Phasing: or how to look at what you inherited from one parent only

So in the images in my last post about GEDmatch you may have noticed that my Dad has less Mediterranean, Siberian, and Southwest Asian than I did. Perhaps you are wondering if there is a way to see what I got from my mother? Separating what you got from which parent is called phasing and you need to have at least one parent tested and uploaded to use this function at GEDmatch. The Genetic Genealogist has a good explanation of phasing in this blog post – http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2012/06/07/gedmatch-com-adds-phasing-tool/

Here is what I got from my mother although GEDmatch cautions that the phased data may not be all that accurate.

 

 

Eurogenes 12b does not have as many Northern breakouts but does include Finnish which is of interest since Dad has several Finnish matches so I collected all the Finnish percentages. As you can see Mom had some too and Shipley got more than I did:

Whom Finnish
Kitty 3.64%
Kitty from her Dad 3.94%
Kitty from her Mom 2.28%
Shipley 6.66%
Shipley from his Dad 7.06%
Shipley from his Mom 5.59%
Our Dad 8.29%

Perhaps the Finnish is again from our possible Sammi heritage?

Here is what Shipley got from our Mom:

 

And what he got from Dad:

An explanation of this admix calculators in on this page on the Eurogenes blog. You can also get GEDmatch to show you your mixture by chromosome and also phased by chromosome. Here are the by chromosome picture of what we each got from Dad

Shipley:

and here is Kitty:

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13 thoughts on “Phasing: or how to look at what you inherited from one parent only

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  1. Can anyone help me on the GED site? I’am trying to download my DNA from ancestry.com. When I press on Browse, I enter the dna but it does not accept it. Something about ‘dots” should be only one dot after name ,but their are two dots. Well there is only one dot??? My husband and I have both been trying. Thanks

  2. Elizabeth, try posting your question with a little more detail on the DNA-NEWBIE list like the name and maybe some screen shots. I do not use ancestry.com so cannot be of help. Or email it to me kitty at this website name without the blog in front and I will post it for you

    • I have a problem logging on—is accepts my data, then says it is wrong when I try to use it. Is there a phone number for them

  3. mskitty I cannot do my parents DNA as they are deceased. Can I narrow this down somewhat by using known cousins on each side of the equation? I have a known 3rd cousin on 1 line and two known 4th cousins on the other…I know this won’t be perfect but is it going to help me “narrow the field” just a bit? I am also trying to get my sister to send me her DNA file and get my brother tested. I am having the 3rd cousin do the same and she has been able to get her mother done, so I am going to do her as well…Is this going to help me enough to narrow things down? The only problem I see is that on my dad’s side all of us are coming from the exact same 2 x GGP’s as we cannot get any further back on these folks and we have lost track of a lot of the lines. Thanks. Joyce

  4. Yes, test as many cousins as you can. I have found 2nd cousins to be the most useful because they share a lot of DNA and narrow it down to one set of g-grandparents. But 3rds and 4ths can help too. The problem is that they may not share enough DNA with you to help with triangulation.

    Your 3rd cousin’s mother may be a big help. Good to get the older generation done. Try to test anyone you can find in that generation.

    The more people you test, the more pieces of DNA you will have to help with your puzzle.

    The best way to solve a brick wall is to develop a hypothesis (I think my gg-grandparent was the son of …) and then get descendants of that possible ancestor to test. Otherwise you just have to get lucky.

    Another possibility is to start or get involved with an American Irish DNA project … see if this Utube video is useful to you
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxCo13GyRI

  5. I want to upload the ancestry DNA results to GED are they up and running again? If they are how do I upload my results. When checking I could only find ordering a kit from them and up loading their kid with # for their kit? I need help please?

    • Yes they are up and running again.

      Go to http://GEDmatch.com and register for a username. Once you have a username and password, log in and then in the top right hand box there are links to click on in order to upload your data from whichever company, there is one for ancestry. It will look like the picture in this GEDmatch post I did.

      The page you get to after clickng the link will explain what to do.

  6. Hi Kitty. I am new to all of this. I really appreciate your blog.
    I am adopted and I am looking for my paternal origin. My mother deceased so I cannot access her DNA. However, I have 2 half brothers (and maybe their father – not sure) whom could be tested. Could this help me to isolate more precisely the paternal legacy ? What strategy would you suggest ?

    • Maj –
      Yes get your half/full brothers to test. If they have the same Dad their autosomal test will show close to 50% shared DNA, else around 25%. If you are male, their Y chromosome will be a match to yours and if you are not, and if they turn out to be full sibs, you want one of them to do the Y testing at family tree DNA as well.

      I would strongly suggest that you go to http://DNAadoption.com and look at their methodology and join the DNA-adoption group at yahoo. There is also a gorup there for folk looking for biological dads.

      good luck in your quest!

  7. Kitty, Please help guide me in the right direction. My Aunt on my dad’s side had her DNA tested through AncestryDNA.com. Several months ago, a gal (who was adopted) had her DNA tested through AncestryDNA, as well. My Aunt and this gal were a match. My Aunt is this gal’s Aunt. The gal, Nancy, contacted me, as she believes that my father or his brother is her biological father. I did a DNA test through Ancestry, as well, and it shows that we are 3rd or 4th cousins OR CLOSER. Well, she couldn’t be a 3rd or 4th cousin. We know that she is either a cousin of mine or a half sister. AncestryDNA is not very comprehensive in their findings, as I am sure you are aware. So, my question is this….Being that we both have our Raw DNA through Ancestry, what sites can we go to to to have our RawDNA compared to verify if she is a cousin or half sister. Thank you so much for any info you can provide.

  8. You can both upload your DNA data to Gedmatch for free or to family tree DNA for $39. See http://blog.kittycooper.com/2015/09/please-upload-your-ancestry-raw-data-to-a-site-with-a-chromosome-browser/
    Get your aunt to do it too

    There are lots of posts here on using GEDmstch. It requires more understanding than ancestry but the tools are terrific

    Ancestry recently updated it’s matching algorithm which makes many relationships look further apart than they actually are.

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