Dear Margaret, The problem with testing at Ancestry is that they don't give you your segment data: what chromosome and on what part of the chromosome (the segment start and stop points) where you share DNA. This is critical to mapping your DNA to your ancestors. Three people could be a match to each other, but two of them could match through one common set of ancestors and the other two could match through a different set of common ancestors. The 3 of you could share yet a 3rd set of common ancestors. But unless you see all three matching on the same segment, you won't know for sure that they are sharing DNA through the same common ancestor. Such scenarios may sound far-fetched, but in fact people who have lots of early colonial American ancestry have complex and duplicated relationships in their trees. You can transfer your kit from Ancestry to FTDNA for only $39. There you will see your matches and precisely where they match you on your chromosomes. You will have the benefit of having your DNA at both companies, with their separate databases which don't always (or even mostly) overlap. -----Original Message----- From: roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of MScheffler via Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2016 12:40 PM To: Roots-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Interpreting DNA results Since April I have been getting results from my family’s DNA kits on Ancestry. I have been marking them off on pedigree charts as we come up with new family matches. I have several families where there may be matches say for 3rd, 5th and 6th great grandparents and maybe one lower – say 1st great grandparents. Can one assume, since the DNA came from me or one of my siblings that the DNA has basically proved the entire line up the ancestral tree. Most of the confidence levels are moderate, which seems likely since we may be going back to people who were born in the 1600s. There are also generations where there is only one match to a set of great grandparents, but both match at the next generation. How one interprets some of the generations which appear to have been proved by matches to others with common ancestors may have implications for people trying to prove lineages for membership in lineage based organization. Many of us have relatively well proved lines, yet lacking paper proof say for one generation out of 5 or 6 or more needed. As time goes on and more people have their DNA tested, perhaps more people may be eligible to join some of these organizations. At this point in time, I am plotting my matches and breathing a sigh of relief when a few problematic lines for me, seem to have been proved by Ancestry’s DNA results. Are there any DNA experts out there willing to weigh on on these matters? Margaret Scheffler ===== If you would prefer digest mode to mail mode, drop a note to roots-admin@rootsweb.com and ask for the digest... ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

You can do the same thing by uploading your raw AncestryDNA data to GEDMatch for free. I have my DNA data on all of the sites and find GEDMatch more helpful in finding matches than I do FTDNA family finder. FTDNA only has about 250K tested while Ancestry has just passed the 2 million mark. Between Ancestry and GEDMatch you can reach a very wide audience and have the tools you need to verify (or disprove) matches and triangulation. --------------------------------------- Dear Margaret,The problem with testing at Ancestry is that they don't give you your segment data: what chromosome and on what part of the chromosome (the segment start and stop points) where you share DNA. This is critical to mapping your DNA to your ancestors. Three people could be a match to each other, but two of them could match through one common set of ancestors and the other two could match through a different set of common ancestors. The 3 of you could share yet a 3rd set of common ancestors. But unless you see all three matching on the same segment, you won't know for sure that they are sharing DNA through the same common ancestor. Such scenarios may sound far-fetched, but in fact people who have lots of early colonial American ancestry have complex and duplicated relationships in their trees.You can transfer your kit from Ancestry to FTDNA for only $39. There you will see your matches and precisely where they match you on your chromosomes. You will have the benefit of having your DNA at both companies, with their separate databases which don't always (or even mostly) overlap. -- Joan Young jyoung6180@aol.com