Ancestry DNA test - disappointing result

[josh jones]

He can transfer his results to Gedmatch I would think.  You get matches there and it's free.  https://www.gedmatch.com/.  When familytreedna (FTDNA) resuming taking ancestry.com dna transfers you will get matches there too.  Might cost you $39.

[Spike H]

I agree with josh that Gedmatch is the way to go. I'm not into the ethnicity mix either but they have several different approaches to it. But Gedmatch has some great chromosome browser tools that can help with matches. And it's free.
Re FTDNA uploads, transfers from Ancestry can still be done with chip1 kits which were sold up to May. Anything since, FTDNA hasn't upgraded its system...and I'm inclined to think they never will.

[lesleyhannah]

Ancestry have advised me that as my son is not a subscriber he cannot see how he is related to any of the matches they provide!! I print this as a warning to others.

The results he received came with the following info:
0 shared ancestor hints, 0 starred matches, 74 4th cousins

It would seem that we have the most boring family in history - not one single match as a result of the DNA testing. I also print this as a warning to others. Having read of the pages of results other people received I'm at a loss to understand how our DNA is so exclusive! As for the 74 possible 4th cousins these seem to be no more than the often-useless 'hints' that ancestry provides to all subscribers - and as far as I can see has nothing to do with DNA testing.

I'm curious - has anyone else come up with a Nil return on the DNA results?

[shellyesq]

As a point of comparison, I will show you what Ancestry gives me and my husband in those categories.

22 Shared Ancestor Hints
6 Starred matches
305 4th cousins or closer

23 Shared Ancestor Hints
0 Starred matches
228 4th cousins or closer

We are both American, so that may skew the number of matches that we received as I believe Ancestry's database currently has more Americans than anyone else. 

The starred matches are ones that I made a "favorite", and the shared ancestor hints are based on matches between my and the DNA match's family tree.  So, since your son is not a subscriber and doesn't have a tree connected to his DNA results, it makes sense that he has zero there. 

The 4th cousins mention he got may refer to "4th cousins or closer".  Those matches are based on DNA that he has in common with those people, so they are not useless hints.  By looking at their profile and/or tree or contacting them, you may be able to find where the connection is.  At this point, it's a matter of getting to look at the results.
 

[Nova67]

 I wonder if it makes any difference if a non-subscriber links DNA results to you, a subscriber's family tree?                                       

[Regorian]

I was watching Time Team on You Tube recently. Phil Harding submitted his DNA sample and the results on origination on his female line was Dordogne, France 20,000 years ago!!! He was delighted, Dordogne was a flint knapping area and Phil is a keen flint knapper. Both lines are Celtic. I would have guessed he was an Anglo-Saxon.

Another Rootschatter thinks he is related to me via 2 brothers born in the 1750's. I think he may well be right and hope so. Unfortunately neither of us can justify the expense just now. If circumstances change we will have to submit together and request whether we are descended from the same father. Should be a doddle.   

 

     

[shellyesq]

Unless everyone involved is a son of a son of a son, etc., I wouldn't do DNA testing expecting to find anything much about the 1750's.  From http://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics, ""The probability of having DNA from all of your genealogical ancestors at a particular generation becomes vanishingly small very rapidly; there is a 99.6% chance that you will have DNA from all of your 16 great-great grandparents, only a 54% [chance] of sharing DNA with all 32 of your G-G-G grandparents, and a 0.01% chance for your 64 G-G-G-G grandparents. You only have to go back 5 generations for genealogical relatives to start dropping off your DNA tree." 

Perhaps there is something new, but I'm not aware of any commercially available test that can pinpoint your maternal line with a degree of specificity that would locate a town of origin.

[Regorian]

Thank you for your input shellyesq. That sounds as though the whole thing is a waste of time. Nice little earner for the DNA Labs though.

The same father would be 5 generations ago in our case.

[shellyesq]

It's not a waste of time for everyone, but you have to consider what you're likely to find.  I found my birthfather's family through DNA testing, so it's nothing short of a miracle to me.  There are many stories like mine.