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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Hmootm on Saturday 30 June 18 13:15 BST (UK)
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I am very new to dna, i've only had my results for a month and am still feeling pretty overwhelmed by it all. I was hoping that I would get some matches that would help me try and break down a few of my brick walls on my paternal side but nearly all my matches are from my mothers side :(
I know the ethnicity part of the test is mostly just a bit of fun but my result said i was 17% europe south which makes a lot of sense to me, my nan always said my dads father was a greek sailor :) I have a lot of matches which have greek sounding names but unfortunately, the closest matches are only 4th cousins. A few do have trees, some of them quite large but I'm thinking it would be impossible to try and work it out , is that the case?
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You could be lucky. You could find the family line. After that there is a lot of trial and error. I have found the family line and was lucky that quite a few people had tested in that line. I am narrowing it down, but I have made contact with many of the matches on that line and have been fortunate enough to get replies from a few to help my search.
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I'm doing a similar trawl to find a great grandfather. So far I've found a few possibles but nothing definite. As Nanna52 says, it's a lot of trial and error. Many matches have no trees and others don't reply to messages.
Have you uploaded your results to other sites? You don't mention which site you've tested with. I tested with Ancestry but have uploaded my results to My Heritage, FTdna and gedmatch. That way you get a wider sweep.
Gadget
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One of my matches has found her grandfather, (unnamed on birth cert) another has found her great grandmother (child adopted)and we have narrowed the great grandfather down to one family.
You do need a few matches, people willing to engage with you and lots of cross checking of the paper trail.
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I'm engaged in exactly the same activity although there are absolutely no family stories to help! On Ancestry, I narrowed down my DNA list to the region of England I was interested in, trawled through every DNA connection to find repeats of names that definitely aren't on the side of the family I know and then started a mirror tree. I do have a strong 3 - 4 th cousin match as well. Using their cM shared I then used a chart that hypothesises cMs shared to the likelihood of where the relationship is (aunts/great aunts/ etc). I'm now going through all likely contenders to either eliminate them as a potential granddad or keep them in the running. It's hard work and frustrating and I am having to make quite a few assumptions e.g. that the man was 'available' for marriage and not an office party fling! I do have a contender but unless a stronger match appears or a letter in which he professes he is the one, it's more than likely I'll never know :'( I'm also a member of a couple of DNA FB groups and that has been helpful as well. Good luck with your search.
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I was lucky in that I found a third/fourth cousin very early who was willing to help and told me the line I was looking for. From there I contacted those who matched with her. From the few replies I have narrowed it down further.
I am on Ancestry, but added my results to Gedmatch and immediately found a strong lead who may be my half first cousin once removed and a second cousin. Unfortunately once illegitimacy was mentioned they stopped replying. Living in hope though.
JR is it the DNApainter chart you are using or something else?
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Yes DNApainter chart and there are others out there. I get the illegitimacy bit. I've found myself considering how to approach extended family members but that word is going to have to come up and I have no idea how to manage it. I suspect I'll be shut down propmptly! Good luck :)
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Yes it is difficult. I first approached as looking for an unknown father, no dates, and got a vague response and promise of checking. I thanked them and heard no more. When it looked like close family being involved they stopped responding completely.
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Unfortunately once illegitimacy was mentioned they stopped replying. Living in hope though.
If that's the case Nanna, surely they will discover this at a later date if they don't believe you?
Personally, if it was myself discovering something like that, I would find it exciting, something I didn't already know, how fascinating but each to their own as they say ;)
Annie
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Annie it was nearly a hundred years ago so doubt there is anyone left who really knows. I am enjoying the chase. If my assumptions are right I have it down to two men. My first cousin match is an eighty plus niece of them. I am dealing with her daughter.
The funny thing though is on another branch I have contacted someone born in 1944 who doesn't know who his father is. He is a third/fourth cousin to me so I am trying to help him. I only have six matches in this line, but more than twenty in my unknown father line.
We should be prepared I'm sure DNA testing is going to find lots of surprises.
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Nanna...
I was a complete sceptic probably less than a yr ago, possibly a bit longer but now having read some good stories from RCers who I "believe" rather than 'Joe Soap' on an unknown site & talking to a RC 'friend' (never met, only on RC), I have a different outlook now & seriously thinking of having the 'test'!!!
I've come a long way so to speak & it's stories like yours which intrigue me & make me wonder what I may find?
My brother had his done with 23&me but not uploaded to other sites (he's not into 'genealogy'), I'm the Genealogist in the family.
I did have access to his 23&me info. but I didn't find anything interesting as the ones I could see who'd done the test, I already knew & it was myself who gave them a lot of info. on our tree i.e. I know that side & the ones more distant weren't much interested in finding the connection (for whatever reason)?
I think I may go forward with this in the next month & looking forward to it, especially as I was so 'against it' originally but I suppose it was a case of dipping into something I didn't really understand just as you wouldn't eat eels as they're not the 'norm' in a diet?
I hope you find the connection!
Annie
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Annie I have had two possible branches confirmed through DNA testing. One before I had mine done. My cousin had his done a couple of years ago. Later he was contacted by someone in New Zealand who had found a match. He had no idea who she was talking about, but I immediately put him right. She was descended from a sister of my 2 X great grandmother.
The second was descended from another sister of the same 2 X great grandmother.
As you can see I came from a dysfunctional family, on both sides. ;D
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I too am looking for the father of my illegitimate grandmother. I got a pretty high match straight away but this has had its ups and downs from one way of being related to another. I missed a vital clue to start with but got my mothers results last week which has helped a lot. I have now narrowed it down to two men, who were brothers.
I have also found that two of my great grandfathers had illegitimate children before they married. I have confirmed another great great grandfather and have found that my father possibly had an unknown half brother.
It's all fascinating stuff.
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Have you uploaded your results to other sites? You don't mention which site you've tested with. I tested with Ancestry but have uploaded my results to My Heritage, FTdna and gedmatch. That way you get a wider sweep.
Gadget
I too am searching for a "missing" grandfather and have uploaded my Ancestry DNA file to My Heritage and Gedmatch. FTDNA however will not accept it saying it's in the wrong format or corrupted - strange as it's a zip file
Steve
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Steve - I had same problem. Try this conversion - it worked for me:
http://www.mapmy23.com/tools/ancestry_ftdna_fix.php
Gadget
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I wonder about using DNA to trace missing relatives. What will the outcome be, when someone finds his/her father/grandfather was a sperm donor, and has hundreds of half brothers/sisters. Some are claiming that they are sending their sperm world-wide and have fathered hundreds of children. Linking DNA to family history may become quite complicated in the future.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35262535
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06donor.html
And there's "loads" more. ;) ;)
Malky
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I'm getting nowhere fast with the search for my unknown grandfather :( My closest match is a 4th cousin, he is actually my closest 4th cousin at 63 centimorgans over 3 dna segments. he has a small tree which I have tried to use to make a mirror tree, i got back further than he has but not nearly far enough :(
I was thinking about sending him a message asking for help but I'm not sure, do people generally mind being approached and asked about possible relatives even if it means uncovering a secret? I don't know if he would be able to help me anyway, if he had closer cousins that are also shared matches with me, would that help me at all? I cant get my head around it! Maybe he has wondered about me, the strange random match from England lol
I'd love to help someone if I could but no one ever messages me or replies to my messages :(
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Hmootm, I've only just got my DNA results and uploaded them to GED match the weekend. My closest relative I was already in touch with, but this confirmed that we were actually descended from the same grandfather. I've contacted the next on the list, but it's too soon to expect to have heard from her. If anyone else contacts me and tells me anything else however shocking or unbelievable I will be greatly interested. However DNA tests are trendy presents these days and the Test companies even try to push them as Mother's Day and Father's Day presents. I can imagine that leading to tears. What I'm saying is if somebody receives a kit as a present they are less likely to respond to emails about it than if the person had paid for the test themselves. It is a complex business, and if you haven't chosen to Delve into this complexity you possibly wouldn't bother. So if you don't get an answer, perhaps it's worth trying again a few weeks later explaining things from a different point of view.
Martin
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Fingers crossed - I think I've found my great grandfather after 2 months of checking, matching, paper trailing, etc. (and over 60 years after hearing about him!)
Lots of hard work but I found a handful of close shared matches (125 cM to 56 cM) all with a particular surname that I didn't recognise. All werethose listed from the wider Birmingham area, which links to my great grandmother's whereabouts 1862-1871. Only 2 trees were available and, in the end, I traced one match who only had himself and parents on a none linked tree, with only his father mentioned. He didn't share the dominant name on the tree but I checked his father's marriage and found that his mother had the dominant name. I then traced the family back and found the link to the others and finally to the probably great grandfather.
Nothing certain but very very promising.
Gadget
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That's great, you must be so pleased 😀
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I've got to do a lot more checks but I think 'pleased' is an understatement ;D
I found that using the shared matches was the most useful and also checking if there were any trees that the match hadn't linked to their DNA. I also had a pretty good paper trail for my great grandmother already.
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Oh yes, that's the other problem! My Nan's family were immigrants from Russia so I've not been able to get back very far on that line either 😓
I live in hope that one day, a close match will appear! Fingers crossed 😀
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Fingers crossed - I think I've found my great grandfather after 2 months of checking, matching, paper trailing, etc. (and over 60 years after hearing about him!)
Lots of hard work but I found a handful of close shared matches (125 cM to 56 cM) all with a particular surname that I didn't recognise. All werethose listed from the wider Birmingham area, which links to my great grandmother's whereabouts 1862-1871. Only 2 trees were available and, in the end, I traced one match who only had himself and parents on a none linked tree, with only his father mentioned. He didn't share the dominant name on the tree but I checked his father's marriage and found that his mother had the dominant name. I then traced the family back and found the link to the others and finally to the probably great grandfather.
Nothing certain but very very promising.
Gadget
This is so encouraging. My gran was born illegitimately in 1918 in Redruths mother and baby Magdalen home. My great grans address at the time seems to have been some kind of private hotel in Redruth although she and all the family for generations back were from Veryan and the surrounding areas. Have never ever even known my grans fathers name so is this actually possible??
I have done my DNA and uploaded it to all the sites I can and have made contact with the closest matches, one being my 2C1R. This is where I then become confused. Should I be looking at shared matches with him and myself, or just with myself? I have looked for matches to Veryan and have a quite a few people with matches to Veryan, do I look for names I don't recognise. I really am totally in the dark so wouldn't mind an "idiots" guide of how you went about it if you would help at all. :-\ Happy for you to PM so we don't end up spamming the page.
Thanks for any help at all xx
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Hi
I think yours might be a bit more difficult than mine as mine was my grandfather's father and I had a pair of first names*, occupation and two places to go on. Also, I did have a reply from one of the matches who gave me some information.
Basically, it's looking at shared matches, probably in the same cM range that I had, who don't appear tolink with any other lines and who have sourced trees. You then have to try to link up names, places and dates in their trees. Also, work out what occupation your great grandmother had at the time and her whereabouts.
Furthermore, and importantly, verify the trees that the matches have put up. I found an error in one of the trees which confirmed the line that I'd identified and, thus, led back to the the link family.
Gadget
* which weren't known family names, in a family which usually included at least one ancestral name.
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If you get the shared matches of who you think might be related through this line, pm me their site details and yours and I'll have a look at their trees to see if I can spot anything.
Gadget
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Thank you. It might take me ages to get to this point but I am really hoping that someday I can have another branch to my grans side. It looks very bare.
I am trying to pluck up the courage to ask her to take a test, she will be 100 in November, but I really don't want to upset her. I would rather never know than feel I have upset her, it has always been a very hard subject to her, in fact I don't think she has ever talked about it and as far as I am aware was never told anything by her mum who was only 17 when she had her.
Me and my mum, (who was an only child and is sadly no longer with us), always thought it was someone who either went off to war and never returned, or someone my great gran was in service with. So would I be looking for great grandads ancestors or descendants or both?
Thanks for your suggestions, I will try this and see what I come up with. :)
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Sorry about things.
I'd look for Great granddad's ancestors and descendants.(added - and his siblings ancestors/descendants) I worked around both.
Gadget
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Thank you :)