This was a presentation I did at the Genetic Genealogy Ireland event in October 2017
Click on the image to scroll through the presentation. Watch this space as the presentation will be uploaded to You Tube soon.
(It may take a few minutes to load … )
autosomal dna testing for beginners
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4 thoughts on “Autosomal DNA Testing for Beginners – presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland (Oct 2017)”
Hi Donna,
Thank you for the information you have shared on your website. I have a DNA relative in which we are trying to determine our relation. We connected on Ancestry after both received our DNA results. I believe it is possible she could be my niece or sister. Pictures of her mother looks like me. However we have no way to verify because her mother is deceased. We have both uploaded our DNA results to GEDmatch and the numbers are high. Total cM is 1858.7 and Gen is 1.5. Could you provide some direction how we can dig into this a little deeper to make the connection. Thank you
Here is a great site where you can enter the shared cM amount and see a predicted relationship.
1858.7 is likely a niece or half sister. Her matches will point you in the right direction. If she only matches those on one side of your tree then she is a half sibling. If she matches all sides she is a niece.
https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4
Hi Donna – thank you for a very informative presentation, especially when I am a newbie to DNA. My Ancestry results threw up a real curve ball, in that it identified I had a mystery 2nd Cousin. 362cM across 14 DNA segments, from my understanding we share a common Great Grandparent; it is either my GGF having an outside relationship, or my 2nd cousin GGM being guilty of the same! My match has no file on GEDmatch to compare, and assistance if possible would be appreciated. Kind Regards – Tony
Tony, DNA testing can certainly hold some surprises. I would suggest using the shared cM tool at DNAPainter to review all possible relationships with this match. You can enter 362cM and the chart will highlight the possibilities. The categories the matches are placed in, at the test sites, should not be taken too literally. 362cM could well be a half first cousin for example.
https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4
Have you tried to contact your match to find out who they are? If they do not reply then you will need to find some other methods to identify them (think google, social media, forum posts, profile name, etc). Once you’ve identified the match you may need to build a tree for them to see how they match you.
Click on the Shared Matches, this should give you a big clue as to which branch they fit on, do you known any of these shared matches, and do any of those shared matches have a tree. Shared matches can be incredibly powerful in helping you identify and confirm matches.