Turns out my parents are related.. now to find the shared distant grandparent

[PByrneMoroney]

Hi everyone,

I have just joined and have learned much already. I thought I'd shared about just one of my DNA experiences to begin and see if it common.


I had my, my mums and before he passed away, my father’s DNA tested (which also interestingly confirms our French/German ancestry) and that mum and dad share a 5th or 6th grandparent – so, on the 23&me website, I have DNA relations related to mum, to dad, and about 30 to both my parents. Clearly, I need to tap into 'the both' community in search of the link. I have also been contacted by French people wanting to explore how we are related by DNA. A possible link is that the first wife of Thomas McEvoy, Charlotte Ennis, came from Antrim, as did my father’s great, great grandmother, Isabella Gamble who married Martin Moroney just prior to or upon arrival in Australia. We believe she may have been his second wife.

The thing about the DNA site though, is very few people with our various known family names, have been tested and very few also, knowingly at least, have our names listed as in their ancestry - so it is mainly broad rather than closer linear family that are coming up as being related and the maximum % relationship is .3% or 3rd to distant cousins. To know more, more of us would need to throw caution to the wind and spit in a tube. Having said that, I wish I'd used Ancestry.com now because it is more widely used and, obviously, I can't submit dad's DNA again. They have said no in the past but I hope one day Ancestry will accept Dad’s 23&Me data and mine and mums (happy to pay the fee) so I can extend our reach.

Has anyone else found their parents are related and how would you go about figuring our which back linages connects them. I'd say we're looking 1700's and most of our Irish records don't go back that far. Mind you mum is related to an English Hawkins and Dad to a Gamble from Antrim so maybe the Ganbles came across from England more recently and I'll find a linking searching for those linages. Fun isn't it?

[Craclyn]

Although you cannot transfer to Ancestry you could transfer your kits to other sites to expand the pools you are fishing in. Try MyHeritage, FTDNA and genesis.gedmatch.

[davidft]

I do not know if this will help you or not but on Gedmatch.com one of the tools is to tell you if your parents were related. I do not know what "extra" it gives you but it may be worth looking at the website to see if it offers anything that may be of use to you. If you want to join it is free, at least for the more general functions - there are fees for extra services. Worth a look I think.

Good luck. (My parents are not related, other than by marriage  , so that is why I do not know what else it offers).

[Gadget]

The parent relationship tool on Gedmatch (ref davidft) compares each chromosome, so it should give you some idea as to the chromosome/segment match.

I did a run on mine a while ago but, as expected, my parents weren't related.


Gadget

[Gadget]

I've just rerun the 'parents related' tool on my kit on Gedmatch. Here's a snip. They compare  chromosomes 1 to 22.

[Gadget]

This chart might give you some indication of the possible generational match:

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4


Gadget

[lydiaann]

I've not found a link with DNA but I do know that somewhere, probably about 4-5 generations back, my parents have common ancestors: I keep picking away and I know somewhere at the back of my mind there is a definite, logical line to follow but it just won't pop out.  One day when I'm least expecting it, I will find it!

[GailB]

Largest segment = 29.2 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 66.1 cM
Estimated number of generations between parents = 5.8 (total generations from parent1 to common ancestors to parent2)

Interpreting your results:

This analysis indicates that your parents are probably related within the last several generations.


The above is my results using the Gedmatch tool. It is out a bit as my parents are second cousins and so share great grandparents which is 4 generations and not the 5.8 generations as estimated.