Your matches in the US (like everywhere else) have a common ancestor with you. It’s a misconception to write off matches in one country because “I have no ancestors who ever lived in America”. These are immigrants, like the famous Trump family (or the Heinz Ketchup founders). Andreas Andreas West Meine Vorfahren / my ancestors (8 generations): http://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Basso-23/5 Author of https://www.yourDNA.family Follow us on Facebook for latest updates on our progress - https://www.facebook.com/yourDNAfamily/ > On 22 Nov 2018, at 04:07, Belinda Dettmann <belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > > Using 40cM as a cutoff point I get: > 34 Ancestry DNA > 14 23andMe > 24 My Heritage > 597 FTDNA > The results are obviously not comparable with Eric's list but for a variety > of reasons. The FTDNA defaults (minimum single segment 7.7cM, minimum total > 20cM, including 1cM segments) are counter-intuitive in my case. It cuts out > all those between 7.0 and 7.6 segments but no other bits (of which I have > several who are known relatives) and gives me a huge list of American > testers that I cannot possibly analyse, as I have no ancestors who ever > lived in America. It also suggests to me that Americans are far more inbred > (Endogamous) than they are aware, compared to the rest of the world. > > For Ancestry results I find a cutoff point of 20cM to be more meaningful > than 40cM. I have a total of 57 between 20 and 40, and although that total > includes a number of uninformative matches, 31 of the 57 are relatives. I > haven't finished analyzing 23andMe and MyHeritage in a similar manner but > MyHeritage is more useful to me as it includes far more non-American testers > that 23andMe does. > Incidentally I have just 13 >40cM on Gedmatch, but another 44 between 20 and > 40cM there. > Belinda > > -----Original Message----- > From: Eric S Johnson [mailto:crates@oneotaslopes.org] > Sent: Wednesday, 21 November 2018 10:58 PM > To: genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Subject: [DNA] Re: Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results > >>> 123 AncestryDNA >>> 55 23andMe >>> 36 MyHeritage >>> 18 FTDNA > >> Are you including the small segments at FTDNA when you're checking the >> count of matches? > > Nope. I'm (here) only counting >7cM HIRs. > > The 23andMe count is probably more like 70 because they rank "DNA relatives" > using an algorithm which figures a 3x8cM-HIR match is "closer" than a > 1x49cM-HIR match, so it's not fair (to 23andMe) to merely "go down the list > as far as 40 cM." > > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

Belinda, your FTDNA count is heavily skewed because you are including small segments in the total. It would be very different if you excluded those. This can be done with a spreadsheet formula. From the Chromosome Browser, download all segments. Column B will be the match name and column F the cM. Paste this formula into cell H2, then copy it down all the rows. (A shortcut for that is to hover over the lower right hand corner of the cell until you see a + sign, then double click.) In English, the formula says to sum the numbers in column F if the name in column B matches cell B2 AND the cM value in column F is >= 7. =SUMIFS(F:F,B:B,B2,F:F,">=7") Copy this data to a new worksheet with Paste Special and use Remove Duplicates (under the Data ribbon in Excel) on columns B and F to consolidate the results. When I did that this morning, I had 1522 matches over 40 cM if I used the total, but only 28 matches if I excluded the small segments. Ann Turner On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:07 PM Belinda Dettmann < belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > Using 40cM as a cutoff point I get: > 34 Ancestry DNA > 14 23andMe > 24 My Heritage > 597 FTDNA >

Ann, I know that the total includes small segments but I can't get your formula to work. When I download my results I get column F with Relationship and column H with total cM. Pasting the formula into col H gives 0 all the way down. Belinda -----Original Message----- From: Ann Turner [mailto:dnacousins@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, 23 November 2018 1:01 AM To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> Subject: [DNA] Re: Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results Belinda, your FTDNA count is heavily skewed because you are including small segments in the total. It would be very different if you excluded those. This can be done with a spreadsheet formula. From the Chromosome Browser, download all segments. Column B will be the match name and column F the cM. Paste this formula into cell H2, then copy it down all the rows. (A shortcut for that is to hover over the lower right hand corner of the cell until you see a + sign, then double click.) In English, the formula says to sum the numbers in column F if the name in column B matches cell B2 AND the cM value in column F is >= 7. =SUMIFS(F:F,B:B,B2,F:F,">=7") Copy this data to a new worksheet with Paste Special and use Remove Duplicates (under the Data ribbon in Excel) on columns B and F to consolidate the results. When I did that this morning, I had 1522 matches over 40 cM if I used the total, but only 28 matches if I excluded the small segments. Ann Turner On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:07 PM Belinda Dettmann < belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > Using 40cM as a cutoff point I get: > 34 Ancestry DNA > 14 23andMe > 24 My Heritage > 597 FTDNA > _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

Are you downloading all segments from the Chromosome Browser? I see these column headers: Name Match Name Chromosome Start Location End Location Centimorgans Matching SNPs Ann On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 11:59 AM Belinda Dettmann < belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > Ann, I know that the total includes small segments but I can't get your > formula to work. When I download my results I get column F with > Relationship > and column H with total cM. Pasting the formula into col H gives 0 all the > way down. > > Belinda > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ann Turner [mailto:dnacousins@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, 23 November 2018 1:01 AM > To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> > Subject: [DNA] Re: Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results > > Belinda, your FTDNA count is heavily skewed because you are including small > segments in the total. It would be very different if you excluded those. > This can be done with a spreadsheet formula. From the Chromosome Browser, > download all segments. Column B will be the match name and column F the cM. > Paste this formula into cell H2, then copy it down all the rows. (A > shortcut > for that is to hover over the lower right hand corner of the cell until you > see a + sign, then double click.) In English, the formula says to sum the > numbers in column F if the name in column B matches cell B2 AND the cM > value > in column F is >= 7. > > =SUMIFS(F:F,B:B,B2,F:F,">=7") > > Copy this data to a new worksheet with Paste Special and use Remove > Duplicates (under the Data ribbon in Excel) on columns B and F to > consolidate the results. > > When I did that this morning, I had 1522 matches over 40 cM if I used the > total, but only 28 matches if I excluded the small segments. > > Ann Turner > > On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:07 PM Belinda Dettmann < > belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > > > Using 40cM as a cutoff point I get: > > 34 Ancestry DNA > > 14 23andMe > > 24 My Heritage > > 597 FTDNA > > > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe > https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is > funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe > https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >

Aha. I am downloading matches. Obviously I need to download raw data. However if I look at the Third cousin and above in the matches list I probably get the right answer, or near it. Thanks Ann, I will do the correct download! Belinda -----Original Message----- From: Ann Turner [mailto:dnacousins@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, 23 November 2018 7:20 AM To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> Subject: [DNA] Re: Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results Are you downloading all segments from the Chromosome Browser? I see these column headers: Name Match Name Chromosome Start Location End Location Centimorgans Matching SNPs Ann On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 11:59 AM Belinda Dettmann < belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > Ann, I know that the total includes small segments but I can't get > your formula to work. When I download my results I get column F with > Relationship and column H with total cM. Pasting the formula into col > H gives 0 all the way down. > > Belinda > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ann Turner [mailto:dnacousins@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, 23 November 2018 1:01 AM > To: DNA Genealogy Mailing List <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> > Subject: [DNA] Re: Fwd: Where to get best autosomal results > > Belinda, your FTDNA count is heavily skewed because you are including > small segments in the total. It would be very different if you excluded those. > This can be done with a spreadsheet formula. From the Chromosome > Browser, download all segments. Column B will be the match name and column F the cM. > Paste this formula into cell H2, then copy it down all the rows. (A > shortcut for that is to hover over the lower right hand corner of the > cell until you see a + sign, then double click.) In English, the > formula says to sum the numbers in column F if the name in column B > matches cell B2 AND the cM value in column F is >= 7. > > =SUMIFS(F:F,B:B,B2,F:F,">=7") > > Copy this data to a new worksheet with Paste Special and use Remove > Duplicates (under the Data ribbon in Excel) on columns B and F to > consolidate the results. > > When I did that this morning, I had 1522 matches over 40 cM if I used > the total, but only 28 matches if I excluded the small segments. > > Ann Turner > > On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:07 PM Belinda Dettmann < > belindadettmann@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > > > Using 40cM as a cutoff point I get: > > 34 Ancestry DNA > > 14 23andMe > > 24 My Heritage > > 597 FTDNA > > > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe > https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal > RootsWeb community > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe > https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal > RootsWeb community > _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

Hi Lindsey, Lorna is right - test as far and wide as you can. And get your Familly Finder test from FTDNA rather than using a transfer test. Wait for a sale. Picking a single test is difficult. The one you happen to pick may not be the one that has The Perfect Match for your search. Generally speaking, your best chances are at Ancestry. But it all depends on where your matches happened to decide to test. For some of my lines I've had to piece together bits from each company. If you end up using matches who test at the 5th cousin level (see my experience below), Ancestry's Shared Matches will be far less helpful than Family Finder's ICWs and 23andMe's Relatives in Common. Specifically, though, I identified my mystery ggg-grandparents at Ancestry. My tests are at 23andMe, Family Finder, and Ancestry. I transferred my FF results to MyHeritage recently so don't know much about it. I'm already an Ancestry subscriber and cannot afford to subscribe to MyHeritage, too. You get the most out of Ancestry and MyHeritage if you are a subscriber. Keep that in mind. The advantage of Ancestry is its large database. This can also be a problem, as you can get overwhelmed with possibilities. I have about 53,000 matches at Ancestry, of which about 51,000 are Distant Cousin (predicted 5th-8th cousin). Out of all of my matches, I've identified about 480. Of these, around 200 are among those Distant Matches. If your Distant Matches don't have trees that have common ancestors with you, finding them at Ancestry is a bear. If you get FTDNA's Family Finder test, transfer it to GedMatch. If you don't test at FF, transfer your Ancestry test to GedMatch. I use GedMatch mostly for confirmation through triangulation, rather than for initial researching. Lately I've noticed an increase in identifiable matches at 23andMe. Some are people who tested at Ancestry first, and then decided on 23andMe as their other, non-subscription, test. Note that if you plan on using GedMatch, 23andMe transfers to GedMatch are not as helpful as those from other companies. There are unique things about every family tree that influence how successful your search will be. If you have immigrant ancestors in the last few generations, keep asking around to find which databases cover more countries. At one time it was 23andMe, but I think that has changed. My particular advantage at any company is that I was dealing with two rather rare surnames, Slape and Howeth (the latter is what I found through my matches). The other is that my Slape 1st - 5th cousins HAPPEN to have tested in droves, primarily at Ancestry. I was searching my paternal grandfather's line (PGF). In this line, I have about 315 identified matches at Ancestry (including those newly found from my ggg-grandparent search). In my PGM line, I have 31. In my MGF line, about 86. In my MGM line, about 47. Naturally, you are looking for matches who are your actual 4th cousins, descending from the brothers and sisters of your gg-grandparent. But prepare to have to dig deeper. What if your gg-grandparent was an only child? As it happens, my gg-grandmother had 3 full siblings and a number of half-siblings. However, few of my full or half 4th cousins have tested - anywhere. I have only 3 4th cousin matches at Ancestry, one of whom is a half 4th cousin. At Family Finder, there are none on this particular line. My breakthrough came with matches who are double-5th cousins. My ggg-grandfather's brother married my ggg-grandmother's sister. This family had far more children and grandchildren than my own ancestors did. So the sibling marriages bumped up my shared DNA with my fifth cousins just a bit (which made them easier to find at Ancestry), and the quantity of these matches (there were initially 11, now closer to 20) helped me identify and verify them. Then I was able to find 5th cousin matches on the ggg-grandmother's side - at least 25 at Ancestry, and 6 at Family Finder. Good luck! --Thena Jones On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 5:13 AM Lindsey Britton via GENEALOGY-DNA < genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: Lindsey Britton <lplantagenet@aol.com> > To: genealogy-dna <genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sun, Nov 18, 2018 7:25 pm > Subject: Where to get best autosomal results > > If you have used autosomal DNA to identify a 3rd great grandparent or a > more distant ancestor, which testing company do you recommend? Lindsey > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe > https://lists.rootsweb.com/postorius/lists/genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >