Yesterday I was notified that I had matches at My Heritage. And so I did- 473 at this time. Many of them are said to be 3rd cousins..
A very respected blogger has an excellent blog at ISOGG today where she says she is having difficulty finding most of her matches at the 3 main testing sites.
Nor am I finding mine and many are said to be 3rd cousin or 3C1x removed..Not at FTDNA,23andme,AncestryDNA or even Gedmatch.
I suspect their imputing needs work. They had this to say on their blog: "MyHeritage has created and refined the capability to read the DNA data files that you can export from all main vendors and bring them to the same common ground, a process that is called imputation. Thanks to this capability — which is accomplished with very high accuracy "
The matches remind me of what I have found at DNA Land. although I have only 4 there.
I will qualify this to say that I have purposefully made my tree at their site as less than 250 to keep it free.. so I cannot contact anyone but I CAN see their trees and their names.. and I am not finding them..
Importantly for my DNA and Genetic research into my family..( it's a rainy day so no outside work) is the fact that each of us unless we are twins receive 50% of our genome from our parents but NOT the same 50%..
Here is my sister Carol Bodofsky and me genetically from a start up but scientifically valid place..DNAland..frequesnted by all the experts
This is why I am testing sister at AncestryDNA where they are going towards 3 million testers. We will have about 20 % different 4th cousins.. a lot!
Thank you, Sister Carol Bodofsky
Also this is why "we" ( Genetic Genealogists) all struggle with the idiosyncrasies of the 3 major testing companies and utilize Gedmatch and hang out at the same places..
Back to these pictures.. Sister and I share a whopping 50.4% of our genome with each other..same two parents..full siblings.. and so on..
The difference is that our grandparent share is different.. so what our parents got from THEIR parents is different.
That of course is why we also, when possible share with first and second cousins.. they got some different genome pieces from their parents..
Children and grandchildren confirm the inheritance from grandparents.. I have tested 3 of them and get 22.9%, 23.1% and 17.1 %.. quite different..I was astonished but that was early in autosomal testing.. Sister and I were said to share only 15 and 17% from our Norway grandfather ..Norway apparently is a "crapshoot"..
Our grandparent was born in Saami territory north of the Arctic Circle on the border with Russia and Finland.
It's all exciting to me.. Guess that shows..
My DNA only public Family Tree
AncestryDNA requires a family tree for any success, a reason that I was dragged kicking and screaming to test there. As they pass 1.5 million testers I know that I was wrong in that - but AncestryDNA still has a downside. The downside is that there is no chromosome browser so what segment you inherited from a common ancestor cannot be checked. Presumably that is their own internal "control issue" so that there is less criticism of their matching.
They also came out with a "New " Ancestry genealogy software.. another thing that many of us "old timers" at DNA testing objected to. The visuals were disturbing but OH!! They were correct about the matching being state of the art!
So this month they came out with a NEW visual change which allows one to choose the color background for trees. Great job, Ancestry! I chose plum after looking them over carefully.
Here it is:
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2016/03/01/ancestry-product-update-tree-color-preferences/
About the Tree..Yes it is really necessary..What I have done in the interest of some privacy of records is to make an "Ancestry ONLY Tree" which of course is public. Other trees I have and working trees are still PRIVATE and invitation only.
I do not have my children and their relationships in this tree..It goes out 6-7 generations and I only add collateral relatives ( siblings, aunts, cousins) when DNA matches have indicated I should.
My 2016 Brick Walls
I have been working on brick walls in my line this week and will continue to do so. Another researcher has blogged about hers- what a good idea!
With all DNA tests I have about 5586 cousin matches at the three main sites. That does NOT include matches that my sister and first and second cousins have that I did not inherit. Wow a lot of folks! So why do I have a brick wall?
Charles Swanson is my 3rd great grandfather. That information was not known in my family when I began working on my genealogy 13 years ago. The family tale was that we were the "Colonial Swedes" Swanson line- like Gloria Dei Church? Swanson Street? See that picture up there?
Well what I found was an Andrew Swanson and a Charles Swanson living in Philadelphia in Southwark by the early 1800s. Charles Swanson was a river pilot and called "Captain" who died on his vessel in August 1849 of cholera. At that time my John Swanson was living in Beverly NJ as were two other men, Edward and William Swanson.
Were they all related? No one at that time really knew. The widow of Captain Swanson, Letitia, maiden name unknown, was living in Southwark with three daughters, a son in law and two grandchildren. Two other sons were living in Philadelphia.
Andrew Swanson, who likely is brother to Charles, is a merchant with one daughter. Charles Swanson names a son Andrew and both are from Sweden. Andrew, born in Goteborg Sweden, interestingly enough, was impressed off a British ship which explains how he got to US. This: " Peter Coleman and Andrew Swanson, both Swedes, were impressed at Port Royal, Jamaica, on the 8th September 1796 from on board the Brigantine Betsey, by his Britannic Majesties ship Alfred . Samuel Holt of Philadelphia was Captain of Betsy and was affiliated with Old Swedes Church"
For sure I know now, that Charles and Andrew are related, as between my first and second cousins, myself and my sister, we have about 15 DNA 4th and 5th cousin matches with descendants of an older brother of John Swanson and also a younger sister. Proof!
The problem is this: What was Letitia Swanson's maiden name? Do any of these DNA matches come from her line wherever that is from? Her older and younger sons sometimes say she is from Sweden and sometimes say that she is from New Jersey but speaks Swedish. The "Colonial Swedes" idea again.
Was she from an early Swedish family? A Swedish researcher has indicated to me that it is quite likely as this was very early for Swedish emigration. Our family is NOT the original Swansons who settle in the Valley.
I need help. Who is Letitia? These names come up on DNA matches whose family is in Burlington County or Gloucester County NJ: Matlack, Holt, Horton, Dalbow, Mattson, Engle.
Any thoughts? Please let me know.
