Search Results for: dna basics

Family History Fanatics Winter DNA Conference!

Jan1

I will be doing a talk on GEDmatch Basics for the Family History Fanatics (FHF) Winter DNA Conference. UPDATE: 25 Jan 2021: I have received screen shots of the new look coming soon to GEDmatch; these will be featured in my presentation.

They also have a youtube channel (click here). Here is the Press release from FHF:

KICK OFF THE YEAR RIGHT

Saturday, 30 January 2021 beginning at 9:45 AM Eastern Time.
If you can’t attend the event during the live sessions, you’ll have access to the replay for 30 days.

TOPICS & PRESENTERS

  • DNA & Law Enforcement – Marian Woods
  • GEDmatch Basics – Kitty Cooper
  • Tracing Ancestral Lines in the 1700s Using DNA – Tim Janzen
  • A Guide To Chromosome Browsers & DNA Segment Data  – Michelle Leonard

 AFTER THE SESSIONS

The four panelists will return for a “test your knowledge’ competition and then more of your unscripted rapid-fire questions. 

Early bird pricing is $19.99 until January 22nd. After that, pricing will increase to $24.99. 

When you register, you’ll be entered to win genetic genealogy-related door prizes. 

To learn more and register visit, www.familyhistoryfanatics.com/winterdna. 

Family History Fanatics is a genealogy education company that is focused on putting the fun into online learning. See the difference the FHF Group puts together for you.

Finding a relationship with DNA segment data

Jun12

Ancestry has spoiled us all with its tree and ancestor matching tools; so much so that I almost never look at the actual segment data any more. Ancestry does not provide that anyway. When autosomal DNA testing first came out, you had to look at the segments on each chromosome that you shared with your matches in order to figure out relationships. Personally, I kept a master spreadsheet of DNA segment data for all my Dad’s matches from the different sites (click here for the post on how to do that or here for all the posts on that topic).

Comparison of my father to various Fatland cousins at Family Tree DNA, names added by me

The raw DNA data from Ancestry can be uploaded to a number of other sites in order to do chromosome comparisons and see the segment information: GEDmatch, Family Tree DNA ( ftDNA), and MyHeritage. You can see if you have good matches on those other sites without paying, but to unlock them on the latter two sites will cost a small amount. GEDmatch is free but it has extra tools that are available for a nominal charge and of course it can be used by law enforcement if you have opted in. Please do so and watch Cece Moore on the TV show the Genetic Detective to see why!

How is the segment data useful? It helps when you have many segments assigned to specific ancestors because of who they are matching with. Then when a new DNA relative appears you can figure out which line they are related on based on their shared segments with you and your relatives. Many people prefer to use the chromosome painting capability at DNApainter rather than spreadsheets to keep track of segments. I have been keeping my Dad’s sheet since 2011 so it’s just easier for me to add new relatives there.

I recently noticed that Dad had a 33.5 cM single segment match (I do not include the many segments less 7cM) on Family Tree DNA to a Norwegian named Jan Olav Risvold (who gave me permission to use his full name). Normally I ignore single segments, but this one was large and fell in a section of chromosome 2 which is well mapped for my Dad, so I took a look. Also Vold (Wold) is a family name, so perhaps?

Screenshot of Dad’s master spreadsheet with segment data, Jan is the first line, colored by side

One problem with segment data is that you cannot tell which side it is from without other relatives to compare to. Luckily for us, my brother and I have often inherited different segments at the same location from our Norwegian-American Dad. Therefore by comparing them to other cousins we can tell whether they are from his mom or his dad. Jan matches my brother on that segment but not me. Thanks to a 6th cousin, Frode, who shares 22cM at the same location with my brother and dad (see image at the top of this article), we had previously identified the ancestral couple that this DNA came to us from, our Fatland 5th grandparents, Ole (1696-1772) and Brita. on Halsnøy Island in Hordaland. They are our ancestors via Dad’s maternal grandad Henry H. Lee from Skjold farm in Etne, Hordaland.

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When the found father needs help understanding the DNA results

Apr13

image from a late 19th century Kunisada print owned by Kitty

Often when I help someone find their biological father with DNA it turns out that he never knew about the pregnancy. His reaction when contacted varies greatly, perhaps his memories of the 60s or 70s are quite faint… Frequently his first question is “How did you find me?” Or “What makes you think it’s me?”

Sometimes my answer is because a close relative of yours tested their DNA and helped us. More often I explain the basic methodology of pedigree triangulation that was used, as follows.

We look at the family trees of 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th cousin DNA matches to see what ancestors they have in common with each other. Sometimes we find two shared ancestral couples, then we look for the son of a person descended from one couple who married a daughter descended from the other couple.

Other times we just find one ancestral couple and some common surnames. We build that couple’s family tree downwards, looking for some of the other surnames we found until we find a descendant who was in the right place at the right time to be the missing father. There are a number of posts here describing specific success stories that are tagged Adoption Success Stories. Click here for my favorite and easy to understand story.

Click here for a more advanced explanation of pedigree triangulation with informative images from DNAadoption.org

Next we ask the found possible father to take a DNA test. To encourage him to use the testing company that his probable child used to confirm the results, rather than a commercial paternity test, I send the following plus more details of how he was found including images of the family trees.
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Great New DNA Tools in 2019

Dec31

2019 was a great year for DNA. Many wonderful DNA tools were created by the testing companies as well as by a number of third parties. Throughout this article I will list my blog posts which discuss the tools from 2019.

I have found so many new cousins thanks to ThruLines at Ancestry plus the deployment of that to my DNA matches. My current process is to sort my matches by date and then filter for just 4th cousins or better (or 15cm or better) to catch new matches while they are still logging in and so might see my messages. Also once a week I check my matches that have common ancestors to see if any new ones have been connected in (since I note how people are related in the notes, anyone with blank notes is someone I have not yet seen the tree connection for):

MyHeritage‘s Theory of Family Relativity also makes it easier to find new cousins. Many of my Norwegian cousins have been found there. I even got a message from one this morning!

23andme may be finally trying to consider us genealogists. They added a build your tree from DNA feature (yet to be blogged about here) and connected to the FamilySearch tree. My wish for 2020 is that they combine those features!

My favorite new 3rd party tools in 2019 are DNA2tree, a game changer for unknown parentage cases, and the addition of trees to the automated clustering at Genetic affairs. I confess, I actually bought myself an iPad so I could use DNA2tree.

Automated clustering really took off in 2019 with GEDmatch, DNAgedcom, and MyHeritage all adding clustering.

2019 also saw the birth of a new public database for Y and mitochondrial results at https://www.mitoydna.org/ (to be reviewed soon).

I have yet to cover all the great new tools at DNApainter.com although I refer people to the online relationship calculator there regularly.

Other new tools sites that I need to review are Borland genetics tools and Your DNA Family

2019 has been a really great year for DNA tools!

23andme Basics and an Update

Jun25

My favorite capabilities at 23andme are: finding new relatives with DNA and comparing them in the chromosome browser, looking at my ancestry composition in depth, and having the ability to look up specific genes. Most of the recent changes at 23andme are to the ancestry composition tools, specifically there is more granularity in the areas it shows for your ancestors’ origins.

With three generations of Munsons on 23andme, thanks to my niece’s recent test, I can finally evaluate the GrandTree. This tool, found on the Family & Friends menu, lets you look at what you inherited from each grandparent. Not surprisingly my niece LM got way more from my mother, whose mother she strongly resembles, than from my Dad. There is no guarantee that you will get exactly 25% from each grandparent. In my case, I got more from my maternal grandfather which I deduce from my 28% jewish ethnicity.

This tool will look at the traits and health items tracked through the generations even if you did not buy the health reports. This will be discussed in more detail later in this article. Meanwhile, I will do a quick review of the current 23andme basics as a guide for my niece and any other new testers reading this.

Finding DNA relatives and comparing them in the chromosome browser

Click on DNA relatives on either the Ancestry menu or the Family & Friends menu to look at your cousin list. Here are my previous posts on this topic, still fairly accurate:

Looking up a specific gene

You can look up a specific gene or marker in the Browse Raw Data function which is found on the menu under your name. Click here for my blog post about the AIDS resistant gene which details how to  do that type of look up.

Ancestry Composition

The great thing about the ancestry composition display at 23andme is that it shows you the details by chromosome. None of the other testing companies do that. What’s more if you put your cursor on a specific ethnicity, it will highlight just those segments on the diagram. Click on Ancestry Composition on the Ancestry menu to get to the page with the most details, including the chromosome by chromosome display.
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