centimorgans - What are they and how do I use them?

[@harrykingsley2585]

You are the only person that I am trying to watch all your videos. You are that good. Thanks Larry.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thank you Harry, quite kind words, thank you.

[@kathrynfarmer3736]

Thanks so much Larry. Great video. DNA painter is fabulous

[@aspieatheist6040]

Thank you for explaining this. I was confused by this term, and this is the best explanation I could find.

[@ianbenford1998]

Thank you Larry, that was so helpful. I live in England and have been tracing my tree for decades. Now getting into DNA tracing and it feels like a game changer.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

it is certainly a game changer! im going to release a video of the 8 must watch videos in channel this one is #1 to start, next is the 4 part clustering series. :) good luck in your research!

[@courtneywalcott513]

@@DNAFamilyTrees my sister done her dna test with My Heritage we are black and our parents are Jamaican. According to the matches I have quite a few white cousins with no logical explanation. Can you explain?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

@@courtneywalcott513 without seeing your DNA list i could not even guess. But if your DNA related to them via the Test you ARE indeed related to them. Question is, where/how. To do this i recommend the playlist in channel, finding your bio family The smaller the CMS match the farther the shared ancestor is, the higher the number the closer they are. The livestream video in channel about "ball and pattern: method will give you the fastest method to "estimate" where your Shared ancestor (MRCA = Most Recent Common Ancestor). Good Luck in your research!

[@AkSonya1010]

Thank you, I help people all the time find out who they are with DNA. I have understood how important and tricky CM are but people get so frustrated when I they don't understand it and I get asked all the time to explain it better. This is a wonderful clear and incredibly easy way to understand, I am going to forward this to everyone that I have been helping. I am loving your videos, I don't think you are going to have any problems getting someone to sponsor you.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

thank you for the kind words Sonya, let me know if there are any topics that would help you help others. Thanks again.

[@karenhooper5197]

Thanks Larry. Great explanation. Will go back and make greater use of the DNA matches.

[@FunAfter52]

Thanks. I know I'm late to the game and there may be more updated videos, but this helps. I'm 59 and just learned that I'm not my dad's son. I was contacted from the new family inquiring who I am and we are trying to figure out where I fit in. Thankfully, they've taken lots of dna test so I have at least 20+ people between 250 cM and 1450 cM. It's a big family, but I'm trying to narrow down who I belong to.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

SO SORRY not to get this sooner! if you havent found already email me at [e-mail]. the 1450 is golden. Look at the persons age, if 20yrs older, they are aunt/uncle, if 20yrs younger, niece/nephew and if same age, its possible its a half sibling.

[@beaconshine3480]

Thank you for opening doors of understanding

[@advancedloiterer1820]

Great video, Larry. Yes, we have had 2C1R's at low cMs with their children at 8cM. It reminds us that DNA is not shared evenly and that unique combination gives us our individuality.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

you may have more that dont show up, beyond 2C (3c or 2c1r) it varies from 0 and up!

[@JKNancy09]

Thanks for the video, it helped me understand a little better about centimorgans. I agree about the 'broken' trees. It helps to have done the paper research first before diving into the DNA side of it.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

+JKNancy09 good luck ! Once you understand centimorgans the rest starts falling into place!

[@stefaniekelley5365]

Very good and helpful!! I finally understand what it means! Thank you!

[@josephmayer1969]

Thanks Larry. I wasn't using the shared cM tool. I was using a cM chart manually. This is so much easier! And another thing, on 23 and me they don't list cMs, only percentage? So I have to figure out the equivalent cM value to make sense of it? I see the shared cM tool has a "show %" that can convert the cM you type in, to percentage, if you click on it. How neat. Better yet, if you only know the percentage, click on "show %" and enter the percentage. The equivalent cMs will be calculated for you! It's Christmas in June!

[@cheriblack927]

23 and does show, but you have to click on "view DNA details". On the page with the chromosomes , it shows the centimorgens. Then you can plug the amounts into the painter tool without converting from %.

[@josephmayer1969]

@@cheriblack927 They do now, but only for those that share. Not all do. You can also get a rough cM value by multiplying the % by 74.

[@cheriblack927]

@@josephmayer1969 Good to know. Thanks.

[@thelion9489]

Helped me a lot lovely cheers.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Glad it helped

[@AmandaMGarraway]

Best explanation for me to understand! Thankyou!

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thank you Amanda! I appreciate the comment

[@stephaniejames4940]

I wish for more of an explanation when it comes to half relationships. That's where I have a difficult time figuring out how they fit with the varying cms?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

i just released a new video today with a tool i hope makes it easy, however the best video for explanation is the "LIVESTREAM" video in channel (ive done only 1 of those so no mistaking which it is.) That video combined with todays will help you in that immensely (and a free tool to use that also helps!) www.dnafamilytrees.com/bp/indexV8.html

[@stephaniejames4940]

@@DNAFamilyTreesThank you. I will review everything you provided.

[@jaberjaw1]

This video really helped me. Thank-you.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thank you for taking the time to let me know Grandma!

[@jtchaos1]

This was very helpful

[@Mrs.Forensics74]

I am so glad I found this video. I have been researching who my husband's biological father possibly could be and through DNA I found a cousin that shares 545 CM to which I figured this must mean she was his 1st cousin once removed...but now I think I may be wrong and that based off of her age compared to my husband's age, she may in fact actually be his half-aunt! This would make sense given she is 16 years older than he and she has 4 older half-brothers. If this is true, then there is a possibility that his father may actually still be alive as one of the men is still alive! Thank you so much for pointing out all the way's that CM's can actually work!

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

I look forward to hearing what you find out! (just looking at the number only - I would guess Half 1C, full 1C1R, Half GREAT aunt/uncle or half aunt/uncle. while the half great aunt/uncle seems to far away to be a sibling of a grandparent, I had a situation where thomas siler was born 1899 with first children 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920. the oldest had their first children at age 20 (1937) and my mother was born in 1943 so her niece was actually 6yrs older than her, in fact she had 3 nieces and nephews older and a great nephew only 10yrs younger. So at 16yrs, i wouldn't say likely but i wouldn't discount it either, not until i had paper trail with birth-dates from Census reports. You might look at the color coding video, verifying tree video and how to find your biological family video. I think those three would help alot in figuring it out. Again, please let us know what you find! Good Luck! (and if you ever need another eye on things, email me and ill take a look)

[@Ukeepthelies8471]

This helps. I didn't know what centimorgans were.

[@clarkbilgrav]

What a great tool, thanks!

[@larryjones2007]

Thank you!

[@stevepearson4522]

Thanks Larry. Very helpful

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

The current series (about to release 3 of 4 parts) will help too. part 4 will go over centimorgans in practical usage.

[@phyllislawtoncosentino3820]

Larry, Good video, thanks! I think that spending a minute discussing recombination would help explain the variants in centiMorgan results.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Phyllis, great idea and with more people dealing with thrulines connecting to those distant results they should be aware that while they stitched together a result in one branch in a certain way, that same person may also connect on the other side of the tree :)

[@tiatistimaren]

Love your videos and want to donate. The QR isn't working for me. Do you have a Venmo or Zelle? or your PayPal contact that I can use on my laptop instead of my phone? Thanks!

[@tiatistimaren]

Never mind. Found it.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thank you very much!

[@enriquelandaf]

The First thing you need to understand 0:38 What is a Centimorgans cM 1:37

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Or most importantly that it is a measure of genetic distance The larger the number the closer The smaller the farther away the kinship ( couple videos in channel on it) Most importantly though is knowing it’s a distance measurement and then use that number in tools to estimate the distance based in various factors

[@LisaMariePomMom]

Hi there, I apologize if this is a double post computer glitchy today! Do you have a playlist or recommended watch order for someone just joining? I have an Ancestry and 23andme account and DNA results for each. I am trying to determine my bio father with zero information as I am adopted. I do know my bio mother however she would never tell me anything about my father. My match information is very confusing and has been leading me around in circles for months now. I don't have any matches closer than 2's (335cm) and those matches represent so many potential GG's that it's been impossible to start narrowing a hypothesis. Ancestry and 23andme don't even agree and are calling the same person a 2 and a 2C1R. Pedigree collapse? I have no idea. It's a puzzle for sure. Anyhow, if you could point me in the right direction, I feel like I jumped in without a life jacket. Love your content. Thank you.

[@thelion9489]

Thank you very much Sir. I have shred cM 120 with one of my match and we have story saying that we belong to the same great grandfather who born in 1850. Any advice on this please?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

have to build out micro trees with what you know and what you find from others until the point you can merge them into a single tree. When i had my dna surprise i had 4 micro trees (3 that i worked pretty hard on a month each) then one day working on another it clicked how they all fit, i merged them all into one unified tree and then i was able to work down to locate my father.

[@alouball4758]

Fantastic video.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thank you very much!

[@MommaKaren2]

Hi, Larry! Thank you so much for these videos, I have watched them several times. 😂 If I have 186 cM match, do I use 212 or 106? That’s the part that stumps me.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

well both, but i believe the 106 is most likely to be the one for the MRCA with potential multi path. But it is also just as possible its a weaker passed along line. short explanation which i hope others read too: you get EXACTLY 50% from mom and EXACTLY 50% from your dad. EAch of them did as well. now this makes people think (and for estimations based on law of large numbers, that its in teh middle all they way back, but its not) Your mom passes you 50% of your dna. this is DNA she inherited for her parents in the same 50/50 split but you do NOT get 25/25/25/25 from your grandparents and here is why. When your mom passes you 50% she can give you anything from 0-50 from her mother and 50-0 from her father (i reversed those as the total always equals 50) So if your mom passed along to you 30 from her mother it would be 20 from her father to make the total of exactly 50 for you. Now since this is 0-50 from either its possible that you can have all from your mothers mother and NONE from your mothers father. The nearer you are the FAR less likely this is. The cutoff point on this change appears to be between 2C and 2C1R/3C (one more step away from 2C) Now your cms listed is 183 which is at that 2C1R point in the DNA. So if you have a parent or grandparent that had an exagerrated passage on one side or another of their lineage you could have a low 212, but you could equally have, due to the same exageration in reverse, a 106 that is understated. What i mean is that it is likely there is a disproportionate split along the path, so lets say for example 75/25 is the results (still from 50/50 passings but along that passing there was more from one parent than other passed along to make it appear 75/25. if your on teh 75 side youd be 212, if your on the 25 side youd be 106. so it could be Either! THAT SAID: It could ALSO be MULTIPATH, but in this case you would still have a 106 with "additional path" TBD. This is why i would start with 106 as it looks at 2 of three possibilities (66% likely) before looking at the 212 (which is 33% likely) hope this made sense there is an inheritance video in channel that explains this better and with visualizations.

[@truthhurts5158]

I ve hit a brick wall. Martin M regier Oct 3 1860, Checked church records death certificate, for some reason his parents are not listed. No idea how to find matches to him. Most Regier matches are from his line that I know of

[@lawrencerogers9499]

Hey Sir I'm in a dilemma about this situation so my mother don't know her father but she shares 887cm with a 1-2nd cousin on ancestry and I'm 1-2nd cousin as well with her but we shares 458 . Is it that her grandfather is my mother father because if it's her grandfather brother that had my mother would it be less or higher. Because she doesn't think her grandfather would of step out on her grandmother and have another child with another woman. I need help on this thank you sir.

[@DanielHay]

I really like the tape-measure view. Is that a tool available somewhere?

[@TheSledge77]

What do all the colours in the DNA painter mean?

[@elli003]

I have hair samples of my Great-Great grandfather from his first haircut at age 5 that are sealed in a test tube. They include hair follicles. Can this be tested ?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

i have heard there are companies that can test hair if follicles there but i really dont know :)

[@murphchris5670]

Thank you so much for explaining this. I'm just wondering I share 3.375 cM with my mother on Ancestry and 3,703 cM on 23 & me. Do you know why we share more on 23 & me?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

each company measures differently and different "amounts". This chart shows it best i think: isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart

[@murphchris5670]

@@DNAFamilyTrees Thank you

[@jeanninebriere3331]

Thanks.....very helpful!!

[@johntempleton9012]

I have a match with a person that is 10.8cM. I contacted the manager of the account as I'm interested in the potential surname match. It turns out it is his mother and she and her husband have also been tested. However I didn't match either of his parents. I ran the match query again with a lower setting than the default 8cM. This time it shows I have a match of just over 4cM with the father and just over 7cM with his mother. So can there be a compounding of the cM? In this case if I share a common ancestor with both parents is the resulting DNA in the child increasing the cm match with me? Is this possible?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

yes to the "compounding" he can get some from eac parent which combined could in some occasions be larger than either single parent.

[@brendaruff8208]

Thank you so much for this video. I was actually just about to go online to research what centimorgans are, and then I saw this video. You explained it perfectly so that I now have a clearer understanding. I'm wondering if you can help me with a question I have about Thru Lines. Is there any way to separate the matches showing for one tree from another? My matches focus on only one tree and show all from the other tree as "Potential Ancestor", even though I know some are already on that other tree. I'm about to contact Ancestry to see if they can flag which tree they belong to. I am looking forward to watching all of your other videos.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Brenda you have asked what we are all asking from Ancestry! Our trees pick up OTHER tree information and prioritize it over our tree information. I could understand that logic if it checked OUR tree first then other trees if it doesn't find anything (Hint for ancestry). Unfortunately this is a "feature" of thrulines as it is now. Maybe one day it will change when out of Beta, I am not holding breath as they have yet to acknowledge it is even doing this. The official response has been "fix the relationships in your tree and wait 24-48hrs". That wont help and is frustrating to wait on hold 25m with support to be told this same thing and nothing can be done. You can see what is going on a bit better in the "bandaid for the problem" videos. If you have DNA circles though, make use of those while they are still there (check out the 5 things video for how to best use them). Thrulines still has issues they are working through and by the time we do all the rest, hopefully they will fix it. Thank you for watching and if there are topics youd like to see, let me know.

[@larryjones2007]

DNA Family Trees they changed it now it prioritizes ours! Yeah!

[@HasserVision]

Thanks for this! I am in contact with a woman who is a match with me at 1663 cm. Her brother just tested and he is 2,027 cm match to me. Apparently we are closely related , we just don’t know how yet!

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Ware they older to be aunt/uncle? If not then highly likely siblings ( both are high enough to be half or full sibling) If neither of your parents match their parents then one of the males is likely the father in both scenarios Best of luck in journey ahead Tread lightly this is going to upset some folks, so be mindful of those concerned Best wishes you and your new family!

[@russelljgaspard3004]

Larry you mentioned that your cousin Kyle has more cm common DNA with you than expected, almost as much as your aunt. I have lots of that because most of my ancestors are from a relatively isolated gene pool so that descendants are generally related more than one way. Perhaps Kyle's father was also related to your ancestors; would that not account for the higher cm's?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

actually i believe that is EXACTLY the case. i believe that at a distance (that doesnt show above 6cms) that his father or grandfather do connect and it is likely that he was the recipient of more of the random sequences that matched me due to getting more from that line than did his sister.

[@TDZone70]

I have a 93cM match on Ancestry (101.6cM on Gedmatch). I'm 49 and the match is 78 years old. I entered 93cM in DNApainter and then 101.6cM. None of the matches for the two generations above me were highlighted. Do you have any suggestions for how I should interpret the results?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

may only bee one generation difference. (and in some rare cases same gen!) A) 1 gen - it was very common for people to have 10-15 children ao if this person was an older sibling in the group and your family member a younger one, that has a built in 20yr gap. B) my mothers father #2 was a scallywag of sorts. he had kids in 1917-1920, mother in 1943, another daughter in 1955. nearly 40yrs difference in siblings! and my mother actualy had nieces and a GREAT niece that were older than my mother! so i would look to A) first as it is the most likely scenario :) let me know what u find!

[@TDZone70]

@@DNAFamilyTrees Thanks so much!! I appreciate your help!!

[@TDZone70]

You mentioned the possibility that it may be a one generation difference, but none of the choices a generation above me are highlighted. Does this rule out all of the one generation above me choices since none are highlighted ?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

@@TDZone70 There is half Great Great Grandparent. It would have to be that OR they are in the same generation as you. This is more common than most realize. It was common for families to have 10-15 kids over a span of 15-20yrs. There is a generation between oldest and youngest siblings. If your ancestor was younger and theirs older then it would seem a generation or two between but instead be the same generation. On the flips side, a series of young parents would perhaps have them as a 2x ggp. My mother was actually almost the same age as her great neice! Her oldest half sister was born in 1917, who had a daughter at 16 and she had a child at 16. She was born in 1943 and her Great niece in 1949. So there are no hard rules on it, but you would think 79 to 49 there is a generation difference but with the cms given only half 2xggp fits, other wise they are on the same line as you which would be like a half 2nd cousin or a full 3rd cousin. Good luck and let me know if u figure it out!

[@TDZone70]

@@DNAFamilyTrees Thanks so much for your help. I'm almost certain that I can rule out half 2xggp can be ruled out, but I need to confirm it. I appreciate that you share your expertise with us and help us figure things out.

[@otsari1]

I share 2 digit cm with 6th cousins but there is one 6th cousin that share over 100cm. Then I have the daughter of my male 1st cousin that shares over 700 cms.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

OK, first part first, if you have a 6th cousin at over 100cm they are NOT your 6th cousin but are related to you from a closer location than you have identified! a 6th cousin would connect to you via your (and their) 5th great grandparent. You connect to that person via 2nd great grandparent as well AND/OR you have a LOT OF INTERMARRIAGE/ENDOGAMY/PEDIGREE collaps or similar and they are via your 3rd great grandparent 5th great grandparent is NOT yoru closest kinship with that person. This is evidenced by your second part, you said your 1C1R is over 700, this is ONLY possible with MULTIPLE paths, aka, intermarriage/endogamy/pedigree collapse scenario. See this tool at : www.dnafamilytrees.com/bp/indexV8.html (ball and pattern tool) you can see 700 has the 1c1r in red and the 6th cousin at 100 has, well, no occurrences in recorded dna match history and its outisde the range for the test at that distance. This looks like a married first cousin double cousins or two siblings marrying another two siblings at the grandparent or great grandparent level with an additional intermarriage occurrence. Now if you have that scenario and its recorded a few times then the 100 could be 6th cousing but they are also likely to be your 2nd or 3rd cousin via a different ancesteral path. may not be apparent now but that pathing IS THER for you to find!

[@otsari1]

I just want to thank you for your response and detailed explanation. It helped clarify my confusion.

[@artemisia999999]

Just found your site. I subscribed. I believe I am understanding this and I did ask on ancestry and got an answer and have checked the shared cm site but just thought i would double check to see what you think and see if it aligns with what I've come up with. My mom has a close relation/ first cousin listed on ancestry. We are not sure on the guys actual age but mom shares 2008 cm across 58 segments what would your take be on this? I kinda believe he may be about the age of some of my older cousins but mom is pretty sure that none of her siblings had any children she didn't know of. I have watched 2 videos so far and plan on watching many more. Thank you for the videos and any light you may be able to shed on this for me.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

+artemisia999999 that CMS is half sibling as most likely or a full niece nephew I’d niece nephew means their parent a full sibling to her which is unlikely Cluster to see if I’m mom or dads side shared dna and u will have rest of story

[@artemisia999999]

@@DNAFamilyTrees thanks that's what I was coming up with. He only has a small tree and were not a hundred percent sure on my mom's dad. But this is what I've been thinking. Thanks again

[@briankeithrick208]

I wanted to ask you I have a 4th cousin and we share a third great grandfather. I verified the ancestry and it checks out but we only share 6 cms could that be possible that we still are related?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

You are related if 6cMs Anything beyond 2nd cousin has results from 0 on up so if BeyondMenu 2nd cousin you can be related even at 0 cms

[@nunnyd69]

Thankyou for uploading this which I found very informative. Can I ask how the cM gap works with ancestral DNA results. I have a match from 935AD with a 20.41cM value does the DNA painter table values still work regardless of1100 years

[@skydaver2]

what are segments?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

A simple but loaded Question. simply put, they are pieces of DNA and they measure similarities in each segment to get the total number (cms which is the cumulative matching segment pieces). But to keep it simple, just focus on the total number which is the CMS. later at some point youll get good at this and go deeper into chromosome browsers and such but centimorgans are the similarities which shows us the distance between to people (kinda like a carbon 14 dating, measuring half life)

[@rjb6327]

How can I have 578 centimorgans shared across 25 DNA segments with a person and have no common ancestors?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

you have a common ancestor that is not yet identified. at 578, im guessing one of your grandparents is also one of their grandparents and they are a half 1st cousin. That said, in the right scenario if this was a trick questino the person could be your great grandparent :) and that way they would be THE common *to literally answer question how that scenario could occur* But truth is your related through your Grandparent (unless they are two generations older than you then perhaps a half aunt/uncle through a Great grandparent but thats unlkely. literaly 81% odds they are your H1C through a grandparent.

[@PMDColeman]

I have 3 first cousins on Ancestry and 1 on MyHeritage that are matches under 500cm. Is this possible?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

+PMDColeman if half first cousins One more node farther if under 500 Like 1c1r is most likely if not half

[@PMDColeman]

DNA Family Tree That’s a shock if my cousins are half cousins.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

If under 500 cms it’s either an extremely rare dna passing percentage (low) or there is a different kinship It’s not impossible at all, I have learned that nearly nothing is lol but the probability of occurring is far lower than your odds of a lottery win Again, not impossible but statistically way out on fringe I’d be interested to hear how this one plays out. You can email offline if u want-rather than post Let me know if anything I can do to help Be careful in your quest for the truth in this one as it could potentially upset a lot of folks if there was a half kinship that was unexpected If you find the trees show as first cousin and the dna doesn’t then I would believe the dna which could unlock family secrets best left not broadcast I can tell you from experience that mother lied 56 years and when proven as such it was not pleasant for anyone including her I encourage finding truth of it but also advise you do it quietly and discreetly 🤓

[@xelahooper2176]

Yep. Happened to me. My 1st cousin turned out to be a half 1st cousin. Just learned my maternal grandfather was not my mom's bio father. Big surprise and shock!

[@michellegalper4216]

Are the number of segments important or just the centimorgans?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

+Michelle Galper centimorgans

[@cosmictweenz1346]

Am i sharing my dna with my all greatgreat-grandparents?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

you are the sum of the recombination of your great grandparents :) (so yes)

[@janamblack3636]

I have concrete evidence that my gg grandfather had a different father from the rest of his family. Thrulines is showing up known cousins all related to our gg grandmother, whose origins are unknown. 1) Can I use the centimorgans to link her to her DNA down to the descendants? 2) Although the ancestry of my adopted gg grandfather (but genetic gg Grandfather to my 1/2 cousins) Is unknown, is there a way to determine HIS DNA matches using centimorgan results?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

+Jana M Black to identify the kin to this person if you have someone you know in that line you can color code the shared matches On flip side you can color code the others with a specific color leaving I colored that line ( see color coding video for better info) The centimorgans will help you estimate the distance from the GG grandparent but remember there can be variations Combining the color coding with the cms and the two videos how to find biological family and verifying tree those videos should give you the tools to nail it down If you get stuck email me and I’ll help you

[@hoverhead047]

A great explanation about Centimorgans but what about the segments? What weight do we assign to the number of segments the number of centimorgans is found on?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Thats a great question and i hope to address that more in a video coming next week! Ill see if i can describe without a visual aid and not confuse you more LOL each of the 23 Chromosomes are tested individually and each provides a length of similar DNA strand. each one can have several "chunks" so to speak. so Chromosome 1 lets say has 200cms and the longest block is 41 lets say. This is repeated for each of the 23 chromosomes. The total number of all 23 numbers for their CMS is added to provide a total number which was see as single number CMS match. number of segments is actually how many " chunks" in that 23 chromosome analysis that contained that information. (Hope i didnt make that more confusing LOL) Ancestry doesnt show this to you, but FTDNA breaks this informaiton down for you with their chromosome browser tool (HINT: this is briefly discussed in the video coming out at 4am tonight/tomorrow morning depending on how you look at that lol) My mother and I match: Chromosome 1-267 cms 2-253 3-219 4-206 5-199 6-189 7-180 8-161 9-160 10-176 11-155 12-167 13-126 14-111 15-118 16-131 17-124 18-119 19-99 20-104 21-58 22-53 23(X)-188 If you add all 23 you get A total of 3563, but only the 22 are added so that is 3375. (for accuracy sake there were decimals for each that i left off and with the 23rd is NOT counted for the total CMS in the dna match list so my match to her is actually 3384 which is the 3375 plus a total of 9 when u add in the fractions of each of the 22 numbers above that i left off for our sanity sake lol) So Segments are the number of total "pieces" it found in the 22 listed above. My ancestry says 62 segments so it found on average 3 pieces per chromosome or there about. FTDNA shows longest block size which was 287 in Chromosome #1. Each site gives us useful pieces to understand. Hope this was close to what you were asking

[@MsCybervamp]

Great job! I’ll have to rewatch to catch it all. I do have a question... how are centimorgans affected when there is some pedigree collapse? I have grandparents who were first cousins. Does that mean it gives a disproportionate share between matches? Would it skew the numbers in such a way that a person seems to be more closely related than they really are?

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

I am going to assume this is only one side and not first cousin double cousins, but the answer would still be nearly the same. one of your parents who is the child of these grandparents would likely have a stronger than normal CMS measurement. that ranges from 3300 to 3720 for a parent/child with the average at 3400. My mother matches me at 3471. My guess is they would match at 3600 to each parent or there abouts. you would match slightly stronger to that set of grandparents than the others. The average being 1766 to a grandparent and the range 1156-2311 i would expect it to be a bit above the mean as well for these grandparents. youd typically get half of each parent (which is 1/2 unique dna each) instead of half of 3600 at 1800 i might expect 1900-2000 to them and from 1700-1800 for the other grandparents. each generation it will trend towards the mean. That said, its COMPLETELY a genetic dice roll! your parents may each pass you only a small portion of that line each and mostly from the two unique lines and those numbers be exactly opposite! A cousin DNA relationship is typically 12.5 % but it rangers from 7.3% to 13.8%. child may have gotten on the low end, the other on the high, both low, or both high end. So the amount they even possess to pass along is unknown until measured. If each got on the low end, your at the mean at the next generation, if 1 of each, it may take 1 or 2 to normalize, both high it may take 2-4 genetic distances to normalize the numbers to the mean. here is 23andme's chart customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170668-Average-percent-DNA-shared-between-relatives Short answer is kinda like schrodinger's cat, there is no way to tell for sure until we look and see. It could be normal, high and in rare cases even low. but my guess would be slightly elevated then working towards mean or below at each genetic distance.

[@b.elliott4679]

Why is my Mother and Father 0 Cent.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

your mother and father match you at 0 centimorgans (dont match?)

[@cbigclarke]

This all makes my head hurt. I think I'm going to sick.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

yeah LOL i hear ya, but understanding CMS is really the cornerstone to triangulation of kinships. Once this is down, the rest kinda falls into place as CMS is really the keystone. Maybe i can attack this another way to make it easier. Ill give it some thought as to how i can make it less painful :)

[@cbigclarke]

You not doing a bad job with it. I just need to find a quite place while watching this. I will say I found this one easier to understand. Graphics go a looong way

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

if you see something that i can do better or say better or think of a graphic that would have helped make it easier ot understand, please dont hesitate to let me know. I want to help as many people as possible and will keep polishing as long as needed. Thanks again for taking the time to comment and let me know!

[@flyingpenguin390]

My closest match on DNA is 188 cM... I've been able to confirm a whopping 3 people in my tree. :-p

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

have you clustered the results? if so you will be able to confirm many with triangulation (four part series in channel)

[@flyingpenguin390]

@@DNAFamilyTrees I'm working on that now! I'm getting my feet wet with the DNA stuff now so I'm working my way through your channel for some great info! My mom is Ashkenazi Jewish and a descendant of a line that is actually passed down on the Y chromosome, so I have THOUSANDS of matches for her... my dad's from a tiny town in Northern Italy so I'm waiting for his DNA test to hopefully figure out some of these matches. :)

[@rotagbhd]

No such thing as greatuncle or greataunt. Your parent's parents are your GRANDparents, not greatparents, so your GRANDparent's siblings are your GRANDuncle or GRANDaunt.

[@dzymslizzy3641]

So...what does "centimorgans" actually mean--who came up with the term, and why? What is the deeper story behind why that terminology was chosen, as opposed to how it is used? This is not super accurate, I don't believe. Ancestry predicted a 1st cousin match for me...to my GRANDSON!! Whoa! Way off! Also, how can you possibly find "through lines" for ancestors who are long since deceased, and who lived prior to this technology??? That's still dependent on following the paper trail.

[@DNAFamilyTrees]

Two parts A) it is Highly accurate B) the interpretation can be off So the CMS is right and spot in but ancestry predictions are cousin based not downwards Ignore there predicted kinships They are right about 20% of the tine Instead use the cms Dna painter.com Tools Shared cm tool Enter the cms You will see there predictions but also see all of the alternatives You will see the correct one highlighted with this tool