Author Topic: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!  (Read 3484 times)

Offline IJDisney

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #18 on: Sunday 01 April 18 14:16 BST (UK) »
Just use it for the Ethnicity Estimate if you have any faith in the results.

I have little faith in the Ethnicity results. I'm just 1% British according to Ancestry, and MyHeritage replaces that with 1% Native American. Yet all my lines back to 1800 were born in Britain. Unless almost all of the preceding generation (64 different families) were an immigrant (and I know most were not), I don't see how their interpretation can be accurate. "Ethnic" is a very vague term anyhow, and its just the interpretation of the different providers. Its useful if you have absolutely nothing else to go on, and also fuels the romantic fantasy side of genealogy (e.g. my results say I'm 5% Spanish, and 19% Irish, so clearly I descend from the Spanish Armada sailors shipwrecked in Ireland!! And as 1% Native American, I must be descended from Pocahontas!)). But I put no faith in it.

I have greater faith in the DNA matches, but am aware of how very limiting they are (as compared to how they are advertised!). 'DNA' matches are only about the DNA they choose to test - not all your DNA, and it certainly does not reflect all your ancestral lines.

Offline Jill Eaton

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #19 on: Sunday 01 April 18 19:02 BST (UK) »


I have little faith in the Ethnicity results. I'm just 1% British according to Ancestry, and MyHeritage replaces that with 1% Native American. Yet all my lines back to 1800 were born in Britain. Unless almost all of the preceding generation (64 different families) were an immigrant (and I know most were not), I don't see how their interpretation can be accurate. "Ethnic" is a very vague term anyhow, and its just the interpretation of the different providers. Its useful if you have absolutely nothing else to go on, and also fuels the romantic fantasy side of genealogy (e.g. my results say I'm 5% Spanish, and 19% Irish, so clearly I descend from the Spanish Armada sailors shipwrecked in Ireland!! And as 1% Native American, I must be descended from Pocahontas!)). But I put no faith in it.


I have my autosomal DNA uploaded on MyHeritage and MyFamilyTree as well as Ancestry where the test was actually one and they all agree that I'm 100% European

Both MyHeritage and MyFamilyTree give me a 2.8% and 3% ethnicity of Southern Europe/Greece. Now I'm really fond of holidaying in the Greek islands but there is absolutely no indication in my paper trail that I have any family from there. Ancestry only allocates me 1% but I'm prepared to accept that I carry some Mediterranean genes and are therefore entitled to visit the land of my forebears! ;)

All three sites do give an Irish/Welsh/Scottish estimate that makes up the largest part of ethnicity estimate with MyHeritage and MyFamilyTree making it around the 85% mark
Davis - Berkshire & London
Sutcliffe - Yorkshire & London
Harrington - Ireland and London
Fuller - Cambridgeshire and Essex
Waldron/Waldren - Devon & London
Frisby and Lee - Leicestershire
Hollingsworth - Essex
Williams - Ireland? and London
Ellis, Reed & Temple - London
Lane - ?
Surplice/Surplus - Cambridgeshire
Elwood - Cambridgeshire

Offline sugarfizzle

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #20 on: Monday 02 April 18 07:59 BST (UK) »
Grr! Grr! Frustrating indeed.

When I got my results back last year I contacted some of my close matches. Reply from manager of 2 of my closest matches was polite but not sure of connectIon, no online tree.

With more people testing and strong shared matches, the link became stonger, so sent two more messages, outlining where I thought the link could be, last one in Nov 17.  No reply.

Until today that is.
''None of the names you mention have anything to do with our tree. No one in our family tree moved out of x or came in to x from the places you mention."
Although she had a couple of illegitimacies, they were nothing to do with my family.

My 2G grandfather travelled all over x county with his job, as did his son in law. I wonder if a son or grandson (or even 2G himself) fathered one of her illegitimacies?!?!?!?!? I would like to know, even if she doesn't.

Margaret
STEER, mainly Surrey, Kent; PINNOCKS/HAINES, Gosport, Hants; BARKER, mainly Broadwater, Sussex; Gosport, Hampshire; LAVERSUCH, Micheldever, Hampshire; WESTALL, London, Reading, Berks; HYDE, Croydon, Surrey; BRIGDEN, Hadlow, Kent and London; TUTHILL/STEPHENS, London
WILKINSON, Leeds, Yorkshire and Liverpool; WILLIAMSON, Liverpool; BEARE, Yeovil, Somerset; ALLEN, Kent and London; GORST, Liverpool; HOYLE, mainly Leeds, Yorkshire

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Offline Ruskie

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #21 on: Monday 02 April 18 10:28 BST (UK) »
Nearly everone is upset, surprised or disappointed at their ethnicity results because they don't match their paper trail, but how far back in history do the results go? 500 years? 1,000 years? Not many of us have paper trails for all lines back that far. The results also relate to others who have tested, so if millions of Americans with Jewish heritage have taken tests, and only a few thousand from the UK have taken tests, then the results will reflect those sample groups won't they?

This may help explain it:
https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/user-guide/family-finder-myftdna/myorigins-methodology/


Offline jillruss

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #22 on: Monday 02 April 18 11:15 BST (UK) »
I've found, with most of my matches, that I have to be prepared to be the main 'instigator'.

I started out by just sending a pretty standard message to my top matches just saying words to the effect 'we match - you have no tree/or small tree/ what are your locations and names'.

Most don't react to that kind of message - I'm generous and assume they're probably still in work or have a family to look after but, basically, let's face it, most people can't be bothered to do the work. Hence the huge lack of family trees.

I've found that they are more likely to respond if you mention others who share the match (don't assume they already know!), especially if you are lucky or astute enough to identify a possible name or location with one of the pool and tempt the others with that snippet of info.

The above has worked for me 3 times so far - mostly because I'm a persistent little bu--er and won't give up. if I have to get back to them again, I usually start with an apology but then try to gain their interest but always put a bit at the end to say if you're not interested in pursuing this, just let me know and I'll go away! That in itself might make them feel guilty and prompt a response!

Once the match is found, everyone is happy!
HELP!!!

 BATHSHEBA BOOTHROYD bn c. 1802 W. Yorks.

Baptism nowhere to be found. Possibly in a nonconformist church near ALMONDBURY or HUDDERSFIELD.

Offline Jill Eaton

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #23 on: Monday 02 April 18 12:13 BST (UK) »

Most don't react to that kind of message - I'm generous and assume they're probably still in work or have a family to look after but, basically, let's face it, most people can't be bothered to do the work. Hence the huge lack of family trees.

I wish I shared some DNA with you Jill.  I'd be confident your info would be correct. I'm still in full-time work and don't speak to my colleagues during my lunch-breaks as I'm busy on various family history websites. If they bore with me with football results or celebrity gossip I send them into a glassy-eyed torpor by explaining census returns. I'd be more than happy to accept some input from my contactees, particularly if it was evident they had done their own research and not copied it from another family tree.

But to perfectly honest I actually really enjoy the searching, results and surprises - even when it turns out to have little relevance to me. I now know that there were a large collection of lighterman and watermen around Bermondsey called Wheeler and that various members of the Lane family (perhaps mine but nothing proved) lived with and sometimes married into them. I know a lot about various Lane families in Bermondsey, Lambeth and Camberwell - how they connect to each other and what they did for a living. Should I ever prove a link to my illegitimate Mary Ann Lane the work is largely already done and saved.

It would still be much easier and perhaps more rewarding for my own family research if people would
a) post a tree and if there was some sort of disclaimer on the websites whether they were actually interested in their own genealogy or simply ethnicity
b) have a public tree that at least had surnames and approximate dates so there was a starting point for us both to try and find a match.
c) had a tree rather than a late flowering twig. 4 people isn't a tree ;)
d) That Ancestry would indicate which country the match is from. A small national flag next to the name would be perfect
Davis - Berkshire & London
Sutcliffe - Yorkshire & London
Harrington - Ireland and London
Fuller - Cambridgeshire and Essex
Waldron/Waldren - Devon & London
Frisby and Lee - Leicestershire
Hollingsworth - Essex
Williams - Ireland? and London
Ellis, Reed & Temple - London
Lane - ?
Surplice/Surplus - Cambridgeshire
Elwood - Cambridgeshire

Offline jillruss

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #24 on: Monday 02 April 18 18:01 BST (UK) »
All good suggestions, Jill. I'd like to be able to go into my 'sent' box and know who I've sent each message to, as I can identify who has sent the messages in my 'in' box. I mean, it ani't rocket science, is it?!  ???

You threw me there, by changing your picture. It looks like an older version of you in black & white!

I know what you mean about friends and family rolling their eyes or glazing over when family history comes up. Yesterday my 23 year old niece brought the subject up with ref to DNA and genes (honestly, it wasn't me!) and asked my sister in law about her grandfather who was from Liverpool (said sister in law was also born there). My niece asked SiL if that meant she had Liverpool genes in her. the answer came that no, she didn't because she'd never been there so why should she? I bit my lip, held my counsel etc etc. I've learned by bitter experience that said SiL thinks its all a waste of time and that anything past her memory is not worth pursuing. I'm sure there are lots of others out there who would agree with her. Their loss - and anyway perhaps the earth is flat...... ::)
HELP!!!

 BATHSHEBA BOOTHROYD bn c. 1802 W. Yorks.

Baptism nowhere to be found. Possibly in a nonconformist church near ALMONDBURY or HUDDERSFIELD.

Offline Finley 1

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #25 on: Monday 02 April 18 20:57 BST (UK) »
Just got results back from My Heritage and with the same RAW DNA I am now 100% English.

ho hum


(happy ho hum :)


xin

Offline Ausigeni

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Re: DNA matches can be so frustrating!!!
« Reply #26 on: Monday 09 April 18 06:12 BST (UK) »

@Jill Eaton

I noticed that you have a Sutcliffe line listed at the bottom of your post, if you upload your DNA profile to the Gedmatch Genesis site (not the main Gedmatch site but the new beta) you might end up matching me. I am a female descendant, (maiden name Sutcliffe), of a branch of Sutcliffes that lived in Huddersfield, Todmorton, Habringham Eaves and Burnley Lancs. I also have an extensive Sutcliffe tree on Ancestry.com.

Regards,

Paula