23&Me

[Janethepain]

So I am British based, from Central Scotland, but overwhelmingly Irish in origin, with anything not Irish, being Scottish that was probably or previously Irish anyway! I have been doing genealogy for >10 years, and did Ancestry DNA in 2018, I think. I have lots and lots of matches, lots in one quarter of my tree (Maternal/Maternal), but matches throughout the rest of the tree, in various degrees too. Kept busy working on my matches for 3 years now, but hampered that I cant use DNA painter or other clustering tools  to link loads of known matches, to the unknown ones, of probably american origin, due to the high number of Irish emigrants to USA over the last 200 years, because Ancestry does not have chromasome browser tools.

I decided to do a 23& me test, for that reason, and also because that is the only database I am not in, having previously transferred to My Heritage, FTDNA & Gedmatch.  I an not over estimating  how my results will be, because I know they (23&me), are highly USA based, but feel that at least they will be USA matches with chromosome segment details, and which I may be able to use with clustering tools!  I have previously used clustering, but due to the limited database I have had limited returns, especially with Gedmatch, which is annoying as they have great tools, especially on Tier 1, but I have few matches, and  the close ones I know about anyway, while the next lot are very low cM.

So just wondering how have others with British/Irish origins found 23&Me to be??  Posted off nearly 20 days ago, but not marked as received yet, but nevertheless I'm getting excited!  How have others found it?? How I look at it, as a covid spend, it was not that expensive, and if I find a few maches as yet unknown, welll I will be satisfied!!

[Gadget]

Hi Jane

I find 23&me more scientific than the other sites. I've found quite a few of my US relatives and some Irish ones. Interestingly, I have a match with the brother of a match that I have on My Heritage. I'm not sure why they chose to use different sites. Also, the daughter of an MH match has just popped up on 23&me.  However, I really took their test for reasons other than finding matches.

I have quite a few relatives in US and Canada as siblings of a few lines went over  in the 18th and 19th century.  I still find that Ancestry has more  of such matches.

Gadget

[Janethepain]

Thanks Gadget, appreciate your opinion!

Jane

[emeraldcity]

My DNA matches on 23andme are a lot more distant than those I have on Ancestry and MyHeritage (I think my highest is only 80 cM?) which I suppose makes sense given my background is 100% British and 23andMe is weighted towards a US userbase. But as you say in the OP, that sounds more like potentially what you want.

I've found matches tend to be a bit chattier and keen to get in touch on 23andMe though. Not sure why! Although it's frustrating that there's no integration of family trees on the site so checking out DNA matches can be very tricky or impossible if they have a common name and don't respond to messages.

[Janethepain]

Thanks so much Emerald!  Good to know,

Jane

[Janethepain]

Well, finally got to 'computing your results' so not long 'til I get them, hoping for tomorrow, or perhaps the next day!!

I am also hoping I will be busy for a bit after that!!

Janex

[Janethepain]

I have to say that, at least initially, I am somewhat underwhelmed by my results, by which I mean re my match list.  2 close cousins top my list, two 1C1R's who I dont personally know, but obviously know of and have met/spoken to before.  However other than that there are 8 2nd cousins including 1 & 2removed ones, one group of whom may be from a known New York based branch, but whose surnames I recognise, even if I dont know which bits of that branch they come from.  But appart from that there are few I have any idea about!!

I guess it is hard, as I dont have my Dad's results here to seperate maternal and  paternal matches, but at first looking, I have noticed that 1 match I am sure is paternal, has a shared match with me from what I think likely to be my female side. I know this obviously can happen, but in my much larger Ancestry database, I have only one example of a maternal match, who has a paternal joint match (or vice versa!).

However I will plough on and see If I can discover anything interesting!!