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Several have asked about how to distinguish Paternal from Maternal DNA. Let me know if this document, with images, helps: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iB0T7yMVrLJjPFEZ0sT0YwuipB_iUv6Z/view?usp=sharing
I am tagging people that have asked DNA questions, and people that have experience with DNA. I would love to see some discussions start about working with DNA. Several have offered to help others figure out how to research deeper with their DNA. Others need help figuring out what to do next. Let's try and make some connections!
@X24mom X24mom
@June Elizabeth Casella
@Cynthia Susan Law
@Sue Maxwell
@Courtney salemskies
@Jim Kilby
@Marcella Martineau Roe
@Anne LoForte Willson
@Rene Greer Williams
@Rita RitaYates
@Susan Mullen Pelton
@Dennis J Yancey
@Brandy BrandySeres
@gillian gillianarnold1
@Megan Cordon Bakaitis
@Patricia Coggin
@Shawna Joy Gilroy Warrick
@ROSEMARY L.Goonan
@Robert RobertLong97
@Monia Pezzi
Comments
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a very interesting topic -I will read further
but people should be careful in understanding the difference between maternal and paternal links on an autosomal test (Ancestry)
versus Paternal YDNA and Maternal MtDNA - which are different things.
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I know so little about maternal/paternal dna!! I was lucky enough to have maternal name and found a family members tree to start with, then had the daunting job of trying to figure paternal matches for my mother in law - we had nothing other than he served in WW2 and was from the US !! We were lucky to get a 501cm match that I was soon able to ascertain was paternal and 11 months later, ironically yesterday (Rememberence Sunday) I surprised her with a large folder containing my journey from start to finish, I put in the close match, how I ruled out his paternal side and concentrated on the matches mother and her parents and siblings, how I found a connection on Jedmatch to a surname on of the close matches aunts married. She had 3 sons and from there I had to get their military records and found her father, the file contained pictures of where he lived with his parents (and later wives - he had three), it contained pics of all the wives, their marriage and dived records, a picture of her great grandparents with all their grown up children that included her grandmother (half way through reading she asked ‘did you get a picture of him’ I said ‘no I couldnt’, she kept leafing through, his military record (his brothers to show how they were ruled out) then her half sister (who she is so like), great aunts and uncles that I managed to get pics of, a direct line on her tree to William the Conquerer and King Henry the 1st 😀 and finally a brilliant picture of her father on the very last page. She was flabbergasted!!! 76 years old in January and for the first time ever she was speechless 😀❤️ She left my house with her large file tucked under her arm and she was just bursting with excitement and couldn’t wait to show to the rest of the family!!! So totally clueless I did it completely on my own with determination and persistence I got there !!
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I would suggest uploading results to GEDmatch first and run the application "Are your parents related?" If they are related, you are going to have a very hard time separating maternal from paternal matches. Also if they are related, then your matches will show a closer relationship than they normally would. Once you rule out that they are related then how I separate matches is by looking at your closest match that you know which side of the family they are on. Then look at your common matches and mark all of then either pink or blue.
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What a wonderful success story! Thank you so much for sharing this story. Your message is a good one that offers hope to others that are searching. DNA does help us make the connections.
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Dennis, I can discern so much more through autosomal DNA tests when I am tracking immediate family. YDNA helps and so does MtDNA, but I can guarantee more details and faster results with Autosomal DNA. I did use YDNA to add verification to a test, but I solved the case with Autosomal DNA. YDNA and MtDNA follow patterns and individuals have to fall in the right line of descent to be able to use these tests. Autosomal can help you identify many family matches, and not just direct line or matches that follow a specific inheritance pattern.
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Thankfully my mom tested when I did and my dad had already died so it was very difficult to figure out my matches. My brother refused to test and I was under the impression (mistakenly) that I would need him to test in order to establish paternal matches. My uncle (my dad's brother) was more than happy to do the test so once all the results were back, it was fairly easy to separate them. My grandfather had been told by his adoptive parents that his dad was Native American so he told my dad who, in turn, told us that we had a small percentage of NA. Lo and behold, this was untrue. Now that I know more of my g grandmother's story, I know that he had half siblings who were half Shawnee. Different fathers, same mother. All of this started coming together once a kind woman volunteered to help me find who his parents were. We really only had one match to go on (1c1r) and she had a private tree and never responded to messages. We eventually tracked down her email and I've messaged with her a few times!
She was able to use my dna and build out trees and I was just amazed. So now the biggest question remains: who was my g grandmother's father?
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It is always nice when people will test, but if they won't as long as you can get other close relatives to test, you can still get great clues.
Many people are told that they have Native American. It is not uncommon to find that this isn't accurate.
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Carolyn, I would suggest adding one further piece to your document on working Ancestry dna matches. Once you start identifying those first or second cousins as maternal (pink) or paternal (blue), go to their “shared matches”. Typically, everyone that both the tester and the shared match also match will become either pink or blue and can be marked as such. Doing this with each ‘known’ match can help you identify almost every match you have, all the way down to the 6cm bottom level. These shared matches don’t even need to have a tree attached to identity m/p. Once in a while you will find a match that ends up with both a pink and blue dot. Everyone of those turn out to be a crossover where someone from the testers father’s side had a relationship with someone from the mother’s side.
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Sue, this is typically true. If I have very few matches, I will mark all of the individuals that I have found, but I will put a gold star on the line that I feel more accurate about tracing. It is important to be careful of matches that are less than 7cM. If everyone in this community compared their DNA at GedMatch.com, we would find that we all matched at some small amounts of cM. I typically mark down to about 25 cM if I have enough to work with. I make exceptions for people with large trees though! Large trees can be very useful in figuring out the extended families and how they connect. Tracing families with DNA is all about finding all of the descendants connections to prove the connection that you don't know.
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We need to remember that a lot of those Native American stories are family myths but also that dna is not 100% handed down from generation to generation. For instance I have half my mothers and half my fathers. What that also means is half my mother's and half my father's dna do not show up in my dna. By, I think 4th cousin, you are going to miss matching 50% of your actual relatives. I have NA ancestry but the one for sure line goes back to colonial days. That dna does not show in my tests but I am still descended from that great+ grandmother. We just do not share dna or at least in any testable amounts.
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Absolutely! The amount of DNA halves with each generation. It doesn't take long until the chance of NOT getting the Native American DNA is more probable than getting that part of the DNA.
Parents 50%
Grandparents 25%
Great Grandparents 12.5%
2 Gr Grandparents 6.25%
3 Gr Grandparents 3.125
4 Gr Grandparents 1.563%
At RootsTech London, there was a Jelly Bean Dispenser that showed how you received DNA from your ancestors. There were different colored jelly beans in the boxes at the top that represented different ancestors. Each level dropped down some jelly beans and after several levels you got a cup of mixed jelly beans. It was interesting to see how the colors mixed together, but did not ever come out exactly the same. I will see if I can get a photo of this machine. The RootsTech London Conference attendees loved seeing how it worked!
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OK, turn this image sideways and see how your ancestors DNA descends with Jelly Beans. Think about it with the great grand parents being the top eight people, then you have four grandparents and two parents and yourself on the bottom.
I rotated the photo so that it would show correctly before I uploaded it, but I guess it chose to return to the position that it was in when it was sent to me.
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Hello everyone, I am back now for my third time! I enjoy reading and getting ideas from you all. Maybe , I will be able to offer something at sometime. I am in the process of learning.My mother had four children, and only one knows their birth father.She died when I was 11 years old. I found out, about 9 months ago, the man I thought was my father, who I never knew, is not my father through Ancestry. Also my older sister, found out also, the man she thought was her father, who also she never knew, is not her father. I did get some help from CeCe Moore's group to find out our background. But it came to a problem, that both of our fathers, were probably adopted out, and we are not able to find them. i have found many relatives. First cousins,a uncle, and others. My sister( who raised me, after my mother died) has been more difficult. We found just one person with 445 cms. and the rest of the relatives are much lower. I am ready to put the names out to get help or ideas of what to do next. Thank you, Shawna
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Shawna, can you start this search as a new post? It will make it easier for us to find and to keep the details straight.
Do you have a link to a WATO tree that you can share? (What Are the Odds from DNAPainter.com tools)
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Hi Carolyn. What is WATO? And DNAPainter.com tools? This is all new to me.
And what do you mean, by starting a NEW post?
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These are both great questions! I will address them in a new post!
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Thank you. I am not real computer savy. I am really trying to learn though.
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I am really glad that you pointed out that the POST button wasn't as obvious as I thought it was (or as it should be!) You are certainly not the only one that hasone that has struggled to find the POST button. I really think that the POST button needs to be available on every page.
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Agreed. I have been able to identify the biggest majority of matches down to 6cM, either through building trees or with the use of common ancestors if they have a tree. Do I have some that never match, absolutely. And triangulating with the use of shared matches is a great help. Do I spend much time on matches below about 20 cM, no. Ancestry will display down to six and GedMatch will usually handle 7. But, don’t avoid looking at a match just because the cMs are low. You never know where an answer will come from.
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