Science Mirroring the Traditional

It took me half a dozen attempts this morning to find my new DNA ethnicity estimates on the Ancestry app. I presume many other genies around the world were trying to access their results at the same time.

When I finally got the results I was rather pleased as they appear to reflect what I have found through traditional research. I have always thought that I am about 67% Irish so I'll take 65% - thanks @AncestryDNA.

As I am an only child I have no siblings with whom I can compare research but I'm lucky enough to have a double first cousin who shares my two sets of grandparents and all my ancestors going back in time. 

While the results from my cousin's test and mine are basically the same there are a few minor differences in the amount of Scottish and English estimates but the total of these is very close. My cousin additionally has a 1% Basque estimate, I feel that may be a furphy.

My Results

Cousin's Results

I've posted our results here so that, next year, when Ancestry issue their next round of ethnicity estimates I can easily retrieve what they offered 2021.

What did you discover?

What a Difference!

Last night I was playing around with the Ancestry DNA that kits I manage.

I looked at my Double First Cousin's DNA ethnicity report from Ancestry.com  and thought it looked different from mine. I had expected that, as we share grandparents and direct ancestors on earlier generations, our reports would be similar. I got a surprise after I checked my report and compared the results side by side. (Sorry about the blurry images but I wanted to have them beside each other on the post so had to limit their size.). 

My ethnicity breakdown is a pretty good match with what I have discovered through traditional research but my cousin's doesn't ring true. 

 

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.

Dotting

Ancestry DNA's latest revelation that they are removing matches below 8 centimorgans from our match lists has created a new geneafrenzy or phenomenon, Dotting.

My social media feeds have been buzzing this week as DNA experts and genimates discuss this news. Although experts I follow eg Blaine Bettinger and  Debbie Kennett have written articles explaining why this move by Ancestry is not all gloom and doom many DNA amateurs like me are going dotty as we try to salvage our matches at the 6 and 7 cm level. I noted that two of our Australian experts in an online SAG discussion last Friday explained that they are busily salvaging matches. 

We have been told that to keep these matches in our lists we must do one of three things:

1. Create a note in their match field note 

2. Add them to a group you have created using the Ancestry coloured dot method

3. Send a message to the match using the Ancestry matching system  

My Dotting Schema

Of these Option 2 is the easiest as it does not require as much data input as Options 1 and 3. As most of us have thousands of matches, many in the lower range, we have no hope of salvaging all of these matches before some time in August when Ancestry have indicated the great purge will occur.

There have been many posts from genimates on social media outlining the priorities for their rescue missions. Most of these involve refining their lists of small matches further by surname, geographical location or matches who have online trees. I created a new dot in my schema Match under 8cm  to which I am adding my salvaged matches.

No matter which filtering methods we are applying to our lists there is one thing for certain there is a lot of  Dotting going on.

NB My genimate, Randy Seaver, has created a list of a number of expert responses to this news: https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/07/ancestrydna-changes-coming-soon-what-im.html.