mtDNA? (in paper trail terms)

[Leanne Pethick]

Hope it's ok to revive an older topic.  Did a search on mtDNA and have found the replies here very helpful.

I am trying to find the biological parents of my mother's Grandma Annie (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=823003.0) and have pretty well exhausted traditional methods.  I can find no record of her prior to her marriage in 1891.

Was thinking that doing (and/or getting mum to do) an mtDNA test would be the answer, however I am gathering from the replies here that it will be next to useless?

For the past few weeks I have been wading through the list of DNA matches and checking shared matches and using the little color dots to assign matches to other ancestral lines or meeting 'above' Grandma Annie (ie along her husband's ancestral line) etc.

Has been an interesting exercise (given that all her ggparents came to Aus in the 1850s, pretty well brickwalls across the board for their roots - and have managed to make headway on some at last!)  and I appear to be left with one small group of shared matches that I, nor they, can find any link at all.  So have just started to explore this.

Is it going to help if I get more known descendants of Grandma Annie to take the regular DNA tests?  Mum (84yo) has one younger cousin who I am hoping to take it.  Is this better than getting one of my sisters to do it?

Reading tonight that different people get different amounts of DNA from ancestors, I am thinking that the more 'knowns' the better?  At the moment there is only Mum from her generation and 2 cousins from Generations below mum who meet at Grandma Annie & Grandpa Joe.

Would really appreciate any thoughts on what will help to improve the chances of finding her parents.

Warm Regards
Leanne

[Gadget]

Hi Leanne

Yes, try and get as many descendants of Grandma Anne as you can to take the test. Also go over the trees of your group of matches to see if they have made any errors.

Gadget

[Leanne Pethick]

Thanks for replying Gadget!
I had a real chuckle at your comment "go over the trees of your group of matches to see if they have made any errors"...  perhaps it is just my relations...  I can't believe how 'slack' people are in verifying information in their trees!  My matches trees are full of errors... that I know about.

Have started making lots of little trees of my own so that I can duplicate trees of my matches AND make sure I get their information correct.

Every now and then I come across someone totally unrelated to me who I can tell is fastidious, and I lean on / borrow from their work as much as possible.

Will ask all my siblings to take tests.  Fingers crossed a few will do so

[Leanne Pethick]

ooo another thought...
I am one of 8 children, and 4 of us are 'from' my mother's side (in physical appearance) and 4 are 'from' Dad's side. 
Was about to ask if it is best to focus on getting those who are from Mum's side to do it (given that some are so not interested in our ancestry that I will need to offer to pay for it), then it occured that it would be interesting to see if they match mum or dad's side more (both Mum & Dad have had DNA tests done).
Thinking out loud and probably a little too late to be repeating what goes through this brain 

[Gadget]

If you are in contact with you little group, maybe all of you could download your DNA files and upload to a site that has a chromosome browser*. You could then see how you match. Also, you might pick up others.


* My Heritage, Gedmatch, etc.

Add - to download, go to Settings top right of your DNA page, then scroll down to Actions

[Ruskie]

I like My Heritage, but there is now a cost to unlock some features including the Chromosome browser (currently $29). 

[Leanne Pethick]

Hi Gadget,
There are 2 in the group (mum's & 1 other) who are on GED match.  Spent some time there last night trying the different tests / match options and got totally confused! (Will post separately about that after checking here for questions already asked that may answer my 'issues' ;-)

Ruskie,
Just having a look at My heritage now.  When you say you like it, do you mind letting me know how / why / for what?  It looks to me to be another option to Ancestry, and I want to be careful as I have a habit of confusing myself!  It definitely looks cheaper...
Or is it for the DNA that you like it?

[Ruskie]

I don’t have Ancestry so can’t comment on similarities. I tested with FTDNA years ago.

I find My Heritage chromosome browser useful, similarly auto clusters, and the site in general is set out well and easy to find your way around. If you can afford to spend the extra $29 to unlock the features, you may find them useful. 

I am not recommending that you take the My Heritage DNA test, just that you upload your raw data from other tests to My Heritage, and pay the $29 so you can use all the features (which up until a year or so ago used to be free). 

[Leanne Pethick]

Thanks heaps Ruskie!
Uploading now.  Am at such a confused brick wall with Grandma Annie, willing to try anything at all