DNA Bounty

Back in 2016 in a post titled Giggle and Scrape I related the story of a luncheon with two of my first cousins and the fun we had when I produced DNA kits from my handbag.

The cousins willingly agreed to take an FTDNA test for me. At the time Ancestry DNA was the new kid on the block and experts were suggesting FTDNA as the place to test. I also uploaded these results to Gedmatch. The number of matches we have received from these matches is rather disappointing. 

Meanwhile in June 2015 I had tested with Ancestry (that new kid on the block) which due to clever and aggressive marketing now has the largest database and is the place suggested by experts as the first choice when diving into DNA testing. I have found at least ten times more good matches on Ancestry than on FTDNA. I have also tested with MyHeritage which is providing some good matches. I have had little joy from 23andMe and Living DNA.

Both Jane (Cousin Number 1 that tested for me in 2016) and me are only children whose parents and all our aunts and uncles are deceased. The good news is that we are double first cousins so all of Jane's matches will be related to me and vice versa. Jane's three daughters who have all tested recently with Ancestry have many shared matches with me. It was a no brainer that Jane needed to spit for Ancestry.

When Jane and the girls visited in October I produced an Ancestry kit and with lots of giggling and encouragement from her daughters Jane dutifully managed to find some saliva. 

The results of Jane's test came in a few days before Christmas.  Even though I have had limited time to examine Jane's results I am thrilled with what I have already found, I am so grateful to Jane for generously submitting to another test. 

Jane's big spit

What I have learnt so far is that Jane and her daughters are my closest matches after my daughter.

Already Jane's matches have provided me with keys to identify and confirm more cousins. In time I hope they will help to bring more of our ancestors out of hiding.

There are many instances where matches are unique to Jane or me, the first of these occurs at the predicted 4th cousin level where Jane has a 75cm match to someone I have been able to identify on our maternal line.

There are also several instances where I have a very small match of 10-20cm but Jane has much higher matches with these persons. Confirmation that my small matches are valid is comforting.

Jane's percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Island ethnicity is higher than mine. 

To avoid confusion I have used the same Ancestry dotting schema for Jane's test as for mine. As someone who isn't too deeply into DNA I use a spreadsheet to track my matches, I had already used this for Jane's FTDNA and Gedmatch results and will add the Ancestry matches there too.

I am so thrilled with Jane's results that I will produce an Ancestry kit next time I catch up with Cousin 2 (1st cousin - paternal line) from 2016. I saw her at a function prior to Christmas but didn't have a kit with me, I won't be caught short next event.

I'm hoping that January will provide me with some time to go through all of Jane's matches down to around 15centimorgans.