I could figure out which side was my maternal side because, my mom's side had Wales, so that is my maternal side. The only thing I have an issue with is it says my mom has Scotland, but she has England, Wales, and France, from paper trails. I can see where the Sweden, Norway and Denmark come from because the Vikings invaded the British Isles, My father's mother was born in Scotland and her paternal grandfather was born in Ireland. My father's father was born in England.
Well two things come to mind... migrations and estimates. Remember these are estimates.... and then there is a possibility there were migrations that you are not aware of. These estimates could represent migrations over several hundreds of years.
My ethnicity estimates have changed SO many times! When I first had my DNA done, my estimates matched my research. Now they don't. My Jewish ancestry has disappeared from the Middle East. However, now I have many matches in Russia and Austria/Poland. (Jewish). My grandsons through my adopted daughter, have a set of Italian grandparents, which showed on their DNA tests when they were first done. Now, there is NO reference to Italy in their results. I'm glad I did the research before the DNA results started changing. I think that people moving all over the world today is what is changing the results. I hope people do not rely solely on their ethnicity estimates to find their roots. The good news is that we were able to find "lost siblings" and a niece through DNA matches.
Agreed. I do hope people don't rely just on DNA ethnicity estimates. There is a lot to do to confirm these connections through traditional genealogy. Also, keep in mind, we're the pioneers of DNA... it is at it's infancy.
Great video!. I have delved into this area as well and I do have a suggestion(s) for people new to these features. I would recommend Filtering DNA matches with common ancestors first, and by Parent 1 and Parent 2. Go for the low hangers for two reasons. Once, it is much easier to verify, and once doing that, you may find some valuable connections. Also, once you do Identify a profile, do two things. Set the actual relation, and Link the DNA result to the correct person in your tree. I don't have a recommendation where to go next but you might get lucky in that while you were finishing the commen ancestors, more of your matchs may have added additional information that will make them common as well. I use Notes as well to document an exact relation if it goies beyond Ancestrys offering (distant relative). And of course Any information you learned during your research that may be valuable, just document it. I do contact matches, though I've found the answer rate isn't as high as I'd like. On my maternal side, ive identified relatives I can confirm, however, I have a healthy numbre of dna matches where I question some of the information, usually 3rd great grand parent and earlier. Unfortunately my mothers side is 100% Irish, and record research can be difficult for Irish records, everyone has the same name, and too many people make too many leaps of faith in their trees, so until I can verify the correct information, I move on to the next. In my research finding these distant relatives has been so important. I've connecte so many wings of my family by simply branching out and DNA matches with common ancestors.... man I wish I had that when I started this. Happy Hunting
I have tested at Ancestry, 23 and Me and FamilyTreeDNA. Black Friday sales are about half the price. $50 vs $99. I got three last November to sit on and decided later who to gift them to. Ancestry I find the easiest and with the most family "hits".
Thanks so much for your videos and sharing your knowledge. You helped me make some sense of how to work with my DNA results to expand my tree in a purposeful, logical way.
Thank you Connie! I've been working a little bit with ThruLines lately and wondering if/how I can link them (the in-between relatives) to my tree, this video nails that explanation! Also, I wish Ancestry would color code the background of our main tree pages so that when we look at someone else's we would know at a glance. @15:39
Researching my dna cousins list has really helped me correct mistakes in my own tree, and contacting some of them has revealed a lot of information. Thanks for this great video!
Very cool results! There seems to be a few similarities in backgrounds. So, I'm connecting you as my distant cousin 😅. I love the way you style your videos and how informative these are. Keep up the awesome work🎉.
I recently did a DNA test and my results surprised me. I am pretty much English on English as per family lore and family tree/history. My biological fathers family I had a little info about so was able to start tracking back that side tree. My surprise was my English dna was only 54% between both sides and I have 30% Scottish with about 6% Irish. The Scottish is 100% from fathers side. I have found only one reference to Scotland and that was 5G ago. However that ancestor’s line is Irish the generation before and after plus subsequent. I think my surprise was based on surnames I expected definitely more English, and Irish being second, not third, with maybe a touch of Scottish due to proximity if nothing else. Still digging but watched this to see if some of the tools in this video would help me find that rather large percentage of Scottish. Oh, one really “out there” result is 1% Papuan. Go figure. Fun and interesting stuff.
Thanks, Connie! This was a great class - (review for me but reinforced thoughts I already had about the DNA page; in particular filtering ancestors based on known/unknown family names. I had some unique surnames on both sides of my tree that easily differentiated for me which side was which.)
It's possible to search some linked trees without having a current subscription though the tree needs to have media attached. #1 Click on a match from the main DNA matches page #2 Note the name of the linked tree (in case they have multiple trees) #3 Click on the profile of the match and check if there is media attached to the linked tree #4 If there is media click 'view all' (found to the top right above the displayed media such as photographs). #5 Clicking 'view all' should then open the Storymaker Studio page, at the top right of that page is the Tree Search option. It's not a back door to seeing the actual tree without a subscription but is a way to explore the names within a tree It's a shame there isn't a filter for trees with media a it would save the first four step listed.
You can't correct Thrulines. Think of it as a hint feature and not your tree. Make sure you have labeled your Parent 1 and Parent 2 correctly in the Ethnicity Results area.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks. I have labeled them correctly. I think some of the errors are coming from “unassigned” matches, maybe generated by trees of others.
Ancestry used to have a 'Top 10' list of names that appeared most often as a match. It was helpful because my sister had different ones to mine. This helped because it increase who who our potential ancestors might be. We used to ender these names one by one into the DNA match and came up with a wider range of ancestors. I can't find it. Is it still there. Thank you
Hi Connie! Love your videos! I found through the Relative Finder at Rootstech that we are distantly related (8th cousins twice removed). Seeing your DNA communities with several mentions of Kentucky re-affirms that!
@@GenealogyTV our shared grandparents are John Crew and Sarah Osborn Gatley. It seems to go from your Henley line. Thank goodness for the “view relationship” button!
My ethnicity breakdown includes 15% Irish. All the Irish DNA appears on my maternal side of the family. While my surname is Scottish (and the majority of my Scottish DNA appears on my paternal side, but I also have Scottish ancestry on my maternal side). What is interesting is my Y DNA (tested to Big Y 700 with FTDNA) is most likely Irish (the current theory is that I and a number of my Ewing cousins all are direct descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland, which appears to match the traditional history/genealogy of the first chief of my Scottish Clan).
This is interesting to me because my mother was very Scottish except for her fathers side where her great grandfather, surname Irwin came from Ireland. Ewing, is as I’ve come to believe a variant of Irwin. I ordered a book online that is a study of the Irwin family (including many of the variant spellings). If you would like the info on the book just send me a msg. I will send you the deets. As I said, my 2x great grandfather came from Ireland. I ran across another Irwin descendant on the Irish line who told me his Irwin line came from Scotland. So I think there was a lot of sailing back and forth between Ireland and Scotland. I also learned, that if you have an ancestor that came from say Ireland, and was married in Scotland and when their first child was born, it was born in Ireland - that’s often because when the first child was due, the women went back to stay with their mother to give birth. It was hardly uncommon for women to die in childbirth so it made them feel safer being with people who knew what to do. I don’t know if this was just for people in the British isles or if it was common in other countries. It’s always worth checking though if you see a child was born in an unexpected location. That’s one logical reason.
@@conniemurdoch8528 Ewing is actually a variation of the Scottish given name Eoghann (or Eoghain...there is some meaning to the "i" but I not sure what it is, both are pronounced yowen). The Irish Gaelic equivalent is Eoghan (pronounced owen). The modern English spellings of both names is Ewen (with all sorts of variations like Ewan, Euen, Ewin...) The first Chief of Clan Ewen was Ewen of Otter (Eóghain na h-Oitrich). My most likely Ewing immigrant ancestor to the "colonies" was Alexander Ewing, a son of James Ewing of Inch Island, County Donegal, Ulster Ireland. Alexander was definitely born in Ireland, but I'm not sure about James. James and a number of his brothers are assumed to be the sons of a Scottish Baron named William Ewing (but there are almost no historical documents to confirm that).
@@sewing1243 this is very interesting. I guess every theory needs to be evaluated depending who/where you got it from. I will have to go back to the Irwin book and see where that reference came from. I have a hard time reading it because I need a magnifying glass to read it - it’s a flipping teeny tiny font. I’m used to using ebooks where you can increase the font size by pinching or spreading.
You said Let's go to the DNA Painter. Is that part of Ancestry, a separate app, what? Where did you go? Could you please be specific when jumping around on the screen?
Appalachian family jokes aside....my cousin matches do come up paternal or maternal, but, often say "both" or not assigned to either side of the family. I suspect that DNA is too blended to determine and may end up as both eventually. Many ancestors on both sides were in the same area for 200 years or more! Yes, some common ancestors have cropped up and some unusual connections... Definitely a box of chocolates, nothing surprises me anymore and it actually cuts down on research!
I was a bit surprised when I got my Ancestry results back as it only showed two nationalities. British and Scandinavian. I am 51% British and 49% Scandinavian. Of the British, it is English and Scottish. Of the Scandinavian, it is Swedish and Danish. By the way, my grandmother was also born in Denmark, same as yours. :)
Thanks bunches. What I find interesting is that I am a Mayflower descendant (William Brewster). As such I have many ancestors in the New England area which do not show up on the map. I also have early Virginia and southern ancestors which do show up on the map of America. And thoughts as to why the discrepancy? I did the DNA test on my son. My wife is also has early American ancestry. There is strong evidence that we are 10th half brother and sister through a Sarah Smyth b. 1557 in England. Again thank you for all of the information...
Another educational video! I also have a color coded group of relatives that I share with a mystery cousin. I there a way to plot the grouped people into a chart or tree? The objective is to see connect the mystery cousin to the correct parent or child. Thanks.
I think one of the main problems is not enough people have a remotely filled in tree. You can have DNA and your information which is great. Yet when most others have only one line from each parent up if you are lucky
If you go through the DNA matches and answer "do you know this person?" and provide the relationship, is this for our own personal use or is it somehow fed into the "algorithm" to help others? Also, is there any advantage to linking a match to our tree -- again only for our personal convenience or can others "tune into" this somehow? Does this info feed the Thru-Lines?
Question or 2. Truline va dna match. I notice when i view common ancestors and relationships i update my dna matches. I noticed in the relationships are not popping up as the same ex: i change the relationship to 4 cousin 1x and i find another cousin same but in the relationship list does not show that. Why?
I don't know if you're going to mention this later on the video, but on the Ancestry Website when you look at the shared Ethnicity, it doesn't show you 100% of the ethnicity, it will only show all of yours and what you share with them (I found that you can see the entire list over the phone app), I think there is an option on the Website settings that might affect this but I don't remember on top of my head the name of the setting Also, the tree view of your shared DNA relative will be trunkated at the 4th generation (I think), if we have a free account on Ancestry Website, on the phone we're able to see more.
I've been able to go back several generations due to the work of other family members. However, no one can identify or locate my maternal great-grandfather. He's named on 3 documents and that's it.. I'm not sure how to move forward to find him
Thank you very much, Connie! Genetic genealogy is such a fascinating topic and Ancestry DNA is adding some interesting new tools. I especially look forward to comparing DNA painter results between my cousin matches. Comparing estimates of ethnicity and communities with my matches is interesting and sometimes amusing. For example, a cousin who lives in Berks Co. PA and has a long line of exclusively Pennsylvania Germans shows her as having NO German ethnicity and is not in the Pennsylvania community! 🙂 Many of my cousins that I know have German ethnicity, have no Germanic Europe ethnicity but large amounts of England and Northwestern Europe, and that includes me. Ancestry's reference population obviously has a strong bias to England. Perhaps they ought to test real Germans in Germanic Europe? Actually I'm not sure if I should just be amused by my estimate of ethnicity or alarmed! I've been researching my genealogy for a while and I know my genealogy, German and Norwegian on Mom's side and French and Irish on Dad's. Now I know that Norway and Sweden are neighbors and my Norwegian ancestors came from a bit west of Oslo, so not so far from Sweden. Also I know that it's possible I have more DNA from the Norwegian side than German, but on my mother's side the estimate is 21% Sweden/Denmark, 16% Norway, no German, instead 7% French and 7% England and NW Europe. Now I do suspect my Germans may have lived in Alsace so that could be the French part, England is likely really German. Perhaps the Swedish is from troops that occupied Alsace during the 30 years war and not Norwegian ancestry? Interestingly I have only 1% French on Dad's side, though I know they lived in the Pyrenees so were likely mostly iberian. But the estimate on that side is mostly Irish, Scottish and Wales, with a little Basque and Spain. The Irish were Ulster Irish. Some things to think about! But should I be alarmed or amused? And it just happens that my "brick walls" are on Mom's German side (they emigrated east to Hungary and Odessa before the Dakota and most Irish descendants have the same brick wall -- lack of Irish records from before about 1825,
Sounds like you have most of this figured out. Regarding estimates... it is what it is... and it will change. Don't stress over it. As the DNA test takers grows... the estimates will update and become more focused. Remember, DNA is at its infancy.
My Dad grew up always believing his mothers side was Pennsylvania Deutsch (Surname Vrooman). It turns out his ancestry was Dutch and his many times great grandfather arrived in New Netherlands 19th July 1664. He died in the Schenectady Massacre in 1690. We are descended from his son Adam. In fact, when my Dad was listed on his first census, his nationality is listed as Dutch even though the most recent ancestor from Holland arrived in yup 1664!
@@GenealogyTV hey Connie, it’s me Connie again. I wish more people understood how the ethnicity estimates work. I have the hardest time explaining this to people. My Ancestry estimates have jumped back and forth many times so I’m never surprised to see the numbers change. I have a funny story about my 98 year old aunt. About 10 years ago when my aunt still emailed all the time we chatted back and forth about our Scottish roots. I would tell her my new % of Scottish ethnicity they had me pegged at and she would say something like “Away with ya! Who’s the damt fool that’s tellin’ ye that? Yer mammy and yer mammys mammy and all the way back, there none of them without a Mc or a Mac in their names!” I used to love to get her started. Anyhow, my Scottish heritage numbers kept going up an up all the time so one day I asked my nephew to tell his Mum that Ancestry says that I am 76% Scottish now and to ask her what she thinks of that. She immediately quipped back “tell her to take a wee dram and she’ll be 80%”. She is my mothers older sister. My mom passed away 17 years ago. Nothing was funnier than when the two of them bickered back and forth. Even better was when my grandmother was there and she would tell them “haud your wheesht the two o’ ye or I’ll gee ye a right skelpin’” at the time my mom would have been in her mid 60’s and her mom in her 80’s. My mom came to Canada at the age of 19 with my Dad who had served in the Canadian Forestry Corps during WW II. The Glasgow folks never visited until they were older and once they visited once they came almost every year. My Grandmother visited for 3 months when she came. She loved the climate here because Canada can have some pretty warm summers. And we certainly never would have gotten to know her as well as we did without all the long visits.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks. I actually don't take these estimates seriously. Just having fun with them. My cousin matches are for me were the true value of DNA testing lies. I've tested with 5 companies and the estimates are very different with all of them. I have quite a few Pennsylvania German cousin matches, even though I have none in my direct line. The common ancestors lived in Germanic Europe before our ancestors emigrated -- theirs directly to North America and mine the roundabout path east and finally to the Dakota Territory (the so-called Donauschwaben and Germans from Russia). Since the focus of my research is finding the origins of my mother's Dietrich family, I tested my first cousin, Big-Y700 at FTDNA and we have a match with a common ancestor that lived ca. 1400 CE. Same surname, and who ancestor emigrated to Berks Co PA from Alsace in the mid 18th century.. So even though I haven't found documents that tell me the exact place of origin of my ancestors, DNA clues from cousin matches allows me to circle a small region including northern Alsace, southwestern Rheinland-Pfalz and across the Rhein river in Baden. An interesting historic fact is that a large percentage of this area was depopulated by the 30 years war, after which there was large influx of emigrants from other areas, in particular from Switzerland. About 100 years later the population surged again, and lack of opportunity and continued religious conflict and persecution of those of the Protestant faiths by Catholics led to emigration west to the American colonies and east to the German colonies in the Hungary and Russia. If might have been easier for my research if my ancestors had emigrated directly to North America because, if records had existed in eastern Europe where my ancestors once lived, WWII and hatred for the ethnic Germans there, resulted in the loss or destruction of those records. Knowing a little about the 30 years war, tells us the Swedes were very involved in that Protestant vs. Catholic war and Swedish troops did in fact occupy the area that I have circled. I have a close German friend in that area who knows that she is a descendant of a Swedish soldier who remained there after the conflict and married her German ancestor. A little romance resulted from tragic circumstances😉. For sure that war resulted children born from not so romantic circumstances. That would mess up those DNA estimates for sure! I don't know how these testing companies come up with reference populations from Germany and France because typically, Germans don't do DNA testing for privacy reason. and selling DNA test kits in France has not been legal. That makes me a little sceptical of their estimates for these regions. Of course I really don't know where their reference population come from. I get many Irish and Norwegian matches at MyHeritage because MyHeritage sells a ton of DNA kits in Ireland and Norway and they tell you where your match lives. Ancestry DNA matches most often don't give you that info. I mentioned the genealogy on my mothers side is German and Norwegian (North and South Dakota, and Minnesota) and on my father's side French and Irish (New Orleans, LA) I know the vast majority of my cousin matches are #1 Norwegian, closely followed by the Germans, then the Irish with very few matches from Dad's French family. This makes sense because the Norwegian and Germans were mostly farmers with large families in a cold climate. The Irish were Catholic and some were laborers also with larger families and the French were entrepreneurs and business men with small families. And perhaps my New Orleans cousins just aren't very interested in genealogy! 🙂 Maybe it's just to hot and humid down there and they have other worries, like bad weather, flooding and hurricanes! 😉 In any case, genetic genealogy is fun and fascinating indeed!
@@conniemurdoch8528 The term Pennsylvania Dutch referring to some of the people of Pennsylvania and their German dialect does indeed creates some confusion! Whereas your ancestors arrived in the Dutch Colony that is now New York, Germans in Pennsylvania (and NY) arrived later as part of the so-called Palatine Migration in the first part of the 18th century. They were from Southwestern Germany, mainly the Rheinland meaning the Duchies, Kingdoms, Principalities of the Palatinate (Pfalz) Alsace, Saarland, Hessen and Baden -- perhaps some Swiss as well. Interestingly there has been a German group that has visited Berks Co. PA to study the differences between the Pennslyvanian Dutch dialect and the dialect of the Pfalz and they have found that the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect does ideed retain some elements of the "Pfälzisch" dialect. Of course, not at all Netherlands Dutch!
Another tip, as Ancestry only showed shared matches down to 20cM or thereabouts we all end up with a lot of sub 20cM matches we tend to ignore, if their tree is quite small or they have no tree they seem pointless results. If Ancestry hide the results coming down the cM scale do they do the same going up? Can we learn anything from those sub 20cM matches? I've been a snob and ignored sub 20cM matches and just looked at those with higher cM values and it may have led me to miss some clues. I have a 22cM unassigned match, 85% Irish and no shared matches I clicked a 'pointless' 18cM maternal match, 82% Irish and the 22cM is a shared match I then clicked another 'pointless' 18cM paternal match, 95% Irish and the 22cM is again a shared match I started with a 22cM match that meant nothing to me and now have some reason to believe she links to both my maternal and paternal side. None of them have big trees but they are detailed and show that they have ancestors just 10 miles apart at the same point in time They are too distant to be useful right now. but who knows how many more I might find that link to them and what their trees may reveal.
My mother traced my Dad's ancestry in the 1970s. Over the years her work has been lost. Now I feel the need to search. I will have to purchase a DNA test. She found we are descendants of Ceasar Augustus but I have no idea where. It would be interesting. My Grandfather came to America from Sicily Italy, but I am stuck at my Great Grandfather. I am a fan of the DARK SHADOWS tv series from the 1960s. It amazes me the Genealogy of that show and how the main Character,Barnabas Collins, goes back in time and relates with his family from 1795 to the present time then
I guess it takes a Vampire in the family...lol. But what dies he feed on...Blood. This tv series and the movie ROOTS is what sparked my interest in searching for The Great Ceasar
Ancestry's DNA thru-lines has been very helpful "proving" (fingers crossed) family lines. Also in disproving others I thought I had enough information to assume they were family. Have also found a couple of cross family marriages, not same name like Barnes and Barnes but families that were geographically separate by states where the couples end up having the same great-grandparents. Another question if I may. I have a friend who has been building her tree on Ancestry for several years along with boxes of family history handed down to her. She wants to use Family Historian to have a local copy on her pc. Should she build the FH database from scratch manually or download a GEDCOM file to populate first and carry on?
My sister took the Ancestry DNA test and is 1% Indigenous America's - Equator. Her results don't indicate maternal or paternal. My mom also took the test and she did not have this ethnicity. Can we "assume" this came from our dad's side? My logic is that my sister couldn't inherit something my mom didn't have, but then again, I don't know enough about how DNA can work. I may have her take the 23andme test to see if they can break it down by parent.
Yes it is logical but the percentage is so small that it might change later. I would focus on larger percentages. Also you will get different results with other companies because the reference panels are different.
@@GenealogyTV okay thanks for getting back! I know when my sister first took the DNA test, the Indigenous ethnicity wasn't in her initial results and at one point it disappeared for a while and reappeared....
Hello, I do have an important question: What would be any cause/s of my4th great grandma never known by her first name? Not even on her children's Will's or Probate records list her first name. She was always known as Mrs. Blalock ( her husband was my th great grandpa William Blalock). First time I find them is in Warren County, KY 1820 census, 1830 they were in Union, SC in the 1840 census they were in St. Clair, Illinois ( they bought property in or rather between Belleville, Illinois and Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois. After William died of Pneumonia in 1850, I find Mrs Blalock going by W Blalock in 1855 State census. Last time I find her she is in District 68 ( Wade Township ) near Carlyle, Illinois known as Mrs. Blalock living with my 2nd great grandma and my 1st great grandma..... I never find her again anywhere not even cemeteries. Mrs Blalock was born 1795 TN so the census taker states. Plus here is a TYPE-0 in the spelling of her surname. Listed as Bralock but it's truly BLALOCK. Thank you ! Appreciate it very much. P.S. Rootstech 2023 was awesome Found out Sean Astin is my 10th cousin from his biological father's side Michael Tell. Plus George Washington is my 4th cousin 9 times removed .
It was common to refer to women by their husbands name. Try looking for marriage bonds, bans, or registries in the area where you think they may have been married. Obviously you’re going to have to search under his name. I would also look for DNA matches searching surnames in DNA match trees from their branches in the same area.
I just have German on both sides and Czech on one side which makes sense but it also shows that I am 10% Swedish or danish and neither of my side I have talked about anyone from Sweden or Denmark. Could the Swedish or danish genetic be very similar to German? Or could it be from further back on some of the great grandparents great grandparents that I don’t know who they are or Swedish or danish?
PS, thank you for your wonderful videos, you’re one of my favorite genetic videos sites since you explain the information clearly and it’s easy to listen to also and I believe well researched :)
@@GenealogyTV thanks for taking time to reply. I enjoy your show. or I guess it could be the other way around the people in the German region. Could’ve migrated to Denmark.
Connie, this is great. I love your channel and appreciate it so much! However, I still have confusion about the DNA Thrulines screen. Going from the Ancestry home page to the DNA dropdown to Maternal/Paternal page- When hovering over the individuals on the page, if we have "no DNA matches", does that mean that there is no one tested yet who matches that person or what? Also how do we interpret the following, on that screen, when hovering over the name: "150 DNA matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" -does it mean that person is a definite DNA match, or is that the overall count of cms of the people tested who match me? I understand how to filter on the page to eliminate one parent from the results, but I'm still unsure about how valid the matches are. I keep getting "75 DNA Matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" readings over someone I know is a distant relative. Ancestry continues to suggest them as my 3X Great Grandfather, due to incorrect data in many trees attached to my 2X GreatGrandfather. I have even made a Public tree showing who this man belongs to and where he is connected to my 2X Great Grandfather several generations back, with records documentation. I do not yet know who my maternal 3X Great Grandfather is, but I know it is not this person. Can you help!?? Thanks. Barbara 😍
Thanks for the compliments. First question. " Going from the Ancestry home page to the DNA dropdown to Maternal/Paternal page- When hovering over the individuals on the page, if we have "no DNA matches", does that mean that there is no one tested yet who matches that person or what?" From where you are describing, it could be that you have no siblings who have DNA tested (when looking at your parents on the first Thrulines screen).
Second questions "Also how do we interpret the following, on that screen, when hovering over the name: "150 DNA matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" -does it mean that person is a definite DNA match, or is that the overall count of cms of the people tested who match me? " Assuming you're still on the first screen when you click on Thrulines (with all the boxes of your ancestors), what that means is that you have these ancestors identified with a path to YOU in YOUR TREE... and collectively there is a group of other DNA cousins are likely related to these ancestors. Remember, Thrulines is an estimate based on DNA Cousin trees. The DNA cousins are factual, their trees and Ancestry's interpretation of them may not line up exactly, but Ancestry Thrulines is giving you their best estimation of how you may be related to them.
@@GenealogyTV Connie, thanks so much. That was more or less what I had guessed. In other words, Thrulines is hypothetical, based on trees matching mine, but not necessarily accurate trees.
@@GenealogyTV That could also be a sign of misattributed parentage (or "NPE"). For example, If the great-grandfather on your tree isn't your grandfather's biological father, then you won't have matches showing up in Thrulines for him.
In the DNA matches list, some of the person icons had a little green dot on the lower right, with a family tree symbol in it. I’ve never seen this on my match list; what does it stand for?
I don't have a green dot in the lower right, but I do on the lower left. That means you have not drilled into that cousin match before... it is new to you.
@@GenealogyTV Not talking about the blue dot on the lower left; I know that one. It's a green dot on the right side, with a little family tree symbol. I saw it in the video several times, then looked at my match list, and did not see it.
I am seriously doubtful of my Ancestry DNA results. They can't seriously claim to be unable to match DNA more than four generations back - BUT they could identify in my ancestry estimate that went back to the 15th Century. Its pretty expensive to pay for an Ancestry guess.
I did 23 and me. Got a surprise of being part Polish and none of the Hungarian I was expecting. Started digging and found pics of gravestones online that showed me my grandma was younger than I thought and I remember her saying several times she was in her thirties when she had her first child. Well, with the younger age she would have been 26 with my dad and in her 30’s with my aunt. Did more digging and found cousins I didn’t know existed. My grandma was mean and her and my dad did not get along. Now I’m wondering if she was actually a step-mom
This was an awesome presentation. I learned several things I that I did not know. I have a question, and I probably know the answer already, but here goes. It's regarding the Ancestry DNA chromosome painter. The chromosomes themselves are numbered the same across the board. Is the information that is "painted" based on the DNA matches the same in all websites, such as 23andMe, etc.. I suspect not, but it would be good to know either way. If not, there probably is a way to match information from say 23andMe to the chromosome painter in Ancestry. Just a thought.
Peggie, Good question. No. These are where your ethnicity comes from on the Chromosomes... not DNA matches. MyHeritage has a Chromosome browser where you can compare your own DNA to other cousins and see where you match them on the same chromosome.
Your 1% in the African continent, what does it mean? How far back would that go? I show the same DNA for this region, but I'm not black; however, I am very curious about this region. I also want to know more about all of my ancestors throughout the globe.
Good question. For me, I'm not sure where that is coming from. When I look at cousin matches by location, there are none. It looks like 0% to less than one percent for me... so there might be a sliver of ethnicity from this region or non at all. Remember, these are estimates.
I just checked my IOS and I see it. Do you have it on desktop? You might fall into the 10% of people who can't have their DNA split, thus the chromosome painter would not be there either. Are you in the U.S.? I don't think it is outside of the U.S. and Canada but I reserve the right to be wrong. :)
@@GenealogyTV You know, I was accessing it in Costa Rica at the time, through Safari on my iPad. When I get a chance, I’ll try here in Canada with my iPad again. If I still don’t see it, I will be in front of my iMac in a month and let’s see what happens!
Maybe it's just my facial blindness talking, but it's interesting that you have Danish ancestry because you appear to have a a likeness with Danish-born Brtish TV personality Sandi Toksvig.
This happened to me as well! Mind blowing to say the least! I made a ton of phone calls to older family that were alive in my year of conception, got some names of whom my mom & dad were friends with, & started looking at my closet DNA matches & their names, then searched online obituaries & Facebook & researched the families on Ancestry as suggested above... I found his name & my still living half-siblings who don't know I exist! I have messaged several DNA matches on Ancestry to absolutely confirm, but so far no replies, I keep nudging them with assurances that I don't want to cause a family conflict or upset anyone, I'm hoping that will trigger someone to respond...I hope this helps you as well, good luck!
Great video, but when my mother, whose Maternal GF on was ALL from England going to 1500's and GM was Ireland till 1803. Paternal GF&GM Ireland up till 4th generation. They said my mother has 2% England (with 48ppl found). 21% Scotland, 5% Wales & 62% Ireland. So where Scotland??? Ancestry stated that there was only 2% of England in her blood. Yet, before Ancestry do their annual do-overs, she was 21%. Can't figure it out & FUSTRATED.
My DNA definitely doesn’t reflect my fathers name nor my mothers maiden name. My father’s paternal grandpa were from Poland but my DNA only reflects 5% Eastern European and my mother’s maiden name is Irish but I have 0 Irish in my DNA. Instead I show English, NW European and Scandinavian.
My paternal family is a deeply-rooted family in England. I don’t know why I took a dna test really. There are 7000 names on my family tree, I don’t need to find family. I’m half Irish through my mother, which ancestry agree with. But According to ancestry I’m 30% Scottish on my paternal side. It’s not true. My Englishness goes back to John of Gaunt. The only Scots person on my tree married my mother’s sister.
The trouble I find with many of these online ancestral DNA websites is that they are going by the data and the DNA sequencing they have on file in their respective databases. I saw one guy, for example, who was 75% German on one site but on another he was only 4% German. So, for me, these kinds of results are basically worthless. Proper forensic research doesn't have these kinds of discrepancies. When they deal with needing to identify a deceased, they need it to be as close to 100% as possible. People are being scammed by these ancestral DNA websites.
The reason there are differences in ethnicity estimates is because the different companies are using different reference panels and have different geographical regions. The case you site is extreme, but Germany may be part of a European cluster on one site and may have the country identified specifically on another. Thus the differences. There is little need to use ethnicity estimates in genealogy research anyway, IMHO. The only thing I use them for is a process of elimination. For a simplified example, if I know that 25% of my family tree comes from Denmark, another 50% comes from Europe, and another 25% is unidentified... and my ethnicity estimate is showing 25% from Ireland... then that one quarter of my tree I have yet to research might be coming from Ireland. I realize that is a hyper simple example, but otherwise, I don't put a lot of weight on ethnicity estimates. They are just estimates and will change as the industry evolves.
@@GenealogyTV I would not recommend any of these online companies as they are not truly reliable in showing proper results. As I said, they simply go by what is available in their respective databases. People also need to understand that a spit or swap sample is nowhere as good or as accurate as the results gained from using blood samples. This is what proper genetic labs use to study a person's DNA. And they are more likely to tell you what regions of the world you fall in rather than naming specific countries. People also have to remember that, even if their family tree goes way back to one area like Scandinavia, Greece or Italy, that doesn't mean you have a Viking, Spartan or Roman soldier in your family tree. Personally, my family tree (at least on my mother's side) goes back to at least the 900s CE and this is based on ancestral names and dates connected together. Does that mean I have Viking DNA? Who knows? Not everybody who lived in Scandinavia during the Viking period were Vikings. Some were farmers while others were fishermen, etc. All I know is that I have some Norse heritage in my family. For me, I'm happy enough to look back at my ancestry through names, birthplaces and dates. In the end, we're all related to the first known hominin to migrate out of Africa namely Homo erectus. And I'm fine with that. PS: The examples I gave of the percentages were from the following: 23andMe was 75% German and on CRIgenetics 4% German (Ancestry had it at 33% German). These are popular companies, but all have very different results using the same samples.
I AN A CUBAN WOMAN....DID MY HERITAGE DNA....THE ETHINICITY , 41 IBERIAN, AND 30 NORTHWESTERN EUROPE.....THEY WILL NOT ANSWER PHONE NOR QUESTIION.....WHAT COUNTRIES IS NORTHWESTERN EUROPE??????????????????????...
The DNA ancestry ethnicity results are way off the mark. I have a documented family history going back to the 1600s. 23andme’s estimate of my heritage is almost spot on and coincides with my documented ancestry. When ancestry first provided an estimate of my heritage, they too were close. Now it is so way off, it’s quite laughable.
I could figure out which side was my maternal side because, my mom's side had Wales, so that is my maternal side. The only thing I have an issue with is it says my mom has Scotland, but she has England, Wales, and France, from paper trails. I can see where the Sweden, Norway and Denmark come from because the Vikings invaded the British Isles, My father's mother was born in Scotland and her paternal grandfather was born in Ireland. My father's father was born in England.
Well two things come to mind... migrations and estimates. Remember these are estimates.... and then there is a possibility there were migrations that you are not aware of. These estimates could represent migrations over several hundreds of years.
This video had so much information that I felt I was drinking from a firehose …. This video will become one I return to many times..
I guess that is a good thing? Feel free to bookmark it. Thanks for watching.
@@GenealogyTV If you come visit Russia i can share some DNA with you...
My ethnicity estimates have changed SO many times! When I first had my DNA done, my estimates matched my research. Now they don't. My Jewish ancestry has disappeared from the Middle East. However, now I have many matches in Russia and Austria/Poland. (Jewish). My grandsons through my adopted daughter, have a set of Italian grandparents, which showed on their DNA tests when they were first done. Now, there is NO reference to Italy in their results. I'm glad I did the research before the DNA results started changing. I think that people moving all over the world today is what is changing the results. I hope people do not rely solely on their ethnicity estimates to find their roots. The good news is that we were able to find "lost siblings" and a niece through DNA matches.
Agreed. I do hope people don't rely just on DNA ethnicity estimates. There is a lot to do to confirm these connections through traditional genealogy. Also, keep in mind, we're the pioneers of DNA... it is at it's infancy.
Great video Connie, very helpful.
Great video!. I have delved into this area as well and I do have a suggestion(s) for people new to these features. I would recommend Filtering DNA matches with common ancestors first, and by Parent 1 and Parent 2. Go for the low hangers for two reasons. Once, it is much easier to verify, and once doing that, you may find some valuable connections. Also, once you do Identify a profile, do two things. Set the actual relation, and Link the DNA result to the correct person in your tree.
I don't have a recommendation where to go next but you might get lucky in that while you were finishing the commen ancestors, more of your matchs may have added additional information that will make them common as well. I use Notes as well to document an exact relation if it goies beyond Ancestrys offering (distant relative). And of course Any information you learned during your research that may be valuable, just document it.
I do contact matches, though I've found the answer rate isn't as high as I'd like.
On my maternal side, ive identified relatives I can confirm, however, I have a healthy numbre of dna matches where I question some of the information, usually 3rd great grand parent and earlier. Unfortunately my mothers side is 100% Irish, and record research can be difficult for Irish records, everyone has the same name, and too many people make too many leaps of faith in their trees, so until I can verify the correct information, I move on to the next. In my research finding these distant relatives has been so important. I've connecte so many wings of my family by simply branching out and DNA matches with common ancestors.... man I wish I had that when I started this.
Happy Hunting
I have tested at Ancestry, 23 and Me and FamilyTreeDNA. Black Friday sales are about half the price. $50 vs $99. I got three last November to sit on and decided later who to gift them to. Ancestry I find the easiest and with the most family "hits".
Connie, thank you so much, this is I believe the best video, as always so helpful. I learn something new with each video.
You are so welcome! Thanks for the compliments.
Super helpful overview. Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks so much for your videos and sharing your knowledge. You helped me make some sense of how to work with my DNA results to expand my tree in a purposeful, logical way.
Wonderful! Thanks for watching.
Very informative and very well done. I always learn something from each video. Thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear it!
Thank you Connie! I've been working a little bit with ThruLines lately and wondering if/how I can link them (the in-between relatives) to my tree, this video nails that explanation! Also, I wish Ancestry would color code the background of our main tree pages so that when we look at someone else's we would know at a glance. @15:39
Good idea.
Ancestry is open to suggestions. Please consider contacting them with your suggestion.
My mother was adopted too. Cant wait to get my results back!
That was so interesting! It inspires me to get back to work on my family tree. Thanks.
Go for it!
Thx for the info. I use those tools but learnt a few things whilst watching your vid.
Great to hear!
Researching my dna cousins list has really helped me correct mistakes in my own tree, and contacting some of them has revealed a lot of information. Thanks for this great video!
Very cool results!
There seems to be a few similarities in backgrounds. So, I'm connecting you as my distant cousin 😅.
I love the way you style your videos and how informative these are. Keep up the awesome work🎉.
Awesome! Thank you!
I use Ancestry DNA all the time and I always learn more from your videos - thank you so much!
I'm so glad! Thanks for the compliments Sheryl.
Thank you so much for this! You’re the best💗
You're so welcome!
My daughter and I both have more DNA from our Fathers in the estimate. Hopefully it will change soon.
I recently did a DNA test and my results surprised me. I am pretty much English on English as per family lore and family tree/history. My biological fathers family I had a little info about so was able to start tracking back that side tree. My surprise was my English dna was only 54% between both sides and I have 30% Scottish with about 6% Irish. The Scottish is 100% from fathers side. I have found only one reference to Scotland and that was 5G ago. However that ancestor’s line is Irish the generation before and after plus subsequent. I think my surprise was based on surnames I expected definitely more English, and Irish being second, not third, with maybe a touch of Scottish due to proximity if nothing else. Still digging but watched this to see if some of the tools in this video would help me find that rather large percentage of Scottish. Oh, one really “out there” result is 1% Papuan. Go figure. Fun and interesting stuff.
16:28 Isn't that the very description of an unlinked tree?
Thanks, Connie! This was a great class - (review for me but reinforced thoughts I already had about the DNA page; in particular filtering ancestors based on known/unknown family names. I had some unique surnames on both sides of my tree that easily differentiated for me which side was which.)
Glad it was helpful!
It's possible to search some linked trees without having a current subscription though the tree needs to have media attached.
#1 Click on a match from the main DNA matches page
#2 Note the name of the linked tree (in case they have multiple trees)
#3 Click on the profile of the match and check if there is media attached to the linked tree
#4 If there is media click 'view all' (found to the top right above the displayed media such as photographs).
#5 Clicking 'view all' should then open the Storymaker Studio page, at the top right of that page is the Tree Search option. It's not a back door to seeing the actual tree without a subscription but is a way to explore the names within a tree
It's a shame there isn't a filter for trees with media a it would save the first four step listed.
Interesting hack. Thanks!
Connie, How do I correct ThruLines that has ancestors on wrong side, e.g., paternal ancestor shows up on maternal.
You can't correct Thrulines. Think of it as a hint feature and not your tree. Make sure you have labeled your Parent 1 and Parent 2 correctly in the Ethnicity Results area.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks. I have labeled them correctly. I think some of the errors are coming from “unassigned” matches, maybe generated by trees of others.
Ancestry used to have a 'Top 10' list of names that appeared most often as a match. It was helpful because my sister had different ones to mine. This helped because it increase who who our potential ancestors might be. We used to ender these names one by one into the DNA match and came up with a wider range of ancestors. I can't find it. Is it still there. Thank you
Use the sort feature and filters to sort by close to distant.
Hi Connie! Love your videos! I found through the Relative Finder at Rootstech that we are distantly related (8th cousins twice removed). Seeing your DNA communities with several mentions of Kentucky re-affirms that!
That is awesome! Hey cousin! Which line (Surname)?
@@GenealogyTV our shared grandparents are John Crew and Sarah Osborn Gatley. It seems to go from your Henley line. Thank goodness for the “view relationship” button!
My ethnicity breakdown includes 15% Irish. All the Irish DNA appears on my maternal side of the family. While my surname is Scottish (and the majority of my Scottish DNA appears on my paternal side, but I also have Scottish ancestry on my maternal side). What is interesting is my Y DNA (tested to Big Y 700 with FTDNA) is most likely Irish (the current theory is that I and a number of my Ewing cousins all are direct descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland, which appears to match the traditional history/genealogy of the first chief of my Scottish Clan).
This is interesting to me because my mother was very Scottish except for her fathers side where her great grandfather, surname Irwin came from Ireland. Ewing, is as I’ve come to believe a variant of Irwin. I ordered a book online that is a study of the Irwin family (including many of the variant spellings). If you would like the info on the book just send me a msg. I will send you the deets.
As I said, my 2x great grandfather came from Ireland. I ran across another Irwin descendant on the Irish line who told me his Irwin line came from Scotland. So I think there was a lot of sailing back and forth between Ireland and Scotland. I also learned, that if you have an ancestor that came from say Ireland, and was married in Scotland and when their first child was born, it was born in Ireland - that’s often because when the first child was due, the women went back to stay with their mother to give birth. It was hardly uncommon for women to die in childbirth so it made them feel safer being with people who knew what to do. I don’t know if this was just for people in the British isles or if it was common in other countries. It’s always worth checking though if you see a child was born in an unexpected location. That’s one logical reason.
@@conniemurdoch8528 Ewing is actually a variation of the Scottish given name Eoghann (or Eoghain...there is some meaning to the "i" but I not sure what it is, both are pronounced yowen). The Irish Gaelic equivalent is Eoghan (pronounced owen). The modern English spellings of both names is Ewen (with all sorts of variations like Ewan, Euen, Ewin...)
The first Chief of Clan Ewen was Ewen of Otter (Eóghain na h-Oitrich).
My most likely Ewing immigrant ancestor to the "colonies" was Alexander Ewing, a son of James Ewing of Inch Island, County Donegal, Ulster Ireland. Alexander was definitely born in Ireland, but I'm not sure about James. James and a number of his brothers are assumed to be the sons of a Scottish Baron named William Ewing (but there are almost no historical documents to confirm that).
@@sewing1243 this is very interesting. I guess every theory needs to be evaluated depending who/where you got it from. I will have to go back to the Irwin book and see where that reference came from. I have a hard time reading it because I need a magnifying glass to read it - it’s a flipping teeny tiny font. I’m used to using ebooks where you can increase the font size by pinching or spreading.
My bfs DNA shows Niall of the Nines in his family line.
You said Let's go to the DNA Painter. Is that part of Ancestry, a separate app, what? Where did you go? Could you please be specific when jumping around on the screen?
Sorry. DNA Painter is a website. DNAPainter.com. Use the shared cM tool.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you
Appalachian family jokes aside....my cousin matches do come up paternal or maternal, but, often say "both" or not assigned to either side of the family. I suspect that DNA is too blended to determine and may end up as both eventually. Many ancestors on both sides were in the same area for 200 years or more! Yes, some common ancestors have cropped up and some unusual connections... Definitely a box of chocolates, nothing surprises me anymore and it actually cuts down on research!
I was a bit surprised when I got my Ancestry results back as it only showed two nationalities. British and Scandinavian. I am 51% British and 49% Scandinavian. Of the British, it is English and Scottish. Of the Scandinavian, it is Swedish and Danish. By the way, my grandmother was also born in Denmark, same as yours. :)
Thanks bunches. What I find interesting is that I am a Mayflower descendant (William Brewster). As such I have many ancestors in the New England area which do not show up on the map. I also have early Virginia and southern ancestors which do show up on the map of America. And thoughts as to why the discrepancy? I did the DNA test on my son. My wife is also has early American ancestry. There is strong evidence that we are 10th half brother and sister through a Sarah Smyth b. 1557 in England. Again thank you for all of the information...
Another educational video! I also have a color coded group of relatives that I share with a mystery cousin. I there a way to plot the grouped people into a chart or tree? The objective is to see connect the mystery cousin to the correct parent or child. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing!!
I think one of the main problems is not enough people have a remotely filled in tree. You can have DNA and your information which is great. Yet when most others have only one line from each parent up if you are lucky
If you go through the DNA matches and answer "do you know this person?" and provide the relationship, is this for our own personal use or is it somehow fed into the "algorithm" to help others? Also, is there any advantage to linking a match to our tree -- again only for our personal convenience or can others "tune into" this somehow? Does this info feed the Thru-Lines?
Good questions. I’ll try to ask Ancestry. I assume it helps the algorithm. Thanks for your support.
so the higher the CM number the closer the possible match?
Yes. Go to DNAPainter.com click on the shared cM project and plug in the cM to see all possible relationships.
Question or 2. Truline va dna match. I notice when i view common ancestors and relationships i update my dna matches. I noticed in the relationships are not popping up as the same ex: i change the relationship to 4 cousin 1x and i find another cousin same but in the relationship list does not show that. Why?
I’m not sure I’d have to see what you’re talking about.
I don't know if you're going to mention this later on the video, but on the Ancestry Website when you look at the shared Ethnicity, it doesn't show you 100% of the ethnicity, it will only show all of yours and what you share with them (I found that you can see the entire list over the phone app), I think there is an option on the Website settings that might affect this but I don't remember on top of my head the name of the setting
Also, the tree view of your shared DNA relative will be trunkated at the 4th generation (I think), if we have a free account on Ancestry Website, on the phone we're able to see more.
Yeah, if you're getting that it's because your match has opted to only show the ethnicities that you have in common.
Great lesson. My mind is spinning! I need a good block of time to do some good searching through my DNA matches. There goes housework! 😅
Who needs housework? It will only get dusty again. :)
I've been able to go back several generations due to the work of other family members. However, no one can identify or locate my maternal great-grandfather. He's named on 3 documents and that's it.. I'm not sure how to move forward to find him
Check outside the platform. State archives, county records, etc..
Is there any way to find our Mtdna on Ancestry?
Yes. You need to test at FamilyTreeDNA. Here is a $30 discount from my affiliate link www.kqzyfj.com/click-9110145-15514069
Sorry... Ancestry does not have mtDNA. Only at FTDNA.
Thank you very much, Connie! Genetic genealogy is such a fascinating topic and Ancestry DNA is adding some interesting new tools. I especially look forward to comparing DNA painter results between my cousin matches. Comparing estimates of ethnicity and communities with my matches is interesting and sometimes amusing. For example, a cousin who lives in Berks Co. PA and has a long line of exclusively Pennsylvania Germans shows her as having NO German ethnicity and is not in the Pennsylvania community! 🙂 Many of my cousins that I know have German ethnicity, have no Germanic Europe ethnicity but large amounts of England and Northwestern Europe, and that includes me. Ancestry's reference population obviously has a strong bias to England. Perhaps they ought to test real Germans in Germanic Europe? Actually I'm not sure if I should just be amused by my estimate of ethnicity or alarmed! I've been researching my genealogy for a while and I know my genealogy, German and Norwegian on Mom's side and French and Irish on Dad's. Now I know that Norway and Sweden are neighbors and my Norwegian ancestors came from a bit west of Oslo, so not so far from Sweden. Also I know that it's possible I have more DNA from the Norwegian side than German, but on my mother's side the estimate is 21% Sweden/Denmark, 16% Norway, no German, instead 7% French and 7% England and NW Europe. Now I do suspect my Germans may have lived in Alsace so that could be the French part, England is likely really German. Perhaps the Swedish is from troops that occupied Alsace during the 30 years war and not Norwegian ancestry? Interestingly I have only 1% French on Dad's side, though I know they lived in the Pyrenees so were likely mostly iberian. But the estimate on that side is mostly Irish, Scottish and Wales, with a little Basque and Spain. The Irish were Ulster Irish. Some things to think about! But should I be alarmed or amused? And it just happens that my "brick walls" are on Mom's German side (they emigrated east to Hungary and Odessa before the Dakota and most Irish descendants have the same brick wall -- lack of Irish records from before about 1825,
Sounds like you have most of this figured out. Regarding estimates... it is what it is... and it will change. Don't stress over it. As the DNA test takers grows... the estimates will update and become more focused. Remember, DNA is at its infancy.
My Dad grew up always believing his mothers side was Pennsylvania Deutsch (Surname Vrooman). It turns out his ancestry was Dutch and his many times great grandfather arrived in New Netherlands 19th July 1664. He died in the Schenectady Massacre in 1690. We are descended from his son Adam. In fact, when my Dad was listed on his first census, his nationality is listed as Dutch even though the most recent ancestor from Holland arrived in yup 1664!
@@GenealogyTV hey Connie, it’s me Connie again. I wish more people understood how the ethnicity estimates work. I have the hardest time explaining this to people. My Ancestry estimates have jumped back and forth many times so I’m never surprised to see the numbers change. I have a funny story about my 98 year old aunt. About 10 years ago when my aunt still emailed all the time we chatted back and forth about our Scottish roots. I would tell her my new % of Scottish ethnicity they had me pegged at and she would say something like “Away with ya! Who’s the damt fool that’s tellin’ ye that? Yer mammy and yer mammys mammy and all the way back, there none of them without a Mc or a Mac in their names!” I used to love to get her started. Anyhow, my Scottish heritage numbers kept going up an up all the time so one day I asked my nephew to tell his Mum that Ancestry says that I am 76% Scottish now and to ask her what she thinks of that. She immediately quipped back “tell her to take a wee dram and she’ll be 80%”. She is my mothers older sister. My mom passed away 17 years ago. Nothing was funnier than when the two of them bickered back and forth. Even better was when my grandmother was there and she would tell them “haud your wheesht the two o’ ye or I’ll gee ye a right skelpin’” at the time my mom would have been in her mid 60’s and her mom in her 80’s. My mom came to Canada at the age of 19 with my Dad who had served in the Canadian Forestry Corps during WW II. The Glasgow folks never visited until they were older and once they visited once they came almost every year. My Grandmother visited for 3 months when she came. She loved the climate here because Canada can have some pretty warm summers. And we certainly never would have gotten to know her as well as we did without all the long visits.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks. I actually don't take these estimates seriously. Just having fun with them. My cousin matches are for me were the true value of DNA testing lies. I've tested with 5 companies and the estimates are very different with all of them. I have quite a few Pennsylvania German cousin matches, even though I have none in my direct line. The common ancestors lived in Germanic Europe before our ancestors emigrated -- theirs directly to North America and mine the roundabout path east and finally to the Dakota Territory (the so-called Donauschwaben and Germans from Russia). Since the focus of my research is finding the origins of my mother's Dietrich family, I tested my first cousin, Big-Y700 at FTDNA and we have a match with a common ancestor that lived ca. 1400 CE. Same surname, and who ancestor emigrated to Berks Co PA from Alsace in the mid 18th century.. So even though I haven't found documents that tell me the exact place of origin of my ancestors, DNA clues from cousin matches allows me to circle a small region including northern Alsace, southwestern Rheinland-Pfalz and across the Rhein river in Baden. An interesting historic fact is that a large percentage of this area was depopulated by the 30 years war, after which there was large influx of emigrants from other areas, in particular from Switzerland. About 100 years later the population surged again, and lack of opportunity and continued religious conflict and persecution of those of the Protestant faiths by Catholics led to emigration west to the American colonies and east to the German colonies in the Hungary and Russia. If might have been easier for my research if my ancestors had emigrated directly to North America because, if records had existed in eastern Europe where my ancestors once lived, WWII and hatred for the ethnic Germans there, resulted in the loss or destruction of those records. Knowing a little about the 30 years war, tells us the Swedes were very involved in that Protestant vs. Catholic war and Swedish troops did in fact occupy the area that I have circled. I have a close German friend in that area who knows that she is a descendant of a Swedish soldier who remained there after the conflict and married her German ancestor. A little romance resulted from tragic circumstances😉. For sure that war resulted children born from not so romantic circumstances. That would mess up those DNA estimates for sure! I don't know how these testing companies come up with reference populations from Germany and France because typically, Germans don't do DNA testing for privacy reason. and selling DNA test kits in France has not been legal. That makes me a little sceptical of their estimates for these regions. Of course I really don't know where their reference population come from. I get many Irish and Norwegian matches at MyHeritage because MyHeritage sells a ton of DNA kits in Ireland and Norway and they tell you where your match lives. Ancestry DNA matches most often don't give you that info. I mentioned the genealogy on my mothers side is German and Norwegian (North and South Dakota, and Minnesota) and on my father's side French and Irish (New Orleans, LA) I know the vast majority of my cousin matches are #1 Norwegian, closely followed by the Germans, then the Irish with very few matches from Dad's French family. This makes sense because the Norwegian and Germans were mostly farmers with large families in a cold climate. The Irish were Catholic and some were laborers also with larger families and the French were entrepreneurs and business men with small families. And perhaps my New Orleans cousins just aren't very interested in genealogy! 🙂 Maybe it's just to hot and humid down there and they have other worries, like bad weather, flooding and hurricanes! 😉
In any case, genetic genealogy is fun and fascinating indeed!
@@conniemurdoch8528 The term Pennsylvania Dutch referring to some of the people of Pennsylvania and their German dialect does indeed creates some confusion! Whereas your ancestors arrived in the Dutch Colony that is now New York, Germans in Pennsylvania (and NY) arrived later as part of the so-called Palatine Migration in the first part of the 18th century. They were from Southwestern Germany, mainly the Rheinland meaning the Duchies, Kingdoms, Principalities of the Palatinate (Pfalz) Alsace, Saarland, Hessen and Baden -- perhaps some Swiss as well. Interestingly there has been a German group that has visited Berks Co. PA to study the differences between the Pennslyvanian Dutch dialect and the dialect of the Pfalz and they have found that the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect does ideed retain some elements of the "Pfälzisch" dialect. Of course, not at all Netherlands Dutch!
Another tip, as Ancestry only showed shared matches down to 20cM or thereabouts we all end up with a lot of sub 20cM matches we tend to ignore, if their tree is quite small or they have no tree they seem pointless results. If Ancestry hide the results coming down the cM scale do they do the same going up? Can we learn anything from those sub 20cM matches? I've been a snob and ignored sub 20cM matches and just looked at those with higher cM values and it may have led me to miss some clues.
I have a 22cM unassigned match, 85% Irish and no shared matches
I clicked a 'pointless' 18cM maternal match, 82% Irish and the 22cM is a shared match
I then clicked another 'pointless' 18cM paternal match, 95% Irish and the 22cM is again a shared match
I started with a 22cM match that meant nothing to me and now have some reason to believe she links to both my maternal and paternal side.
None of them have big trees but they are detailed and show that they have ancestors just 10 miles apart at the same point in time They are too distant to be useful right now. but who knows how many more I might find that link to them and what their trees may reveal.
My mother traced my Dad's ancestry in the 1970s. Over the years her work has been lost. Now I feel the need to search. I will have to purchase a DNA test.
She found we are descendants of Ceasar Augustus but I have no idea where. It would be interesting.
My Grandfather came to America from Sicily Italy, but I am stuck at my Great Grandfather.
I am a fan of the DARK SHADOWS tv series from the 1960s. It amazes me the Genealogy of that show and how the main Character,Barnabas Collins, goes back in time and relates with his family from 1795 to the present time then
I guess it takes a Vampire in the family...lol. But what dies he feed on...Blood.
This tv series and the movie ROOTS is what sparked my interest in searching for The Great Ceasar
Interesting. My sister loved that show. Talk about a blast from the past!
Ancestry's DNA thru-lines has been very helpful "proving" (fingers crossed) family lines. Also in disproving others I thought I had enough information to assume they were family. Have also found a couple of cross family marriages, not same name like Barnes and Barnes but families that were geographically separate by states where the couples end up having the same great-grandparents.
Another question if I may. I have a friend who has been building her tree on Ancestry for several years along with boxes of family history handed down to her. She wants to use Family Historian to have a local copy on her pc. Should she build the FH database from scratch manually or download a GEDCOM file to populate first and carry on?
Downloading a Gedcom will be much faster. However, the images and documents will not be part of the Gedcom, only the data.
My sister took the Ancestry DNA test and is 1% Indigenous America's - Equator. Her results don't indicate maternal or paternal. My mom also took the test and she did not have this ethnicity. Can we "assume" this came from our dad's side? My logic is that my sister couldn't inherit something my mom didn't have, but then again, I don't know enough about how DNA can work. I may have her take the 23andme test to see if they can break it down by parent.
Yes it is logical but the percentage is so small that it might change later. I would focus on larger percentages. Also you will get different results with other companies because the reference panels are different.
@@GenealogyTV okay thanks for getting back! I know when my sister first took the DNA test, the Indigenous ethnicity wasn't in her initial results and at one point it disappeared for a while and reappeared....
Hello, I do have an important question: What would be any cause/s of my4th great grandma never known by her first name? Not even on her children's Will's or Probate records list her first name. She was always known as Mrs. Blalock ( her husband was my th great grandpa William Blalock). First time I find them is in Warren County, KY 1820 census, 1830 they were in Union, SC in the 1840 census they were in St. Clair, Illinois ( they bought property in or rather between Belleville, Illinois and Collinsville, Madison County, Illinois. After William died of Pneumonia in 1850, I find Mrs Blalock going by W Blalock in 1855 State census. Last time I find her she is in District 68 ( Wade Township ) near Carlyle, Illinois known as Mrs. Blalock living with my 2nd great grandma and my 1st great grandma..... I never find her again anywhere not even cemeteries. Mrs Blalock was born 1795 TN so the census taker states. Plus here is a TYPE-0 in the spelling of her surname. Listed as Bralock but it's truly BLALOCK. Thank you ! Appreciate it very much. P.S. Rootstech 2023 was awesome Found out Sean Astin is my 10th cousin from his biological father's side Michael Tell. Plus George Washington is my 4th cousin 9 times removed .
It was common to refer to women by their husbands name. Try looking for marriage bonds, bans, or registries in the area where you think they may have been married. Obviously you’re going to have to search under his name. I would also look for DNA matches searching surnames in DNA match trees from their branches in the same area.
I just have German on both sides and Czech on one side which makes sense but it also shows that I am 10% Swedish or danish and neither of my side I have talked about anyone from Sweden or Denmark. Could the Swedish or danish genetic be very similar to German? Or could it be from further back on some of the great grandparents great grandparents that I don’t know who they are or Swedish or danish?
PS, thank you for your wonderful videos, you’re one of my favorite genetic videos sites since you explain the information clearly and it’s easy to listen to also and I believe well researched :)
Pps , I am joining your Patreon. I am enthusiastic about genetics research.
Thank you for your support.
some of my Danes migrated from Germany.
@@GenealogyTV thanks for taking time to reply. I enjoy your show.
or I guess it could be the other way around the people in the German region. Could’ve migrated to Denmark.
Connie, this is great. I love your channel and appreciate it so much! However, I still have confusion about the DNA Thrulines screen. Going from the Ancestry home page to the DNA dropdown to Maternal/Paternal page- When hovering over the individuals on the page, if we have "no DNA matches", does that mean that there is no one tested yet who matches that person or what? Also how do we interpret the following, on that screen, when hovering over the name: "150 DNA matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" -does it mean that person is a definite DNA match, or is that the overall count of cms of the people tested who match me?
I understand how to filter on the page to eliminate one parent from the results, but I'm still unsure about how valid the matches are. I keep getting "75 DNA Matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" readings over someone I know is a distant relative. Ancestry continues to suggest them as my 3X Great Grandfather, due to incorrect data in many trees attached to my 2X GreatGrandfather. I have even made a Public tree showing who this man belongs to and where he is connected to my 2X Great Grandfather several generations back, with records documentation. I do not yet know who my maternal 3X Great Grandfather is, but I know it is not this person. Can you help!?? Thanks. Barbara 😍
Thanks for the compliments. First question. " Going from the Ancestry home page to the DNA dropdown to Maternal/Paternal page- When hovering over the individuals on the page, if we have "no DNA matches", does that mean that there is no one tested yet who matches that person or what?" From where you are describing, it could be that you have no siblings who have DNA tested (when looking at your parents on the first Thrulines screen).
Second questions "Also how do we interpret the following, on that screen, when hovering over the name: "150 DNA matches, between 8 and 3,488 cms" -does it mean that person is a definite DNA match, or is that the overall count of cms of the people tested who match me? " Assuming you're still on the first screen when you click on Thrulines (with all the boxes of your ancestors), what that means is that you have these ancestors identified with a path to YOU in YOUR TREE... and collectively there is a group of other DNA cousins are likely related to these ancestors. Remember, Thrulines is an estimate based on DNA Cousin trees. The DNA cousins are factual, their trees and Ancestry's interpretation of them may not line up exactly, but Ancestry Thrulines is giving you their best estimation of how you may be related to them.
@@GenealogyTV Connie, thanks so much. That was more or less what I had guessed. In other words, Thrulines is hypothetical, based on trees matching mine, but not necessarily accurate trees.
@@GenealogyTV That could also be a sign of misattributed parentage (or "NPE"). For example, If the great-grandfather on your tree isn't your grandfather's biological father, then you won't have matches showing up in Thrulines for him.
@@sylviabargas3340 Yes, I understand that.
In the DNA matches list, some of the person icons had a little green dot on the lower right, with a family tree symbol in it. I’ve never seen this on my match list; what does it stand for?
I don't have a green dot in the lower right, but I do on the lower left. That means you have not drilled into that cousin match before... it is new to you.
@@GenealogyTV Not talking about the blue dot on the lower left; I know that one. It's a green dot on the right side, with a little family tree symbol. I saw it in the video several times, then looked at my match list, and did not see it.
You can see it in the video at 10:40.
That means they're identified in my family tree.
@@GenealogyTV Ah, okay. Thanks! I've never seen it because I don't add my DNA matches to my tree much.
I am seriously doubtful of my Ancestry DNA results. They can't seriously claim to be unable to match DNA more than four generations back - BUT they could identify in my ancestry estimate that went back to the 15th Century. Its pretty expensive to pay for an Ancestry guess.
I did 23 and me. Got a surprise of being part Polish and none of the Hungarian I was expecting. Started digging and found pics of gravestones online that showed me my grandma was younger than I thought and I remember her saying several times she was in her thirties when she had her first child. Well, with the younger age she would have been 26 with my dad and in her 30’s with my aunt. Did more digging and found cousins I didn’t know existed. My grandma was mean and her and my dad did not get along. Now I’m wondering if she was actually a step-mom
This was an awesome presentation. I learned several things I that I did not know. I have a question, and I probably know the answer already, but here goes. It's regarding the Ancestry DNA chromosome painter. The chromosomes themselves are numbered the same across the board. Is the information that is "painted" based on the DNA matches the same in all websites, such as 23andMe, etc.. I suspect not, but it would be good to know either way. If not, there probably is a way to match information from say 23andMe to the chromosome painter in Ancestry. Just a thought.
Peggie, Good question. No. These are where your ethnicity comes from on the Chromosomes... not DNA matches. MyHeritage has a Chromosome browser where you can compare your own DNA to other cousins and see where you match them on the same chromosome.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you for clarifying!
Your 1% in the African continent, what does it mean? How far back would that go? I show the same DNA for this region, but I'm not black; however, I am very curious about this region. I also want to know more about all of my ancestors throughout the globe.
Good question. For me, I'm not sure where that is coming from. When I look at cousin matches by location, there are none. It looks like 0% to less than one percent for me... so there might be a sliver of ethnicity from this region or non at all. Remember, these are estimates.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you for answering my question.
I try. :)
I just use Thrulines to test speculative connections.
I can’t find the chromosome painter at all - there’s no tab for it in my Ethnicity Estimate section. 🧐
Did you scroll down?
@@GenealogyTV yes, I’ve been all over. Since I’m iOS, I’m wondering if it’s different since it’s still in Beta?
I just checked my IOS and I see it. Do you have it on desktop? You might fall into the 10% of people who can't have their DNA split, thus the chromosome painter would not be there either. Are you in the U.S.? I don't think it is outside of the U.S. and Canada but I reserve the right to be wrong. :)
@@GenealogyTV You know, I was accessing it in Costa Rica at the time, through Safari on my iPad. When I get a chance, I’ll try here in Canada with my iPad again. If I still don’t see it, I will be in front of my iMac in a month and let’s see what happens!
Maybe it's just my facial blindness talking, but it's interesting that you have Danish ancestry because you appear to have a a likeness with Danish-born Brtish TV personality Sandi Toksvig.
I said this to Connie before and she Googled Sandi and agreed they look alike.
Interesting.
How can I find my biological father. DNA revealed that the man who raised me wasn't my father.
Look for 1st or 2nd cousins on your fathers side and start researching the families.
This happened to me as well! Mind blowing to say the least! I made a ton of phone calls to older family that were alive in my year of conception, got some names of whom my mom & dad were friends with, & started looking at my closet DNA matches & their names, then searched online obituaries & Facebook & researched the families on Ancestry as suggested above... I found his name & my still living half-siblings who don't know I exist! I have messaged several DNA matches on Ancestry to absolutely confirm, but so far no replies, I keep nudging them with assurances that I don't want to cause a family conflict or upset anyone, I'm hoping that will trigger someone to respond...I hope this helps you as well, good luck!
Great video, but when my mother, whose Maternal GF on was ALL from England going to 1500's and GM was Ireland till 1803. Paternal GF&GM Ireland up till 4th generation. They said my mother has 2% England (with 48ppl found). 21% Scotland, 5% Wales & 62% Ireland. So where Scotland??? Ancestry stated that there was only 2% of England in her blood. Yet, before Ancestry do their annual do-overs, she was 21%. Can't figure it out & FUSTRATED.
My DNA definitely doesn’t reflect my fathers name nor my mothers maiden name. My father’s paternal grandpa were from Poland but my DNA only reflects 5% Eastern European and my mother’s maiden name is Irish but I have 0 Irish in my DNA. Instead I show English, NW European and Scandinavian.
My paternal family is a deeply-rooted family in England. I don’t know why I took a dna test really. There are 7000 names on my family tree, I don’t need to find family. I’m half Irish through my mother, which ancestry agree with. But According to ancestry I’m 30% Scottish on my paternal side. It’s not true. My Englishness goes back to John of Gaunt. The only Scots person on my tree married my mother’s sister.
DNA reports are only estimates.
The trouble I find with many of these online ancestral DNA websites is that they are going by the data and the DNA sequencing they have on file in their respective databases. I saw one guy, for example, who was 75% German on one site but on another he was only 4% German. So, for me, these kinds of results are basically worthless. Proper forensic research doesn't have these kinds of discrepancies. When they deal with needing to identify a deceased, they need it to be as close to 100% as possible. People are being scammed by these ancestral DNA websites.
The reason there are differences in ethnicity estimates is because the different companies are using different reference panels and have different geographical regions.
The case you site is extreme, but Germany may be part of a European cluster on one site and may have the country identified specifically on another. Thus the differences.
There is little need to use ethnicity estimates in genealogy research anyway, IMHO. The only thing I use them for is a process of elimination. For a simplified example, if I know that 25% of my family tree comes from Denmark, another 50% comes from Europe, and another 25% is unidentified... and my ethnicity estimate is showing 25% from Ireland... then that one quarter of my tree I have yet to research might be coming from Ireland. I realize that is a hyper simple example, but otherwise, I don't put a lot of weight on ethnicity estimates. They are just estimates and will change as the industry evolves.
@@GenealogyTV I would not recommend any of these online companies as they are not truly reliable in showing proper results. As I said, they simply go by what is available in their respective databases.
People also need to understand that a spit or swap sample is nowhere as good or as accurate as the results gained from using blood samples. This is what proper genetic labs use to study a person's DNA. And they are more likely to tell you what regions of the world you fall in rather than naming specific countries.
People also have to remember that, even if their family tree goes way back to one area like Scandinavia, Greece or Italy, that doesn't mean you have a Viking, Spartan or Roman soldier in your family tree. Personally, my family tree (at least on my mother's side) goes back to at least the 900s CE and this is based on ancestral names and dates connected together. Does that mean I have Viking DNA? Who knows? Not everybody who lived in Scandinavia during the Viking period were Vikings. Some were farmers while others were fishermen, etc. All I know is that I have some Norse heritage in my family.
For me, I'm happy enough to look back at my ancestry through names, birthplaces and dates. In the end, we're all related to the first known hominin to migrate out of Africa namely Homo erectus. And I'm fine with that.
PS: The examples I gave of the percentages were from the following: 23andMe was 75% German and on CRIgenetics 4% German (Ancestry had it at 33% German). These are popular companies, but all have very different results using the same samples.
NC💚
I AN A CUBAN WOMAN....DID MY HERITAGE DNA....THE ETHINICITY , 41 IBERIAN, AND 30 NORTHWESTERN EUROPE.....THEY WILL NOT ANSWER PHONE NOR QUESTIION.....WHAT COUNTRIES IS NORTHWESTERN EUROPE??????????????????????...
The population of Northern and Western Europe mainly includes German, French, and Dutch people. (From the MyHeritage website).
Didn't realize you were part African.
Me neither.
The DNA ancestry ethnicity results are way off the mark. I have a documented family history going back to the 1600s. 23andme’s estimate of my heritage is almost spot on and coincides with my documented ancestry. When ancestry first provided an estimate of my heritage, they too were close. Now it is so way off, it’s quite laughable.