regions)
Pacific Islander (6 Regions)
West Asia (5 Regions)

Asia

Burusho
Central Asia—South
China
Dai
Japan
Korea & Northern China = 2%
Mongolia & Central Asia—North
Northern & Western India
Northern Asia
Philippines = 89%
Southeast Asia
Southern & Eastern India
Vietnam

My other half got 89% for the Philippines and 2% for 'Korea & Northern China' (ironic given her Netflix viewing habits!). In their current iteration they split her European component as been 4% Spanish and 5% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe. (they also had a <1% connection to Nigeria)

Of course in her case we know that one of her Great-Grandfathers was Spanish.

23andme in comparison seems to have more sample Asian populations. They put a potential Chinese input at about 2.2% with potential links to Guangdong and Fuijan. Which would make sense as these are directly north of the Philippines across the South China sea.

They also split the Philippines into at least 10 regions where she shows potential connections. Unsurprising the region with highest probability that they predict is where she is actually from.

Hermy · 25-02-2020 10:58pm

Quick question.

Can I download y-DNA results from FT-DNA with a view to uploading them to GEDmatch?

All I can find is a link to download a spreadsheet from FT-DNA but I don't think that's what's required.

leck · 25-02-2020 11:04pm

Hermy wrote: »

Quick question.

Can I download y-DNA results from FT-DNA with a view to uploading them to GEDmatch?

All I can find is a link to download a spreadsheet from FT-DNA but I don't think that's what's required.

GEDmatch doesn't accept y-DNA, only autosomal.

A New earth · 25-02-2020 11:08pm

The usual DNA test that people take to find relatives and to look at their ethnicity is "Autosomal" and that is what can be uploaded to Gedmatch, MyHeritage etc

Y Dna as you know just covers the male line only and cannot be uploaded anywhere as far as I know except to groups that have connections to each other say by surname or whatever.

srmf5 · 25-02-2020 11:09pm

If you've done the Big Y, you can upload your Y-DNA results to YFull but that cost $49.

Hermy · 25-02-2020 11:09pm

I'm probably confusing surname projects with GEDmatch.

Thanks for the replies.

dubhthach · 28-02-2020 8:48pm

Hermy wrote: »

I'm probably confusing surname projects with GEDmatch.

Thanks for the replies.

Generally when it comes to projects in FTDNA all you need to do is login into your FTDNA account and browse to project page, you can then usually do a join request.

Hermy · 28-02-2020 10:16pm

dubhthach wrote: »

Generally when it comes to projects in FTDNA all you need to do is login into your FTDNA account and browse to project page, you can then usually do a join request.

Cheers Dubh.

I've done that for an in-law whose test I'm helping him with.

In the case of that in-laws test, when I click Join A Project there are eight Matching Projects listed.
Do you happen to know what is the criteria upon which this list is based?

Are they the only projects genetically relevant to my in-law or is it rather that some of his matches are also members of these projects?

dubhthach · 28-02-2020 11:35pm

Hermy wrote: »

Cheers Dubh.

I've done that for an in-law whose test I'm helping him with.

In the case of that in-laws test, when I click Join A Project there are eight Matching Projects listed.
Do you happen to know what is the criteria upon which this list is based?

Are they the only projects genetically relevant to my in-law or is it rather that some of his matches are also members of these projects?

It's long time since I've join a project personally (8-10 years?) but I imagine you might be getting a list based on ancestral surnames (if you inputed them) or geography?

Obviously you can search for any project and hit join, depending on the project there might be automatic join process or ye'll have to wait for an admin to review application etc.

srmf5 · 29-02-2020 2:21pm

Hermy wrote: »

Cheers Dubh.

I've done that for an in-law whose test I'm helping him with.

In the case of that in-laws test, when I click Join A Project there are eight Matching Projects listed.
Do you happen to know what is the criteria upon which this list is based?

Are they the only projects genetically relevant to my in-law or is it rather that some of his matches are also members of these projects?

I think that the suggested projects are purely based on what projects have members with your surname. For example, one of my recommended projects is Hebrw DNA Research which is not relevant but one member has my surname. I have 92 recommended projects since my surname is so common.

Hermy · 29-02-2020 6:21pm

All bar one of the eight suggested projects are geographic in theme (Australia, New Zealand, USA) but bizarrely the one that is surname related has my surname which is relatively uncommon.

Cragaun · 01-03-2020 1:16am

I did a DNA test on ancestry a couple of years back. Some close matches who could perhaps help tie out a project I am working with a few others have not logged in to ancestry in a year plus.

I have sent a message on ancestry including my email contact address. Does anyone know if the message will reach their email if they no longer have an active sub on ancestry?

kanadams123 · 01-03-2020 9:42am

Cragaun wrote: »

I did a DNA test on ancestry a couple of years back. Some close matches who could perhaps help tie out a project I am working with a few others have not logged in to ancestry in a year plus.

I have sent a message on ancestry including my email contact address. Does anyone know if the message will reach their email if they no longer have an active sub on ancestry?

I still get email notifications about messages I receive on ancestry, even without an active subscription.

Im not sure if this setting can be changed but my guess is that it's possible!

I have a similar situation to you as well, it can be quite frustrating not getting replies, especially when the match appears really close and could be a great help in solving a few brick walls!

pinkypinky · 01-03-2020 3:53pm

I have not received messages in the past when I had no subscription but like Kanadams123, I've heard others say they have.

What I do know is that Ancestry is rolling out a new much improved messaging system. It's launched in the USA so we should have it soon. This new systems looks more modern, with conversation threads and it shows you when the message was read. Search facilities will be much better too.

Cragaun · 01-03-2020 4:04pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

I have not received messages in the past when I had no subscription but like Kanadams123, I've heard others say they have.

What I do know is that Ancestry is rolling out a new much improved messaging system. It's launched in the USA so we should have it soon. This new systems looks more modern, with conversation threads and it shows you when the message was read. Search facilities will be much better too.

Interesting about the search options. I missed two children on the baptism record who are core to this search on baptism rrecords on ancestry but a friend found them on roots.

pinkypinky · 01-03-2020 4:39pm

To clarify, I meant the ability to search within the messages, rather than the whole site.

srmf5 · 03-03-2020 6:09pm

Yes, you can receive messages without a subscription on AncestryDNA. You can also initiate messsages with DNA matches without a subscription. I get notified of new messages by email but there may be a way to turn it off.

Hermy · 04-03-2020 10:34am

My y-DNA results have just come back and I have no matches.

Obviously not what I was hoping for but is there anything I can infer from this?

pinkypinky · 04-03-2020 10:37am

What level of marker did you test to, Hermy?

i.e. if you did Y37, make sure you also check if you've matches at 25 and 12 markers. You will get notifications all the time about matches, don't worry.

I started with very few matches on my uncle's test but barely a day goes by without some hit now. But no matches to our surname yet.

All you can really infer at this stage is that no one in the database matches you right now.

Hermy · 04-03-2020 10:56am

pinkypinky wrote: »

All you can really infer at this stage is that no one in the database matches you right now.

Yeah, I kinda thought that was the answer before I posted.

I tested at 37 but there are no matches at 25 or 12 either.

I was hoping against hope that this might finally reveal my paternal side but time and patience and all that.

srmf5 · 04-03-2020 5:50pm

Hermy wrote: »

My y-DNA results have just come back and I have no matches.

Obviously not what I was hoping for but is there anything I can infer from this?

That is very odd. Most Irish people seem to get lots of matches at Y-12. What is your predicted haplogroup? R-M269 would be most common for Irish people. My dad has 737 Y-25 matches and, if I remember correctly when I last checked, about 15,000 Y-12 matches. However, at the moment, I get the message:

12 MARKERS - 0 - MATCHES
Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Are you getting this message by any chance? If you are, you might have lots of Y-12 matches if you check later. Unfortunately, they won't be much help either way. My dad is lucky enough to have lots of surname matches but I'd be amazed at someone having no Y-12 matches.

Edit: My dad's Y-12 matches loaded correctly. It might have been because I was trying to do it on my phone. He has 18,331 Y-12 matches.

Ipso · 04-03-2020 6:10pm

Hermy wrote: »

My y-DNA results have just come back and I have no matches.

Obviously not what I was hoping for but is there anything I can infer from this?

What is your Haplogroup? I have only 5 or 6, but I am in Haplogroup I which I think is found in about 10% to 15% of Irish males. It is then broken down into three sub-groups and the one I am in can be broken down further to a group that is found most frequently in the Galloway region of Scotland and tends to skew towards people of a plantation background in Ireland.
You must one of the other "funky" ones like C or G.

Interestingly, I once contacted someone who was fairly closely related to me and asked him about his haplogroup J findings, his male background was from Clare and the only match he got was someone from Saudi Arabia.

Hermy · 04-03-2020 6:45pm

Ipso wrote: »

What is your Haplogroup?

Haplogroup is R-M269.

srmf5 wrote: »

Are you getting this message by any chance?

No, not getting that message.

Ipso · 04-03-2020 7:00pm

M-269 is very broad, could be a delay in getting results or who knows maybe a rare clade.

pinkypinky · 04-03-2020 9:12pm

Every man I've tested with Irish ancestry is R-M269. None of them is related to each other in a genealogical period!

Ipso · 06-03-2020 8:31pm

Has anyone had a large increase in matches due to year end sales etc? Supposedly 23andme have said their sales are on the way down, I haven't had as many new matches pop up as this time last year, like wise with Family Tree DNA.

pinkypinky · 06-03-2020 9:39pm

Friend of mine reported a bunch of new matches this week on My Heritage.

dubhthach · 09-03-2020 6:12pm

Hermy wrote: »

My y-DNA results have just come back and I have no matches.

Obviously not what I was hoping for but is there anything I can infer from this?

Hermy,

Can you join the Ireland yDNA Project in FTDNA and send me a pm with your kit number. I can check you against other project members and see if there are any implied matches.

By default all Western Eurasian R1b is going to get a prediction of M269. You will only get a more precise terminal haplogroup via further testing such as with a SNP bundle etc.

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/ireland-heritage

Hermy · 09-03-2020 6:47pm

PM sent.

Hermy · 12-03-2020 5:56pm

Just an update to say I now have five matches at Y-12 so that's something.

mindhorn · 31-05-2020 4:28pm

For those who have used AncestryDNA, have you also subscribed for a month/year? I'm waiting for my results to come back and seeing if I'll get the most out of it by subscribing. It'll be another approx 160 euro per year, so it isn't cheap, but I don't want to spend 100 euro on the test and not reap the full benefits.

And if you have subscribed, have you put your family tree on there as well? I have my tree saved elsewhere offline so would have to start populating it from scratch.

OU812 · 31-05-2020 5:14pm

You can subscribe for a month.

Ideally, you’d have the tree on it as it can use an algorithm to work out relationships of distant cousins.

pinkypinky · 31-05-2020 6:26pm

I think a tree is essential to make the most of what Ancestry DNA offers.

VirginiaB · 31-05-2020 6:30pm

I did my DNA on Ancestry and FamilyTree. FamilyTree was totally useless, btw. Your mileage may vary.

I have my tree on Ancestry but it's private for various reasons. However, I made a 'skeleton' tree to attach to my DNA results. It has all my known direct ancestors back to the great-greats and some beyond. It has just basic info such as names and places and dates of birth and death. This is a huge help with the extremely valuable 'Shared Matches' feature.

I do have a World membership as Ancestry is so useful for me. Just this week, a new member--a distant cousin I never heard of--posted a family doc with details about my great-great-great grandmother who immigrated from Co Antrim to Kansas in the 1860s. You might subscribe to Ancestry for a month to see if it's of any use to you.

pinkypinky · 31-05-2020 6:36pm

There is usually a one-time offer of 50% off the full annual subscription when you do Ancestry DNA.

I used to use the skeleton tree route but actually you need the siblings and spouses in each generation because they're where you'll find the matches.

I have also tested on FTDNA and have made some good progress there too. People are more serious, where you get a casual user on Ancestry who never logs in again.

I'm awaiting results on a first 23andme test right now.

paddysdream · 31-05-2020 11:25pm

mindhorn wrote: »

For those who have used AncestryDNA, have you also subscribed for a month/year? I'm waiting for my results to come back and seeing if I'll get the most out of it by subscribing. It'll be another approx 160 euro per year, so it isn't cheap, but I don't want to spend 100 euro on the test and not reap the full benefits.

And if you have subscribed, have you put your family tree on there as well? I have my tree saved elsewhere offline so would have to start populating it from scratch.

Have subscribed to Ancestry on and off over the past few years but to be honest its just to look at trees on the site as have more or less exhausted their record collections that are/were useful to me.

Have my tree on there connected to a couple of DNA tests.To be honest its more or less essential as I find that a DNA match without a tree is of very little use esp. if the person either doesn't reply to a message or perhaps hasn't been active on the site for a long time.
Only hope in that case is to look at shared matches and maybe try and work out any possible connection.

Have also uploaded test results to FTDNA,Gedmatch and My Heritage as well as a couple of Facebook groups.
Find none of them as good as Ancestry but then only using the available free resources on the other sites so perhaps an unfair comparison.

Found that Ancestry provided the most results for close DNA matches (up to 3rd/4th cousin).FTDNA gives me 433 results in total with 60/70 matching with 30cM or more,My Heritage 8050 matches with about 100 showing a match with 30cM or more shared,Gedmatch 3000 hits with about 30 over 30cM.Ancestry gives me 150 plus matches with at least 30cM shared.

Agree with the poster above when he says Ancestry has a lot of users who seem to have no interest in looking at the site after an initial look at their results or so I find.Many never respond to message's and a lot of users haven't logged in for a year plus.

pinkypinky · 01-06-2020 11:35am

It was me who said Ancestry users can be casual, but it's also true of My Heritage users.
There's also still a technology issues because many testers are over 60. I've had many professional consultations where I just show people how to use their DNA results properly.

I also have more close matches on Ancestry - but I know why. There were several generations of multiple emigrants in my mother's ancestry; they all went to America, and were prolific. Often I see a new match there and already know who they are.

With our missing 19th century censuses, I think it can be difficult to identify Irish matches below 50cM. You can get lucky with records to tie in or good pedigrees. I did figure out one single match at the 11cM level for these reasons.

paddysdream · 01-06-2020 12:38pm

Agree its frustrating with some DNA matches who seem to show no inclination to follow up but that's people I suppose.
For example have a match on Ancestry of 53cM over 3 segments that I have no clue whatsoever about.All I can figure out is that they are related on my fathers side as no match to my mother's DNA results.
They share no matches with any known relatives although they and I have 10 plus shared matches.

Smallest definite ones on Ancestry for me are;
daughter of 3rd cousin with 11cM shared (know them in real life so simple enough)
4th cousin once removed with 10cM shared (from well researched tree they have)
son of 3rd cousin with 9cM shared (from tree plus aware of the general family group,surnames etc from USA).In between this person and their father (34cM shared) ranked on shared DNA in the group I have 51 matches who look very likely to be related on the same line and I can only place 6 in my tree for definite.Another 2/3 I can guess at but the remainder I have no clue as no trees attached and radio silence re. messaging.
That's the frustrating bit but making a breakthrough is what makes it interesting,well for me anyways.

mindhorn · 01-06-2020 2:15pm

Thanks everyone. Since I haven't received any offers of 50% off the annual sub I've decided to give the worldwide month sub a go.

And one more quick question (slightly off topic now, I know, but following on from the above). VirginiaB said that their tree is private but in general do you guys make your tree public or private? Is it more beneficial to have a public tree linked to my DNA test?

pinkypinky · 01-06-2020 2:26pm

You should go public but don't put any living people in it.

paddysdream · 01-06-2020 3:43pm

My tree is public and searchable but think that the default position on Ancestry for public trees is that anyone shown as living is not publicially viewable unless I send the viewer an invite or give them permission to access my tree.

Not much point in having a tree on a site and then making it private imo.Bit of a pointless exercise.
I just have a note asking people to check with me before copying any details from it in case I might have doubts as to the accuracy of the info but I am pretty confident its 100% back to c.1800 or so which is about the extent of Irish records.
Some people seem to be very precious regarding "their" tree and really don't like others copying it but whats the fun in it unless you can "amaze your family and friends" ?

pinkypinky · 01-06-2020 4:32pm

paddysdream wrote: »

My tree is public and searchable but think that the default position on Ancestry for public trees is that anyone shown as living is not publicially viewable unless I send the viewer an invite or give them permission to access my tree.

Correct, but I also don't want to give that information to Ancestry.

paddysdream · 01-06-2020 5:18pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

Correct, but I also don't want to give that information to Ancestry.

Why not?

VirginiaB · 01-06-2020 5:31pm

So many points to make, sorry.

There are a lot of serious researchers on Ancestry. You'll connect if you're on long enough, often enough and demonstrate your own serious approach to the subject. Having said that, I have gotten--and shared--info with those who are not 'serious' but are related to me.

I keep my main tree private as too many people copy willy-nilly--photos, records, whatever--who are no relation at all and have crazy trees with people in the 1900s giving birth to people in the 1700s and the like.

I also keep it private as it is very easy to find living people if you have the names of their deceased parents, spouses, grandparents etc. I sometimes do it myself but I don't want it done unto me or my living relatives.

On Ancestry, I have 236 fourth cousins or closer. Ancestry defines that as 20 or more shared centimorgans. I have identified the relationship with almost all of them. I also have been able to identify a number of 5th to 8th cousins, down to between six and 19 shared cms. Trees are critical here.

There is enough info on my skeleton tree for a serious researcher to figure out our relationship. I get replies to most of my queries and I always, always reply to the queries I receive--and share those photos and records with actual relatives.

Hermy · 01-06-2020 5:43pm

paddysdream wrote: »

Not much point in having a tree on a site and then making it private imo.Bit of a pointless exercise.

Having a tree on Ancestry and not sharing it with anyone is far from pointless.

paddysdream · 01-06-2020 5:50pm

Hermy wrote: »

Having a tree on Ancestry and not sharing it with anyone is far from pointless.

Again, why?

Maybe its me but whats with all the "nobody is allowed to copy my work" vibe ?
To me a family tree is just that; an accumulation of names ,dates ,facts, stories etc put together and called X family tree.
Whats the point of doing it if its to be kept a secret?

Oh and by the way what is a "serious" researcher ?
To me its a bit of fun doing it during the long winter nights and lets be honest here 99.99% of its as easy as pie,its the last little bit that makes it challenging and interesting.

Sorry if all the above comes across as a bit scathing but people who take a hobby that serious always give me the idea that they are taking all the fun out of it.And is that not what it is in essence,a bit of fun?

pinkypinky · 01-06-2020 9:05pm

Well, for a start, some of us are professional genealogists here. That doesn't mean it's not fun but I do take it seriously.

It's not about something being secret, though I'm sure people have different levels of what they want to share. However, for a lot of people, it's not "easy as pie".

This forum is generally a respectful place: please keep it that way.

Hermy · 01-06-2020 11:34pm

paddysdream wrote: »

Again, why?

Maybe its me but whats with all the "nobody is allowed to copy my work" vibe ?
To me a family tree is just that; an accumulation of names ,dates ,facts, stories etc put together and called X family tree.
Whats the point of doing it if its to be kept a secret?

Oh and by the way what is a "serious" researcher ?
To me its a bit of fun doing it during the long winter nights and lets be honest here 99.99% of its as easy as pie,its the last little bit that makes it challenging and interesting.

Sorry if all the above comes across as a bit scathing but people who take a hobby that serious always give me the idea that they are taking all the fun out of it.And is that not what it is in essence,a bit of fun?

Why? Because there's loads to be gained from using Ancestry before you ever share a single thing with another user.

And I'm not saying everything has to be kept secret - I just don't like people copying my work. I don't mind sharing information but I'd rather people did their own research regardless and that way if I've made a mistake they might pick up on it.

Instead, when my trees were public people copied and pasted information from them, often adding the information to incorrect info on their own trees, and since then those compounded errors have been copied by others and the mistakes have spread like a virus.

I'm one of those "serious" researchers. I'm passionate about genealogy and because I care about it I like to see it done right. And yeah, that does mean that sometimes it's not much fun - just tedium and frustration. But the reward for persevering and breaking through those brick walls make it all worthwhile.

For others it may just be a bit of fun and that's fine. But many of those who don't take genealogy so seriously don't care about the inaccuracies that litter their trees and where's the fun in that.

spurious · 02-06-2020 10:50am

I know we have gone a little off topic here, but seriously considering giving Ancestry a miss once the current sub runs out. I think they are very overpriced for what they offer, it really annoys me that new subscribers can get deals whereas people with them for years can't, but the last straw is the completely ludicrous (wrong country/continent etc.) 'hints' they keep giving me.

They clearly send them to less discerning types too, who add huge swathes of my tree to theirs resulting in 72 and 8 year old mothers. I used to message such people to point out they had made a mistake, but was either ignored or abused.

DNA Analysis

Comments