DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019 Genetic Trees Due to the way at-DNA is handed down genetic trees are not the same as trees. Recombination of each pair of autosomes creates a new autosome to be handed down to each child from each parent. This happens at every generation. The result is that while we get exactly 50% of our autosomes from each parent, we may get anywhere from 14-37% from each of our four grandparents.

http://www.genie1.com.au/blog/62-atdna

Ref: https://www.ancestry.com.au/academy/course/ancestry-dna-101 https://support.ancestry.ca/s/article/Understanding-Inheritance

1 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019

Not every ancestor is represented in your genetic tree. You are only guaranteed to share matching autosomal segments with those who are your 2nd cousins or closer:

2 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019

Ethnicity

Ethnicity results are ESTIMATES remember to read the online help which describes the REGION you are connected to. There is not enough data currently to narrow down to specific counties or countries. You wont share the same ethnicity as your siblings and it can vary widely depending on the reference set of the company you tested with. This MyHeritage Video by Diahan Southard gives a good overview – starts about 9 minutes in. This graphic from Diahan shows how DNA can be shuffled down the generations.

“Say each of your relatives’ autosomal DNA was a big square, made up of smaller colored squares of DNA associated with various ethnic groups. Here, American Indian DNA is orange. Notice that you (there at the bottom left) have no orange in your DNA. Does that mean your great-great-grandmother Merla wasn’t American Indian? Of course not. It just means that you didn’t happen to inherit that DNA from her in the random shuffling that occurs at each generation. Your third cousin Stella, however, does have American Indian DNA. But this doesn’t prove that Merla had American Indian heritage. Instead, it means that somewhere in Stella’s pedigree chart, we should be able to find an Indian ancestor—whether it’s your shared great-great-grandmother Merla, or someone in the lines of Stella’s ancestors Andrea, Bunny or Connie.” Diahan Southard yourdnaguide.com

3 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019 Know where to get help

Company Help pages

1) 23andMe https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/ 2) Ancestry https://support.ancestry.com.au/s/ 3) FTDNA https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/ 4) LivingDNA https://support.livingdna.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000766191- Understanding-Your-Results 5) MyHeritage https://www.myheritage.com/help-center

Key Facebook® groups

New Zealand DNA Users Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZDNAUsersGroup/ Genetic Genealogy Tips and Techniques https://www.facebook.com/groups/geneticgenealogytipsandtechniques/ International Society of Genetic Genealogists https://www.facebook.com/groups/400009620157960 DNA Detectives Down Under https://www.facebook.com/groups/DNADetectivesDownUnder/ GEDmatch User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/gedmatchuser/ DNA Painter User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/127620554606673/ Genetic Affairs User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/319181318684957/ What Are the Odds User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/WhatAretheOdds/

4 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019 Understanding your matches

How many cM do you share with a match? ie: how distant your share ancestor/s might be. Genetic Genealogist Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM Project has resulted in significant volumes of statistical data providing ranges of cM shared for a large range of relationships. Leah LaPerle Larkin has developed probability information which Jonny Perl has incorporated into an online website tool which is useful for visualizing where possible relationships sit on a chart.

http://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

What else can you find out about a match?

How long have they had an account? When did they last log-in? What info does their profile contain? – eg: are they sharing any key ethnicity areas? are they likely to be the same generation as you? Do they have other trees? – not everyone links their full tree to their DNA result. Do they have trees on other sites?

Eg: WikiTree, FamilySearch, WorldConnect, TribalPages?

Who else shares DNA with a match?

Known as a group, others who share DNA may contain clues about which line the DNA is being inherited from. Best to focus on extracting the DNA evidence from all the members of a group before working on another group of matches or “branch” of your tree.

Do you have any Shared Ancestor Hints or ThurLines (Ancestry) or Triangulated segments or Theories of Relativity (MyHeritage)?

What is the quality of the match? If a match doesn’t have any shared matches, is it worth following up?

5 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019

Do you need a records subscription? DNA is not a stand-alone piece of genealogy evidence. It is helpful to see your matches trees and to support the tree info with “traditional” records. At My Heritage you can see matches trees without a subscription to their records service if you uploaded before 1 Dec 2018 or for a fee to unlock. At Ancestry, you may wish to take out a subscription for short time frame to get the benefit of seeing their trees, if you can’t afford the annual subscription. https://support.ancestry.com.au/s/article/AncestryDNA-and-Subscriptions/

6 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019 Pick your closest known match

. How much DNA do you share with them? ie: cM and # segment

What genetic distance does this indicate? Use the Shared cM Project Tool to see the range of possible relationships and determine how many generations back you need to look for common ancestors. https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm- project/

If you need clarity on what a 1C2R is this video will help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM79Epw_cp8

. Who are their Shared matches? Does this help identify the branch you connect on?

. Do they have trees?

https://www.rootstech.org/video/a-dna-match-with-no-tree-no-problem

Extract Evidence

. Do they share Surnames?

. Do they share Locations?

. Do they share known relatives?

Remember to use the Search options on the website:

Find a group sharing cM of DNA via the DNA matches list

At Ancestry, called Shared Matches:

At Family Tree DNA - In Common With (ICW)

My Heritage, press Review DNA match:

7 ©Michelle Patient 2019 [email protected] DNA Tips and Tricks by Michelle Patient August 2019 Adding a DNA match to your tree

You might like to enter your DNA matches into your trees, I prefer to use Ancestry’s online tree service, in addition it synchronizes with my off-line software (FamilyTreeMaker 2017). You can build a tree for free at Ancestry, MyHeritage (limited to 250 entries) and FTDNA.

There are some assumptions to be acknowledged, before adding information from a DNA match.

1) that the person testing has attached their DNA to the correct place in the tree and 2) that the information for the closest deceased person/s in the tree is correct.

Sometimes you cannot verify this information by usual genealogy means due to privacy restrictions.

To limit transcription errors, it is best to save information directly from a match’s tree to your DNA working tree. Do this via the tools drop down menu from within a profile view.

For consiste