One of my third cousins had their Ancestry DNA test results imported into Family Tree DNA. We had hoped that finding common matches between us could help us track down where our Kelly and/or Murphy families were from in Ireland. My father's mother's mother's parents are also her great-great-grandparents.
I see she popped up on my match list so I looked and saw that Family Tree DNA estimates we are 3rd-5th cousins. We're 3rd cousins so that estimate is correct. I see that we share a portion of our DNA on chromosome 9. This is all well and good. Now to see who our common matches are to see whose genealogy we can study to gain insight on where our family came from.
And the winner is...no one. We don't share any common matches. She also compared our DNA on GEDMatch.com and also found no common matches there. It seems our Kelly and Murphy family lines are pretty small. I honestly expected a large number of common matches on these lines but we ended up with none.
Another
way to look at the results of this Kelly/Murphy relation is that those
people I suspected to be related on my Kelly or Murphy line due to their
ancestry in Ireland, it is now more likely they are related on my Doran
line or the unknown father of my great-grandfather Tom Doran. So it does
provide a bit of negative information, just nothing that points us in
the right direction yet.
We are now expecting the Family Tree DNA test results from my aunt in the next month. She should match three of those I already know the matches to. I am hopeful that she'll match at least a few others so we end up knowing a bit more about our ancestry.
I see the value in genetic testing for genealogy. I understand why it would be helpful. So why is it not helping me? Everyone says give it more time so more people can test and hopefully match in the future. It's like wondering who was the first person that bought a telephone? If very few people have one, if very few people have tested, the value isn't that high. Once more people get a phone, or more people test, the more useful your phone or results will be.
Stay tuned.
--Matt
My aunt's results came back. She does match those three people I expected her to match on, plus one that I didn't expect. This person was adopted. He believes they've now made a connection to our family on the Kempker family line. My mother's mother's mother's father was a Kempker. While this likely won't help us find our ancestry, it has almost definitely helped someone find their birth family. I call that a good deal.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt also matched a few people that I didn't. The good news is that I am related to anyone that my aunt matches since she shares the exact same ancestry as my mother. A couple of these people are apparently related somehow to our Panther family near Achern, Germany as their family trees have ancestry in that area. We just haven't connected them yet.
One other interesting bit of information. It appears that my aunt has more of the Panther DNA than I do. This makes sense but still, the way the matches look, it's interesting to me. I am a pretty distant match with one Panther relation and a very speculative match with another. They are both Panther relations so I know that I am related to them, I just don't share a large amount of DNA with them. My aunt, on the other hand, has them ranked as very high matches. In addition, my aunt shows one ancient origin at a pretty substantial percentage and I don't show this origin whatsoever. This tells me that since the matches some Panthers much closer than I do and she has an origin that I don't, that the Panthers are likely the source of this origin. It's a bit of a surprise but it does actually match up with a theory I have about the Panther family origins. Nothing is proven yet but it is intriguing.
Sorry to be vague about this but it's a matter that I would be sharing with close family members only to begin with. Then, only if it's more or less proven, share more widely.