Author Topic: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt  (Read 370 times)

Offline Murrell

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1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« on: Tuesday 24 September 24 09:57 BST (UK) »
I have a female match on Ancestry I don't know who she is and messages have gone unanswered.
I can only assume she is on my unknown father's line.
She was shown as 1st or 2nd cousin 802cM 11%shared DNA
now it's 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt.
Is it unusual for this change on Ancestry
Power Ward Rooney  Southern Ireland

Offline Glen in Tinsel Kni

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Re: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 24 September 24 13:03 BST (UK) »
The predictions have changed in some cases as they are now using self reported ages, that's fine if the details are correct but when an account is set up there are ample opportunities for people to enter different information either deliberately or accidently. I Have one match who has substituted his result for his  mothers, that one really stumped me for months until I realised what had happened. I missed the very obvious male icon and female name clue for far too long.

The shared dna of 802cM could easily fit with a 1c or half aunt, shared matches will be the most telling as a half relative will only match through one common ancestor so shared matches will be different to those of a full relative.

My mother was the youngest of her generation and a half sibling to the rest, she had 3 children in the 1940's and then me in the 1966, the 1940's children were married and having families of their own when I was born so there's lots of half relatives with a generational gap but almost identical ages (I have two half nephews born in 1967 for example).

As the predictions are just that, 'predictions' and not based on actual tree information it's not unusual to have a couple of predictions that are in different generations.  Half relatives generally share less dna than the equivalent full relative and the lower dna share can skew the predictions.

All of my aunt and uncles are half relatives to me, the common ancestor is their mother/my grandmother. Our shared matches only go through that one common ancestor and there are a number of mystery matches that only connect to me, these have given me leads to which family my unknown grandfather come from but again there are lots of half relatives with a generational gap and similar ages.

Offline haliared

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Re: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 24 September 24 13:05 BST (UK) »
They are always changing these things, I have a match they altered and the real relationship I cannot enter from the drop down box as it isn't even an option anymore and there's no way of entering it manually.  ::)

I can only assume in your case that they have taken the personal details that your match gave when she signed up and used that date or year of birth to eliminate the other possibles that 802cM gives, such as great-aunt, great-grandmother, great-niece or half-niece etc.
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Offline Biggles50

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Re: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 24 September 24 14:11 BST (UK) »
Ancestry keeps changing their systems which does result in spurious oddities occurring.

Does the match have a tree?

Are they identifiable by actual name?

Have you looked at Shared Matches?

Have you looked at Thrulines?

If there is not a tree then I would start by looking at Shared Matches to see if any there have a tree from which you can get clues.

If you do have available trees from the match and or Shared Matches then you could take out a Subscription for a month of Pro Tools where you can see what cM each Shared Match has with other Shared Matches which in turn will enable you to narrow down the relationship probabilities.


Offline brigidmac

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Re: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 29 September 24 18:53 BST (UK) »
It might be worth you adding notes on your tree to the profiles your known deceased relatives

Eg. Great aunt . Half uncle .
1st cousin twice removed

That gives others way of identifying where you fit on the line ....and guessing your age or generation .

If you add comments to profiles others can add a reply

Eg "don't know where this person went after 1910"

"3  lines redacted on 1939 register were they her children ? "

I've just added a comment to a relative saying  " she was grandchild not child " 
Once got a reply " saying how do you know this ?"
Usually people don't reply but at least they can see the comments


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Offline Murrell

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Re: 1st cousin or 1/2 aunt
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 05 October 24 07:48 BST (UK) »
Good morning everyone many thanks for your comments and tips - l think the suggestion of a subscription is a good idea as the cousin/aunt doesn't have a tree
Power Ward Rooney  Southern Ireland