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The DNA journey begins

Post here for your queries about DNA, or help fellow researchers understand theirs.
paulr1949
Posts: 147
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:25
Location: North West Kent

The DNA journey begins

Post by paulr1949 »

I took up the offer from Ancestry last autumn and bought a DNA kit. After viewing a Suffolk FHS Zoom talk in January, I eventually got my act together and sent in my kit. I’ve just had an email to say the results are in - typically, I can’t actually do anything much as we’re away for a couple of days!
I intend to use Peter Calvert’s masterclass as a starting point, I’ve also got the recent article in WDYTYA magazine to reread. I have spent some time over the last couple of weeks creating a tree on ancestry with my direct ancestors to link to my DNA results which is about 80% there. So we’ll see how things go.
Paul
Mick Loney
Posts: 371
Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by Mick Loney »

Paul,
Don’t forget to make your tree visible (except living individuals of course). Nothing more frustrating than finding a potential match with someone, then find they have hidden their tree, or worse, they haven’t linked to a tree at all :D
paulr1949
Posts: 147
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:25
Location: North West Kent

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by paulr1949 »

Oh yes, I've read about people who do that! Once I complete the tree it will be public.
Paul
meekhcs
Posts: 468
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:19
Location: Lincolnshire, but Hampshire born and bred!

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by meekhcs »

I have one problem re making a DNA public, and I realise it goes against the grain, but using mine as an example, they can become "messy"!

By messy I mean a tree that can have lots of possible outcomes and therefore some incorrect data.

Like you Paul I built a new DNA tree for myself and my husband. Sadly, when the results came in, I discovered that the male line in each of our trees was wrong and I had to start from scratch with barely a clue, and then of course there is the whole illegitimacy problem. I had good DNA matches (100cM+) that even with the new lines I could not fit in, so I have had to start trying to fit in these matches, and some of it is by trial and errror. I accept that this is made more difficult because people do not link trees, however, along the way I have looked at the DNA linked trees of people and found many were wrong/unsourced. My tree isn't fully sourced and changes frequently, and Some of the data is probably wrong.

For the time being therefore mine is private because I don't want to make a tree public that I am not confident is as accuraate as it could be.

If people from Ancestry wish to contact me they can through the message board.

Finally, Thrulines. Just use as a guide, they are made up from the same DNA linked trees that can be wrong!

Best of luck!
Sally
Mick Loney
Posts: 371
Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by Mick Loney »

To be honest, it doesn’t matter too much if your tree is slightly wrong. The matches come about by comparing DNA not trees. If I get a good match, I’ll look at the tree to find the common ancestor, and if tree is incorrect, I’ll contact the owner to discuss the problem. I tend to skip/ignore matches that have no trees linked to them, so you may be doing yourself a disservice by not linking a tree because it may be ‘incorrect’!
meekhcs
Posts: 468
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:19
Location: Lincolnshire, but Hampshire born and bred!

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by meekhcs »

I take your point Mick, but as someone who gets on her high horse about incorrect/unsourced trees on Ancestry and the like, I feel it would be hypocritical of me to add another!! :lol: :oops:
Sally
Mick Loney
Posts: 371
Joined: 15 Jun 2020, 07:27

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by Mick Loney »

I’m not one to complain about wrong trees, each to his own, but I do complain about people who copy this dodgy information without first checking its accuracy, that’s how errors get promulgated.
If people would only source their trees, and align their trees with their sources, it wouldn’t be a problem.
To show an individual’s father as ‘Fred’ then quote a parish register for their marriage which show their father was ‘George’ is just sloppy research :D
paulr1949
Posts: 147
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:25
Location: North West Kent

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by paulr1949 »

I agree, Mick, I have found family trees relating to my Isle of Wight
Lock relatives who, in the 18th century, were apparently baptised in Bristol yet born/lived in the Isle of Wight
I am being careful to source my DNA tree as best I can.
Paul
paulr1949
Posts: 147
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:25
Location: North West Kent

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by paulr1949 »

An update.

I have sorted out my "DNA" tree as best I can at the moment, checked all the "hints" and made it public As yet I have had no contacts.
I'm not impressed with the DNA matches so far. Of the first 10 natches, only one is potentially closer than a fourth cousin, 5 of them have no tree and 2 of the trees are private. I don't recognise any of the names although one person does apparently link to my 3 x GGF (but his tree is private!).
The highest "match" has 68cm and the next 5 are over 50cm.

I don't think I'm going to find out a lot there!

For reference, my public tree is "PR direct ancestors for DNA"
Paul
paulr1949
Posts: 147
Joined: 02 Jun 2020, 18:25
Location: North West Kent

Re: The DNA journey begins

Post by paulr1949 »

So it's now about 6 months on and I have to say I am still unimpressed. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but my closest match is a third-fourth cousin with 68cm. More disappointingly, only 8 of the matches with 40cm or more have a public linked tree, 2 have private trees, one an unlinked tree and the rest have no tree (including the top match).

I may try uploading the details to "My Heritage" and see if anything more helpful comes from that, but it won't be before Christmas!

I've (now) added in an image of my "top" matches!
DNA matches.jpg
DNA matches.jpg (726.2 KiB) Viewed 2442 times
Paul
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