DNA - What's the point?

[Kaybron]

Yes, husband's half brother has met all of the family, including 2 other half brothers and a number of nieces and nephews.  Sadly, he was not able to meet his father as he died over 35 years ago.  We have had several family dinners and all meet up whenever we can.  When we head off to Adelaide (capital city of SA) from the rural town where we live, we drive within 10 minutes of his place, so call in whenever we can. Lots of phone calls and text messages also. We don't know if my father-in-law knew he had another son or managed to keep this to himself for 66 years. 

[brigidmac]

A distant DNA match has just asked if anyone in my family has a certain medical condition she's discovered that 3 third cousins in their 60s have it .I know you can pay to have xtra medical details

I didn't but it may be useful to know and asking relatives is one way of finding where medical conditions are from
Another match was a adoptee hoping to start family so medical conditions also very important for her to know.

[TonyV]

Is it worth having an autosomal DNA test done if you don't have (or want to have) your tree online with the DNA test provider? 

I'm cynical because I had a Y-DNA test done in 2004 with a well-regarded supplier and while I've subsequently had over 80 pages of so-called matches, none of them comes close to being of interest. In fact most are from Ireland or the USA but I've traced my paternal line back to the mid 1700s and without exception they all come from the East Midlands. None of them roamed much further afield than the local towns and cities during the Industrial Revolution and certainly none of them came from Ireland or emigrated to the USA.

[brigidmac]

Tony hi
Yes itwould be worth doing a test which includes maternal side of family .
It sounds like someone on your blood paternal line did come from Ireland or emigrate or had brother or sister who did.
Even if the paper trail doesn't support that theory .don't take the test if you believe the bloodline will invalidate your research .personally I think the family you grow up in is the one that counts but following blood line is exciting too. My cousin has lots of matches in usa too turns out his greatgrandmother eldest child was born pre marriage and the highest USA match also had a great grandmother who was single had given birth in same Yorkshire town but the adopted baby taken to Texas so match was quite high half first cousins...and we don't know the birthfathers name yet !

[brigidmac]

A DNA match has just told me that all her first matches were
Completely wrong then she got some useful ones

I realized she had been taking the suggestion "second cousin" third cousin level literally.

And not factoring in generations removed or descendants of half siblings etc

Eventually a close match contacted her ...it was her sister's son who.d been adopted and she knew nothing about .

If trees are open & linked to DNA
Ancestry thru lines will show true relationship for example half cousin once removed....which appears on matches as second cousin level

[GrahamH]

Surely "matches" are only possible from those people who have bought the tests from Ancestry and have loaded their research data to Ancestry aren't they?
If people have done neither then there is no chance of Ancestry identifying a "match" is there?

[Nanna52]

You would be surprised how many people  test with Ancestry.  After about eighteen months on there I have over 17,000 matches. 

[medpat]

I have just spent time tracking down the father of an illegitimate baby born during WW2.

My cousin received a letter to say his father had the same name as the baby's father and DNA showed it was someone in our general family. I'm the family historian so took on the task. We were lucky as another of our cousins had his DNA test on the same site and he was assessed as 4th - 6th cousin - not my uncle's child because that would be a 1st cousin.

I found another with the same name in our general family at the correct distance to me using my cousin's DNA result - after a DNA test by that person's son it was found he was a more distant relative than my cousin. The son knew he had a half sibling somewhere.

I advised the person that the DNA should be put on as many free sites as possible and gave the links, this would mean my DNA could be checked against the person's DNA. I map my known relatives DNA to help me. The person's DNA appeared on 2 of my sites and was assessed as a 3rd - 5th cousin and a 2nd - 4th cousin. I mapped the person's DNA where they met mine and was surprised to find they dropped into the area of my gt gt grandmother's DNA. This meant the person's father was a descendant of my gt gt grandparents and the person was my 3rd cousin.

There was only one with the father's name on that line born in the right era and his granddaughter was approached. The granddaughter's aunt had the answer, her parents had married pre WW2 and she and her eldest brother had been born before her father joined the army during WW2. There was an affair whilst the man was in the army and a baby born. He then came back to his wife and 3 more sons born. Only the 2 eldest knew of the affair and baby. The aunt then named the mother of the baby - we had the father.

Without DNA how would the person have found the right family to start to look for someone of the correct name and then prove it was their father?  DNA has proved my paper trails which made the cost worth while because I have 4 lines back to the mid 1700s that are now known to be correct - that's priceless as far as I'm concerned. I'd tell everyone serious about family history to consider DNA to use it to prove your tree. One proviso - wait for the offers. 

[Ruskie]

Is it worth having an autosomal DNA test done if you don't have (or want to have) your tree online with the DNA test provider? 

I'm cynical because I had a Y-DNA test done in 2004 with a well-regarded supplier and while I've subsequently had over 80 pages of so-called matches, none of them comes close to being of interest. In fact most are from Ireland or the USA but I've traced my paternal line back to the mid 1700s and without exception they all come from the East Midlands. None of them roamed much further afield than the local towns and cities during the Industrial Revolution and certainly none of them came from Ireland or emigrated to the USA.

It is likely you will get more useful results with an autosomal test than a YDNA test. My OH has one of the most common surnames in the UK and only has about four matches, none of them useful. His autosomal test has many relatively easily identifiable matches.

I think it is probably as a result of none of his ancestors or their descendants venturing very far, and not many taking DNA tests.

My father on the other hand has many many YDNA 12 marker matches ..... not traceable via a paper trail, and no 67 marker matches which is as far as he tested. Pretty useless really ....