DNA Mystery Matches? Simple Steps to Identifying Them | RootsTech 2022

Join me as I talk about how to identify a DNA match, or how to find an ancestor using your DNA.
Use your DNA match list to identify deceased ancestors and build your family tree! Try this advanced genetic genealogy strategy for finding matches who descend from your mystery ancestors.
Some of the links we talked about were:
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[@cababyboomerq6012]

Hi. I took 3 of your courses and am currently in your “study group”. Last week I made the big break through I have been working towards! I am looking for a 3x great grand parent. And YOUR courses gave me the skills and patience to do it. I now have my “mystery” line in my sight and have begun to identify branch points. Every serious genealogist should take your DNA skills course and any of the others they feel they need. I took the Y DNA and Endogamy courses. Now I feel I am loaded for bear!……8-). Thanks so much to Diahan and her entire crew.

[@vancraven7688]

You are so good at teaching this material. I’m a retired music teacher and this reminds me of music theory. Once you get it it’s very helpful but does take a minute to figure it out.

[@YourDNAGuide]

Oh thank you for saying so!

[@suevize6853]

I agree with the estimates given 300 and 450 is how you “valued it”

[@mariaadler4060]

Do you have a special discount code for your book? This was a wonderful video, thank you.

[@YourDNAGuide]

Unfortunately, not at this time. Another option is the ebook, it is $16.99. www.yourdnaguide.com/your-dna-guide-the-book

[@TheDunklebob]

We are looking for a presenter on basic DNA testing in late March. Are you in New England?

[@YourDNAGuide]

You can inquire after my speaking options at events @ yourDNAguide.com

[@losmoneyful]

I've started working on filtering my family tree so I can see one specific line. However, I'm confused. I put all the shared matches for Watson/Manning in one color, but I'm still left over with someone farther back on the Manning line. Also, this same Watson remarried, so I have half cousins on the Watson line. Do I put them in his parents color, since that's the last couple that we would fully share DNA?

[@YourDNAGuide]

Great questions. Because not all DNA matches share with each other, using the Shared Matches tool on a couple of cousins just won't pull EVERYONE from your DNA match list who relates to that line. And that's ok. It sounds like you have identified them, so go ahead and add them to your Watson+Manning group. Half cousins are a gold mine! All those who are related to just the Watson should get the label for the next generation above (so Watson+whoever) as that is your shared common ancestral couple with them.

[@kidsmoked]

Diahan, can you please tell me why FamilySearch RootsTech 2023 removed your video 'Shared Matches - the Only DNA Tool You'll Ever Need?'? I solved a 35 year mystery with the information you presented in this video so I'm upset I can't re-access this to move on to my next brick wall (or send it to people). Can you help please? Thank you. Kg And thank you! I'm so grateful to find me GG grandfather's parents. Unfortunately I can't post the video that helped me.

[@kidsmoked]

I see, you talk about it at 16 minutes here. Thank you. I still want that Rootstech 2023 video back though!

[@YourDNAGuide]

@@kidsmoked It is part of the agreement I had with RootsTech that it would be removed after 3 months. From here you can try my book to help guide you along those same steps www.yourDNAguide.com/thebook or if you really want to solidify the steps and break down more brick walls, you could take my DNA Skills Workshop www.yourDNAguide.com/theacademy.

[@johnross8939]

Hello, I've viewed this video and your Roots Tech 2023 video "Shared DNA Matches, the only tool you'll ever need". I am trying to prove parentage of my 2G grandparents, Alexander A Ross, and his 2nd wife, Joycia Manly. Alexander appears in the 1860 census of Laurens County SC with his 1st wife and firstborn son. He remarried around 1866 because he fathered a son by Joyce Manly, who was born in 1867. My great-grandfather was born in 1869. I haven't located Alexander in 1850. I found Joyce Manly in the 1850 and 1860 census of Laurens County SC. She's with her brothers, and an older woman named Sarah Manly. I am not positive Sarah is Joyce's mother. But, she might be... My Ancestry account manages autosomal DNA tests for nine persons. Of those nine, three are my paternal aunts, all full siblings. Also in the account is the atDNA results for their, and my father's, 2nd cousin. His paternal grandfather, and my father's paternal grandfather are full siblings. Therefore, using the shared matches list of my three paternal aunts (each separately) and their paternal 2nd cousin will give me a list of cousins descended from my 2G grandparents. Won't it also provide 3rd cousins who're descended from the parents of my Ross-Manly 2G grandparents? I have identified a match descended from one of Joyce Manly's brothers. I'm thinking shared matches between her, and each of my paternal aunts plus their 2nd cousin would give me a list of cousins descended from my Manly 3G grandparents. Am I on the correct line of reasoning? Thanks!

[@YourDNAGuide]

YESS! Excellent work!! Remember that each time you use the Shared Matches tool you gather his, hers, and theirs. So yes, you have gathered the right people in the initial network. Now it is time to do what I call "split" your network. And you do it just as you suggested. Find a 3rd cousin who is a Ross-Many descendant to use Shared Matches on and that will split your network and give you the Leftovers (as I call them) that you need. KEEP GOING!! You are doing so well.

[@amysyfan5711]

How do you find matches from a birth mother and her other children from another marriage?

[@YourDNAGuide]

If you take a DNA test at the same company the birth mother's child took a DNA test, they should match you as a Half Sibling. About 1600 cM - and would be very near the top of your DNA match list.

[@secondhandrose6214]

Since your ebook is full of 🔗 🔗 is it updated to June 2023?

[@YourDNAGuide]

Most of the links in the ebook are internal to other parts of the book. The few that are external are to our website that we try to keep up-to-date.

[@KennethFunk]

Holy biscuits! I would really like to know who thought up some of that pricing. $300+ per hours for recorded lectures, $450 an hour for coaching, $150 an hour for Q&A sessions..highly over inflating the value of something, just so you can mark it down to 1/6 of the over inflated value, it just is not a good thing.

[@YourDNAGuide]

Holy biscuits is right! Where did you see that kind of pricing?! That's crazy town. You can see our actual coaching prices here: www.yourDNAguide.com/thementor.

[@smallhouseinthemeadow6131]

​ @YourDNAGuide My closest match is 1862 cm and 27% , with the longest segment of 180 cm on the paternal side. Does this mean that the woman is my half sister? I just found out that the man who I thought was my father for over 60 years is not.. (Me and my supposed half brother took an ancestory test and did not match.This woman I close match with had two brothers and a father who all had a baby girl in the same year period that I was born. So my mother slept with the brothers or the father. She is staying mumon the subject(pun intended).

[@YourDNAGuide]

Looking at DNA Painter you could probably cross off grandparent and grandchild. However, while half sibling could be very possible there are other possibilities. You are solidly in the right family, can you test any children of the brothers? Doing genealogy have you traced where all those baby girls ended up from those men? Half Sibling is likely if Ancestry says Paternal and not Both Sides. However, this creates a very sensitive situation. Before making contact with anyone, I recommend closely analyzing all matches in the shared matches group to see what relationships are supported with them. As I said, there is always more than one possibility - like possible multiple relationships to a 1C. Transferring or testing to other companies could reveal more key matches. And a coaching call to review theories would be a good double check. www.yourdnaguide.com/coach You may want to consider joining a support group for herself after discovering her NPE we have a blogpost with a link to one on Facebook called NPE Friends. www.yourdnaguide.com/support-resources

[@karenanderson7873]

Rather depends on having 1st cousins pop up as DNA matches. I have one 2/3rd unknown, as my suspected grandfather has an unknown father, as does my known grandmother. We know he's on mother's side as he also matches my half sister, but obviously the generation in his tree has 8-16 different names. Every name comes up multiple times in my surname search, many of them then on both my mother and father's sides. And no, they weren't related. Honestly, it's like wading through treacle....

[@YourDNAGuide]

It's all about using the Shared Matches tool to separate those DNA matches into groups. When done methodically, you will know which matches are related to which branch of the family, regardless of surname. I do walk you through that process in my book. www.yourDNAguide.com/thebook.

[@karenanderson7873]

@@YourDNAGuide Ah yes, thank you, but I can get that far...matches with sister, therefore mother, but not maternal grandmother's line, also matches with one other so likelihood of them being the suspected grandfathers family. one of those matches has THOUSANDS of names going back hundreds of years (I'd love to know how they do that with certainty) and the other has just a couple of dozen. I've tried expanding his tree but in doing so it goes back too far for the cM level, so I must be staring in the face of the name I need! I've resigned myself to the fact I simply have to wait for another close match for the ah-ha! moment. Similar situation for same grandmother's father....no matches whatsoever to the bloke she called Dad, and just one erroneous 2nd cousin....Irish ancestry. Need I say more!!

[@broughps]

How will breaking down shared matches work when the first child in each known generation of a particular line is the only child of only one of the parents? Example my mom's paternal paternal line - Nettie Poole (oldest child) > Alexander Poole/Almira Warren (her supposed parents). Alexander Poole/Daniel Bowman (Daniel abandoned his first family to run away with Almira and changed his name). Daniel Bowman (oldest child) > William Bowman/Polly Chaffee (Daniel's supposed parents). Through DNA on Ancestry my mom (her DNA has over 100 matches to Daniel Bowman, his siblings and uncles (there are other facts too) so I'm pretty confident in the Bowman line. Now comes the challenges Nettie Poole DOES NOT match any Bowman cousins so that leads me to believe she was not Alexander/Daniel's daughter, just Almira's. I don't know if Almira changed her name too so looking for a Warren family line may be moot. Polly Chaffee had a child with her first husband. None of the Bowman or Poole cousins descended from Alexander/Daniel has matches to those Chaffee cousins which leads me to believe that Polly Chaffee was NOT Alexander/Daniel's mother. Some of the difficulty comes from differing generations between the Poole and Bowman descendants. Where as my mom is the great-granddaughter of Alexander/Daniel, Bowman descendants of the same age may be a two generations down, not not second cousins, but 2c2r. Not sure how that comes into play. How much more complicated is breaking down the shared matches going to be when there isn't the "normal" split of family lines? Not willing to give up my Ancestry dots yet. 🙂 I have started eliminating them on MH to put your shared DNA matches program into practice.

[@YourDNAGuide]

As you have explained so well, IT'S COMPLICATED! This isn't a question I can answer in a couple of sentences under a KZbin Video. This is something that my book can help with (www.yourDNAguide.com/thebook), or ultimately, my DNA Skills Workshop (www.yourDNAguide.com/theacademy).

[@BonnieDragonKat]

I have a mystery match that ancestry insist is on my mom's side, but if you look at her match list and my match list the matches are on both sides of the family. Also we believe that the name that she's using on ancestry is a pseudonym and she has no tree. For reference this person shares almost 2,000 CM Morgans of DNA with me. I know it's not a great grandparent because all of my great grandparents passed before I did DNA and none of them tested. So if anything it's a first cousin or a first cousin wants removed but without any other information it's very hard to figure out where she goes. As to her matching both sides the reason is my first cousin on my paternal side is also my step grandfather. Yeah he married my internal grandmother. She was married five times in total. So that technically makes my mother and my father step second cousins or half second cousins whatever you want to call them. So yes I have matches on both sides of my family simply because of that fact. It also doesn't help that I was adopted so I'd say about 95 to 99% of this tree is outright strangers to me. I know some people maybe about 5% of my tree because my biological mother either took the time to introduce them to me or I met them when I spent time with her full biological sister in California.

[@websurfer352]

A really close relative submitted her DNA to one of those companies twice and twice the report came back undetermined!! What exactly does undetermined mean?? Can they at least determine if she’s human??

[@YourDNAGuide]

I've never heard of "undetermined." But, there is a category of "unassigned" at Ancestry, and that means that the match is neither assigned as maternal or paternal or both, but could be recategorized at any time.

[@cjoseygirl70]

Maybe that means her test sample wasn't good and she needs to try again.

[@websurfer352]

She submitted it twice and twice it was undetermined

[@williamharris1429]

My father had a son with my mothers brother’s wife, my brother has passed away and I want to prove that he was my half brother. I have two nephews that I would love to get to know.

[@YourDNAGuide]

If one of the nephews decides to test, then you could show that they are your half nephews. But if you are the one asking them to test, just be sure that they understand what you are asking the DNA to confirm. Remember that you are trying to distinguish between them as your first cousins once removed and your half nephews.

[@1106gary]

Trying to identify my biological father. ( I am 82.) On 23 & me I have 3 people each with about a 10% dna match to me on my paternal side. 2 of them are a man and his known niece. This man had 2 uncles both dead without known issue. The third close match to me is an unknown 3rd cousin to them. Each of these men has different Y haploid from me. How close am I to my goal?

[@YourDNAGuide]

You are on the right track by taking a test at 23andMe....we recommend that anyone looking for a bio dad who is male completes a YDNA test with FamilyTreeDNA (Y37 is fine to start) and anyone looking for a bio parent makes sure their DNA is in every autosomal DNA database, which means testing at AncestryDNA (the largest database), and transferring or testing at MyHeritage for sure, FamilyTreeDNA, and potentially LivingDNA. Since you are older, remember that most of the testers in the database will be one or two or perhaps even three generations younger than you so you will need to look closely for similar surnames 1-3 generations back in their family trees. I also recommend one of our coaching sessions. You have great matches here and I'm sure a coach could help you get to the bottom of it fairly quickly given the size of the matches. www.yourdnaguide.com/coach

[@BarbaraGossAuthor]

My DNA says I'm 40% Italian but I have all my branches done and there is not one Italian. ????

[@YourDNAGuide]

Sometimes the location listed represents places that we won't find in our family history for several generations. But sometimes it is trying to tell us something about our family tree. If you have any matches in the top part of your DNA match list that you do not recognize, it's time to dive into your relationship with them to see what you can learn.

[@Mistydazzle]

Ancestry is bad about not showing you all shared matches to your match. Frustratingly, it leaves out some significant common matches, like a close relative to that match! MyHeritage is much better, showing all shared matches & allowing you to sort those by either how close the matches ate to you, or to the match in question.

[@EmeraldD523]

11.07 guys face appeared top right corner

[@YourDNAGuide]

I am not sure I fully understand your question. Are you referring to like minute 11:09 in the video?

[@EmeraldD523]

@@YourDNAGuide yes

[@YourDNAGuide]

@@EmeraldD523 crossover is a specific kind of genetic inheritance. In this video I am just talking about using the Shared Matches tool to help you see which branch of your family a Mystery Match might be related to.

[@EmeraldD523]

@@YourDNAGuide hi I meant to say top right corner a guys face appeared.

[@YourDNAGuide]

@@EmeraldD523 oooohhh!! This was a live recorded call. So somehow that guy got the spotlight for a few minutes.

[@martnal]

Diahan , this isn't one of your best ones. There is far too much selling of your book. I had to stop after 20 minutes.

[@YourDNAGuide]

Thanks for providing your feedback, Martin. This was actually part of the online Vendor area at RootsTech - so the purpose was to let people know what was available to help through our company - so that's why it felt a little different.