My dna matches have different surname how to#
My dna matches have different surname full#

Just how different can siblingsвЂ™ DNA test results really be? Well, if you consider DNA matches at the level of 4th cousins or closer-a level at which matches are unlikely to be Identical by Population or Identical by Chance-my sister has 248 matches currently, and I have 169. If you think of your ancestors-the people youвЂ™re trying to learn about-as the targets of your DNA testing, then relatives from older generations are вЂњupstreamвЂќ from your position in the family tree, and therefore closer to the target, and relatives from younger generations are вЂњdownstream.вЂќ However, DNA samples from the children or grandchildren of your siblings and first cousins will not be as informative, since your parents or grandparentsвЂ™ DNA is further diluted in these individuals. Therefore testing your siblings gives you added information about your parentsвЂ™ DNA, and testing your first cousins will give you additional insights into your grandparentsвЂ™ DNA, that are not provided by looking only at your own DNA.

My dna matches have different surname full#

Full siblings (except for identical twins) inherit different bits of DNA from their parents, which they then pass down to successive generations. You can still gain valuable information by testing your siblings and first cousins. If you are among the oldest members of your family, donвЂ™t despair. So, my GrandmaвЂ™s DNA contains information about ancestors about two generations further back than mine does. This is because the amount of autosomal DNA that you could potentially inherit from any particular ancestor gets cut in half with each successive generation. The general rule of thumb is to test your oldest relatives first. I typically wait until thereвЂ™s a good sale, and then stock up on several kits at once. If your match list includes very few close matches (Immediate Family, Close Family, 1st Cousins, 2nd Cousins or Third Cousins), you may want to begin proactively target-testing your family members, as finances permit. Be sure to encourage them to read the terms of service for these sites before they upload. ThatвЂ™s a good thing those results confirm the established paper trail as discussed in the last post, and with any luck, you can persuade those cousins to upload their DNA to one of the other sites that offers a chromosome browser, such as Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, or GEDmatch. If youвЂ™re new to DNA testing, your list may include some close matches from your family tree, because you have family members (already known to you) who decided independently to test their DNA. As discussed previously, many of the distant matches, especially those with whom I share 7 cM of DNA or less, are false positives and should be evaluated very critically, or completely ignored. Of course, not all of these are quality matches. A few weeks ago, I had 209 pages of matches at Ancestry (at 50 matches per page) today, I have 234 pages of matches.

New test results from the holiday DNA test sales have already started to hit the match lists, so you may have noticed a more dramatic uptick in your number of matches recently. For this reason itвЂ™s a good idea to check back periodically to view your DNA results reported by each company with which youвЂ™ve tested.В Ancestry will report your closest matches first, and after that, more distant matches are ranked in terms of both shared DNA (expressed in centimorgans, cM) and general degree of confidence (expressed as вЂњextremely high,вЂќ вЂњvery high,вЂќ вЂњhigh,вЂќ or вЂњmoderateвЂќ). Nope, DNA test results are the gift that keeps on giving, and as more people test, our list of matches will grow. I think most of us realize that the list of DNA matches we receive when we first get our test results is not static. Today, IвЂ™d like to talk a little more about using your DNA match list at Ancestry, and the specific tools that are available there.

My dna matches have different surname how to#

So itвЂ™s not surprising that there are many testers who arenвЂ™t really sure how to make best use of their results. Many family historians took high school biology classes a long time ago, and for those who attended high school back in the 1950s or вЂ™60s, the topic of DNA may not have been covered at all. When I say вЂњscientifically-challenged,вЂќ IвЂ™m not judging, here. In my last post, I tried to introduce some basic concepts in genetic genealogy in a shameless attempt to stimulate increased interest in DNA matches among scientifically-challenged genealogists.