DNA News: MyOrigins Grade

My Aunt's DNA test results came back August 7, which was a month after they received the kit back. She had 22 pages of matches. Around 220 matches. I haven't found any useful matches on the Owens line yet. She also shared DNA with the same Owens descendant at GEDmatch as me, but on a different chromosome. I'm hoping the Family Finder match database increases in size so we can find more relevant matches? You can't beat tools like the chromosome browser at Family Finder. I've been trying to get AncestryDNA matches to compare with me at GEDmatch. So far only one out of a dozen requests I've sent has been answered.

I was very interested how my Aunt's ethnic origin percentages would turn out. Based on my knowledge of our family origins I would give MyOrigins a B-. Her ethnic breakdown was 70% British Isles, 29 % Eastern European, and 1% Middle Eastern. My Aunt does have substantial British Isles ancestry but it definitely wouldn't be more than 50%, and certainly not the 70% she got from MyOrigins. Her mother's ancestry was around one quarter French Canadian, one quarter British/Scots Irish mix, and 50% Irish. . My Aunt should have gotten a little European Coastal plain like I did.  My Aunt's father was born in Hungary (now Burgenland, Austria). It's highly unlikely that any of her father's ancestors came from the British Isles. I've never heard of a migration pattern in that direction. I've researched the Kapple family back to the 1700's and every line was from Austria or Hungary. The 29% Eastern European my Aunt got is at least closer than my result which were only around 8%. This still leaves 20% of her father's side out, considering she had to inherit 50% from her father. The 1% Middle Eastern supposedly goes back to Asia Minor. This result is plausible since my Kapple cousin's Y DNA haplo is J2b2. However MyOrigins gave me 2% Middle Eastern, African Asiatic, which would be from the line I share with my Aunt.

Diaspora Jewish is also missing from our results. It's more than likely that we do have some of this ancestry. AncestryDNA did pick up a trace. When I ran the J test at GEDmatch my Aunt had a result of around 2% Ashkenazi.

My Grandmother Kapple believed we had some Native American ancestry. MyOrigins didn't show any? However, trace amounts of 1% to 1 1/2 % were found at Gedmatch. I tend to think GED match is correct. I believe our Native American comes through John Owens, the Indian Trader's wife.

MyOrigins is much more accurate than the old Family Finder ethnic predictions. However, the results are far from completely accurate, and tend to be inconsistent when comparing with family members, even taking into account the fact not all family members share the same DNA.

DNA News: Pushing The AncestryDNA Scan Across The Finish

A few months ago I installed the Google Chrome browser extension AncestryDNA Helper. I was never able to finish either the detail scan or the summary scan. I did get through a little over half on both, and did find even that limited amount of information to be helpful. When my mother's results came in last week I decided to try again. I don't know why but I was able to finish the summary scan for both of our kits on my first try. I moved on to the detail scan which also appeared to be working now. It was only scanning 4 to 7 matches a minute so the progress was slow. After letting it run all night it still hadn't completed. I left the house for a few hours that day, and when I came back, unfortunately, the scan had stopped. The screen message said feature not available? So I tried again and the scan started from the beginning instead of resuming where I left off. The next day it stopped, again, before completing. This time I kept refreshing the screen until it restarted. Unfortunately that night Ancestry took the site down for a few hours for maintenance. I wasn't sure if I would have to start from the beginning? After the down time ended I tried again, and luckily this time it started from where it left off, and I was able to fully scan both kits.

The size of the files created was large. My file was 44mb and my Mom's was 38mb. I sorted the files by surname. This is such a time saver. I was now able to see all of the same surnames grouped together, and I could easily look for variant spellings. Now I didn't have to click twice to see my matches shared surname ancestors. I could see the exact lineage of my matches quickly.

I know Ancestry would prefer everyone access the DNA results strictly from their site. They don't have an incentive to make the process of reviewing the matches quick. The more time people spend at their site the better for them. Clearly the point of DNA testing for Ancestry is to encourage people to subscribe and continue to do so. If this drives the price down I can't criticize them too much. For my particular family lines Ancestry is producing the best matches, and the most matches. The other companies have really slowed down now and aren't producing many significant matches. Ancestry is the only game in town for me now.

When I do another scan I  know now to keep refreshing the screen until it continues. Glad to have finally gotten all of this information downloaded. Productive week. Thank you very much Jeff Snavely!

DNA News of the Week: Ancestry Test Results

I like the icons added showing common matches between my Mom and I

My Mom's AncestryDNA test results came in on Monday July 28; exactly 3 weeks after I mailed the kit in. I wasn't confident she would pass the test on the first try. It took half an hour to collect the sample from her, and I wasn't sure if there was enough saliva. I guess all was good because she passed.

It's taken a few days for the surname and place search to be fully functional. My mom and I share 2658 common matches out of around 7000 matches a piece.

I called Ancestry when I couldn't get the search to work the day after the results came in. They came to the same conclusion I did that the search takes time to make all of the connections. I was told that better sharing tools would be coming out soon.

I'm very happy with the results. Her ethnic breakdown looks plausible. Her range for Spanish/Iberian was between 0-24%. I believe it is around 24%. The only thing left out were her German DNA roots. When I looked at the heat map Great Britain does overlap on to the continent.

My primary objectives in testing her with Ancestry were met. I had some things I wanted to clarify by testing her. I had noticed one of the Owens descendant match's was possibly related to me through my father and mother's side. I assumed that this person shared DNA on my father's side. As it turns out they match on my Mom's side. So this person being a low confidence match probably shares only Callahan line DNA and not Owens. I have already confirmed my Callahan line with DNA testing. I need more DNA support on my Owens line. I had one more Owens match which held up after testing my Mom. She didn't match this particular person; supporting paternal origins for this match.

Another line I wanted more DNA support for was Urmey/Brower. I had a Brower match on the correct paper trail line. My Mom was also a moderate match with the same person. She also had Urmey matches which provides additional support. I have always been troubled by the fact that my Eve Urmey was not named in her father's will. This could have been a recording error?

I am always looking any DNA matches supporting our Forgey circumstantial case. My mother got some Forgey matches I didn't have. My Mom also had a  Duer match which might connect with Margaret Reynolds-Forgey? Her mother was said to be Ellen Duer. Right now I'm looking for firm matches on the Fisher and Reynolds lines. We already know that all the Tennessee Forgeys are related, so matching strictly on that line doesn't mean as much. If I could collect Forgey segments it would more useful.

I'm still waiting for my Aunt's DNA test results. Her sample was received a week before I mailed my Mom's to AncestryDNA. She is testing with FamilyTree DNA. I regret not having her tested with AncestryDNA now. I'm hesitant to ask family members to do a saliva test. Also the saliva tests sometimes have to be repeated. AncestryDNA has a better database to compare with. I wish they had a swab test.  In the future, as long as GEDmatch is around, I think I'll use Ancestry instead of Family Tree for autosomal tests.