When looking at your results where do you draw the line for viable matches? I have some connect
I have some connections with like 10 Cm in 1 segment
So far I am just looking at those with 50 Cm + but sort of cut off at 3rd cousins
some 4-6 cousins if I see a family name
What do others do?
I have 412 matches but most are 4 + cousins
Yes i know it is a personal choice but was just curious what others do!
TIA
Lynda
Answers
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My short answer is: It depends on what I am investigating at the time and what matches I have available to help with that particular investigation.
I have connected some of my 6cM matches from Ancestry to my tree. Documentary evidence suggests they are genealogical relatives but whether the match is indicative of a genetic connection is another matter and is far from certain from the data I have.
More generally, I work with match data with higher cM values but, as I said, it depends what hypothesis it is I am trying to test and what information is available against which to test it. The extent to which I have confidence in any conclusion I reach will also be tempered by the likely reliability of the information that informed it.
It is always important to bear in mind that the lower the cM the greater the probability that the match is a false positive or too far back in time to ever find a reliable connection. It can be a real time waster to spend a lot of time on small segments if you have more reliable information to work on.
As a rule, when considering FTDNA matches, I count only segments that are 7cM or greater to decide the overall cM shared. When I use GEDmatch, I never lower the threshold below 7cM but I do often raise it higher, depending on what I am looking in to.
A good resource to help people make their own choice with regard to this is:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Identical_by_descent
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Thanks for sharing
I am new at this DNA stuff so just concentrating on the higher number matches for now
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That is very sensible! 😊
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