Think of Doing a DNA Test? Things to Know Before you Take It

I know Ancestry pushes the ethnicity part of DNA testing. What they don't tell you is that the ethnicity part is fairly new science and the database is still limited enough that it probably won't be 100% accurate.

In addition just because 1 great grandparent is from England, 1 from Spain, 1 from Africa, 1 from Germany, 1 from Scandinavia, 1 from Cambodia, 1 from China, and 1 is 100% Native American does not mean you will be 1/8 of each of those ethnicities.

Yes you get 50% of your DNA from your mom and 50% from your dad, but I don't think anyone has ever gotten exactly 25% from each grandparent. It may be a 30/20/15/35 mix or some other combination.

Plus remember just because your Great Grandparents came from a certain region doesn't mean that is where their ancestors were from. Or even if they have lived in the same region for the last 1,000 years most places have had invaders. Sometimes the invaders stayed in the new region, or sometimes they left little souvenirs behind which affects the ethnicity of future generations.

The ethnicity results are fun and interesting, but the real benefit to DNA testing is in the DNA cousin matches. They help verify the paper trail and break down brick walls.

Just be aware you may find out things you weren't aware of. You might find a close relative you weren't aware of, or you might find out someone you thought was a blood relative really isn't related by blood after all.

I don't want to discourage anyone from taking a DNA test, in fact I actively encourage people to do so. I have tested at both 23andMe and at Ancestry, then transferred my DNA to Gedmatch, FamilyTree DNA and My Hertitage. My feeling is the more places my DNA is the more likely I am to connect with all the DNA cousins I can. And the more DNA cousins I connect with the more brick walls that will fall, either for myself or for others.

In addition to my own tests I have paid for 2 family members to test at Ancestry and 5 to test at 23andMe. As you can see I think DNA testing is great. I have verified some of my paper trails, including one that was based on circumstantial evidence at best. And the more people that test the more likely I will be able to verify the rest of the lines. But I think it is important that people make the choice to test based on facts, not because of fancy advertisements.

Genetic Genealogy

Genealogy can be an exciting hobby. There is the excitement of hunting for a missing piece of information; the satisfaction of figuring out a puzzle that others couldn’t solve; and the joy of adding a new person to the family tree.

In recent years there has been a new tool to help locate relatives and verify the connections on your family tree. That tool is DNA testing for genealogical purposes. The three main companies that do DNA testing are 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, and AncestryDNA.

Segments of DNA are measured by centimorgans (cMs). Usually the more cMs that 2 people share the closer the relationship is. The chart below illustrates how the amount of DNA we inherit from our ancestors can vary widely, even by the time you reach the Second Cousin level of relationship.

If you look closely at the following chart you will see that second cousins John and Allison share 330 cMs of DNA, while John only shares 31.3 cMs with Albert another one of his second cousins. That is quite a difference, yet both relationships are that of second cousins. Yet, the amount of DNA that Jeanetta shares with those same two second cousins is much closer. She shares 120 cMs with Allison and 124.5 cMs with Albert.

This is because of how dna is recombined and passed down through the generations. I plan on doing a more detailed description about that in a future post, for now I just wanted to share this part of it.

1. Frederick J. Newman and Louise Grace Boyer are the common ancestors for: Linda, Mark, Albert, John and Jeanetta.
2. Walter Lucier and Ellen Bownes are the common ancestors for: John, Jeanetta, David and Thomas.
3. Thomas Riordan and Grace Janvrin are the common ancestors for: John, Jeanetta, Heather and Allison.

Me and Louise Grace (Boyer) Newman

Genetics can be a wonderful thing to explore, they are what make us who we are. I have really been enjoying learning more about how genetics work and using that knowledge to try and find how my genetic cousins fit into my tree.

But while that is a very fun part of genetics, I also find it very interesting to see the physical evidence of how I have inherited certain characteristics from my ancestors. As you can see from the picture below, I strongly inherited my physical looks from my paternal grandmother. I believe she is close to the same age as I am currently in the picture, although she might be a little older than me, depending on which of my cousins was in the picture with her.

I wish I could ask her who she resembles, but she died just before I turned ten so I can't do that. I don't even know if she knew who she resembled because her mom, Emma (Antrim) Boyer, died when she was still a child. And her dad, Frederick R Boyer, didn't seem to be in her life after that. If anyone seeing this is a cousin on those lines and sees a family resemblance to your branch I would love to hear from you!

Looking At How The X Chromosome Is Passed Down

I have been doing more research and learning about how to use DNA to try and find relatives. The specific part that I have been looking at concerns how the X chromosome is passed down from generation to generation. The X chromosome is NEVER passed from Father to Son. It can be passed Father to Daughter, Mother to Daughter or Mother to Son. Again it is never passed from Father to Son. This narrows down which lines you will look at in trying to find the match for someone who you match on the X chromosome. There are some good charts and information on DNA - Genealem's Genetic Genealogy Blog. I downloaded her graphic for the female being the 1st person on the chart and filled it out with the names of the ancestors I know. Below is that fan chart filled out with my ancestors that could have passed an x chromosome to me.

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Edited on 7 January 2018 to add: I really should update this fan chart to include the ancestors I have managed to find in the last 2 1/2 years. But while this chart may not reflect all the names of the ancestors I now know, it does show that of the 128 ancestors at the 5x great grandparent level I could have only inherited DNA on the X chromosome from 34 of them. It really does help narrow down possibilities, especially if you also match on other Chromosomes. BTW for Males, the number of ancestors at that 5x great grandparents level you can received DNA from on the X Chromosome is down to 21 people.

FamilyTreeDNA and the tools available on that site

I have written in the past about having my DNA tested at both AncestryDNA and at 23andMe. Those are not the only two companies that do DNA testing, and a couple of those companies allow you to transfer your Raw DNA data from either Ancestry or 23andMe. I have taken advantage of FamilyTreeDNA's (FTDNA) service and gedmatch. With FTDNA you transfer your DNA and then have a choice of either paying $39 to unlock your matches or to ask 4 other people to also transfer their DNA to their company using a specially generated link. Gedmatch is a totally free, volunteer site. But today I am going to talk about a couple of the tools available on FTDNA

There are two very useful tools that I have found on FTDNA. The first is the "in common with" and the second is the "chromosome comparison."

The "in common with" tool allows you to search for people that share DNA with you and another member of their database. Say for example you have a confirmed 2nd cousin on FTDNA, you could then use the "in common with tool" to find others that also match the 2 of you to find other potential cousins. At this point I do not haven any confirmed matches on FTDNA, so I used it in a different way.

The first thing I did was find someone that I shared a good sized segment of DNA. I then clicked on the "in common with" tool and found we had 25 people that in one way or another we share as a potential match. I then used the second tool, the "chromosome comparison" tool.

Using the chromosome comparison tool I found out that 12 of the 25 people we had as common matches matched both her and I at the same area on chromosome one.

What does that mean? it means that at some point in our trees the 14 of us share a common ancestor, or ancestors. Now working together we can try and figure out who that ancestor is.

There is just one problem, when writing these matches I am finding some of them are not understanding what I am talking about when I mention the "in common with" tool and the "chromosome comparison" tool. So I have made the following pictures to hopefully help others understand these tools and how I used them.

If you have questions or something isn't clear, please contact me so I can try and make it easier to understand. Happy hunting!

Using DNA Test to Find Relatives.

I have mentioned in previous posts (see blogs dated 2 Aug 2014; 24 Apr 2013; 2 Sep 2012; 8 April 2012) that I have tested with both 23andMe & with ancestry DNA tests. And that 2 of my 4 children have also taken the 23andMe test. A paternal male cousin (our fathers are brothers) has too, so that should get us the Newman line. This cousin's son has taken the ancestry DNA test, so I have a link to my paternal line on that site too.

I have done a little bit to try and contact those that are matches on to me on those 2 sites. So far no close relatives have responded to me. However I have been able to connect my 2 kids to three 2nd cousins from their fathers side. One from their paternal grandfathers line and two from their paternal grandmother's line. One of those from their grandmother's line was part of a closed adoption so doesn't have any clue to her ancestry. It made me happy to be able to tell her that while I couldn't tell her who her mother or father was, and I could only tell her that her grandparent was 1 of 13, I could tell her that her great grandparents were Thomas Francis Riordan and Grace Lillian Janvrin. I am really hoping my kids will reach out to this 2nd cousin and maybe together they can find out more for her, or at very least be a connection to her birth family for her.

On a personal side I have just joined a facebook group called "Ancestry-Gedmatch-FTDNA-23&me-Genealogy and DNA" It is a pretty large (6000+ members) and active group and I hope to learn more about how I can use these DNA tests to connect to my relatives.

I have also uploaded the raw data from the 23andMe test to FTDNA, and if I get 4 people to add their DNA test through this link I will fully unlock the site and be able to find matches on their site too for free.
Click Here if you are willing to upload your raw data to FTDNA and help me unlock the features. If I don't get 4 others to help I will have to pay $39 to unlock it and I really don't have that in my budget currently.

The people in the group have also been talking about genmatch, and when I went to upload my raw data to that site I discovered I had uploaded it July 2011! My kit number is M173936 if you are also on genmatch and want to see if we have a match.

To help me remember where I have memberships and subscriptions I have started a sheet in my research log for "online presence" where I can list all the links to websites where I have an account of some type. I have a columns for website name, url, username, password, subscription information (for those that are subscription sites), and notes. Hopefully that will keep me from forgetting where I have uploaded trees and other info!

Newman paternal haplogroup

One of my male cousins on the Newman side did the 23andMe dna testing, The results for the paternal haplogroup show our Newman branch is R1b1b2a1a1. R1b1b2a1a1 is most commonly found on the fringes of the North Sea.

The interesting part is that my son's paternal haplogroup is R1b1b2a1a1* (which would be the LUCIER line).

From 23andMe:
Today R1b1b2a1a1 is found mostly on the fringes of the North Sea in England, Germany and the Netherlands, where it reaches levels of one-third. That distribution suggests that some of the first men to bear the haplogroup in their Y-chromosomes were residents of Doggerland, a real-life Atlantis that was swallowed up by rising seas in the millennia following the Ice Age. Doggerland was a low-lying region of forests and wetlands that must have been rich in game; today, fishing trawlers in the North Sea occasionally dredge up the bones and tusks of the mastodons that roamed there. Doggerland had its heyday between about 12,000 years ago, when the Ice Age climate began to ameliorate, and 9,000 years ago, when the meltwaters of the gradually retreating glaciers caused sea levels to rise, drowning the hunter's paradise. Doggerland's inhabitants retreated to the higher ground that is now the North Sea coast.

23andme DNA testing....

I used 23andme a year ago to do dna testing. It shows that my maternal Haplogroup is H2a2b1. I haven't managed to locate any relatives there unfortunately, but have received some interesting health information from them.
Just recently I purchased kits for one of my daughters and one of my sons and their results are now in. The paternal Haplogroup is R1b1b2a1a1 (which would be the LUCIER line). From 23and me: "Today R1b1b2a1a1 is found mostly on the fringes of the North Sea in England, Germany and the Netherlands, where it reaches levels of one-third. That distribution suggests that some of the first men to bear the haplogroup in their Y-chromosomes were residents of Doggerland, a real-life Atlantis that was swallowed up by rising seas in the millennia following the Ice Age. "Doggerland was a low-lying region of forests and wetlands that must have been rich in game; today, fishing trawlers in the North Sea occasionally dredge up the bones and tusks of the mastodons that roamed there. Doggerland had its heyday between about 12,000 years ago, when the Ice Age climate began to ameliorate, and 9,000 years ago, when the meltwaters of the gradually retreating glaciers caused sea levels to rise, drowning the hunter's paradise. Doggerland's inhabitants retreated to the higher ground that is now the North Sea coast." As to be expected, since I am their mother, I share 50% DNA over 23 segments with both of them. The two of them share 49.1% DNA over 53 segments. When I have some time to play around with it, I will see if I can find relatives on their dad's side for the tree.

DNA and Family Tree

I got the results from Ancestry.com DNA test, it says I am 51% Scandinavian, 27% British Isles, 18% Eastern European, and 4% uncertain. The British Isle part I expected, Scandinavian and Eastern European not so much, Unless they immigrated into the Kingdom of Hanover (modern day Germany)?