DNA hope

[Biggles50]

Thank B for your kind words.

It has been a while since I originally posted and currently I am updating and expanding all the text.

Advice from the forum members, yourself included on making contact has worked for me as has the direct approach.

But that is another story that one day I will share.

[Biggles50]

DNA Grouping.

Firstly print out a 5 Generation Pedigree Chart.

For the 8 Great Grandparents label each of them on the Pedigree Chart with a number, starting at 1 and going down the chart adding 2, then 3 etc up to 8.  Hence each Great Grandparent is given their own unique number in the 1 to 8 range.

There is method in this seemingly madness approach.

In Ancestry DNA there is now the possibility of creating up to 64 DNA Groups and you can assign DNA Matches to applicable Groups.  You can then filter the Groups so that only those in a selected Group will be visible and this is the Batch of DNA Matches that are going to be the main focus of your research, at least until you have gone as far as possible.

In my case I have created Groups as follows but Do Note that the first character of the name is displayed inside the coloured marker and hence why I chose to use 1 through 8 for the GGP’s:-

1 = 1 GGP
2 = 2 GGP
3 = 3 GGP
4 = 4 GGP
5 = 5 GGP
6 = 6 GGP
7 = 7 GGP
8 = 8 GGP
U = Unknown, these are the mystery ones, the ones left over.

As you build DNA matches into your tree you can assign the appropriate Group marker(s) to each of them.

Initially I would suggest you look at the highest DNA Match and then work down them to say those that share 75cM.  Assign each DNA Match to the applicable GGP Group(s) and assign the Shared Matches, irrespective of the cM that they share with the DNA Match to the same Groups.

If you are short of DNA Matches move down to include DNA Matches who share 60 cM then down to 50 cM if necessary.  Again assign Shared Matches to the same Groups.

With the DNA Matches who have not been assigned to any of the numbered 1 to 8 Groups, assign each and their Shared Matches to the UNKNOWN Group.

As an example say the Maternal Grandfather of the Home person is not known, then there should be no DNA match showing as included in Groups 5 and 6.  These ungrouped DNA Matches will be the centre of research and all of them and their Shared DNA matches will be assigned to the UNKNOWN Group.

Filter to view the UNKNOWN Group and then work through them one by one.

Whilst this process may seem a long and arduous process it will provide a strong foundation to develop your Biological Family Tree not just in finding the unknowns but in expanding the Family Tree.

[Biggles50]

Auto Clusters.

Additionally to the information in the prior post if you upload information/DNA to websites like Gedmatch, DNA Painter and My Heritage you can use the DNA tools that are currently missing from Ancestry’s Pro Tools, namely Auto Clustering.

The result will look something like this, and from the known DNA matches you can allocate a specific set of MRCA’s to each cluster, with the cluster which has unknown MRCA’s being the one where you can concentrate the research.

Hopefully Ancestry will have this feature.

[Biggles50]

A DNA PROBLEM.

A 364cM match and no clue.
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That is how it started and that is part of my own DNA journey.  One high match of Irish origin and one high match of Italian origin.

The Italian line was solved thanks to my Half Sister taking a DNA test, so we both know from that test that we have the same Biological Father.

The problem lies in our mutual Grandfather’s line.

I posted this in another thread that explains the what and hows, hope it helps.
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I have a 364cM match on Ancestry, her Son and Daughter have also tested and they fail to respond to messages and their DNA is not on My Heritage, ftDNA or Gedmatch.

A Great Great Niece is on ftDNA and shares 96cM with me, her DNA is not on any other websites  and I am in contact with her but she has no actual contact with my 364cM match or her children.

I’ll call the above four people “Family X”.

On My Heritage are two Half Sisters who share 130cM and 90cM with me, their DNA is not on any other site.  The two Half Sisters are full First Cousins to my 364cM match and knew of her but have no contact details and I have talked to both of them on the telephone.

Also on Ancestry there are well over 100 DNA matches that I have who all link in to an Irish family, I now have about 20 of them in a Family Tree.

Pro Tools came in useful as I could see how much DNA each of these 20 also share with my 364cM match and this helped to validate their actual relationship with my 364cM match.

Now I have this “Irish” family tree, but where do I fit into it?

If I temporarily discount the Family X group then using the DNA cM of the other 20 DNA matches that I have in the Irish family tree then it looks like my Great Grandfather was not who I thought him to be.

On My Heritage and their Chromosome mapping, the Grouping feature offered zero new clues and the triangulation was inconclusive with no triangulation between me and both of the half Sisters.

The only scenario that works is that my Grandfather was the illegitimate Son of a specific identified person in the “Irish” family tree.

Now the problem being that each of the Family X group share more cM with me than they should.

The two Half Sisters each share levels of DNA with me that are in the expected range as are the 20 Ancestry DNA matches who are also in the Irish family tree.

DNA matches both shared or not who link to specific family lines can also help in tree building.  The man who was probably my Great Grandfather is the MCRA to a number of known DNA matches who are also now in my Irish family tree. There are also people who are also my DNA matches who are in the Irish family tree but link to a MRCA beyond my Great Grandfather who was called John his Wife was called Kate, now for the but, I currently have no DNA matches that link to a MRCA beyond Kate.  So there is a dilemma, did John play away from home or is it just that I have not yet linked a DNA match to Kate’s family?

So I am left suspecting that Edgogamy occurred within the Family X group but I do not have access to the DNA tools to research further as the DNA of those affected are not on Gedmatch.

The wait continues.