Author Topic: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?  (Read 1122 times)

Offline Romilly

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #9 on: Friday 31 July 20 15:56 BST (UK) »

I thought that these very small matches were being removed because they’re more than likely to be false positives?

Certainly hardly any of them have any shared matches.

Romilly.
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Offline Gadget

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #10 on: Friday 31 July 20 16:59 BST (UK) »
They can be very important, Romilly. I have quite a lot of  (proven) common ancestors with them.

Ancestry only shows shared matches if they are 20cMs or more.
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Offline Romilly

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #11 on: Friday 31 July 20 17:13 BST (UK) »

Funnily enough, I do have some matches on Ancestry for quite low cMs that do have shared matches. (They tend to be the Ashkenazi Jewish ones, but I don’t know why this is).

Romilly.
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Researching:
Wilson, Warren, Dulston, Hooper, Duffin, Petty, Rees, Davies, Williams, Newman, Dyer, Hamilton, Edmeads, Pattenden.

Offline Gadget

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #12 on: Friday 31 July 20 17:27 BST (UK) »
It would be when your shared match shares more than 20cM with one of your 6cM matches. I've tried to show an example below

                                        -------------- You----------------
                                        l                                            l
                               over 20cM                                     less than 20cM
                                       l                                               l
                       shared matchA-----more than 20cM-------shared matchB
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Offline melba_schmelba

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #13 on: Friday 31 July 20 17:55 BST (UK) »

I thought that these very small matches were being removed because they’re more than likely to be false positives?

Certainly hardly any of them have any shared matches.

Romilly.
Actually many of them do, but as Gadget says, they hide anything where they match another one of your matches less than 20cM. Ancestry hides a lot of useful data, which is why people started using the Genetic Affairs and Shared Clustering in the first place ::).

Offline Romilly

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #14 on: Friday 31 July 20 22:19 BST (UK) »
Why then does Blaine Bettinger describe these small matches as 'poison'?

I've found his book on DNA testing really helpful...

Romilly.
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Offline melba_schmelba

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #15 on: Saturday 01 August 20 10:25 BST (UK) »
Why then does Blaine Bettinger describe these small matches as 'poison'?

I've found his book on DNA testing really helpful...

Romilly.
Because for people who know very little of their tree, they probably are, because you have no idea where they fit in. But for people that have very extensive trees going back to the 17th century and beyond on most or all lines, they can be very useful and can be verified to be genuine links to multiple people descended from a common ancestor.

Offline Romilly

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #16 on: Saturday 01 August 20 10:53 BST (UK) »

Yes melba_schmelba,

I know that you and Gadget have made valid points...

I am just so frustrated with DNA!!!

Despite having tested with multiple companies, and having persuaded my late Mother, my sister, and paternal and maternal 1st Cousins to also test, - and having read widely on the subject...

I'm still stuck with my Paternal Grandfather:-(

I'm on the verge of deleting everything and giving up altogether...

Romilly :'(
Any census information included in this post is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Researching:
Wilson, Warren, Dulston, Hooper, Duffin, Petty, Rees, Davies, Williams, Newman, Dyer, Hamilton, Edmeads, Pattenden.

Offline Cavanaghs

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Re: Where do I find my total number of DNA matches on ancestry.co.uk?
« Reply #17 on: Saturday 01 August 20 11:50 BST (UK) »
Don't give up Romilly, just take a break, you never know what might turn up.

I don't doubt Blaine Bettinger's credentials and would like to read his book but a lot of the research he references also relates to matches of 5cM, even 2cM, not to the 6cM and 7cM matches that will be deleted at ancestry.

I accept many of these 6-7cM matches are "noise" but from what he says, perhaps as much as 50% of them are genuine matches, that's many tens of thousands of my matches that will be deleted, to my detriment. At the moment, I can choose to ignore the many irrelevant matches and cherry pick the interesting ones. Soon the interesting ones will not be accessible.

I also don't accept that matches of 6-7cM are extremely distant matches. I have 9 known matches of 6-7cM and my mother has 14, that I can attribute to precise ancestors - mostly my 3 x or 4 x grandparents. Many of these small matches had family trees that overlapped with mine in a clear way. No ambiguity.
GEDMatch Kit no. CE7119959

Maternal: Thirlwell, Dobbins, Stamp, Rochester, Laws, Nicholson, Cavanagh, Jessop, Clough/Cleugh, Charlton, Weightman, Swinhoe, Swainson, Purdie, Carney…
(Northumberland, Cumberland, Ireland)

Paternal: Gilmour, McGrath, Oram, Green(e), Hepplewhite, Graham, Bugbird, Hanley, Hutton, Bellott, Busfield, Blake, Bugbird, Dwyer...
(Ireland, County Durham, especially Hartlepool, Whitby, North Yorkshire, Middlesex, Surrey, ia)