Help needed with Family Tree DNA Family Finder Matches

[kiwi jeanie]

Hi - I love this forum and hope someone can help me as I am confused and need help 
I am on Family Tree DNA and when I go into myDNA / Family Finder matches at the top there are icons for maternal, paternal and both. Out of my 3011 matches 7 have the maternal icon and none have the paternal icon. I know that four of the matches are down the maternal line through the women from my gg grandmother as the 4 matches are siblings from the same family. I thought the same logic applied to the other three matches and have been in touch with the matches trying to work out how far back the maternal line goes. One of the matches is adamant they have no links to Ireland (where my maternal line originates) and that the matches are through their paternal line. Is anyone able to tell me exactly what the maternal icon means 

[rsel]

Hi,
   I may well be very much mistaken here :-)  as I have uploaded results to FTDNA for me, my father and my mother.  The buttons you mention look to filter my results based on if I have matching segments in common either my father or mother (the same as the 'in common' filter does if I have either one selected).

    Now with regards to your statement that your match is adamant the link is there paternal line, that can be true, as your maternal line can intersect with the other uses paternal line, they don't have to both be the same side :-)

Richard

[kiwi jeanie]

Thanks for your quick reply.  I have only uploaded my DNA - there is no way for FTDNA to know whether it is a maternal or paternal match with my parents

[familydar]

Those buttons require the testers to have DNA linked to a tree, and the same ancestor to be present in both trees.

Jane :-)

[rsel]

Those buttons require the testers to have DNA linked to a tree, and the same ancestor to be present in both trees.

Jane :-)

I don't have any of my matches with ancestors present in both trees :-)   So they must have multiple ways of deciding....LOL

[familydar]

The absence of a tree won't stop you getting matches.  I mean the maternal paternal match buttons.  I have my own results and those of my mother and father and a paternal first cousin of my father.  All with trees linked with the other three identified as DNA linked.  When I look at my own results I have a number showing as paternal and a similar number maternal but only one definite maternal. The solitary maternal one I thought I had was actually my mother's, through someone known to be related maternally but linked a few generations back (so I am my mother's daughter!).


My understanding anyway.

Jane :-)

[AlanBoyd]

Could this depend upon exactly what your DNA information is (and where it came from)? If your DNA includes mitochondrial DNA that would come from your maternal line. And for a male your DNA might include Y chromosome information which would relate to the paternal lineage – although Ancestry don’t tell you this, their current test does include some Y DNA information.  FT specifically offer these tests of course.

[familydar]

The data I have on FTDNA for myself and the other three kits I administer is all FTDNA's own - the tests were done with them.  My father and his cousin took a Y test as well as autosomal but the maternal/paternal matches feature is in the autosomal (family finder) results.

I'm beginning to wonder if the match perhaps doesn't need to have a tree, and that you can just build them in to your own (since we are talking about a known match, the relationship isn't a mystery).  Either way you need to set the linked relationship so FTDNA know exactly how you connect.  I can't remember how you do this - it's two or three years since I did it for my known matches - but there must be instructions somewhere on their website.

Something I've noticed, looking at my father's FTDNA results today, is that although I have set the linked relationship for a 4th cousin on my father's maternal side, that match doesn't have a little red "maternal" icon.  In fact I don't have any definite maternal matches for my father.  Perhaps at 83cM the 4th cousin match is deemed too small to be diagnostic.  I don't think it's because that match doesn't have a tree, as my father's icon-identified paternal matches (which can only be based on triangulation with his paternal first cousin) don't all have trees.

Jane :-)

[kiwi jeanie]

Those buttons require the testers to have DNA linked to a tree, and the same ancestor to be present in both trees.

Jane :-)

Hi Jane

The same ancestor is not present in all the trees