Daft question re dna shared match

[sigrid7]

Hi all,

I have received a matches email which has puzzled me and I'm hoping someone far better than me has some insight or answers.

I have a dna site account which has myself and my partner under one sign in, and I manage it for both of us. On scrolling down the matches email I saw a name that is a match for me, and then, scrolling down, they also match with my partner. It's definitely the same person. We both share 3-5th cousin matches with this person.

Does this mean that myself and my partner are distantly related? Or is it just me overthinking this??

Thanks for any help, as I'm struggling with understanding dna.

[phil57]

Have you seen the recent  post "Ancestry Oddity", currently showing directly below yours? You don't say what length your matches are, or over how many segments. Autosomal tests are not phased, consequently mismatches can occur on segments. With larger match lengths, mismatches, if they occur across a relatively small segment of your total match length, are relatively inconsequential. But the chances of a match being false increase below match lengths around 18 to 20 cM, and can be false in approximately half of declared matches of 6 to 8 cM across a single segment.

Ancestry also aren't telling you that the match is a 3rd to 5th cousin. They are informing you that for a genuine match of the length declared, the highest probability of the relationship between you and the match could be at that level. But there could be other relationships between you, at a lower probability. Not everyone can be in the highest probability, otherwise there would be no need to express the possible relationships in degrees of probability.

And of course, if the match is false, there is no relationship between you at all.

I would treat any matches within that range as unproven unless you have corroborating evidence, such as having identified or verified the exact relationship between you by more traditional genealogical research, othe proven shared matches, etc

[Biggles50]

Upload you and your partners Raw DNA data to a Gedmatch account and use their tools to check if the pair of you match chromosome segments.

The site includes easy to follow tutorials which are specific to each tool.

[sigrid7]

Thank you for your replies.
 
This is the information I have:

Estimated relationships
3rd - 5th cousin?
DNA Match quality?
0.5% (35.2‎ cM)
Shared DNA
4Shared segments
12.3‎ cM
Largest segment

This is from my heritage, not ancestry.

I will read through the 'Ancestry Oddity' post, thank you for pointing it out. Hopefully it will sink in my brain.

And thanks - I'll do that on gedmatch and see what happens.
 

[Bates51]

Did you check what chromosome you both match this person with? This person could relate to you through their mother, and to your partner through their father. No need to panic. I have a few where they relate to both my parents, but it’s over 200 years ago. It’s just annoying because it muddies up the research.

[Biggles50]

35.2 cM gives almost the whole range of relationship possibilities, each having a probability score.

As you seem to be with My Heritage, there under the DNA Tools is a chromosome browser where you can compare yourselves to each other and to other matches. 

It is very easy to use and for me it has been useful to compare my unknown Cousins to myself.

[sigrid7]

I have now done gedmatch and myself and my partner don't come up as a match.

I've had a look at the tools on myheritage. I match on chromosomes 4,5, 10 and 21, with a part of 21 shaded ( as well as a part of 22 shaded, but have no match on this on).

From what you say Bates51, you can determine which side (paternal/maternal) you match with from which chromosome you match with?

Or have I jumped to the wrong conclusion?....

AS you can tell, I am on the very first step of understanding dna.

[sigrid7]

And my partner matches on chromosome 1 and 14, with sections of 13, 14 and 21 and 22 shaded.

[Bates51]

No you can’t tell which is through your mother or father by looking at the chromosomes, but what it shows is that your match likely relates to you and your partner through different families. Even if they don’t, they don’t share the same  chromosome with you both, so definitely not a close relation. It’s fun to identify how we relate to these people we don’t know, but it can be frustrating. I like puzzles, so I do enjoy working on my tree.