Today, I’m excited to announce a new series titled “DNA: In Search of…”
I receive queries every single day about how to search for either unknown parents or unknown grandparents using genetic genealogy.
While some of the techniques are the same when searching for these different people, others vary and depend on a combination of factors: Continue reading
FamilyTreeDNA just released an amazing new group of public Y DNA tools.
Yes, a group of tools – not just one.
The new Discover tools, which you can access here, aren’t just for people who have tested at FamilyTreeDNA . You don’t need an account and it’s free for everyone. All you need is a Y DNA haplogroup – from any source.
I’m going to introduce each tool briefly because you’re going to want to run right over and try Discover for yourself. In fact, you might follow along with this article.
Y DNA Haplogroup Aging
The new Discover page provides seven beta tools, including Y DNA haplogroup aging.
Haplogroup aging is THE single most requested feature – and it’s here!
Discover also scales for mobile devices.
Free Beta Tool
Beta means that FamilyTreeDNA is seeking your feedback to determine which of these tools will be incorporated into their regular product, so expect a survey.
If you’d like changes or something additional, please let FamilyTreeDNA know via the survey, their support line, email or Chat function.
OK, let’s get started!
Enter Your Haplogroup
Enter your Y DNA haplogroup, or the haplogroup you’re interested in viewing.
If you’re a male who has tested with FamilyTreeDNA , sign on to your home page and locate your haplogroup badge at the lower right corner.
If you’re a female, you may be able to test a male relative or find a haplogroup relevant to your genealogy by visiting your surname group project page to locate the haplogroup for your ancestor.
I’ll use one of my genealogy lines as an example.
In this case, several Y DNA testers appear under my ancestor, James Crumley, in the Crumley DNA project.
Within this group of testers, we have two different Big Y haplogroups, and several estimated haplogroups from testers who have not upgraded to the Big Y.
If you’re a male who has tested at either 23andMe or LivingDNA, you can enter your Y DNA haplogroup from that source as well. Those vendors provide high-level haplogroups.
The great thing about the new Discover tool is that no matter what haplogroup you enter, there’s something for you to enjoy.
I’m going to use haplogroup I-FT272214, the haplogroup of my ancestor, James Crumley, confirmed through multiple descendants. His son John’s descendants carry haplogroup I-BY165368 in addition to I-FT272214, which is why there are two detailed haplogroups displayed for this grouping within the Crumley haplogroup project, in addition to the less-refined I-M223.
Getting Started
When you click on Discover, you’ll be asked to register briefly, agree to terms, and provide your email address.
Click “View my report” and your haplogroup report will appear.
Y DNA Haplogroup Report
For any haplogroup you enter, you’ll receive a haplogroup report that includes 7 separate pages, shown by tabs at the top of your report.
Click any image to enlarge
The first page you’ll see is the Haplogroup Report.
On the first page, you’ll find Haplogroup aging. The TMRCA (time to most recent common ancestor) is provided, plus more!
The report says that haplogroup I-FT272214 was “born,” meaning the mutation that defines this haplogroup, occurred about 300 years ago, plus or minus 150 years.
James Crumley was born about 1710. We know his sons carry haplogroup I-FT272214, but we don’t know when that mutation occurred because we don’t have upstream testers. We don’t know who his parents were.
Three hundred years before the birth of our Crumley tester would be about 1670, so roughly James Crumley’s father’s generation, which makes sense.
James’ son John’s descendants have an additional mutation, so that makes sense too. SNP mutations are known to occur approximately every 80 years, on average. Of course, you know what average means…may not fit any specific situation exactly.
The next upstream haplogroup is I-BY100549 which occurred roughly 500 years ago, plus or minus 150 years. (Hint – if you want to view a haplogroup report for this upstream haplogroup, just click on the haplogroup name.)
There are 5 SNP confirmed descendants of haplogroup I-FT272214 claiming origins in England, all of whom are in the Crumley DNA project.
Haplogroup descendants mean this haplogroup and any other haplogroups formed on the tree beneath this haplogroup.
Share
If you scroll down a bit, you can see the share button on each page. If you think this is fun, you can share through a variety of social media resources, email, or copy the link.
Sharing is a good way to get family members and others interested in both genealogy and genetic genealogy. Light the spark!
I’m going to be sharing with collaborative family genealogy groups on Facebook and Twitter. I can also share with people who may not be genealogists, but who will think these findings are interesting.
If you keep scrolling under the share button or click on “Discover More” you can order Y DNA tests if you’re a biological male and haven’t already taken one. The more refined your haplogroup, the more relevant your information will be on the Discover page as well as on your personal page.
Scrolling even further down provides information about methods and sources.
Country Frequency
The next tab is Country Frequency showing the locations where testers with this haplogroup indicate that their earliest known ancestors are found.
The Crumley haplogroup has only 5 people, which is less than 1% of the people with ancestors from England.
However, taking a look at haplogroup R-M222 with many more testers, we see something a bit different.
Ireland is where R-M222 is found most frequently. 17% of the men who report their ancestors are from Ireland belong to haplogroup R-M222.
Note that this percentage also includes haplogroups downstream of haplogroup R-M222.
Mousing over any other location provides that same information for that area as well.
Seeing where the ancestors of your haplogroup matches are from can be extremely informative. The more refined your haplogroup, the more useful these tools will be for you. Big Y testers will benefit the most.
Notable Connections
On the next page, you’ll discover which notable people have haplogroups either close to you…or maybe quite distant.
Your first Notable Connection will be the one closest to your haplogroup that FamilyTreeDNA was able to identify in their database. In some cases, the individual has tested, but in many cases, descendants of a common ancestor tested.
In this case, Bill Gates is our closest notable person. Our common haplogroup, meaning the intersection of Bill Gates’s haplogroup and my Crumley cousin’s haplogroup is I-L1195. The SNP mutation that defines haplogroup I-L1145 occurred about 4600 years ago. Both my Crumley cousin and Bill Gates descend from that man.
If you’re curious and want to learn more about your common haplogroup, remember, you can enter that haplogroup into the Discover tool. Kind of like genetic time travel. But let’s finish this one first.
Remember that CE means current era, or the number of years since the year “zero,” which doesn’t technically exist but functions as the beginning of the current era. Bill Gates was born in 1955 CE
BCE means “before current era,” meaning the number of years before the year “zero.” So 2600 BCE is approximately 4600 years ago.
Click through each dot for a fun look at who you’re “related to” and how distantly.
This tool is just for fun and reinforces the fact that at some level, we’re all related to each other.
Maybe you’re aware of more notables that could be added to the Discover pages.
Migration Map
The next tab provides brand spanking new migration maps that show the exodus of the various haplogroups out of Africa, through the Middle East, and in this case, into Europe.
Additionally, the little shovel icons show the ancient DNA sites that date to the haplogroup age for the haplogroup shown on the map, or younger. In our case, that’s haplogroup I-M223 (red arrow) that was formed about 16,000 years ago in Europe, near the red circle, at left. These haplogroup ancient sites (shovels) would all date to 16,000 years ago or younger, meaning they lived between 16,000 years ago and now.
Click to enlarge
By clicking on a shovel icon, more information is provided. It’s very interesting that I-L1145, the common haplogroup with Bill Gates is found in ancient DNA in Cardiff, Wales.
This is getting VERY interesting. Let’s look at the rest of the Ancient Connections.
Ancient Connections
Our closest Ancient Connection in time is Gen Scot 24 (so name in an academic paper) who lived in the Western Isles of Scotland.
These ancient connections are more likely cousins than direct ancestors, but of course, we can’t say for sure. We do know that the first man to develop haplogroup I-L126, about 2500 years ago, is an ancestor to both Gen Scot 24 and our Crumley ancestor.
Gen Scot 24 has been dated to 1445-1268 BCE which is about 3400 years ago, which could actually be older than the haplogroup age. Remember that both dating types are ranges, carbon dating is not 100% accurate, and ancient DNA can be difficult to sequence. Haplogroup ages are refined as more branches are discovered and the tree grows.
The convergence of these different technologies in a way that allows us to view the past in the context of our ancestors is truly amazing.
All of our Crumley cousin’s ancient relatives are found in Ireland or Scotland with the exception of the one found in Wales. I think, between this information and the haplogroup formation dates, it’s safe to say that our Crumley ancestors have been in either Scotland or Ireland for the past 4600 years, at least. And someone took a side trip to Wales, probably settled and died there.
Of course, now I need to research what was happening in Ireland and Scotland 4600 years ago because I know my ancestors were involved.
Suggested Projects
I’m EXTREMELY pleased to see suggested projects for this haplogroup based on which projects haplogroup members have joined.
You can click on any of the panels to read more about the project. Remember that not everyone joins a project because of their Y DNA line. Many projects accept people who are autosomally related or descend from the family through the mitochondrial line, the direct mother’s line.
Still, seeing the Crumley surname project would be a great “hint” all by itself if I didn’t already have that information.
Scientific Details
The Scientific Details page actually has three tabs.
The first tab is Age Estimate.
The Age Estimate tab provides more information about the haplogroup age or TMRCA (Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor) calculations. For haplogroup I-FT272214, the most likely creation date, meaning when the SNP occurred, is about 1709, which just happens to align well with the birth of James Crumley about 1710.
However, anyplace in the dark blue band would fall within a 68% confidence interval (CI). That would put the most likely years that the haplogroup-defining SNP mutation took place between 1634 and 1773. At the lower end of the frequency spectrum, there’s a 99% likelihood that the common ancestor was born between 1451 and 1874. That means we’re 99% certain that the haplogroup defining SNP occurred between those dates. The broader the date range, the more certain we can be that the results fall into that range.
The next page, Variants, provides the “normal” or ancestral variant and the derived or mutated variant or SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) in the position that defines haplogroup I-FT272214.
The third tab displays FamilyTreeDNA‘s public Y DNA Tree with this haplogroup highlighted. On the tree, we can see this haplogroup, downstream haplogroups as well as upstream, along with their country flags.
Your Personal Page
If you have already taken a DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA, you can find the new Discover tool conveniently located under “Additional Tests and Tools.”
If you are a male and haven’t yet tested, then you’ll want to order a Y DNA test or upgrade to the Big Y for the most refined haplogroup possible.
Big Y tests and testers are why the Y DNA tree now has more than 50,000 branches and 460,000 variants. Testing fuels growth and growth fuels new tools and possibilities for genealogists.
What Do You Think?
Do you like these tools?
What have you learned? Have you shared this with your family members? What did they have to say? Maybe we can get Uncle Charley interested after all!
Let me know how you’re using these tools and how they are helping you interpret your Y DNA results and assist your genealogy.
_____________________________________________________________
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Such wonderful news today!
We have a birth announcement, of sorts, detailed in our new paper released just today, “African mitochondrial haplogroup L7: a 100,000-year-old maternal human lineage discovered through reassessment and new sequencing.”
Woohoo, Mitochondrial Eve has a new great-granddaughter!
Back in 2018, Goran Runfeldt and Bennett Greenspan at FamilyTreeDNA noticed something unusual about a few mitochondrial DNA sequences, but there weren’t enough sequences to be able to draw any conclusions. As time went on, more sequences became available, both in the FamilyTreeDNA database and in the academic community, including an ancient sequence.
This group of sequences did not fit cleanly into the phylogenetic tree as structured and seemed to cluster together, but more research and analysis were needed.
Were these unique sequences a separate branch? One branch or several? What would creating that branch do to the rest of the tree?
Given that Phylotree, last updated in 2016, did not contain an applicable branch, what were we to do with these puzzle pieces that really didn’t fit?
These discussions, and others similar, led to the decision to launch the Million Mito Project to update the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree which is now 6 years old and seriously out-of-date. For the record, phylogenetics on this scale is EXTREMELY challenging, which is probably why Phylotree hasn’t been updated, but that’s a topic for another article, another day. Today is the day to celebrate haplogroup L7.
Haplogroup L7
The Million Mito team knew there were lots of candidate haplogroups waiting to be formed near the ends of the branches of the phylotree, but what we didn’t expect was a new haplogroup near the root of the tree.
Put another way, in terms that genealogists are used to, the new branch is Eve’s great-granddaughter.
Haplogroup L now has 8 branches, instead of 7, beginning with L0. We named this new branch haplogroup L7 in order not to disrupt the naming patterns in the existing tree.
Let’s take a look.
I used the phylogenetic tree from our paper and added Eve.
Just to be clear, we aren’t talking literal daughters and granddaughters. These are phylogenetic daughters which represent many generations between each (known) branch. Of course, we can only measure the branches that survived and are tested today or are found in ancient DNA.
The only way we have of discovering and deciphering Eve and her “tree” of descendants is identifying mutations that occurred, providing breadcrumbs back in time that allow us to reconstruct Eve’s mitochondrial DNA sequence.
Those mutations are then carried forever in daughter branches (barring a back-mutation). This means that, yes, you and I have all of those mutations today – in addition to several more that define our individual branches.
You can see that Eve has two daughter branches. One branch, at left, is L0.
Eve’s daughter to the right, which I’ve labeled, is the path to the new L7 branch.
Before this new branch was identified, haplogroup L5 existed. Now, Eve has a new great-granddaughter branch L5’7 that then splits into two branches; L5 and L7.
L5 is the existing branch, but L7 is the new branch that includes a few sequences formerly misattributed to L5.
Even more exciting, the newly discovered haplogroup L7 has sub-branches too, including L7a, L7a1, L7b1 and L7b2.
In fact, haplogroup L7 has a total of 13 sublineages.
How Cool is This?!!
Haplogroup L7 is 100,000 years old. This is the oldest lineage since haplogroup L5 was discovered 20 years ago. To put this in perspective, that’s about the same time the first full sequence mitochondrial DNA test was offered to genealogists.
It took 20 years for enough people to test, and two eagle-eyed scientists to notice something unusual.
Hundreds of thousands of people have had their mitochondrial DNA tested, and so far, only 19 people are assigned to haplogroup L7 or a subgroup.
One of those people, shown as L7a* on the tree above, is 80,000 years removed from their closest relative. Yes, their DNA is hens-teeth rare. No, they don’t have any matches at FamilyTreeDNA, just in case you were wondering😊
However, in time, as more people test, they may well have matches. This is exactly why I encourage everyone to take a mitochondrial DNA test. If someone is discouraged from testing, you never know who they might have matched – or how rare their DNA may be. If they don’t test, that opportunity is lost forever – to them, to other people waiting for a match, and to science.
Are there other people out there with this haplogroup, in either Africa or the diaspora? Let’s hope so!
With so few L7 people existing today, it looks like this lineage might have been on the verge of extinction at some point, but somehow survived and is now found in a few places around the world.
Ancient DNA
One 16,000-year-old ancient DNA sample from Malawi has been reclassified from L5 to L7.
This figure from the paper shows the distribution of haplogroup L within Africa, and the figure below shows the Haplogroup L7 range within Africa, with Tanzania having the highest frequency. Malawi abuts Tanzania on the Southwest corner.
Where in the World?
Checking on the public tree at FamilyTreeDNA, you can see the new L5’7 branch with L7 and sub-haplogroups beneath.
We find L7 haplogroups in present-day testers from:
It’s also found in people who live in two European countries now, but with their roots reaching back into Africa. Surprisingly, no known African-Americans have yet tested with this haplogroup. I suspect finding the haplogroup in the Americas is just a matter of time, and testing.
The FamilyTreeDNA customers who are lucky enough to be in haplogroup L7 have had their haplogroup badges updated.
If you are haplogroup L at FamilyTreeDNA, check and see if you have a new badge.
Credit Where Credit is Due
I want to give a big shout-out to my colleagues and co-authors. Dr. Paul Maier (lead author,) Dr. Miguel Vilar and Goran Runfeldt.
I can’t even begin to express the amount of heavy lifting these fine scientists did on the long journey from initial discovery to publication. This includes months of analysis, writing the paper, creating the graphics, and recording a video which will be available soon.
I’m especially grateful to people like you who test their DNA, and academic researchers who continue to sequence mitochondrial DNA in both contemporary and ancient samples. Without testers, there would be no scientific discoveries, nor genealogy matching. If you haven’t yet tested, you can order (or upgrade) a mitochondrial DNA test here.
I also want to thank both Bennett Greenspan, Founder, and President, Emeritus of FamilyTreeDNA who initially greenlit the Million Mito Project in early 2020, and Dr. Lior Rauschberger, CEO who continues to support this research.
FamilyTreeDNA paid the open access fees so the paper is free for everyone, here, and not behind a paywall. If you’re downloading the pdf, be sure to download the supplements too. Lots of graphics and images that enhance the article greatly.
Congratulations to Mitochondrial Eve for this new branch in her family tree. Of course, her family tree is your family and mine – the family of man and womankind!
_____________________________________________________________
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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.
Thank you so much.
DNA Purchases and Free Uploads
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Before I share the good news, I’d like to thank you, my readers and followers – my tribe – for being my fans.
For reading what I write and watching what I produce. For sharing your thoughts. For inspiring me with your stories and questions. For supporting me.
It’s because of you that I’m privileged to write this article about recent honors and accolades.
Three, to be specific, or four, depending on how you count.
I’m truly humbled.
All three notifications arrived in my inbox within a few days this past week, which also corresponded to a difficult death anniversary in my family, so I really needed this boost.
Family Tree Magazine’s 101 Best Genealogy Websites
Family Tree Magazine compiles an annual best of the best list of 101 genealogy resources for genealogy enthusiasts to research our family trees.
I’m very pleased that DNAeXplained is included again this year.
You can see the full list of honorees, here and you can click on each category to learn more.
I encourage you to try something new.
How many of these sites have you never utilized? What might be waiting for you? Do you have a particularly thorny brick wall that needs to fall?
Maybe some of these resources don’t pertain to your areas of research, but others may.
You might have used some in the past but need to check back occasionally.
For example, DeadFred. You could find photos of your long-lost relatives, and you can also submit orphaned photos there as well.
You know I’m already searching for the surname of every ancestor in my tree that died after the advent of cameras in the mid-1800s! If not them, then maybe their children or siblings. Hope springs eternal!
I’m going to try one new website from the Family Tree Magazine list every day.
Which resource are you trying first? Let me know how it goes and if you find something fun.
Legacy Family Tree Webinar’s Top 10
I received an email from Geoff Rasmussen with Legacy Family Tree Webinars announcing that my webinar, Wringing Every Drop out of Mitochondrial DNA ranked number 5 in the top 10 webinars for May.
Truthfully, I was pleasantly surprised because mitochondrial DNA has often been the “neglected” DNA that we all carry. Hopefully, that “neglected” status will change and more people will test now that they understand how beneficial this tool can be, which means additional and more meaningful matches for all of us.
More than 2,200 people have viewed this webinar so far and received the extensive companion syllabus.
You can watch too by joining Legacy Family Tree Webinars, here, which gives you access to all 1787 webinars, and counting. New webinars are literally added daily, and you can register to watch live webinars along with recently recorded webinars for free for the first 7 days. Take a look.
If you haven’t yet tested your mitochondrial DNA, please do by clicking here.
By taking a mitochondrial DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA, you’ll also become a part of the exciting Million Mito Project which is literally rewriting the history of womankind.
E-book Release and Lovely Book Review
I received a note from my publisher, Genealogical.com, who is also on Family Tree Magazine’s “Best Of” list again this year, telling me that my book, DNA for Native American Genealogy has been released as an e-book AND has received a major book review by Dr. Margaret McMahon. I think this should count as two really good things, not just one.
I wrote about the contents of my book, here, but Dr. Mac, as she is known, summed things up succinctly in her statement, “This book picks up where the theories end and your work begins.”
That was my goal, to educate my readers, explain the various tests and results, and provide a research roadmap. Do you have a family story of a Native American ancestor? Are you looking for answers?
Dr. Mac’s book review corresponds well with the recent release of the book in e-book (e-Pub) format. Here’s how to order:
Thank You, Thank You
Once again, thank you for your continuing support. I’ll have more interesting news soon!
_____________________________________________________________
Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, here or follow me on Twitter, here.
Share the Love!
You’re always welcome to forward articles or links to friends and share on social media.
If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an email whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.
You Can Help Keep This Blog Free
I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.
Thank you so much.
DNA Purchases and Free Uploads
Genealogy Products and Services
My Book
Genealogy Books
Genealogy Research
Using the FamilySearch “Relatives at RootsTech” app that was available in the month or so surrounding RootsTech (but not now), I connected with a cousin who is a direct matrilineal descendant of Sarah Rash, our common ancestor.
My cousin, who descends through Sarah’s daughter Rhoda Shepherd, very kindly agreed to take a full sequence mitochondrial DNA test so we now have information about Sarah Rash’s matrilineal origins.
I wrote about Sarah Rash and what we know of her life in Sarah Rash (1748-1829), Church Founder and Grandmother of Nearly 100.
Mitochondrial DNA Inheritance
Women contribute their mitochondrial DNA to all of their children, but only females pass it on. Therefore, mitochondrial DNA is never divided, watered down or mixed with the DNA of the father. Mitochondrial DNA provides an invaluable periscope view directly back in time for our matrilineal ancestors – our direct mother’s, mother’s, mother’s line on up our tree.
Sarah Rash was born to Joseph Rash and wife, Mary, purportedly Mary Warren. Sarah’s mitochondrial DNA also belongs to her mother Mary. That would be Mary Warren if indeed Mary Warren is Sarah’s mother. Mary Warren’s parents are unknown. However, there is a Warren family in Spotsylvania County, VA, where the Rash family lived in that timeframe.
Goals
My goals for seeking a mitochondrial DNA test for Sarah Rash’s descendant are:
The Process
Several people have asked me to step through the analysis process that I use for mitochondrial DNA results, so let’s do that.
What can we tell about Sarah’s ancestors through her mitochondrial DNA?.
Sarah’s Matrilineal Line is Not Native
Sometimes when the mother of an early pioneer settler can’t be identified, the “go-to” assumption is that she might be Native American.
Sarah’s haplogroup is U5a2a1d which is definitely NOT Native.
We can dispel this thought permanently.
Since Sarah’s matrilineal ancestors aren’t Native, where are they from?
Where Are Sarah’s Ancestors From?
Using the public mitochondrial tree, here, we see the following countries displayed for haplogroup U5a2a1d.
Sarah’s haplogroup is found most often in the US, which means brick-walled here, followed by England, Ireland, and less-frequent other locations. Note that two people claim Native, the feather, but that can mean either they are mistaken, or they have entered information for their mother’s “side” of the family or their literal “oldest ancestor,” not their specific matrilineal line.
Regardless, haplogroup U is unquestionably not Native.
Matches Map
Sometimes the matches map, which shows the geographic locations of your matches’ most distant matrilineal linear ancestor is very informative, but not so in this case.
Of 74 full sequence matches, only 4, plus the tester whose pin is white, have entered the locations of their matrilineal ancestors.
One of these contains a male name, so we know that’s incorrect.
This is really sad – a wasted opportunity. Imagine how useful this could be with 74 pins instead of 4, and one of those being recorded incorrectly.
Mutations
The mutations tab shows you the mutations you have that are either extra or missing from your haplogroup assignment. This means that these may be combined in the next version of the haplotree to form a new haplogroup.
My cousin has 5 extra mutations, but at least three of those are in unstable areas that I’m sure will not be utilized as haplogroup-forming. The other two mutations are insertions at one single location and I doubt those will be used either.
I wrote about haplogroup formation in the article, Mitochondrial DNA: Part 3 – Haplogroups Unraveled, including a list of unstable and common mutations. Suffice it to say that very common locations like 16519 and 315 insertions aren’t useful to form haplogroups. Some very common mutations, such as insertions at locations 309 and 315 and deletions at 522 and 523 aren’t even counted in matching/differences.
What these unstable mutations actually tell me, relative to Sarah Rash’s DNA is that I need to pay attention to the GD1 (genetic distance of 1) matches, meaning people who have only one mutation difference from my cousin. Given that my cousin’s extra mutations, differences from her defined haplogroup, are in unstable regions, close matches such as GD1 or even GD2 could be quite relevant. It all depends on the difference.
Of course, we can’t see the mutations of the people my cousin matches, so those with a GD1 or GD2 may have mutations on a stable marker that my cousin doesn’t have.
Matches
My cousin has a total of 74 full sequence matches, of which 31 are exact matches, 18 have trees and 12 have listed an earliest known ancestor (EKA). If you haven’t done so, here’s how to enter your EKA.
Of course, the EKA of my cousin’s matches may or may not agree with the earliest matrilineal person in their tree. And the tree may or may not have more than one or two people. Regardless, every hint is worth follow-up.
Think of these as diamonds in the rough.
Trees
I viewed the trees of each of the matches that have uploaded trees. I also made a list of the earliest known ancestors for matches that didn’t have trees so I could be cognizant of watching for those names.
Many trees only had a few generations, but I used Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and WikiTree to see if I could reasonably complete the tree back a little further. Of these, I particularly like WikiTree because I think it tends to be more accurate AND it allows for people to enter that they carry the mitochondrial DNA of specific ancestors. As it turns out, no one has done that for Sarah Rash, or her purported mother, Mary Warren, but if they had, it would provide a confirmation opportunity.
I did find something quite interesting.
Who is Jane Davis?
The EKA of Elizabeth, one of my cousin’s matches, is Jane Davis who was born in 1690.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth did not upload a GEDCOM file or create a tree, so I turned to other trees elsewhere to see what I could unearth about Jane Davis.
I need to state emphatically that what I’m about to tell you needs to be taken with the entire salt lick, not just a grain.
Remember, we’re looking for hints and evidence here, not foregone conclusions – although admittedly, those would be nice.
According to (cringe) some trees, Jane Davis was the wife of one William Warren who was born 1678 in Surry County, VA and died on September 29, 1764 in Edgecombe County, NC. I have not confirmed any of this. Gathering evidence is the first step in the process.
IF this is accurate, William Warren and Jane Davis may be the parents of Mary Warren, the purported mother of Sarah Rash.
Notice all of those weasel words – if, may, purported. That’s where we have to start. In weaselworld.
Obviously, this needs a LOT of traditional genealogy work, but here’s the great news…I now have something to work with and someone else, Elizabeth, who appears one way or another to be descended from this line.
The Good News
Whether or not Jane Davis is accurate or not, I’d wager that we are looking at the same line because Elizabeth matches my cousin’s mitochondrial DNA. I need to email Elizabeth to see if she descends through Sarah Rash. If so, that’s confirmation of this line.
If not, and she descends through a daughter of someone else in this same line, like one of Mary Warren’s sisters, that’s evidence and a HUGE HINT that I can use to confirm Mary Warren as the mother of Sarah Rash. Confirming her mother would also confirm that Mary’s father is William Warren – so would provide evidence for both of Sarah’s parents.
Additional Tools – Advanced Matches
Next, I used Advanced Matches to query for anyone who matches at both the full sequence level and in Family Finder. There were no matches, which doesn’t surprise me since it’s quite a way back in time.
Notice that the link to upload a family tree is in this section, along with the public haplotree I used earlier.
Family Finder
Checking my cousin’s Family Finder matches and searching for surnames, I immediately checked for myself and my known cousins from that line. No cigar, but our common ancestor is many generations in the past.
Checking the Rash surname for my cousin shows a match to someone who descends from Joseph Rash’s brother, William Rash whose children also migrated to Claiborne County, TN along with Sarah Rash’s daughter, Elizabeth Shepherd who married William McNiel.
My cousin has numerous autosomal matches to the McNiel line as well. The Vannoy, McNiel, Shepherd, and Rash lines were all found in Wilkes County, NC together before migrating to Claiborne and Hancock Counties in Tennessee. Before Wilkes County, the Rash, Warren, and McNiel families were in Spotsylvania and nearby counties in Virginia.
Goal Fulfillment
How did we do fulfilling our original goals?
| Goal | Comment |
| To confirm Sarah’s genealogical accuracy by matching another descendant. | Perhaps – We have that lead to follow up on with Elizabeth and her EKA of Jane Davis. We also have several relevant autosomal matches. |
| To learn what we can learn from her haplogroup. | Yes – Not Native and probably from England or Ireland. That is useful and makes sense. |
| To confirm her mother as Mary Warren. | We now have hints and tools. We need to hear what Elizabeth has to say. I may be able to extract more information by viewing trees individually with people my cousin matches on Family Finder. |
| To potentially extend Sarah’s line backward in time. | We now have a great hint and information to work with, both mitochondrial and autosomal. Jane Davis may be the wife of William Warren, which might well confirm Mary Warren as the daughter of William Warren. It’s too soon to tell but my fingers are crossed for a descendant of Jane Davis from a different daughter through all females. |
Sometimes answers come in a gulley-washer, and other times, we have to dig and sift over time for the gems. Let’s create a plan.
What’s Next?
There’s a lot we can do, but maybe one of the best places to start would be to attempt to assemble information about the Warren families of Spotsylvania County, VA. This Thomas Warren might be a good place to begin or maybe work my way up from Mary Warren, here.
I need to focus on both traditional genealogy and genetic autosomal matches at all of the vendors. My cousin’s DNA is only at FamilyTreeDNA, but my results and those of several other cousins are found at several vendors.
I can use Genetic Affairs’ tools to see if I cluster with other people descended from the Warren family. My cousin can set up an account and do the same thing if she wishes. AutoTree and AutoKinship may help with that.
Using traditional genealogy, if I can identify other sisters of Mary Warren (daughters of Jane Davis,) I can ask people descended from them through all females to take a mitochondrial DNA test. If they match my cousin, that’s an exceptionally compelling piece of evidence.
Of course, I can do more work on the mitochondrial DNA matches we already have by emailing and asking for genealogy information. The piece of evidence we need might be right under our noses.
The Warren Family
If you descend from a Warren family in the Spotsylvania County area in the 1600s through 1700s, would you please check your matches to see if you have me, Vannoy, McNiel, McNeil, Rash or Shepherd matches? I’d love to narrow this down.
If you descend through all females from William Warren or another Warren family who would have been having children in the Spotsylvania County from about 1710 to maybe 1740, would you please reach out to me? If we can pinpoint a likely family for Mary Warren who was reportedly born in 1726, I’d love to do a confirming mitochondrial DNA test.
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Recently, I’ve noticed an uptick in confused people who’ve taken Ancestry’s DNA test.
They are using shared matches, which is a great tool and exactly what they should be doing, but they become confused when no shared matches appear with some specific people.
This is especially perplexing when they know through information sharing or because they manage multiple DNA kits that those two people who both match them actually do share DNA and match each other, meaning they “should” appear on a shared match list. Or worse, yet, conflicting match information is displayed, with one person showing the shared match, but the other person reciprocally does not.
What gives?
That’s exactly what this article addresses. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds, but it’s certainly easier once you understand.
What Are Matches and Shared Matches?
Matches occur when two people match each other. From your perspective as a DNA tester, matches are people who have taken DNA tests and appear on your match list because you share some level of DNA equal to or greater than the match threshold of the vendor in question.
At Ancestry, that minimum matching threshold is 8 cM (centimorgans) of matching DNA.
Individual matches are always one-to-one. Your match list is a list of people who all match you.
So, you match person 1, and you match person 2, individually.
Your matches may or may not also match each other. If they do match each other in addition to matching you, that’s a shared match which is a hint as to a potential common ancestor between all three people.
Shared matches are a list of people who match you PLUS any one other match on your list. In other words, shared matches are three-way matches.
In the diagram above, you can see that you match Match 1 and you also match Match 2. In this case, Match 1 and Match 2 also match each other, so all three of you match each other, but not necessarily on the same segment. Therefore, you’re all three shared matches, as shown in the center of the three circles.
Viewing Shared Matches
To view a list of people who match you and Match 1, you would request shared matches with Match 1 by clicking on “View Match” or “Learn More” on your match list, then on “Shared Matches” on the next screen.
The resulting shared match list consist of people who match you AND Match 1, both. It’s easy to make assumptions about why you have shared matches, but don’t.
Shared Matches are Hints
A shared match CAN mean:
Shared matches are great hints to be sifted for relevance. The operative word here is hint.
What If We Don’t Have Shared Matches?
Conversely, NOT having a shared match doesn’t mean you don’t share a common ancestor.
Sorry about the triple negative. Let me say that another way, because this is important.
Even though you and someone else aren’t on a shared match list, you might still share DNA and you may share a common ancestor, whether you share their DNA or not.
Ancestry’s shared matches work differently than shared matches at other vendors. Before we discuss that, let’s talk about why shared matches are important.
Why Do Shared Matches Matter Anyway?
Matches and shared matches are how genealogists perform two critically important functions:
I wrote about shared matches, here, when Ancestry purged segments under 8 cM, but I think the message about the limitations of shared matches and how the process actually works deserves its own article, especially for new users. Shared matches and segment cM numbers can be quite confusing, but they don’t need to be.
I wrote an article titled DNA Beginnings: Matching at Ancestry and What It Means that includes lots of useful information.
Ok, now let’s look specifically at using shared matches and why sometimes shared matches just don’t seem to make sense.
Matches
By far, the majority of your matches at any vendor will be more distant matches. That’s because you have thousands of distant relatives, most of whom you don’t know (yet).
You’ll only have a few closer relatives.
At Ancestry, I have 102,000+ total matches, of which more than 97,000 are distant matches. Based on these numbers, keep in mind that about 95.74% of my matches are distant, meaning 20 cM or below, and yours probably are too. You’ll need that number later.
Note that 20 cM is Ancestry’s threshold between close matches and distant matches.
That’s about exactly where you’d expect, on average, to see a 20 cM match – generally at or further back than 4th cousins. 20 cM is roughly the 4th to 6th cousin level.
Of course, you won’t match most of your 5th cousins at all, yet you’ll match some with more than 20 cM. That’s just the roll of the genetic dice.
Closer ancestors (meaning closer matches) is also the area of genealogy where much of the lower-hanging fruit has been plucked.
In my case, the closest unknown ancestor in my tree occurs at the 6th generation level and I have 5 or 6 missing sixth-generation ancestors – all females with no surnames. Two have no names at all.
Click to enlarge any image
How Much DNA Do Cousins Share?
One of my priorities as a genealogist is to identify those unknown people, which is why matches, and shared matching at that level are critical for me.
Ancestry tells me that this 20 cM match is likely my 4th-6th cousin.
At DNAPainter, in the Shared cM Tool, you can enter the total cM number of a match, which is the total amount of DNA that you share after Ancestry’s Timber algorithm has been applied. The range of relationship probabilities for 20 cM is shown below.
For a total match of 20 cM with another individual, several relationships ranging between half 3C2R/3C3R and 8th cousins are the most probable relationships at 58%.
For the record, this is total cM, which does not necessarily mean one segment. Ancestry reports the number of segments, but Ancestry does not show you the segment locations, nor do they have a chromosome browser. Without a chromosome browser, you have no way of determining whether or not you match with shared matches on the same segment(s). In other words, there is no triangulation at Ancestry, meaning confirmation of a specific shared DNA segment descended from a common ancestor. You can find triangulation resources, here.
Close Matches
The best way to figure out how you are related to closer matches (assuming you don’t already know them and Ancestry has not found a common ancestor) is using shared matches. Hopefully, you will share matches with people you do know or with whom you’ve already identified your common ancestor.
One of my relatively close DNA matches at Ancestry is Lonnie. I don’t know Lonnie, but it looks like I should because he’s probably a 1st or 2nd cousin. We share 357 cM of DNA over 20 segments.
I thought I knew all of my 1st and 2nd cousins. Let’s see if I can figure out how I’m related to Lonnie.
By clicking on Lonnie’s name on my match list, then on Shared Matches, I can determine that Lonnie and I connect through my Estes and Vannoy lines based on who we both match, which means that our common ancestor is either my paternal grandfather or my great-grandparents, Lazarus Estes and Elizabeth Vannoy.
You can see the notes I’ve made about these matches I share with Lonnie.
Viewing Lonnie’s unlinked tree verifies the ancestral line that shared matches suggest. An unlinked tree means that Lonnie has not linked his DNA test to himself in his tree. Since Ancestry doesn’t know who he is in the tree, they can’t find a common ancestor for me and Lonnie. However, I can by viewing his tree.
Our common ancestor is Lazarus Estes and his wife, Elizabeth Vannoy. Therefore, Lonnie is my 2nd cousin.
That wasn’t difficult, in part because I had already worked on the genealogy of our common matches and Lonnie had a small unlinked tree where I could confirm our common ancestor.
Now let’s move to more distant, not-so-easy matches.
Distant Matches
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years identifying common ancestors with my matches.
When I make that connection, whether or not Ancestry has been able to identify our common ancestor, I make notes about common ancestors and anything else that seems relevant. Notes very conveniently show on my match list so I don’t need to open each match to see how we are related.
Ancestry does identify potential common ancestors using ThruLines. Note the word potential. Ancestry compares the trees of you and your matches searching for common ancestors and suggests connections. It’s up to you to verify. ThruLines are hints, not gospel. Additionally, you may have multiple ancestral links to your matches. Ancestry can only work with the fact that you have a DNA match with someone AND the user-provided trees of your matches.
Ancestry’s ThruLines only reach back a maximum of 7 generations to suggest common ancestors. At 7 generations distance, you’d be a 5th cousin to a descendant who is also 7 generations downstream from that ancestor.
The information from DNAPainter, who utilizes the Shared CM Project compiled data shows that the most likely amount of shared DNA for 5th cousins, is, you’ve guessed it – 20 cM.
Jacob Dobkins is my 7th generation ancestor. I have ThruLines for him and his wife, but not for their parents who are one generation too distant for ThruLines. I’d LOVE to see Ancestry extend ThruLines another 2 or 3 generations.
ThruLines matches me with people who descend from Jacob through his other children. Other children are important because the only ancestors you share with those people are (presumably) that ancestral couple.
Matches with Jacob’s descendants range from 8 cM (the smallest amount Ancestry reports) to 32 cM.
Here’s an example.
Ancestry displays some shared matches with all of your matches, regardless of the size of your match to that person. However, Ancestry ONLY shows shared matches to a third person if you share more than 20 cM of DNA with that third person.
For example, I match KO with 8 cM of DNA. Ancestry shows my shared matches with KO, below.
I only have 3 shared matches with KO. I only match KO at 8 cM, but I match our shared matches at 39, 31 and 21 cM, respectively.
Ancestry does NOT show shared matches below 20 cM, so it’s unknown how many additional shared matches KO and I actually have if shared matches less than 20 cM were displayed.
Perspective is Critical
Whether you see a shared match or not is sometimes a matter of perspective, meaning which of two people you request shared matches with.
In this case, I requested shared matches with KO. I only share 8 cM of DNA with KO, but that doesn’t matter. The amount of DNA you share with the person you’re requesting shared matches with is irrelevant.
Ancestry’s Shared Matches with KO include Ker
I will see shared matches with KO to anyone we mutually share as matches above 20 cM, including Ker.
If I request shared matches with Ker, with whom I share 39 cM of DNA, I will see all of our mutual matches at 20 cM (or greater) of DNA. However, that does NOT include KO because I only share 8 cM of DNA with KO.
This restriction applies regardless of how much DNA KO and Ker share, which is an unknown to me of course.
Ancestry’s Shared Matches with Ker does NOT include KO
Nothing has changed between these matches, yet KO does not appear on my shared matches list with Ker when I request shared matches with Ker.
I still share 8 cM with KO and 39 cM with Ker. KO and Ker still both match each other. The only difference is that Ker shows up on my shared match list with KO because I share more than 20 cM with Ker. However, when I request a match list with Ker, KO does NOT appear because I only share 8 cM with KO.
This is the source of the confusion and often, why people disagree about shared matches. It’s kind of a “now you see it, now you don’t” situation.
If a person shows as a shared match depends on:
Whether someone appears on a shared match list can literally be a matter of perspective unless the match and the shared matches all match the tester at 20 cM or larger.
Another Example
Let’s look at a larger match to a descendant of the same ancestor.
I share exactly 20 cM with Joyce, my 5C1R.
Viewing my shared matches with Joyce, I match 50 other people that she matches as well.
I only share 25 cM of DNA with the smallest match with Joyce. Apparently, there are no matches with Joyce with whom I share between 20 and 25 cM of DNA.
Bottom Line
Here’s the bottom line.
Ancestry NEVER shows any shared matches below 20 cM from the perspective of the tester, meaning people who match you and someone else, both.
If you recall our earlier math, that means that approximately 95.74% of my shared matches aren’t shown.
This puts shared matches in a different perspective because now I realize just how many matches I’m not seeing.
Why is This Confusing?
If you aren’t aware of this shared match limitation, and that a majority of your shared matches are actually below 20 cM, you may interpret shared match results to mean you actually DON’T share specific matches with that other person. That isn’t necessarily true, as we saw above with KO and Ker.
Furthermore, let’s say you manage your DNA kit plus 3 more, A, B and C. Because you manage all 4 kits, that means you can see the results for all 4 people.
From the perspective of YOUR kit, you will see some shared matches FOR all of those matches.
What you won’t see is shared matches if you don’t match the shared match (third person) at 20 cM or greater.
Always remember, shared match information at Ancestry is ALWAYS from the perspective of your DNA kit combined with the person with whom you request the match.
I’ve put this information in a grid because that’s how I make sense of things like this.
Here are your matches. When you click on shared matches with person A who you match at 10 cM, you’ll see both person B and person C as shared matches since you match both of those people at 20 cM or larger. You WILL see 20 cM shared matches, but you will not see 19 cM shared matches.
When you request shared matches for A, you will see both B and C.
When you request shared matches with kits B and C, you will not see A because you only match them at 10 cM.
However, from the perspective of DNA kits A, B and C, shared matches look different.
Let’s look at shared matches from the perspective of Kits A, B and C.
Kit A matches you, Kit B and C, but can only see Kit B as a shared match because matches with you and Kit C are under 20 cM.
Kit B doesn’t match C at all, so they clearly won’t have shared matches. However, they do match you and Kit A, both at 20 cM and over, so Kit B will see you as a shared match with Kit A, and Kit A as a shared match with you.
Kit C doesn’t match Kit B, so no shared matches with that person at all. Kit C does match you and Kit A. However, when Kit C clicks on shared matches for you, Kit A doesn’t show up because they only match Kit A on 9 cM. When Kit C clicks on Kit A for shared matches, you ARE listed as a shared match because you share 40 cM of DNA with Kit C.
There’s no way to discern whether two of your matches match each other unless they show as a match in the shared match tool. You can’t tell if their absence on the shared match list means they actually don’t match, or their shared match absence is because they match you at less than 20 cM.
Whew, that was a mouthful.
You may need to refer back to this from time to time if you’re confused by your shared matches at Ancestry.
If you need to remember rules, remember this.
Strategy
The takeaway of this is if you have a larger (20 cM or over) and smaller match (under 20 cM), always request shared matches from the perspective of the smaller match because the smaller match won’t show up as a shared match on any shared match list.
The only way you can see shared matches that includes people under 20 cM is to request to view shared matches with individual people who match you below 20 cM.
In my case, I will never see KO on any shared match list because I only match KO at 8 cM. However, I can request my shared matches with KO in which case I’ll see all 20 cM or greater shared matches with KO.
Alternatives
Every vendor provides a shared match feature, and each functions differently.
In the chart below, I’ve provided basic shared match information for each vendor.
If you’re interested in uploading your DNA file from Ancestry or another vendor, I’ve provided upload/download step-by-step instructions for each vendor, here.
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Dorcas (also spelled Darcus) Johnson was born about 1750 and died about 1835. We know she died in Claiborne County, Tennessee, but the location of her birth has always been assumed to be Virginia.
You know there’s already trouble brewing when you read that assume word, right?
Dorcas, in the early genealogies, was reported to be the daughter of Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Philips, but always a skeptic, I had my doubts. I’m working through the various options to prove or disprove that connection. I wrote about my initial findings, here.
What we do know, positively, about Dorcas is that she married Jacob Dobkins in Dunmore County, Virginia, in 1775. There’s no date listed, but it is shown between the September and October marriages.
Dunmore County was renamed as Shenandoah a few years later, so all of the early Dunmore County records aren’t “missing,” they are Shenandoah County records.
Dorcas and Jacob migrated to eastern Tennesee, probably before Tennessee was even a state n the 1790s, settling in Jefferson County on the White Horn Branch of Bent Creek, Near Bull’s Gap. By 1800, they had moved once again to the fledgling Claiborne County when it was first formed. Dorcas Johnson and Jacob Dobkins spent the rest of their lives in Claiborne County, Tennessee.
The Johnson Books
Peter Johnson’s descendants wrote several early books in the 1900s about that family, specifically focused on the child they descended from. More recently, Eric E. Johnson wrote a book where he distilled the earlier books and added a great deal of original research compiled over decades. Eric has very graciously shared and I am ever so grateful for his generosity.
Dorcas’s Siblings
Not all early books report the same children for Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Philips, so I’ve prepared a composite list of children, as follows:
Two other sources report Peter’s wife’s first name as Polly which is a well-known nickname for Mary. The only source for Mary Polly Phillips’ surname is the Solomon Johnson Bible.
Four additional daughters are reported with much less specific information available.
In the various Johnson books, two Johnson daughters are reported to have married Dobkins men, and indeed, that’s exactly what happened, but the first names don’t match exactly
If indeed Dorcas Johnson is the full sibling of Mary, Polly, Rebecca or Rachel Johnson, they would carry the same mitochondrial DNA passed to them from their mother – which they in turn would have passed on.
This means that if we can locate someone descended from those daughters through all females to the current generation (which can be male), their mitochondrial DNA should match at the full sequence level.
In summary, we know very little about Mary Polly Philips herself. We don’t know who her parents were, nor if she had siblings. We also don’t really know how many children, specifically daughters, she had.
Where Did Mary Polly Philips Come From?
One of the books reports that Mary Polly Philip’s son, Richard, born in 1746, also known as Derrie, was born in Amsterdam. We know this cannot be true because Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Phillips were already living in Antrim Township of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania by 1742 when he obtained a land grant.
However, since Derrie is a Dutch nickname for Richard, the story that Dorcas was Dutch, or spoke Dutch, may have originated from this nickname. This does beg the question of how Richard obtained that nickname.
The Pennsylvania Dutch settled heavily in Cumberland County where the couple is first found, so it’s possible that Mary Polly may have spoken German. Regardless, one of the family histories states that she didn’t speak English when she married Peter Johnson which raises the question of how they communicated.
Of course, this is confounding given that many early genealogies suggest or state that they were either Scottish, Scots-Irish or Welsh. One history suggests that Peter settled at Wilmington, Delaware, then lived at Head of Elk, Maryland which are both Swedish settlements.
Peter Johnson was supposed to have a brother James and they were both supposed to be from Scotland, with noble peerage, nonetheless.
And another report had Peter sailing from Amsterdam where he had been born.
Clearly these can’t all be true.
Bottom line is this – we don’t know anything about where either Peter or his wife’s families originated. The first actual data we have is Peter’s 1742 land grant in Cumberland County, PA, an area settled by both the Germans and Scots-Irish.
We have a real mystery on our hands.
Not to mention that we still don’t know positively that the Dorcas reported in Peter Johnson’s line who married a Reuben Dobkins is the same person as “my” Dorcas who married Jacob Dobkins. However, given the autosomal matches, I’m quite comfortable at this point, between both documentary and genetic evidence, in confidently adding Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Philips as Dorcas Johnson Dobkins’ parents.
Well, that is, unless someone or something proves me wrong.
One thing is abundantly clear, if Dorcas isn’t their daughter, she’s related to them in some fashion because many of Peter Johnson’s descendants and Dorcas Johnson Dobkins’ descendants match and triangulate when comparing autosomal DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA
Dorcas Johnson inherited her mitochondrial DNA from her mother, whoever that was, who inherited it from her mother, on up the line.
Mitochondrial DNA is never mixed with the DNA of the father, so it’s never divided or diluted. In other words, except for an occasional mutation, it’s passed intact from mothers to all of their children. However, only females pass it on.
In the current generation, males can take a mitochondrial DNA test so long as they descend through all females from the ancestor whose mitochondrial DNA is being sought. In other words, their mother’s mother’s mother’s line on up the tree through all mothers.
I’ve been fortunate enough to find two direct descendants of Dorcas Johnson Dobkins through all female lines (different daughters) who were kind enough to take a mitochondrial DNA test.
Not only did they match each other, they also matched other people at the full sequence level.
What did we discover?
Haplogroup
Dorcas’s descendants were determined to be haplogroup H2a1, a European haplogroup found dispersed widely across Europe.
This can put to rest any speculation about Native American heritage which often arises when a woman’s parents are unknown.
What Information Can Be Gleaned from the Haplogroup Alone?
Using the public mitochondrial DNA tree, we can see that H2a1 is found in 57 countries as identified by testers’ earliest known ancestor (EKA) entries.
This is one reason why it’s important to enter earliest ancestor information (under the gear when you mouse over your name in the upper right-hand corner, under Genealogy in Account Settings.)
But that’s not the only reason to enter as much information as possible. Everyone helps everyone else in genetic genealogy by providing complete information, or as complete as possible.
Matches
Dorcas’s descendants who took the mitochondrial DNA test have a total of 299 HVR1, HVR2 and Coding Region matches. Today, testers can only order the mtFull product which tests the entire 16,569 locations of the mitochondria. Years back, people could order a partial test that only tested part of the mitochondria, called the HVR1 (HVR=Hypervariable Region) or the combined HVR1 & HVR2 regions.
You can select to view matches at the full sequence level, or people you match at the HVR1 or HVR2 level which will include people who did not take the higher mtFull test.
While some people are inclined to ignore their HVR1 and HVR2 results, I don’t because I’m always on the hunt for someone with a common ancestor or other useful information who did NOT test at the full sequence level.
You just never know where you’re going to find that critical match so don’t neglect any potential place to find leads.
To begin, I’m focusing on the full sequence matches that have a genetic distance of 0. GD0 simply means those testers match exactly with no mutations difference.
My cousin has 9 exact matches.
Matilda Holt is Dorcas’s granddaughter.
I viewed the trees for the closest matches and added some additional info.
I viewed the trees, worked several back in time, and found a few other testers who also descend from Dorcas.
One match remains a tantalizing mystery.
Bobby’s line hits a dead-end in Claiborne County, Tennessee, but I cannot connect the dots in Dorcas’s line.
Evan Dobkins, Jacob’s brother who married Margaret Johnson lived in Washington County, VA until the 1790s, but reportedly died in Claiborne County about 1835. Bobby’s EKA could be a grandchild of Dorcas that is previously unknown. She could also be the granddaughter of Margaret Johnson who married Evan Dobkins. I traced his line back to a woman born in 1824 and noted as Catherine Brooks in her marriage to Thomas Brooks in 1847. The Brooks family were close neighbors and did intermarry with the Dobkins family.
I emailed my cousin’s other matches; Karen, Catherine, Leotta, and Betty, and heard back from only one with no information.
With no earliest known ancestor, no tree, and no reply, I’m stuck on these matches, at least for now.
Let’s take a look at the GD1 matches, meaning those with one mutation difference and see what we can find there.
GD1 Matches
My cousin has 36 GD1 matches, meaning one mutation difference. Might they be useful?
Hmmm, well, here’s something interesting. With one exception, these earliest known ancestors certainly are not English, Welsh or Scots-Irish. They also aren’t German or Dutch.
I attempted to build a tree for Sarah Anna Wilson who was born in 1823 and died in 1858, but without additional information, I quickly ran into too much ambiguity.
Maybe there’s better information in the rest of the GD1 matches’ earliest known ancestors.
These people all look to be…Scandinavian?
Let’s take a look at the Matches Map.
Matches Map
On the matches map, only a few of the 36 GD1 matches filled in the location of their earliest known ancestor. This can be done on either the matches map, or when you complete the earliest known ancestor information.
Exact matches are red, and GD1, 1 step matches, are orange.
All 10 of the GD1 matches that have completed their locations are found in Scandinavia, one in Denmark and Sweden, respectively, with the rest concentrated in Finland.
In fact, the largest cluster anyplace is found in Finland, with a second pronounced cluster along the eastern side of Sweden.
Generally speaking, the green 3-step matches would be “older” or more distant than the yellow 2-step matches that would be older than the orange one-step matches which would be older than the red exact matches.
What Does This Mean?
I’d surely like more data. Scandinavian testers are wonderful about entering their EKA information, as compared to many US testers, but I’d still like to see more. Some show ancestors but no location, and some show nothing evident.
I’m going to dig.
Where Can I Find More Info?
For each person, I’m going to utilize several resources, as follows:
Even just the email address of a tester can provide me with a country. In this case, Finland. If the tester lives in Finland today, there’s a good chance that their ancestor was from Finland too.
Sometimes the Ancestral Surnames provide locations as well.
Search everyplace.
Create A New Map
Using Google My Maps, a free tool, I created a new map with only the GD1 matches and the location information that I unearthed.
I found at least general (country level) locations for a total of 30 of 36 GD1 matches. Ten are the locations provided by the testers on the Matches Map, but I found an additional 26. All of the locations, with one exception, were found in either Finland or Sweden. One was found in Denmark.
Some locations were the same for multiple testers, but they did not have the same ancestors.
While I’m still missing 6 GD1 match locations, with one exception noted previously, the names of the matches look Scandinavian as well.
This message is loud and clear.
Dorcas’s ancestors were Scandinavian before they came to the US. There’s no question. And likely from Finland.
Thoughts
So, maybe Dorcas really didn’t speak English.
But if she didn’t speak English, how did she communicate with her Scottish or Scots-Irish or maybe Dutch husband? The language of love only suffices under specific circumstances😊
And how did they get to Pennsylvania?
But wait?
Didn’t one of the family histories suggest that Peter Johnson was from Wilmington, Delaware and then from Head of Elk, now Elkton, Maryland?
Weren’t those both Swedish settlements?
Head of Elk, Maryland
Sure enough, Head of Elk, Maryland was settled by Swedish mariners and fishermen from Fort Casimir, Delaware, now New Castle, in 1694 – just 15 miles or so upriver.
Here, moving right to left, we see Fort Casmir, Delaware, then Elkton, Maryland, followed by the location on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania where Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Philips settled in 1742.
One of those early Johnson books says that Peter Johnson spent some time in Frederick County, Virginia which would be near Winchester, Virginia, halfway between 1742 and 1775 on the map. However, many modern researchers discount that and presume that Virginia was mistaken for Maryland. The 1742 land bordered on and extended into Frederick County, Maryland.
However, since Dorcas Johnson married Jacob Dobkins whose father lived on Holman Creek in Dunmore County in 1775, and Rachel Johnson was supposed to have married a John Dobkins, and, Margaret Johnson married Evan Dobkins, Peter Johnson HAD to have spent at least some time in that location in 1775 if these were his daughters. Those girls were certainly not traveling alone during the Revolutionary War.
By 1780, Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Phillips were in Allegheny County, by Pittsburg where they spent the rest of their lives.
Their daughters had moved on to East Tennessee with their Dobkins husbands, assuming that indeed, Dorcas Johnson is the daughter of Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Phillips.
Conclusions Anyone?
I’m always hesitant to draw conclusions.
However, I would suggest the following:
How Can We Firm This Up?
The best way to verify that Dorcas Johnson descends from Mary Polly Phillips is to test another person who descends through all females to the current generation through a different daughter. If they are sisters, both descending from Mary Polly Phillips, their descendants’ mitochondrial DNA will match very closely if not exactly.
The only other potential daughters are:
That’s a whole lot of maybe.
Finding Rebecca and a mitochondrial DNA descendant would be a huge step in the right direction. The only record I can find that might be Rebecca is in December of 1821 when John Stephens’ will is probated in Boone County, KY with wife, Rachel, daughters Salley, Catharine, Rebecca, Mary, and Rachel who is encouraged to never go back to live with John Smith. Wonderful, a Smith – every genealogists nightmare.
If you descend from this couple, PLEASE get in touch with me!
It doesn’t look like this avenue is very promising, so let’s think outside the box and get creative.
Peter Johnson’s Y DNA
Given that Peter Johnson and Mary Polly Phillips were married, they assuredly had to be able to talk, so either she spoke English, or he spoke her Native tongue.
One of the stories about Peter’s family is that he was either Swedish or Dutch, and that his family was from the New Sweden settlement in America.
If this is accurate, then Peter Johnson would have Scandinavian Y and mitochondrial DNA. Since men don’t pass their mitochondrial DNA on to their offspring, that route is not available to us, but what about his Y DNA?
Is there a Y DNA test through a Johnson male descendant of Peter Johnson, and if so, what information does it convey?
Can we use the Y DNA test of a descendant of Peter Johnson to help confirm that Dorcas Johnson is the daughter of Mary Polly Philips? How would that work?
Stay tuned!
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Wow, the Wringing Every Drop Out of Mitochondrial DNA webinar yesterday was SO MUCH FUN. The lovely comments from attendees below the video say it all. Thank you to the 1800 or so people who signed up, joined us for the webinar and provided those kind reviews.
I’m so glad that folks are excited and already making breakthroughs using their mitochondrial DNA results.
In the webinar, I not only explained HOW mitochondrial DNA works and what your mutations and results mean, but shared some of my secrets of how to make mitochondrial DNA work harder for your genealogy.
Thanks to Legacy Family Tree Webinars, the webinar is still free for everyone through May 4th and can be viewed here.
Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll see.
The accompanying 34-page syllabus for the webinar is a feature of a paid membership.
Webinar Memberships Half Price
Legacy Family Tree Webinar memberships are currently half price, at this link, using coupon code 1750 for new members. Memberships are normally just $49.95 but right now, with the coupon code, a membership costs just $24 plus change for a full year. Your membership gives you access to all 1765 webinars in the library, and the library grows every week. The sale pricing ends Saturday, April 30th.
Here are a few of my other webinars available in the library.
The most popular webinar, though, is my Genealogy Case Study session with more than 27,000 views. That’s amazing to me. 27,000 is the size of some stadiums and EVERYONE is interested in DNA.
Mother’s Day DNA Mitochondrial DNA Sale
Sweetening the mitochondrial deal, the full sequence mitochondrial DNA test is on sale right now at FamilyTreeDNA for Mother’s Day for $139 (through May 9th) which represents a $20 savings.
Click here to learn more and order your mitochondrial DNA test or upgrade if you took an earlier test and you’d like to participate in the landmark, history-making Million Mito Project. When you order or upgrade to a full sequence mtFull test, your haplogroup results become part of the pool that will be utilized to create the new Mitotree through the Million Mito Project.
Build Your Genealogical DNA Pedigree Chart
Don’t forget, to build your DNA pedigree chart, you’ll need to find people to test for the mitochondrial DNA of the ancestors in your tree whose mitochondrial DNA you don’t carry personally.
Men and women both have their mother’s mitochondrial DNA, who has her mother’s, on up the tree in a straight matrilineal line, of course (pink arrow) – but testing your father will provide you with your paternal grandmother’s mitochondrial DNA.
In this chart, the colored hearts track back to the ancestors that color represents – in other words – that person’s matrilineal ancestors.
Who do you know among your current relatives that would be candidates to test to represent specific ancestors? First cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, your Dad? You only need one tester per ancestral line unless there is some uncertainty about the maternal genealogy of that line.
In the webinar, I discuss some of the methods I use to find testing candidates descended from a female ancestor through all women to the current generation, which can be men. Men can test because they have the mitochondrial DNA of their mothers, but men just don’t pass it on to their children. Only mothers pass it on.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Like I said in the webinar, you don’t know what you don’t know. I found an unexpected surprise in my own mother’s line and found a Native ancestor in another line when a cousin tested. I try to locate someone from every ancestral line and provide that person with a mitochondrial DNA testing scholarship.
Even if the match you desperately need to break through that brick wall isn’t there today, your mitochondrial DNA is waiting and fishing 24×7. That match may appear tomorrow or the next day. If you don’t test, that critical match might be waiting for you, but you’ll never know.
There’s no better time to order tests than when they are on sale. The mitochondrial DNA mtFull test normally costs $159 but is on sale, here for $139 now through May 9th.
__________________________________________________________
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Relatives for RootsTech is still available through March 25th, even though RootsTech, the event, is over for this year. (Obviously, the video sessions are still available.)
Relatives at RootsTech provides participants with the opportunity to see cousins, organized in different ways, including by ancestor, with a path for both of you drawn back to your common ancestors.
Be sure to fully utilize the Relatives at RootsTech connections to easily find cousins who descend appropriately to be testing candidates for Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA for your ancestors. I’ve included step-by-step instructions in this article along with a few hints I’ve discovered.
Just navigate to RootsTech, here, and scroll down to the relatives at RootsTech button.
Click that button, then on “view relatives” and voila, here you are.
FamilySearch has made this easy by displaying your relatives by ancestor, at least for several generations back in time. You can see how many of your cousins descend from any particular ancestor.
While my closest ancestors are showing few cousins, more distant ancestors further down my relatives list, (and further back in my tree,) have hundreds.
It’s Easy Peasy
Eventually, every single line brick walls. Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA are the ONLY types of DNA you can use that doesn’t divide in every generation and remains as reliable 10 or more generations ago as today. Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA are laser lights shining back through time. We need them for every single ancestral line to push beyond that brick wall, whenever and wherever we hit it.
I’ve spent time in the past few days fishing for cousins and messaging people who are good candidates to represent lines that I don’t have represented in my DNA pedigree chart.
In my own desktop software, I enter my ancestor’s haplogroup as a middle name. The * means I’ve written a 52 Ancestors series article about this person. (I don’t do this in public trees, just my own.)
I can see at a glance which ancestors don’t have haplogroups, which means I need to find cousins who descend appropriately to have inherited either the Y DNA or the mitochondrial DNA of that ancestor.
The blue boxes above represent the Y DNA inheritance path, and the red, mitochondrial inheritance. You can read more about Y and mitochondrial DNA inheritance paths, here.
Neither Y nor mitochondrial DNA are admixed with the DNA of the other parent, so it’s a rich source of information that never divides during meiosis. This gives us the ability to see far back in time without dilution.
Focus
I created a small spreadsheet so I wouldn’t lose track of whose DNA I’m looking for and the message I sent to various cousins.
By focusing only on ancestral lines I specifically need, I’ve eliminated a lot of busy work. Initially, I was going to record every cousin, but there are too many for me to be able to complete that task. Now I’m focused on:
Timesaving Hint
When searching in this manner, find your most distant ancestor on the relatives list in that line. For example, I only have two cousins on my Lazarus Estes list, but as I look at ancestors on up that Estes line, I have several more by the time you get to Moses Estes, 4 generations earlier. My two cousins who descend from Lazarus will ALSO be on the Moses Estes list – as will all the rest of my cousins who descend from Estes males between Lazarus Estes and Moses Estes.
Moving to the earliest ancestors in a line immediately saves you a heap of time because you don’t need to view your cousins in the closer generations.
Y DNA
Finding appropriate cousins for Y DNA is easy. They will generally carry the surname of the ancestor in question. If I’m searching for a descendant of Andrew McKee (c1766-1814), I’ll just look for McKee surname cousins on my list.
To see how your cousin descends from your common ancestor click on Relationship. A nice dual path is shown to your common ancestors.
I found a female, so I messaged her and ask if she has a father or brother or uncle who would be willing to test to represent the McKee Y DNA line.
In my message, I briefly explain how beneficial this would be for everyone in that line and might well help break down those upstream brick walls. Who were Andrew’s parents?
I don’t know now, but I’d surely know more after a Y DNA test. So would she!
In this next example, my cousin is male, and the last male shown descending from Andrew is Robert Clayton McKee. I “presume” my cousin descends through two upstream males, but sometimes that’s not the case. Either of those two greyed out people could be females. I’m always “gentle” in these messages and say that “It appears that you descend from Andrew through all males. FamilySearch conceals the identity of your closest generations for privacy.”
I ask my cousin to confirm how they descend and ask if they have tested or are interested in DNA testing. I also provide my email address and offer a testing scholarship.
Mitochondrial DNA
Locating mitochondrial DNA testing candidates takes slightly more effort, but can be VERY productive.
Let’s say I’m searching for a mitochondrial DNA candidate for Andrew McKee’s wife.
Notice, I said “wife” and did not mention her name. All we really know, from a deed signature releasing her dower right, is that her first name is Elizabeth. The reason I would be seeking her mitochondrial DNA is to figure out who her parents were.
At FamilySearch, Elizabeth has been assigned a full name, including surname, but there are no sources that provide her surname.
DO NOT DISREGARD THIS RECORD!
My first inclination is to disregard this record because there is no evidence that Barnes is Elizabeth’s surname, at least not that I’ve ever seen. If any reader has actual evidence, please do share.
However, in this case, we are searching for anyone descended from the wife of Andrew McKee, REGARDLESS OF HER NAME. Her name, in this context and for this purpose does not matter.
In other words, if we can find a candidate for Andrew’s wife’s mitochondrial DNA, we may then be able to determine if indeed she does match someone in the Barnes family line.
It’s very easy to skim your matches ancestral line. If you see any blue in their lineage, indicating a male in your cousin’s line, that’s an immediate “no,” so you can just proceed to the next cousin in your list.
Mitochondrial DNA is only passed from women to their children. Men don’t pass it on, so a male in that line is a blocker. Andrew McKee Jones, in this example, inherited his mother’s mitochondrial DNA, but his children inherited the mitochondrial DNA of their mother.
Fortunately, FamilySearch also identifies daughter or son when names are ambiguous.
Scholarships
I always offer a DNA testing scholarship at FamilyTreeDNA for the appropriate Y DNA or mitochondrial test. FamilyTreeDNA also offers their autosomal Family Finder test, of course, and I often include that test in the scholarship.
Other vendors do not offer Y and mitochondrial DNA testing. However, if your cousins have already tested autosomally at Ancestry, 23andMe, or MyHeritage, they can upload their DNA files to FamilyTreeDNA for free after you order their scholarship test. Step-by-step upload instructions can be found, here.
I always check to see if Y DNA and mtDNA testers’ matches are also autosomal matches. That too can provide valuable clues.
March 25th
Don’t wait. The Relatives at RootsTech tool is only available until March 25th. It will take you some time to review the lists, but it’s fun because it’s like mining for buried ancestral gold nuggets. Except it’s not just a game. There is real genealogical gold hiding there, just itching to be discovered.
If you message someone, or click on the contact button, they will be added to your list which remains available after March 25th.
Do you have ancestors whose Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA you need? Your gold-nugget cousin may be waiting for you!
_____________________________________________________________
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You’re always welcome to forward articles or links to friends and share on social media.
If you haven’t already subscribed (it’s free,) you can receive an email whenever I publish by clicking the “follow” button on the main blog page, here.
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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.
Thank you so much.
DNA Purchases and Free Uploads
Genealogy Products and Services
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The official dates of RootsTech 2022 were March 3-5, but the sessions and content in the vendor booths are still available. I’ve compiled a list of the sessions focused on DNA, with web links on the RootsTech YouTube channel
YouTube reports the number of views, so I was able to compile that information as of March 8, 2022.
I do want to explain a couple of things to add context to the numbers.
Most speakers recorded their sessions, but a few offered live sessions which were recorded, then posted later for participants to view. However, there have been glitches in that process. While the sessions were anticipated to be available an hour or so later, that didn’t quite happen, and a couple still aren’t posted. I’m sure the presenters are distressed by this, so be sure to watch those when they are up and running.
The Zoom rooms where participants gathered for the live sessions were restricted to 500 attendees. The YouTube number of views does not include the number of live viewers, so you’ll need to add an additional number, up to 500.
When you see a number before the session name, whether recorded or live, that means that the session is part of a series. RootsTech required speakers to divide longer sessions into a series of shorter sessions no longer than 15-20 minutes each. The goal was for viewers to be able to watch the sessions one after the other, as one class, or separately, and still make sense of the content. Let’s just say this was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done as a presenter.
For recorded series sessions, these are posted as 1, 2 and 3, as you can see below with Diahan Southard’s sessions. However, with my live session series, that didn’t happen. It looks like my sessions are a series, but when you watch them, parts 1, 2 and 3 are recorded and presented as one session. Personally, I’m fine with this, because I think the information makes a lot more sense this way. However, it makes comparisons difficult.
This was only the second year for RootsTech to be virtual and the conference is absolutely HUGE, so live and learn. Next year will be smoother and hopefully, at least partially in-person too.
When I “arrived” to present my live session, “Associating Autosomal DNA Segments With Ancestors,” my lovely moderator, Rhett, told me that they were going to livestream my session to the RootsTech page on Facebook as well because they realized that the 500 Zoom seat limit had been a problem the day before with some popular sessions. I have about 9000 views for that session and more than 7,400 of them are on the RootsTech Facebook page – and that was WITHOUT any advance notice or advertising. I know that the Zoom room was full in addition. I felt kind of strange about including my results in the top ten because I had that advantage, but I didn’t know quite how to otherwise count my session. As it turns out, all sessions with more than 1000 views made it into the top ten so mine would have been there one way or another. A big thank you to everyone who watched!
I hope that the RootsTech team notices that the most viewed session is the one that was NOT constrained by the 500-seat limited AND was live-streamed on Facebook. Seems like this might be a great way to increase session views for everyone next year. Hint, hint!!!
I also want to say a huge thank you to all of the presenters for producing outstanding content. The sessions were challenging to find, plus RootsTech is always hectic, even virtually. So, I know a LOT of people will want to view these informative sessions, now that you know where to look and have more time. Please remember to “like” the session on YouTube as a way of thanking your presenter.
With 140 DNA-focused sessions available, you can watch a new session, and put it to use, every other day for the next year! How fun is that! You can use this article as your own playlist.
Please feel free to share this article with your friends and genealogy groups so everyone can learn more about using DNA for genealogy.
Ok, let’s look at the top 10. Drum roll please…
Top 10 Most Viewed RootsTech Sessions
| Session Title | Presenter | YouTube Link | Views | |
| 1 | 1. Associating Autosomal DNA Segments With Ancestors | Roberta Estes (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IHSCkNnX48
|
~9000: 1019 + 500 live viewers + 7,400+ Facebook |
| 2 | 1. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 (part 1 of 3) | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FENAKAYLXX4 | 7428 |
| 3 | Who Is FamilyTreeDNA? | FamilyTreeDNA – Bennett Greenspan | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHFtwoatJ-A | 2946 |
| 4 | 2. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 (part 2 of 3) | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIllhtONhlI | 2448 |
| 5 | Latest DNA Painter Releases | DNAPainter Jonny Perl (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLBThU8l33o | 2230 + live viewers |
| 6 | DNA Painter Introduction | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpe5LMPNmf0 | 1983 |
| 7 | 3. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 (part 3 of 3) | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemY5TuLmGI | 1780 |
| 8 | The Tree of Mankind Age Estimates | Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjkL8PWAEwk | 1638 |
| 9 | A Sneak Peek at FamilyTreeDNA Coming Attractions | FamilyTreeDNA (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9sKqNScvnE | 1270 + live viewers
|
| 10 | Extending Time Horizons with DNA | Rob Spencer (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppXD1Zz2sQ | 1037 + live viewers |
All DNA-Focused Sessions
I know you’ll find LOTS of goodies here. Which ones are your favorites?
| Session | Presenter | YouTube Link | Views | |
| 1 | Estimating Relationships by Combining DNA from Multiple Siblings | Amy Williams | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs1U0ohpKSA | 201 |
| 2 | Overview of HAPI-DNA.org | Amy Williams | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjNiJgWaBeQ | 126 |
| 3 | How do AncestryDNA® Communities help tell your story? | Ancestry® | Ancestry | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNpUxonQO4 | 183
|
| 4 | AncestryDNA® 201 | Ancestry – Crista Cowan | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbqpnXloM5s
|
494 |
| 5 | Genealogy in a Minute: Increase Discoveries by Attaching AncestryDNA® Results to Family Tree | Ancestry – Crista Cowan | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqwSCO8Pvw | 369 |
| 6 | AncestryDNA® 101: Beginner’s Guide to AncestryDNA® | Ancestry® | Ancestry – Lisa Elzey | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N2usCR86sY | 909 |
| 7 | Hidden in Plain Sight: Free People of Color in Your Family Tree | Cheri Daniels | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUOcdhO3uDM | 179 |
| 8 | Finding Relatives to Prevent Hereditary Cancer | ConnectMyVariant – Dr. Brian Shirts | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpwLGgEp2IE | 63 |
| 9 | Piling on the chromosomes | Debbie Kennett | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e14lMsS3rcY | 465 |
| 10 | Linking Families With Rare Genetic Condition Using Genealogy | Deborah Neklason | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b94lUfeAw9k | 43 |
| 11 | 1. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FENAKAYLXX4 | 7428 |
| 12 | 1. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemY5TuLmGI | 1780 |
| 13 | 2. What to Do with Your DNA Test Results in 2022 | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIllhtONhlI | 2448 |
| 14 | DNA Testing For Family History | Diahan Southard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCLuOCC924s | 84
|
| 15 | Understanding Your DNA Ethnicity Estimate at 23andMe | Diana Elder
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT1OtyvbVHE | 66 |
| 16 | Understanding Your Ethnicity Estimate at FamilyTreeDNA | Diana Elder | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XosjViloVE0 | 73 |
| 17 | DNA Monkey Wrenches | Katherine Borges | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thv79pmII5M | 245 |
| 18 | Advanced Features in your Ancestral Tree and Fan Chart | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5Vf13ZoAc | 425 |
| 19 | DNA Painter Introduction | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpe5LMPNmf0 | 1983 |
| 20 | Getting Segment Data from 23andMe DNA Matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EBRI85P3KQ | 134 |
| 21 | Getting segment data from FamilyTreeDNA DNA matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWnxK86a12U | 169 |
| 22 | Getting segment data from Gedmatch DNA matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF11HEL8Apk | 163 |
| 23 | Getting segment data from Geneanet DNA Matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eclj8Ap0uK4 | 38 |
| 24 | Getting segment data from MyHeritage DNA matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGwOtqbg5E | 160 |
| 25 | Inferred Chromosome Mapping: Maximize your DNA Matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzd5arHkv64 | 688 |
| 26 | Keeping track of your genetic family tree in a fan chart | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Hcno7en94 | 806
|
| 27 | Mapping a DNA Match in a Chromosome Map | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61zQFBWaiY | 423 |
| 28 | Setting up an Ancestral Tree and Fan Chart and Exploring Tree Completeness | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJp5Xk1thg | 77 |
| 29 | Using the Shared cM Project Tool to Evaluate DNA Matches | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxhn9l3Dxg4 | 763 |
| 30 | Your First Chromosome Map: Using your DNA Matches to Link Segments to Ancestors | DNAPainter – Jonny Perl | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzd5arHkv64 | 688 |
| 31 | DNA Painter for absolute beginners | DNAPainter (Jonny Perl) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwUWW4WHwhk | 1196 |
| 32 | Latest DNA Painter Releases | DNAPainter (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLBThU8l33o | 2230 + live viewers |
| 33 | Unraveling your genealogy with DNA segment networks using AutoSegment from Genetic Affairs | Evert-Jan Blom | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVpsJSqOJZI
|
162 |
| 34 | Unraveling your genealogy with genetic networks using AutoCluster | Evert-Jan Blom | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTKSz_X7_zs | 201
|
| 35 | Unraveling your genealogy with reconstructed trees using AutoTree & AutoKinship from Genetic Affairs | Evert-Jan Blom | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmDQoAn9tVw | 143 |
| 36 | Research Like a Pro with DNA – A Genealogist’s Guide to Finding and Confirming Ancestors with DNA | Family Locket Genealogists | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYpLscJJQyk | 183 |
| 37 | How to Interpret a DNA Network Graph | Family Locket Genealogists – Diana Elder | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i83WRl1uLWY | 393 |
| 38 | Find and Confirm Ancestors with DNA Evidence | Family Locket Genealogists – Nicole Dyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGLpV3aNuZI | 144 |
| 39 | How To Make A DNA Network Graph | Family Locket Genealogists – Nicole Dyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLm_dVK2kAA | 201 |
| 40 | Create A Family Tree With Your DNA Matches-Use Lucidchart To Create A Picture Worth A Thousand Words | Family Locket Genealogists – Robin Wirthlin | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlRIzcW-JI4 | 270 |
| 41 | Charting Companion 7 – DNA Edition | Family Tree Maker | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2r9rkk22nU | 316
|
| 42 | Family Finder Chromosome Browser: How to Use | FamilyTreeDNA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0_tgopBn_o | 750
|
| 43 | FamilyTreeDNA: 22 Years of Breaking Down Brick Walls | FamilyTreeDNA | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/familytreedna-22-years-of-breaking-down-brick-walls | Not available |
| 44 | Review of Autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, & mtDNA | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJoQVKxgaVY | 77 |
| 45 | Who Is FamilyTreeDNA? | FamilyTreeDNA – Bennett Greenspan | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHFtwoatJ-A | 2946 |
| 46 | Part 1: How to Interpret Y-DNA Results, A Walk Through the Big Y | FamilyTreeDNA – Casimir Roman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra1cjGgvhRw | 684
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| 47 | Part 2: How to Interpret Y-DNA Results, A Walk Through the Big Y | FamilyTreeDNA – Casimir Roman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgqcjBD6N8Y
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259 |
| 48 | Big Y-700: A Brief Overview | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IefUipZcLCQ | 96 |
| 49 | Mitochondrial DNA & The Million Mito Project | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zppv2uAa6I | 179 |
| 50 | Mitochondrial DNA: What is a Heteroplasmy | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeGTyUDKySk | 57 |
| 51 | Y-DNA Big Y: A Lifetime Analysis | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6NEU92rpiM | 154 |
| 52 | Y-DNA: How SNPs Are Added to the Y Haplotree | FamilyTreeDNA – Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQaYcroRwY | 220 |
| 53 | Family Finder myOrigins: Beginner’s Guide | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrJNpSv8nlA | 88 |
| 54 | Mitochondrial DNA: Matches Map & Results for mtDNA | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtA1j01MOvs | 190 |
| 55 | Mitochondrial DNA: mtDNA Mutations Explained | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awPs0cmZApE | 340
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| 56 | Y-DNA: Haplotree and SNPs Page Overview | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOuVhoMD-hw | 432 |
| 57 | Y-DNA: Understanding the Y-STR Results Page | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCeZz1rQplI | 148 |
| 58 | Y-DNA: What Is Genetic Distance? | FamilyTreeDNA – Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ6wY6ILhfg | 149 |
| 59 | DNA Tools: myOrigins 3.0 Explained, Part 1 | FamilyTreeDNA – Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgY3F4-w78 | 74
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| 60 | DNA Tools: myOrigins 3.0 Explained, Part 2 | FamilyTreeDNA – Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7qU36bIFg0 | 50 |
| 61 | DNA Tools: myOrigins 3.0 Explained, Part 3 | FamilyTreeDNA – Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlGPm8BGyU | 36 |
| 62 | African American Genealogy Research Tips | FamilyTreeDNA – Sherman McRae | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdbkM58rXIQ | 153
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| 63 | Connecting With My Ancestors Through Y-DNA | FamilyTreeDNA – Sherman McRae | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbo1XnLkuQU | 200 |
| 64 | Join The Million Mito Project | FamilyTreeDNA (Join link) | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/join-the-million-mito-project | link |
| 65 | View the World’s Largest mtDNA Haplotree | FamilyTreeDNA (Link to mtDNA tree) | https://www.familytreedna.com/public/mt-dna-haplotree/L | n/a |
| 66 | View the World’s Largest Y Haplotree | FamilyTreeDNA (Link to Y tree) | https://www.familytreedna.com/public/y-dna-haplotree/A | link |
| 67 | A Sneak Peek at FamilyTreeDNA Coming Attractions | FamilyTreeDNA (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9sKqNScvnE | 1270 + live viewers
|
| 68 | DNA Upload: How to Transfer Your Autosomal DNA Data | FamilyTreeDNA -Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS-rH_HrGlo | 303 |
| 69 | Family Finder myOrigins: How to Compare Origins With Your DNA Matches | FamilyTreeDNA -Katy Rowe | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mBmWhM4j9Y | 145 |
| 70 | Join Group Projects at FamilyTreeDNA | FamilyTreeDNA link to learning center article) | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/join-group-projects-at-familytreedna | link
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| 71 | Product Demo – Unraveling your genealogy with reconstructed trees using AutoKinship | GEDmatch | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7_W0FM5U7c | 803 |
| 72 | Towards a Genetic Genealogy Driven Irish Reference Genome | Gerard Corcoran | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kx8qeNiVmo | 155
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| 73 | Discovering Biological Origins in Chile With DNA: Simple Triangulation | Gonzalo Alexis Luengo Orellana | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcVby54Uigc | 40 |
| 74 | Cousin Lynne: An Adoption Story | International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AptMcV4_B4o | 111 |
| 75 | Using DNA Testing to Uncover Native Ancestry | Janine Cloud | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edzebJXepMA | 205 |
| 76 | 1. Forensic Genetic Genealogy | Jarrett Ross | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0euIDZTmx5g | 58 |
| 77 | Reunited and it Feels so Good | Jennifer Mendelsohn | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-hxjm7grBE | 57
|
| 78 | Genealogical Research and DNA Testing: The Perfect Companions | Kimberly Brown | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X82jA3xUVXk | 80 |
| 79 | Finding a Jewish Sperm Donor | Kitty Munson Cooper | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKRjFfNcpug | 164 |
| 80 | Using DNA in South African Genealogy | Linda Farrell | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXkbBWmORM0 | 141 |
| 81 | Using DNA Group Projects In Your Family History Research | Mags Gaulden | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tX7QDib4Cw | 165 |
| 82 | 2. The Expansion of Genealogy Into Forensics | Marybeth Sciaretta | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcEO-rMe3Xo | 35
|
| 83 | DNA Interest Groups That Keep ’em Coming Back | McKell Keeney (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFwpmtA_QbE | 180 plus live viewers |
| 84 | Searching for Close Relatives with Your DNA Results | Mckell Keeney (live) | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/searching-for-close-relatives-with-your-dna-results | Not yet available |
| 85 | Top Ten Reasons To DNA Test For Family History | Michelle Leonard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B9hEeu_dic | 181 |
| 86 | Top Tips For Identifying DNA Matches | Michelle Leonard | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Oay_btNAI | 306 |
| 87 | Maximising Messages | Michelle Patient | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TRmn0qzHik | 442 |
| 88 | How to Filter and Sort Your DNA Matches | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmIgamFDvc8 | 88 |
| 89 | How to Get Started with Your DNA Matches | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOzhTxhU0E | 447
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| 90 | How to Track DNA Kits in MyHeritage` | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W0zBbkBJ5w | 28
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| 91 | How to Upload Your DNA Data to MyHeritage | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ4RoZOQafY | 82 |
| 92 | How to Use Genetic Groups | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtDAUHN-3-4 | 62 |
| My Story: Hope | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjyggKZEXYA | 133 | |
| 93 | MyHeritage Keynote, RootsTech 2022 | MyHeritage | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/myheritage-keynote-rootstech-2022 | Not available |
| 94 | Using Labels to Name Your DNA Match List | MyHeritage | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJjdw1xlsk | 139
|
| 95 | An Introduction to DNA on MyHeritage | MyHeritage – Daniel Horowitz | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I6LHezMkgc | 60 |
| 96 | Using MyHeritage’s Advanced DNA Tools to Shed Light on Your DNA Matches | MyHeritage – Daniel Horowitz | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pez46Xw20b4 | 110 |
| 97 | You’ve Got DNA Matches! Now What? | MyHeritage – Daniel Horowitz | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl3UVksA-2E | 260 |
| 98 | My Story: Lizzie and Ayla | MyHeritage – Elizbeth Shaltz | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQv6C8G39Kw | 147 |
| 99 | My Story: Fernando and Iwen | MyHeritage – Fernando Hermansson | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98-AR0M7fFE | 165
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| 100 | Using the Autocluster and the Chromosome Browser to Explore Your DNA Matches | MyHeritage – Gal Zruhen | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7aQbfP7lWU | 115
|
| 101 | My Story : Kara Ashby Utah Wedding | MyHeritage – Kara Ashby | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbr_gg1sDRo | 200 |
| 102 | When Harry Met Dotty – using DNA to break down brick walls | Nick David Barratt | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdnLuwWpJs | 679 |
| 103 | How to Add a DNA Match to Airtable | Nicole Dyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKxizWIOKC0 | 161 |
| 104 | How to Download DNA Match Lists with DNAGedcom Client | Nicole Dyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9zTWnwl98E | 124 |
| 105 | How to Know if a Matching DNA Segment is Maternal or Paternal | Nicole Dyer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zd5iat7pmg | 161 |
| 106 | DNA Basics Part I Centimorgans and Family Relationships | Origins International, Inc. dba Origins Genealogy | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI1yUdnSpHA | 372 |
| 107 | DNA Basics Part II Clustering and Connecting Your DNA Matches | Origins International, Inc. dba Origins Genealogy | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECs4a1hwGcs | 333 |
| 108 | DNA Basics Part III Charting Your DNA Matches to Get Answers | Origins International, Inc. dba Origins Genealogy | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzybjN0JBGY | 270 |
| 109 | 2. Using Cluster Auto Painter | Patricia Coleman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nfLixwxKN4 | 691 |
| 110 | 3. Using Online Irish Records | Patricia Coleman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZsB0l4z4os | 802 |
| 111 | Exploring Different Types of Clusters | Patricia Coleman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEZBFPC8aL4 | 972
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| 112 | The Million Mito Project: Growing the Family Tree of Womankind | Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpctoeKb0Kw | 541 |
| 113 | The Tree of Mankind Age Estimates | Paul Maier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjkL8PWAEwk | 1638 |
| 114 | Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA Testing Plans | Paul Woodbury | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akymSm0QKaY | 168 |
| 115 | Finding Biological Family | Price Genealogy | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xh-r3hZ6Hw | 137 |
| 116 | What Y-DNA Testing Can Do for You | Richard Hill | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a094YhIY4HU | 191 |
| 117 | Extending Time Horizons with DNA | Rob Spencer (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppXD1Zz2sQ | 1037 + live viewers |
| 118 | DNA for Native American Ancestry by Roberta Estes | Roberta Estes | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbNyXCFfp4M | 212 |
| 119 | 1. Associating Autosomal DNA Segments With Ancestors | Roberta Estes (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IHSCkNnX48
|
~9000: 1019 + 500 live viewers + 7,400+ Facebook |
| 120 | 1. What Can I Do With Ancestral DNA Segments? | Roberta Estes (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suv3l4iZYAQ | 325 plus live viewers
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| 121 | Native American DNA – Ancient and Contemporary Maps | Roberta Estes (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFTl2vXUz_0 | 212 plus 483 live viewers
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| 122 | How Can DNA Enhance My Family History Research? | Robin Wirthlin | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3KKW-U2P6w | 102 |
| 123 | How to Analyze a DNA Match | Robin Wirthlin | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTL8NbpROwM | 367 |
| 124 | 1. Jewish Ethnicity & DNA: History, Migration, Genetics | Schelly Talalay Dardashti | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIJyphGEZTA | 82
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| 125 | 2. Jewish Ethnicity & DNA: History, Migration, Genetics | Schelly Talalay Dardashti | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM3MCYM0hkI | 72 |
| 126 | Ask us about DNA | Talking Family History (live) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv_RfR6OPpU | 96 plus live viewers |
| 127 | 1. An Introduction to Visual Phasing | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNhErW5UVKU
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183 |
| 128 | 2. An Introduction to Visual Phasing | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRpQ8EVOShI | 110
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| 129 | Common Problems When Doing Visual Phasing | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzFxtBS5a8Y | 68 |
| 130 | Cross Visual Phasing to Go Back Another Generation | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrrMqhfiwbs | 64 |
| 131 | DNA Basics | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCMUz-kXNZc | 155 |
| 132 | DNA Painter and Visual Phasing | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eh1L4wOmQ | 155 |
| 133 | DNA Painter Part 2: Chromosome Mapping | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgOJDRG7hJc | 172 |
| 134 | DNA Painter Part 3: The Inferred Segment Generator | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ai8nM4lzo
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100 |
| 135 | DNA Painter Part 4: The Distinct Segment Generator | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu-WIEQ_8vc | 83 |
| 136 | DNA Painter Part 5: Ancestral Trees | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYDeFLduKA | 73 |
| 137 | Understanding Your DNA Ethnicity Results | Tanner Blair Tolman | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tAd8jK6Bgw | 518 |
| 138 | What’s New at GEDmatch | Tim Janzen | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjA59BG_cF4
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515 |
| 139 | What Does it Mean to Have Neanderthal Ancestry? | Ugo Perego | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DshCKDW07so | 190 |
| 140 | Big Y-700 | Your DNA Guide | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIFC69qswiA | 143 |
| 141 | Next Steps with Your DNA | Your DNA Guide – Diahan Southard (live) | https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/next-steps-with-your-dna | Not yet available |
Additions:
142 Adventures of an Amateur Genetic Genealogist – Geoff Nelson https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/session/adventures-of-an-amateur-genetic-genealogist 291 views
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