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General => Ancestral Family Tree DNA Testing => Topic started by: Braytons on Sunday 09 January 22 17:23 GMT (UK)
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It looks like it's about 3 years since I was last on here. I am back still trying to find my grandmother's forebears.
How many DNA matches should I expect 5 years after test with Ancestry please? :-\
Did the maternal side of my ancestors have low fertility? I feel I should have more matches. Am I correct in believing that?
Braytons
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It really depends how keen your kin are to do tests :)
I did a DNA test about 4 years ago. Amazon reduced the cut off to 8cMs or more a while back and many of us managed to keep the 6cM-9 cM matches by colour coding them. Today, I have 37,189. This includes 532 clsoe matches (20 cMs and over) and the 6-8cMs that I managed to save. I get on average about 10 new matches a week, most of which are below 20cMs.
Gadget
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Looking through other tests that I have access to, my match total seems fairly high. Most of them are in the 19000 - 27000 range.
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Hi Braytons,
Maybe it depends on your family background. Just looking at 4th Cousins or Closer at Ancestry I have only 88 'close cousins' (as per Ancestry definition) yet my half sister has 205 'close cousins'. I manage four more accounts who have 251, 266, 310 and 461 'close cousins'.
I have just over 8,000 DNA matches, whilst my half- sister has 10,675 matches. The other accounts range from 11,488 to 17,681. These are all British testers however mine is on the low side as I have a South Asian grandparent.
pughcd
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I don't think you can set any specific expectations. It depends how big your family is and how many of that family have tested with Ancestry. For example my paternal grandfather was an only child , his father only had one sister, his father only had half siblings, his father's siblings,most of them didn't have children limiting how many descendants there are alive today. My mum's side however generation after generation of having at least 8 children and each of these children having big families and so on. A lot of them emigrated too which i think provides incentive to get tested.
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Thank you everyone for your replies. I think I am well within the normal range then. I have 302 4th cousins or closer. I was obviously feeling unnecessarily disappointed. I shall just have to try harder.
Braytons
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Hi Braytons,
If you go to the DNA Matches page and click the Filter by; Shared DNA tab it should tell you your total number of DNA matches.
302 4th Cousins and closer sounds quite reasonable. I get very excited if I get a new match to add to my 88 close cousins.
pughcd
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11,631
You'd think I should be able to find my great grandmother somewhere amongst that lot.
Thanks pughcd. Belinda
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i'm on the 2nd year of managing my cousins dna results
on his fathers side
he only has 7 shared matches over 40cm and we didnt know how any of them matched >
the highest is a half second cousin they share one great grandfather who i only identified today both only children of their mothers who were themselves only children.
i think one high match is worth dozens of low ones ,
it seems like a lot of american distant matches have tested just to see their ethnicity and havent linked test to a tree ..that wouldnt make a difference to the number of matches but is frustrating .
you can add your results to GED (do imean GDF ?)+ may find relatives who have tested on different sites
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Yes @brigidmac GEDmatch ( a third party DNA comparison site) can be useful for connecting with other shared matches from across a range of DNA test platforms. You can also transfer from Ancestry to My Heritage DNA and Living DNA. You may need to pay a small unlocking fee to get all the features and indeed GEDmatch has recently introduced a premium tier 1 option. Transferring your raw data is always worth the effort.
pughcd
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Hi @Braytons,
Yes Belinda 11,631 matches should be plenty lol.
pughcd
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I manage my sister's Ancestry DNA account. We are full blood sisters.
She has 24,579 matches whilst I only have 13,528. It has always been like this from the time we both took the test - she has always had at least 10,000 more matches than me.
It can't be anything to do with the numbers of people who have tested as that is the same for both of us.
Any explanation anybody?
Pheno
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I manage my sister's Ancestry DNA account. We are full blood sisters.
She has 24,579 matches whilst I only have 13,528. It has always been like this from the time we both took the test - she has always had at least 10,000 more matches than me.
It can't be anything to do with the numbers of people who have tested as that is the same for both of us.
Any explanation anybody?
Pheno
The simple answer is that although you would have inherited 50/50 dna from your parents, it wouldn't have been the same 50/50 . It seems quite a large difference though.
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Have you used a chromosome browser to see the differences between you?
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Hi @Pheno,
Whilst it does seem a big difference part of it could be explained by the fact that whilst we get 50% of our DNA from each parent, however siblings do not get the same DNA from each parent. We share about 50% DNA with our siblings and in consequence 50% is not shared. This 50% unshared could give rise to many matches from well represented lines inherited in only one sibling.
Although my sibling and I are half-siblings we know that we share a German mother (X-DNA etc). However at My Heritage I have 326 matches registered as living in Germany whilst my half-sister has only 265 German matches. If you scale that up it could make a difference to your matches.
pughcd
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Have you used a chromosome browser to see the differences between you?
No I haven't - must get around to it.
Pheno
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Hi @Pheno,
Another possibility for family differences can occur when DNA tests are taken over a period of time. If somebody tested with v1 chip at Ancestry and the rest of the family tested later with the v2 chip it might well skew your results. Roberta Estes covers this topic in her blog DNA Explained https://dna-explained.com/2016/10/05/ancestry-v1-vs-v2-test-comparison/
It is always worth updating to the latest chip if possible.
pughcd
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Thanks pughcd.
I read through that quite interesting blog and although the chip change date of May 2016 might apply to my sister and I (I certainly did mine earlier than her) the conclusion at the end of the blog was:
'Ancestry was correct when they said that the V2 chip wouldn’t affect matching much with the V1 chip customers, and that there was no need for V1 customers to purchase a new V2 test..
Pheno
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I've just looked at the matches that my nephew and niece (siblings) have :
Niece - 21211 Nephew - 23983
So very little difference.
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I have 407matches higher than 4th cousin
My paternal aunt has 472 tested 2017 for.her.90 th birthday
My mother whose DNA was the first to be tested hit over 1000 matches years ago
My maternal cousin tested in 2019 has recently reached 1000
Most.of his matches seem to come from mother's side .his 2 uncles don't have descendants and paternal grandmother + grandfather were only children too
My cousin has far more matched from his 15 percent European Jewish ethnicity and some of his matches are higher than to my mother who is 25 percent Jewish
I show up as 13 percent Jewish
So that clearly shows my cousin has inherited more of our Latvian great grandfather s blood than me .and it makes significant differences
A lot of my Jewish matches show up on shared matches even at 8 or 9 cm .
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Have you used a chromosome browser to see the differences between you?
Thought I would take the plunge Gadget but a couple of questions.
Do you have to pay for them all?
Any particular site recommended?
Thanks, Pheno
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Gedmatch is free. I tend to use My Heritage as I have more matches on there. Ancestry doesn't have one.
Add - you could upload your data to My Heritage but you'd have to pay a small fee. I'm not sure what it is though.
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Ok thanks. Pheno