I've had the Ancestry DNA results back along with corresponding list of various generations of cousins. Most of these cousins are listed as 4th cousins but when I look at their trees we have no common ancestors at all. Our families didn't even live in the same areas.

I have been in touch with one of these cousins and he is a mystified as I am. My thoughts are:

The DNA test is inaccurate.

One of my grandmothers may have had an affair - although if this was the case I would still expect to see common Aunts and Uncles in our trees.

There was a break in the line somewhere and a family member has been adopted. Again we should still have some common names in out trees.

Any other thoughts?

daisy86 - 2019-03-24 11:52:00

"4th cousins" is simply an estimate of what your relationship is to those other people who share DNA with you - your relationship could be more distant, or less 'tidy' (eg. you're descended from a half sibling somewhere along an ancestral line, or you're cousins once, twice or three times removed.

4th cousins have great great great grandparents in common. Have you (and your matches) traced each of your ancestral lines back that far? If not, maybe your shared ancestor is on a line that you haven't traced far enough back yet.

It's easy to 'lose' a surname in a tree, especially if you're descended from the daughter of a daughter, of a daughter, etc.

Do you have any 2nd or 3rd cousin matches? I'd focus on those first. And I doubt the DNA test is inaccurate.

ed65 - 2019-03-24 14:08:00

daisy86 wrote:

Any other thoughts?

Its quite normal to not know how you're related to most of your 4th-6th cousin list. These people you and your matches descend from probably lived 200-300 years ago.

lucky.gadgets - 2019-03-24 17:07:00

Its mote common to not know them than to know them. I've put it down to people not in your line can show as a cousin. Your g.grandpa's siblings all come into it too, for example. Living the dream:)

tessnjess - 2019-03-26 01:12:00

Hi Diane
When I first saw the DNA matches that I manage I was appalled that I could only see one match, and that was to a second cousin. I knew that we had extensive well researched trees. In my case I was able to learn about how to read the DNA and there were no non-paternal events (adoptions, affairs, etc). For my Aunty's DNA matches there are 207 4th cousin or closer, we can now identify most of the 2nds and 3rds and 20 of the 4ths.

To get matches to aunts, uncles these will be matches that Ancestry suggests are 1st cousins.
There are a lot of tips and tricks for understanding DNA, one of the best ones I have used is called the 'Leeds method' - to use this you will need to have DNA matches in 2nd and 3rd cousin levels. Here is an explanation of how to use this method.
https://www.danaleeds.com/dna-color-clustering-the-leeds-met
hod-for-easily-visualizing-matches/

Also the relationships indicated by Ancestry are just that "an indication", one of the better places to find what likely relationships are is DNA Painter CM Tool, put the number of centimorgans (CM) in for the match and you will get back what likely relationships. A useful tool if you do have a non-paternal event and are looking at half-siblings among your ancestors.
https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Remember start with your closest matches, use the shared match button to pick up familial matches to find trees which may help you identify whether the matches are maternal or paternal.

There are other tricks to do as well, create a private DNA research tree. Often the trees supplied by testers only go back a couple of generations, if you load them into a private tree Ancestry MAY give you potential ancestors going back further (which in turn could give you the common ancestor to yourself).

Good luck. It does take time to learn how to work the DNA.

catsmeat1 - 2019-03-31 19:26:00

catsmeat1 wrote:

Hi Diane
When I first saw the DNA matches that I manage I was appalled that I could only see one match, and that was to a second cousin. I knew that we had extensive well researched trees. In my case I was able to learn about how to read the DNA and there were no non-paternal events (adoptions,

Hi Catsmeat
Thank you for those two website - I think they will be quiet useful and I will look at them a bit more in depth when I have a bit more time.

The DNA test correctly identified one second cousin and incorrectly listed another second cousin as a 3-4th cousin.

I entered the number of cM (131) of the chap I have been in contact with into the dnapainter website and it suggests the highest probability of our relationship as one of the following:

Half 2C, 2C1R, Half 1C2R, 1C3R

So there's few extra possibilities to follow up on. Nothing like a good challenge!

daisy86 - 2019-04-03 20:29:00

I was listening to National Radio today when a geneticist was being interviewed and asked about these Ancestry DNA tests. She said they are just an estimate at best, and variable depending on the information held in the database. She did admit she would never be employed by Ancestry's Marketing Department, but felt she couldn't uphold them as being very accurate and people shouldn't put too much faith into them.

kitty179 - 2019-04-03 21:14:00

I used Ancestry just because of the numbers of people who have used it. Mostly I use FTDNA as you get a more scientific result and can see the chromosomes in their matching tools, then I upload to GEDMATCH. This site has some very good tools and serves as a gene test pool for many different companies. DNA painter is useful too.

devine-spark - 2019-04-09 21:34:00

I used Ancestry just because of the numbers of people who have used it. Mostly I use FTDNA as you get a more scientific result and can see the chromosomes in their matching tools, then I upload to GEDMATCH. This site has some very good tools and serves as a gene test pool for many different companies. DNA painter is useful too.

devine-spark - 2019-04-09 23:07:00

I think you will find she was meaning that the relationship distance is a guess, not the DNA match. If you match someone you are genetically related to them end of. You then have to follow the paper trails and find exactly how you connect. DNA painter is a good tool for helping determine relationship possibilities.

kitty179 wrote:

I was listening to National Radio today when a geneticist was being interviewed and asked about these Ancestry DNA tests. She said they are just an estimate at best, and variable depending on the information held in the database. She did admit she would never be employed by Ancestry's Marketing Department, but felt she couldn't uphold them as being very accurate and people shouldn't put too much faith into them.

mousiemousie - 2019-04-10 13:32:00

Thank you everyone for the replies.

For those who have done the Ancestry DNA test you will know about the long list of names and relationships it produces.

On that list were five cousins of varying distance whom I have been in touch with for years. We had established how we are related long before the DNA test was available. The test result is a nice confirmation that our research is correct.

What myself and my new found 4th cousin can't understand is how we are related. We share a high number of centimorgans yet have no common ancestor, no common names and our ancestors didn't live anywhere near each other. That is the mystery which may or may not be solved!

Edited by daisy86 at 8:07 am, Fri 12 Apr

daisy86 - 2019-04-12 07:59:00

daisy86 wrote:

Thank you everyone for the replies.

For those who have done the Ancestry DNA test you will know about the long list of names and relationships it produces.

On that list were five cousins of varying distance whom I have been in touch with for years. We had established how we are related long before the DNA test was available. The test result is a nice confirmation that our research is correct.

What myself and my new found 4th cousin can't understand is how we are related. We share a high number of centimorgans yet have no common ancestor, no common names and our ancestors didn't live anywhere near each other. That is the mystery which may or may not be solved!

I have lots of 3rd or 4th cousins in my list like that. I spend ages looking at matrixes to see how we may all be inter-related and have some possiblities but no certainties yet. It is a work in progress

mimi1 - 2019-04-21 14:49:00

I guess we can say we got our money's worth; it's all a big puzzle that will last longer than we will. Enjoy.

nerak - 2019-04-22 11:50:00

I don't hold much stock in DNA testing, after a 'Maori' reporter with European features and European name was claimed to be 100% Maori.

kiwitt_nz - 2019-04-23 21:48:00

Have received emails in the past from Ancestry regarding ethnicity changes, the message is always the same. 'Your DNA doesn’t change, but the science behind it does. Using our latest research, Ancestry implements regular ethnicity updates to keep your results as precise as possible.' Its an interesting subject and as nerak states, Enjoy.

ironthrone990 - 2019-04-24 12:13:00

It has to have major addiction problems, caused me some :) It's taken over my life lol

anne1955 - 2019-04-24 12:46:00

Yep, it certainly can be addictive especially if you forget appointment times, or to have dinner ready, or you'd prefer to find that missing link rather than chat with your neighbour, and so on...

ironthrone990 - 2019-04-24 13:30:00

Got email today and ethnicity is changing again on 30 May.

ironthrone990 wrote:

Have received emails in the past from Ancestry regarding ethnicity changes, the message is always the same. 'Your DNA doesn’t change, but the science behind it does. Using our latest research, Ancestry implements regular ethnicity updates to keep your results as precise as possible.' Its an interesting subject and as nerak states, Enjoy.

Edited by mousiemousie at 2:24 pm, Wed 24 Apr

mousiemousie - 2019-04-24 14:24:00

mousiemousie wrote:

Got email today and ethnicity is changing again on 30 May.

Same. Can't wait to see the 'new' me.

ironthrone990 - 2019-04-24 15:40:00

kitty179 wrote:

I was listening to National Radio today when a geneticist was being interviewed and asked about these Ancestry DNA tests. She said they are just an estimate at best, and variable depending on the information held in the database. She did admit she would never be employed by Ancestry's Marketing Department, but felt she couldn't uphold them as being very accurate and people shouldn't put too much faith into them.

I call bullshite on that, a very good friend of mine tracked his birth parents down through an ancestry dna test.

edzmax - 2019-04-24 18:25:00

edzmax wrote:

I call bullshite on that, a very good friend of mine tracked his birth parents down through an ancestry dna test.

You can be lucky. It all depends on whether or not you have family who have used Ancestry and have their details in the Ancestry database. I have tracked some down through Ancestry and others by uploading my Ancestry DNA test to My Heritage and other sites. It all depends on what information is in the relevant database.

mungojerrie - 2019-04-25 09:19:00

mungojerrie wrote:

You can be lucky. It all depends on whether or not you have family who have used Ancestry and have their details in the Ancestry database. I have tracked some down through Ancestry and others by uploading my Ancestry DNA test to My Heritage and other sites. It all depends on what information is in the relevant database.

His birth parents weren't on there, neither were half siblings or first cousins, just second cousins and beyond.

edzmax - 2019-04-25 13:06:00

Ancestry DNA tests have been very good for us. We have tracked down a living relative and confirmation of a mystery!

alinz - 2019-04-28 14:59:00

mousiemousie wrote:

Got email today and ethnicity is changing again on 30 May.

Ancestry has said it's not really a new update, it's just telling us that they're pushing out the latest estimate to all those who haven't updated (like those who haven't logged in for a year). Just a forced update for old estimates.

In other words, those that didn't accept the new update last October will now be 'forced' to do so.

marymc - 2019-04-30 10:28:00

This message was deleted.

mixel - 2019-05-02 17:15:00

This message was deleted.

mixel - 2019-05-02 17:25:00

This message was deleted.

mixel - 2019-05-02 17:29:00

mousiemousie wrote:

Got email today and ethnicity is changing again on 30 May.

From Ancestrys blog

"Ancestry's May 2, 2019 blog post: "All AncestryDNA customers who have not already transitioned to their new (September, 2018 results), more precise ethnicity estimate will be transitioned starting May 30, 2019." For those of you who tested prior to September 2018, you have until July 10, 2019 to download your old ethnicity estimate."

So we will only get new results if we DIDN'T accept the new results last Sept. If we did accept them, then nothing is changing for us

marymc - 2019-05-04 10:03:00