CeCe, thank you for your input. I feel a bit better now knowing this information. This family is so confusing and is made even more so by what appears to be two of the family slaves (both reported as mulatto in 1870) marrying. They had different mothers and appear to have different fathers which could be two of the sons or grandsons who owned the family slaves. Their granddaughter, a test participant who matches both white and slave descendants, has only a 29% West African, 12% Middle East and 59% European mixture. She is shown as a 2nd cousin to one of the white descendants which is most likely a false indication. They share 220 cM total, with 45 cM as the longest match. They match on 9 different chromosomes with 17 segments but common matches are all over the place and no patterns yet. In 1840 the father slave owner had nearly 70 slaves when he died. These 70 slaves continued to be owned by three different sons over the next 25 years. This granddaughter matches the aunt of my most recent FF match at a 2nd to 4th cousin level with 106 cM total and longest block of 40. It is evident that I need many more test participants! Thanks. Connie Bradshaw In a message dated 12/5/2013 12:36:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, cecemoore@hotmail.com writes: >From working on the DNA results for the guests on "Finding Your Roots", I have learned that this low number of matches in Family Finder is not at all unusual for African Americans. I am currently working with a kit with the same admixture percentages as you mention and the number of matches is comparable to what you are reporting. It appears to be directly proportional - the less European admixture that an African American has, the less matches they have in Family Finder. Apparently, this is because Family Finder requires, not only a longest segment of around 7 cM, but a total cM count of 20 cM to be reported as a match (total of all shared segments of 1 cM and above). African Americans tend not to share these very small segments with their matches, so many of their matches with segments under 20 cM do not get reported. What would be the presumed level of cousinship between the descendants of the slave owner and the slave descendants? If it is further out than 2nd cousins, then it would be expected that some will show matches and some will not. CeCe Moore www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com > From: Rvsailor@aol.com > Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 12:18:02 -0500 > To: autosomal-dna@rootsweb.com > Subject: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Family Finder Matches > > I just got the results back from a FF test kit that I sponsored for a man > that believes he shares ancestral lines with a white slave owner. His > population finder indicates 84% West African (Yoruba) and 16% European. He is > matching three other test participants known to be descendants of slaves > owned by this same white slave owning family but he does not match any of the > known white descendants of the slave owners. Two of his matches do also > match several of the white descendants. The third is a close relative (his > aunt from his paternal line and the last living in that generation) that had > the same none matches with the white descendants. His aunt's population > finder indicated 66% West African (Yoruba) and 34% European. > > > What is very odd is that he only had a reported 14 matches TOTAL. His > aunt had over 60 total matches. I have never seen a FF test have so few > matches and am wondering about the quality of his test sample. Has anyone else > seen the number of total matches this low? Thanks. > > Connie Bradshaw > ______________________________ For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about mailing lists, please see: http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Connie, The Family Finder matching algorithm's strict thresholds make the product far less useful for African-Americans. I recommend transferring your project participants' DNA data to GEDmatch.com and comparing them there, if you have not already. The big issue with Family Finder is that African-Americans' actual genetic relatives are in the Family Finder database, but the algorithm is not matching them. That can taint even the simplest autosomal DNA project. I have resisted testing at Family Finder for that reason. Very Respectfully, Shannon On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 2:23 PM, <Rvsailor@aol.com> wrote: > CeCe, thank you for your input. I feel a bit better now knowing this > information. > > This family is so confusing and is made even more so by what appears to be > two of the family slaves (both reported as mulatto in 1870) marrying. > They had different mothers and appear to have different fathers which > could > be two of the sons or grandsons who owned the family slaves. Their > granddaughter, a test participant who matches both white and slave > descendants, has > only a 29% West African, 12% Middle East and 59% European mixture. She is > shown as a 2nd cousin to one of the white descendants which is most likely > a false indication. They share 220 cM total, with 45 cM as the longest > match. They match on 9 different chromosomes with 17 segments but common > matches are all over the place and no patterns yet. In 1840 the father > slave > owner had nearly 70 slaves when he died. These 70 slaves continued to be > owned by three different sons over the next 25 years. > > This granddaughter matches the aunt of my most recent FF match at a 2nd to > 4th cousin level with 106 cM total and longest block of 40. It is evident > that I need many more test participants! > > Thanks. > > Connie Bradshaw > > > > In a message dated 12/5/2013 12:36:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, > cecemoore@hotmail.com writes: > > >From working on the DNA results for the guests on "Finding Your Roots", I > have learned that this low number of matches in Family Finder is not at > all unusual for African Americans. I am currently working with a kit with > the same admixture percentages as you > mention and the number of matches is comparable to what you are > reporting. It appears to be directly proportional - the less European > admixture that an African American has, the less matches they have in > Family > Finder. Apparently, this is because Family Finder requires, not only a > longest segment of around 7 cM, but a total cM count of 20 cM to be > reported as > a match (total of all shared segments of 1 cM and above). African > Americans > tend not to share these very small segments with their matches, so many of > their matches with segments under 20 cM do not get reported. > > What would be the presumed level of cousinship between the descendants of > the slave owner and the slave descendants? If it is further out than 2nd > cousins, then it would be expected that some will show matches and some > will > not. > > CeCe Moore > www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com > > > > From: Rvsailor@aol.com > > Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 12:18:02 -0500 > > To: autosomal-dna@rootsweb.com > > Subject: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Family Finder Matches > > > > I just got the results back from a FF test kit that I sponsored for a > man > > that believes he shares ancestral lines with a white slave owner. His > > population finder indicates 84% West African (Yoruba) and 16% European. > He is > > matching three other test participants known to be descendants of slaves > > > owned by this same white slave owning family but he does not match any > of the > > known white descendants of the slave owners. Two of his matches do also > > match several of the white descendants. The third is a close relative > (his > > aunt from his paternal line and the last living in that generation) > that had > > the same none matches with the white descendants. His aunt's > population > > finder indicated 66% West African (Yoruba) and 34% European. > > > > > > What is very odd is that he only had a reported 14 matches TOTAL. His > > aunt had over 60 total matches. I have never seen a FF test have so > few > > matches and am wondering about the quality of his test sample. Has > anyone else > > seen the number of total matches this low? Thanks. > > > > Connie Bradshaw > > > > > > > ______________________________ > For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about mailing lists, please > see: > http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the > subject and the body of the message > > > > ______________________________ > For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about mailing lists, please see: > http://dgmweb.net/MailingListFAQs.html > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUTOSOMAL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Mr. Shannon S. Christmas Chief Market Advisor | Design Strategist The Christmas Collective <http://thechristmascollective.com/> Strategic Real Estate and Land Use Solutions New York, NY | Washington, DC P: 212.433.0586 | 202.618.1687 F: 1.888.788.5984 shannon.christmas@thechristmascollective.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonchristmas/