Relative Finder vs Family Finder

     I logged back into 23andMe today to see if my Relative Finder (RF) and Ancestry Painting results had come in. I think I must have logged in just as they were loading! I saw that I had 71 RF matches. I checked my mom's and she had 81. I switched back to mine and had 230... the numbers just kept going up! Since I only have 5 sharing invites a day, I thought I'd wait until they were done loading to make connections.

     While I wait, I'm exploring how Relative Finder works. I took a similar test with Family Tree DNA about a year ago, called Family Finder (FF). The programs are both very similar and very different. Here are screen shots of each test:




23andMe / Relative Finder:


Family Tree DNA / Family Finder:


     Very similar right? But also very different.

• With RF you don't see the names of you matches. With FF you do (I've grayed the names out for privacy reasons). I'm guessing that this is because FF has you sign a release form regarding sharing when you buy the kit and RF does not. [Update: You can filter RF matches and see the names of those matches who are "public"]
• With RF you can see how many surnames the match has listed on their profile, but you don't see the actual names. Also, you see the type of ancestry they categorize themselves as (Northern European, etc). With FF you see all the surnames the match has listed, as well as the geographic area they come from. Also, if they have uploaded a family tree, FF allows you to view it.
• Each test gives different types of genetic match data. RF tells you a percentage of shared DNA and the number of segments that match. FF gives more scientific information that's a bit harder to understand.
• RF uses an internal communication system that limits each member to 5 sharing invitations a day. With FF, you have access to the email address of each match and can contact as many as you want. Based on my experience with FF, the 5 invitations a day is fine with me. You can easily overwhelm yourself by contacting more people than that.
• Both companies give you an estimated relationship, and then a broad relationship range.

     Deciding who to contact is a bit more difficult with Relative Finder. With Family Finder I looked at surnames and relationship ranges and emailed the match. With Relative Finder I would still look at relationship range, but then it gets harder. I would probably first contact someone who has surnames listed, as opposed to those who haven't listed any. Also, I'll compare my results with my mom's and try and contact people who match both of us. 

     But should I use all five invites every day? What should I say? Can they see my profile and my surnames when I send an invite? What happens when someone accepts my invite? I'll have to explore the FAQs and wait for some responses to find out!

     And if anyone has any tips, please comment!

FamilyTree DNA - Population Finder

     FamilyTree DNA has added the Population Finder feature to their Family Finder DNA test. According to their FAQs, the Population Finder matches your DNA against samples from different ethnic groups to match you to seven different continental groups.  Inside those groups are a small number of subgroups (ie Europe could be divided into Northeastern, Southeastern, Russian, etc).  This new feature was announced a while ago, but had been pushed back. I was very excited when I saw that my results had been posted, but in the end found my results to be rather anticlimactic: 100% European.  I don't even have a European subgroup... But, this is still a Beta program. I hope that as the program grows, I might see more detailed results.


     Here are my results:

The Popularity of Edgefield County

As I've stated in previous posts, my Family Finder DNA test from FamilyTreeDNA gave me five "close relative" matches and a large number of speculative matches. As of yet, I haven't identified a common ancestor with any of the matches, thought there are a few promising leads. And just about all of those leads lead to Edgefield County, South Carolina.

My matches and I have been exchanging a variety of family tree charts and websites while we look for matches. Here's what we've seen so far:

• My closest match, a predicted 3rd cousin with Mr. A Peppers, might match a Parish / Paris family in Edgefield County.
• A 4th cousin match with Mr. E Hill might match a Harris family in Edgefield County.
• A 4th cousin match with Ms. M Barton doesn't match any surname, but we both have a large number of ancestors from Edgefield County.

That's 3 out of 5 matches that might be traced back to Edgefield County, SC! Now, the way the matches are made is by comparing segments of DNA to see if individuals share identical segments on the same chromosome. With all of these Edgefield matches, I have to wonder if we're all related.

On the FTDNA website, I can compare up to three of my matches at a time. You can see three different colors on this chart and can see that each color has a long segment and a lot of little ones. The green segment is my 3rd cousin match and the blue and orange are my 4th cousin matches. You can see that in two places the green and orange match and in one place the blue and green match. But these are very small matches, so we don't all descend from the same recent ancestor. It might be that we share a very distant ancestor though...

Out of all the people in the world who might have taken this test it strikes me that so many of my matches look to have descended from the same location. I do have a lot of ancestors from the Edgefield County Area (which broke up into Greenwood, Saluda and McCormick Counties), but I have equally large amounts of ancestors from Emanuel County, GA, Elbert & Hart Counties, GA and Lexington County, SC. I guess it's just up to who takes the test... but it still strikes me as odd.

Family Finder Results Are In - Pt 2

In my first post, I showed screenshots of what my Family Finder DNA test results looked like. In this post, I'll talk about contacting my matches.

First, I didn't really go into the scientific details of the test in the previous post. My DNA test results were matched to other folks' results. Here's how FTDNA explains it:

"Family Finder detects your near and distant cousins by comparing your autosomal DNA with that of other Family Tree DNA customers. If two people share identical segments of DNA then they may share a recent ancestor. When the Family Finder program finds matching segments, it uses statistical methods to determine if the segments are likely to be Identical By Descent (IBD). If they are determined to be IBD then the Family Finder program calculates the relationship based on the shared segments’ number and size. The Family Finder program declares a DNA segment to be Identical By Descent (IBD) if it contains at least 500 matching SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) in series. A DNA segment (block) that is 10 centiMorgans (cM) or larger indicates conclusive shared ancestry while a block that is between 5 and 10 cM is highly suggestive of shared ancestry. Additional factors such as the number of shared blocks that are at least 1 cM and their size are also used for the degree of relatedness calculations."

It's all very scientific isn't it? This explains the two numbers on the matches page (Shared cM and Longest Block). It also helps explain what I'm looking at on the "Chromosome Browser" Page. I showed both of these screenshots shown in the previous post.

I should say at this point: I have yet to receive notification from FTDNA that I have any FF test results or matches. I only knew about these matches because I've been checking for results. I'd expect better communication from FTDNA on this...

So, my results gave me one predicted 3rd cousin and four predicted 4th cousins. If these estimates are accurate, I might be related to these matches through my 2x and 3x Great Grandparents. The match for 3rd cousin has a larger number of shared cM than the 4th cousin matches, at 45.56, with the longest block being 19.41. Based on FTDNA's explanation, this looks like a very good match. I didn't recognize any of the surnames listed for this match, but it doesn't look like that many are listed.

I went ahead and emailed all of my matches (the five "close relatives" as well as the more distant "speculative" ones). I sent them a prepared letter listing my surnames, website and contact information. I was shocked by the almost instant response I received. Within a few hours I had received emails from all of my close matches and a few speculative matches. So far, there haven't been any instant connections, which I also found surprising. This test is supposed to find matches within six generations - which I have almost fully charted. But with no obvious ancestor found yet, the shared ancestor is obviously more ancient than that. My matches and I are all exchanging pedigree files to look for a more hidden connection.

And, although we're not matching names, we are matching geographic locations. Three of my close matches have family in many of the same locations as mine. We might be able to focus on researching certain lines where both of our trees show up at the same place and time.

Based on comments from others, I should continue to make matches as other folks receive their test results. I'd love be able to make an easy match - instant gratification and all that. But, these difficult to make matches will probably help my research more than an easy match. Fingers cross either way!

Family Finder Results Are In

     For the past few days I've been keeping an eye on my FamilyTreeDNA account. My Family Finder test results weren't due until May 17th, but others in my batch had started to receive results. And today I received mine. In this post, I'm going to post screenshots of what my results look like.

     While waiting for these results to come in, I've been keeping an eye on DNA-Forums. This is a great message board site filled with really knowledgeable folks who can help other less knowledgeable folks (me!).

     So, what about my results? Here's a screen shot of what I first saw (first names obscured for privacy reasons). I had five "close and immediate" matches. I was very happy with this, given how short a time period this test has been available. You can see the name of the tester, the projected relationship, a two different dna numbers, the ability to assign them a relationship, and their ancestral surnames (in bold if they match mine). If I change the pull down menu, I can see a variety of other more distant matches or sort the matches seen here. Not all of those options are working for me right now.





     Here's a view that I can use to compare Chromosome markers. I can view three matches at a time to compare. The colors on the chart match my test results. I did have to change the pull down menu to 1+ cM to see a more "colorful" chart than what the default view shows. When you hover over a marker, you see more information on that particular match.





     I'm still trying to figure of the science behind all of this. In my next post, I'll detail what actions I've started to take with my results.