DNA match

[cathieee]

hi, could anyone on here explain to me why whenever i get a DNA match 99% of the time i can see no familiar names on their tree to connect to my family ?thanks cathie

[Deeny]

Hi Cathieee,

If the cousin matches you are looking at are distant ones, (4th to 5th cousins) with whom you share only minimal amounts of DNA, especially where the longest length shared is small too, it is fairly understandable not to be able to spot a surname match.

With Jewish genealogy, where there is so much endogamy (cousin marriage) you really need to have a match with a longest length of at least 20cM for it to be sufficiently meaningful with a chance to match it to a known paper trail.

If you have second and third cousin matches in the 100 to 400 cM range and no idea how you are related to them, it could indicate a Non-Paternity Event for one of the parties in the not too distant past.

Deeny

[cathieee]

hi i have no idea what a Non-Paternity Event is, most of my matches are 3-5 cousins, i ve looked at them from ancestry and my heritage, but can see no connection, though most of them dont even have a famtree on line and those that do have next to no one on it, so i dont see the point of it really, cathie

[Deeny]

Hi Cathie,

A Non-Paternity Event (NPE) is where someone is not biologically related to the person who appears in records (birth certificates / census etc) as their father. This includes people born as the result of an affair, those who have been adopted and those born in more recent times who have been conceived with donated gametes. Genetic genealogy is proving excellent at finding answers to the genetic identity of living people from those three groups.

It can be frustrating to find that cousins have no on-line family tree, or no surname lists to check against. Sometimes you can get a general idea about a match's ancestry, in terms of geographic location or ethnic background by seeing which other DNA cousins you have "in common" with each other, where those other cousins have provided more information. It can also be useful to do an internet search covering the names of a match's given ancestors in case another member of their family has posted an on-line tree elsewhere which will give you more information. You do of course have the option of contacting your matches to ask them directly about their ancestry. A lot of people are very willing to exchange information and work together to identify common shared ancestors, even if they haven't got a publicly viewable family tree.

It can help if a known close relative (a first cousin or grandparent for example) is also DNA tested, as every match you have "in common" with them will be from specific family lines.

It can be disheartening to not find any clear connections to matches, but as AncestryDNA sold over 1.5 million kits on Black Friday, many of which will be given as Christmas gifts, you stand to get a whole raft of new and hopefully closer and identifiable matches in late January and February next year. Keep checking your account regularly and hopefully you will get lucky and make worthwhile connections.

Deeny

[cathieee]

Hi well my DNA only says munster ireland, 59% southern england 36% and 5 % french on ancestry, so not much to go on really, the funny thing is that those 3 places are all my maternal nans line, i can get back to 1400 s with her nans line which is all kent england and some did really far back come over from france, her mum and her dads mum were all from cork, which is munster

alot of my dads family came from ireland, but not munster and none of them were from down south that i ve found so far, so its very strange that all my lineage is my nans, this line i should point out is and has always been my favorite lol