DNA Matches: How to Determine Paternal or Maternal Lines | Genetic Genealogy

[@mariacapaldi5062]

Thanks Andy!

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

You're on a binge!

[@StarJada]

I have been needing this for along time specifically because my parents aren't with me.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

This will give you the principles you need to understand. In 2022, we're going to be more specific. I hope that sounds good.

[@StarJada]

@@FamilyHistoryFanatics this wasnt helpful at all I want to just click a button where your company slips the 2 people information and zap done! Your site is already SO DIFFICULT to manage the only reason im on it is to connect with people I dont know.

[@PaulJHawkinsJr]

That would be great but that's something you want the testing company to do. They can't do everything that everyone wants them to do. Initially, after watching the match cluster videos, I started with 1st cousins in my mom's match list while I await my results. Doing so I was able to break everyone down into 2 grandparent groups. She only had 2 first cousins who have done the test so far. Both were on the same side but it still worked to group everyone into 2 groups. Second cousins matches clustering will break your whole match list into 4 groups, third cousins clustering breaks everyone down into 8 groups. Just beware, I have seen several occasions where some 3rd cousins on my mothers mothers side did not appear on her sibling's list as they should have on that particular line. They should have matched on her mothers side, as her brother shares with 0/2 of her first cousins, and therefore only share matches on her mothers side (I.e. half sibling). Good luck in your research.

[@StarJada]

@@PaulJHawkinsJr The point is your know those people and I don't. There site isn't user friendly to begin with. And I want something that specifies the origins to each parent. That way im not contacting people & saying hi I'm your father secret child.

[@PaulJHawkinsJr]

@@StarJada am I understanding that there's not a single person on your match list? Edit: message sent before I finished. I mean nobody you know on your match list at all? I've been testing different methods because I may possibly run into a situation where I only know for certain one of my dads 4 grandparents. The other 3 I was raised knowing may not even be the right people and a mother who may possibly be a sister to the mother. Would love to chat more and bounce ideas off one another.

[@Angel200929]

I’ve got matches that have some with both and some on the separately or can the be all, In Fife

[@olabaskerville]

My family was tested in 23andme. Next match after me and my sister in my mom’s dna-relative list has surname very familiar for me. And some of next others too. I saw these surnames in church records when I looked for my maternal grandfather’s ancestors. So they are from my mom’s paternal side. Then I saw in their profiles matches in common. It was useful to divide my mom’s paternal side from maternal

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Thanks for sharing your discoveries. Keep up the good work.

[@diannemoore1123]

Both parents are deceased and not sure if father is really father. Don't communicate with siblings at all. Father's half sister took DNA test and we are not related.

[@StarJada]

This is pretty much my situation which means the mom is a liar & falsified the birth certificate.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Do you communicate with nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles , or cousins on father's side. Sometimes you have to work around those you don't communicate with.

[@diannemoore1123]

It's ok, I found out who my real Daddy is and I have 2 brothers, nieces and nephews. Thank God for miracles and thank Ancestry.

[@seahorse251]

Do I have to pay for ancestry website to really get anywhere with my genealogy search? Or should i just use or pay for a different site? I'm looking for my bio father.

[@darlenesye1609]

What about using maternal halpogroup (sp-23&me)?

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

That would only give you people on your matrilineal line (mother-mother-mother) not everyone on your maternal line.

[@darlenesye1609]

@@FamilyHistoryFanatics DUH!

[@tolin6438]

Before the "maternal and paternal side" feature I had matches that I believed were from my mother's side because the were from my mother's birth town, it happened that after the new feature separated them into maternal and paternal matches these people ended up on my father's side!!!! I don't know anyone from my dad's side that lived in that town...

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

There are lots of hobbies that people can't understand of others. Some people get enjoyment out of a multitude of different things.

[@GaryT1927]

Here is what I am trying to solve. I have done my DNA at AncestryDNA and my Y-DNA at Family Tree DNA. I Have a match with my Y-DNA which links me to my 5th great grandfather. I have traced my paternal line to my 3rd great grandfather using census, death and birth records, obituaries, etc. I have been unable to link my 3rd to my 5th great grandfather due to lack of records. I do have distant cousin matches that trace back to my 5th great grandfather and one of them has a significantly higher cM match with me than the others. How can I use these matches to make the connection from my 3rd to my 5th grandfather?

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

If you believe you have identified your 5th great-grandfather in one location but not another, then what you need to do is descendancy research. Begin with identifying all the children and grandchildren of the 5th great-grandfather through paper trail genealogy and DNA descendants. Then, compare your DNA to each of the children and grandchildren using WATO dnapainter.com/tools/probability to see if the probability that these relationships match. For those that aren't likely, ignore that line of descent. For those that are possible, keep working the WATO tool with common DNA matches from the 4th great-grandchild and the 5th great-grandparent.

[@dluders]

I like your tip about how males can check their X-Chromosome matches to determine who is on their Maternal side. It seems that FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) is the only one of the large DNA Testing companies that easily identifies X Matches; Ancestry, 23andMe, and MyHeritage don't. Is this correct?

[@dgsmith9969]

23andme does also.

[@ryarosh]

I have been doing research a long time, but I am trying to better understand the DNA part of things. Particularly on my husband’s side. He has done an AncestryDNA kit. Also, just recently sent off a FamilytreeDNA Y-DNA test and are awaiting results of it. I have uploaded DNA Matches to MyHeritage and can see where there are some matches on same segments, etc. Can you point me to where I would see the X-chromosome matches? Or is that something I wouldn’t have access to yet on him based on the initial test he completed, but should be able to see after his y-37 test comes back? Thanks in advance for any help.

[@rayclark6596]

Ancestry provides the X Chr in your download data when you upload over to GEDmatch or FTDNA.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

MyHeritage and Ancestry focus on autosomal DNA matching as that helps the most customers. 23andMe does offer the X-Chromosome information as DG Smith stated.

[@cooperjdcox49]

What would you look for if all you have is a Niece or nephew of my sister for comparison?

[@SusieOrSueOrSusan]

If your sister is a full sibling, your niece/nephew would be of no use. That would mean that the DNA they share with you is from both your parents ( their grandparents ). If your sister is a half sibling then it would help. If your sister is your mother's daughter, but not your father's for instance, you could look at your niece/nephew's shared matches and they'd be on your mother's side. Long story short, if your sibling is a full sibling then their children will not be of any help when it comes to this.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

nycsue has many valid points. I would then look for cousins on both sides of your family. See if they will test. They would help you if your aunts/uncles and parents are deceased.

[@pamo7541]

I am adopted and have separated my matches into 2 general groups of matches that don’t match each other. I don’t know which is maternal or paternal. One of my matches (my highest match) is a male, matching at 245cM. We match with an X chromosome. Would this possibly indicate my maternal side? Thanks in advance.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

A male matching on an X chromosome is not a guarantee of maternal line. It's his maternal line, because that's where he received his X-DNA, but not yours. I would take your DNA groups and begin building a family tree based on what your DNA matches provide and any records you can to support the identities of your common ancestors and the individuals between you and your DNA match. Eventually (and with luck), you'll come to people who could be your parents and often it becomes clear which line is the maternal and which is the paternal. The DNA won't necessarily help you figure it out unless you have a mother or father suddenly appear in a database. Congrats on getting this far. I wish you all the best.

[@pamo7541]

@@FamilyHistoryFanatics thank you for the great explanation. I am slowly building my tree based on my matches trees (which I verify with a paper trail) and have found our common ancestors, some at the 3rd or 4th generation. Unfortunately there are very large families of 12 to 18 children. Thank you for posting your educational videos, they have helped me. I have my DNA on Ancestry, My Heritage, Family Tree and Gedmatch. Hopefully I’ll get a higher match sometime..

[@badhairdaylady]

Dad's grandmother and mom's father are siblings, mom and dad are 1C1R. My matches are sometimes difficult but not impossible to figure out. I'm also dealing with extreme endogamy and pedigree collapse, I don't have a tree, it is a giant wreath! I have many matches who are related to me up to eight different ways! My one piece of advice to someone in a similar situation, do as much descendant research as you possibly can to tie those matches in! Don't just do your direct line! BTW I'm Canadian whose ancestors immigrated to Quebec, mostly from France.

[@PaulJHawkinsJr]

Hey cousin! Checking in from the Border Cities region. Check out the book on the French Families of the border cities regions if you haven't already - published back in the 70s I believe.

[@badhairdaylady]

@@PaulJHawkinsJr is there a title to the book you're referring to? The common surname for my parents is Ouellette.

[@PaulJHawkinsJr]

@@badhairdaylady let me google it I think I didn't have the exact name correct

[@PaulJHawkinsJr]

Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region, Revision, 1701-1936, Volume 1

[@badhairdaylady]

@@PaulJHawkinsJr my family are mostly in southeastern Ontario in Glengarry and Stormont counties.

[@jimboyd1277]

I had my dna done and attached to tree, is there any advantage in getting my mother to get her dna done too? I know who my father is. My mother's father is the unknown.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Yes. Test all your oldest living relatives, known and unknown. Genetic genealogy is based on seeing who is related to whom and by how much. So, having your mother (and father) tested can help you use so many DNA match filtering tools. So, yes, get her tested.

[@BloomByCC]

Just found out my “father,” isn’t… and I had a first cousin dna match on my paternal side… only one set of her grandparents had sons, only one son was alive and lived in the same city as my mom when I was conceived… he’s my doppelgänger… am I missing something though? Should I keep looking in case he’s an uncle? (He’s decreased)

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

I think you have enough to establish your case. If you want to become a channel member for one month, you can watch this video that has an analyisis simlar to what you're doing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6vJhmlqZsaCq9E The next thing would be to find DNA evidence that disproves a relationship through the other sons. Using the WATO tool can help in this regard. Check out this free video kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmevqYB-Zd-Ga5Y

[@jalenmiller2689]

I have a question so I did my dna through ancestry & 23&me I share the most dna with a guy I never met we share about 15% I assumed he’s from my mothers side so I separated all the people he doesn’t share dna with but I do…well the people he doesn’t share dna with share dna with me but when I look farther in and see the people they are related to he still pops up… it just makes me confused? How can I share dna with people who don’t share dna with him but the people they are related to do?

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

The first step is to understand where he might fit into your family tree. When you type the percentage into this tool, you'll find that the relationship can range from 2nd cousin to 8th cousin. (Here's the tool dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4) Knowing that the relationship could be as far out as 8th cousins, then the amount of DNA you share with him but he doesn't necessarily share DNA with your matches because you don't inherit all the DNA from your 3rd - 8th great-grandparents that your genealogical distant cousins receive. Thus, I would recommend having more known, close cousins take DNA tests and build a triangulation project of how everyone is related to everyone else.

[@KentPetersonmoney]

What would ancestry show for a half sibling who's also a 1st cousin? maybe they share a mom but their fathers are brothers.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

So a half sibling would have about 1700cM and a 1st cousin would have about 800cM. So, you would see something with around 2500cM total, probably only 2-300 cM of that would be fully matched. It would look different than a full sibling.

[@themilitanthousewife8021]

My half Brother has a different Father to mine.So does that mean all his X Matches are from Our Mother's Side. I see the DNA matches we share with his Daughter my half niece.I see they are from Our Mother's Side.But I have had seen the DNA matches my brother shares with an unknown half sister and there are Male DNA matches they share as they have the same Father who was unknown until 10 years ago to my brother. Confusing me too is with my Half Brother we share a DNA female 28cM which we share female and Male DNA cousins but one in particular Male Cousin I share opens to my third cousin on my Father's side! But my half brother doesn't share these matches but the matches I see are from this Third Cousin are relating to my Paternal Grandmother's Parents side! So I was thinking is my Half Brother a distant cousin of mine.As his Dad was Irish and mine is too.And ethnicity of us both is quite close.But I know some Ancestors emigrated to USA way back and some matches are in the USA.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

First, all males receive x-DNA from their maternal lines. So, your half-brother's xMatches are through his mother's line. Now, since his mother's line could intersect with your mother's line further back up your family tree, let's not tackle the x-DNA matches just yet. Instead, build out your family tree using genealogical records (which my wife teaches about and here's a great starter video kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKmVhZmcYrdgr6s) and autosomal DNA matches. Autosomal DNA is reliable to the 5th great-grandparents. Build out ALL of your lines. The do descendancy research on your 5th great-grandparents. (See this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/pV7IqIiAjtqUZqc) By so doing, you should be able to link to your known cousin matches and your half-brother. You MAY discover that your matches (and your half-brother) are related to you in multiple ways through autosomal DNA. Once you have done this step, then you can tackle your xDNA matches. It's possible that the maternal intersections happened within the autosomal DNA provable generations. It might have happened further back. Also, pay little attention to ethnicity results. They really are distracting for family tree building.

[@mattpotter8725]

If you have anyone (relatively close) who is a half sibling then you could use the shared matches to identify some DNA matches that come from their side of the family. A non match didn't necessarily mean it's not on that side because it may be so distant a match that either you or they just didn't happen to get that bit of DNA and so the shared match doesn't match both of you, especially if they are younger than you are and thus will automatically be less likely to receive as much DNA from the common ancestor due to at each generation you get 50% of your DNA from your mother and 50% from your father, but it's a start. If you find a grandparent or even great grandparent where this happened if can be extremely useful in working out which branch the match comes from. I've found this helps where the family tree of the shared match has no surnames of locations on it that look promising, or is incomplete near the point you could link their tree to yours.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Thanks for sharing your thought process. Well done.

[@Jay123hollis]

It can especially be difficult when you are related to some families on both sides up your family on your mom's side and your dad's side like I am related to the Bass family from Virginia of the Nansemond Indian tribe on my grandfather's side of the family on my dad's side and my grandfather's side of the family on my mom's side. And also there used to be a lot of cousin marriages in Indian tribes and also cousin marriage in general so good portion of America are distant cousins.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

You might be looking at endogamy!

[@THECABSOURHERE]

Yes endgamous community

[@alanheadrick7997]

I also tried to use the Haplogroup, but no other matches share the same group. I looked for any last name matches, only found one very distant. I exchanged emails with a 3rd cousin and thought we figured out the fathers side but I am not sure now. I ran across Ancestry Composition tab that showed the top places in Japan her DNA matched. 1 Hiroshima, 2,. Miyagi and 3, Okinawa. Her family lives in Aomori and a lot of her cousins are from there too. So I am rethinking what must have happened. I suspect around the time of WW2 there must have been a lot of internal migration in Japan. So maybe her family moved from somewhere else.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

That would be a good explanation.

[@christinablanck7486]

"X matches for a man are on his maternal side" - yes, but don't forget that matching segments on the other chromosomes may very well come from another ancestor than the X! You could have a small and very old matching segment on X, where you'll never find the connection - and be related on your dad's side on the other chromosomes. Just don't take for granted that all segments are maternal just because there is an X match.

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

That is a possibility. If you are only looking at 15cM and larger X matches, that possibility is greatly diminished.

[@kidsmoked]

I wish I could separate out my maternal mansions from my paternal mansions. #cc

[@STICKITINYOUREAR]

Why does step 3 not work for women ? I am a female and I have females who are shared matches who do NOT share an X chromosome with me . Doesn't that mean that they are on my fathers side of the family ? I also have shared matches who are males, who do not share an x chromosome with me. Doesn't that mean they are also on my fathers side of the family ?

[@FamilyHistoryFanatics]

Lets take the example of a brother and a sister. The brother only received an X chromosome from his mother and she gave him her paternal X unrecombined. The sister received and X from the father and an X from the mother who gave her her maternal X unrecombined. When comparing these two siblings (with the same mother) there would be no match on the X chromosome. So, a no match doesn't rule out a relationship on the X chromosome.