Mitochondrial DNA A–Z: A Step-by-Step Guide to Matches, Mitotree, and mtDNA Discover

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Roberta Estes

People have been asking for a step-by-step guide for mitochondrial DNA, and here it is!

This article steps testers through all their results, page by page, including a dozen Discover reports, explaining what the information in each tool means. There’s SO MUCH great content provided, and you’ll want to absorb every tidbit.

This is meant to be a roadmap for you – a recipe card to follow to get the most out of your results.

You can either read through this article once, then sign on to your own account, or sign on now and follow along. Yes, this article is long, but it’s also a one-stop shop when you want information about any page or feature. Refer back to this article as needed, and feel free to forward it to others when they receive their results.

I’ve also provided additional resources for you at each step of the way, along with many tips and suggestions to help you help yourself.

I’m using the LeJeune sisters of Acadia as my example – in part because there were several questions about their heritage – including whether they were actually sisters, whether they were Native American, and if a third woman was also a sister.

Think about why you tested, and what you hope to learn so you know where to focus.

Everyone has their own motivation for testing, and we all want to extract as much information as possible. Some answers are genetic – thanks to mitochondrial, Y-DNA, and autosomal testing. Some answers are historical and genealogical. All of them need to mesh nicely together and confirm each other.

When they don’t, if they don’t, we need to understand how to discern the truth.

Every Ancestor Has a Mitochondrial DNA Story to Tell You

Sometimes it’s not our own results we’re analyzing, but the results of another tester – a cousin whose mitochondrial DNA represents a particular shared ancestor. We aren’t restricted to just our own mitochondrial DNA to decipher our ancestors’ stories.

What messages and secrets do those ancestors have to tell us? Our results read like the very best mystery novel ever – except it’s not a novel – it’s fact. And it’s ours!

Mitochondrial DNA is only passed from mothers to their children, never admixed or combined with the DNA of the father, so your mitochondrial DNA today is either exactly the same as that of your ancestors a few generations ago, or very close if a mutation has occurred between when they lived and today’s tester.

One of mitochondrial DNA’s strengths is that it can reach far back in time, it’s message undiluted and uninterrupted by recombination.

The messages from our ancestors are very clear. We just need to understand how to hear what they are telling us.

Step-by-Step Soup to Nuts

We will analyze the mitochondrial DNA results of multiple testers who descend from the LeJeune sisters, Edmee and Catherine, born in 1624 and 1633, respectively, to see what they have to tell their descendants. For a very long time, rumors abounded that their mother was Native American, so we will keep that in mind as we review all matching, Mitotree and mtDNA Discover tools provided by FamilyTreeDNA.

We will also learn how to evaluate seemingly conflicting information.

Soup to nuts – we will incorporate every sliver of information along the way and extract every morsel that can help you. Think of this article as your recipe and the reports and information as ingredients!

To be clear, you don’t HAVE to read all of this or decipher anything if you don’t want to. You can just glance at the matches and be on your way – but if you do – you’re leaving an incredible amount of useful information on the table, along with MANY hints that you can’t find elsewhere.

If there was an out-of-print book about this ancestral line in a rare book collection someplace, as a genealogist, you would drive half-way across the country to access that information. This is your rare book, that updates itself, and you don’t have to do anything other than take a mitochondrial DNA test, or find a cousin to take one for lines you don’t carry..

Come along and join the fun! Your ancestors are waiting!

The LeJeune Question

Recently, I wrote about my ancestor Catherine LeJeune, who was born about 1633, probably in France before her family settled in Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia.

The identity of her parents has been hotly contested and widely debated for a long time.

I intentionally did not address her DNA results in that article because I wanted to establish the historical facts about her life and address her mitochondrial DNA separately. The process we are following to analyze her DNA results is the same process everyone should follow, which is why we are taking this step-by-step approach, complete with detailed explanations.

Often, when people hit a brick wall with an ancestor, especially during European colonization of the Americas, someone suggests that the person surely “must be” Native American. Lack of records is interpreted to add layers of evidence, when, in fact, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

For example, for many of the earliest French Acadians, birth and baptism records have NOT been located in France, where massive record loss has been experienced.

Additionally, not all records that do exist have been indexed, transcribed, or digitized. Many are damaged and/or nearly impossible to read. Lack of records does NOT mean that those settlers weren’t French, or in this case, it does NOT indicate that they were Native American. It simply means we are lacking that piece of evidence.

Enter mitochondrial DNA.

This article is focused on how to use mitochondrial DNA to decode these messages from our ancestors. I’m providing a very short summary of the relevant historical factors about the LeJeune sisters so readers can keep this in mind as we review the 17+ tools waiting for us when mitochondrial DNA results are ready.

The First Acadian Settlers

The Acadians were French settlers in what is today Nova Scotia. The first Acadians arrived in LaHeve (LaHave), on the southern coast of Acadia, in 1632 after Acadia was returned to France from English control. There may or may not have been any French families in the original group, but if so, very few. In 1636, another group of settlers arrived, but no LeJeune is on the roster.

At the end of 1636, the fledgling Acadian colony was moved from LaHeve, on the southern coast, to Port Royal, a more protected environment.

While we don’t know exactly when the family of Catherine and Edmee LeJeune arrived, we can bracket the dates. We know that Catherine’s sister, Edmee LeJeune, born about 1624, married another settler, Francois Gautrot, about 1644 in Port Royal, so they had arrived by that time.

Edmee’s 1624 birth year is important for two reasons. First, there were no French settlers in the part of Acadia that became Nova Scotia in 1624, so that clearly demonstrates that Edmee was born in France.

It’s unlikely that Catherine was born in Acadia in 1633 given that the first known families arrived in 1636, and we have their names from the ship roster. Pierre Martin was on the 1636 ship, and Acadian history tells us that his son, Mathieu Martin, was the first French child born in Acadia, about 1636, based on the 1671 census.

We also know that there was an early Acadian man, Jean LeJeune, who was granted land at BelleIsle, near Port Royal, among other Acadian families, but he was deceased before the first Acadian census in 1671. Acadia was under English control again from 1654 to 1670, so Jean LeJeune’s land grant had to have occurred after 1636 and prior to 1654, and is where Catherine LeJeune is found as an adult.

Another source of confusion is that there is a third LeJeune woman, Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard, born about 1659. Her daughter, Catherine Joseph’s 1720 marriage record in Port Royal refers to her mother, Jeanne, as being “d’un nation sauvagé”, giving her parents’ names as Francois Joseph and Jeanne LeJeune “of the Indian Nation.” Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard lived with her first husband in Port Royal, but had relocated to LaHeve by 1708.

You can see why this led to confusion about LeJeune females.

Another male, Pierre LeJeune was associated with LaHeve, which suggests he may have been awarded land there, possibly before the colony moved to Port Royal. One of the reasons that the rumor that Catherine LeJeune had a Native mother is so persistent is the belief that Pierre came over early, as a laborer or soldier, and married a Native woman because there weren’t any European women available.

Pierre may well have arrived as a single man, but there is no shred of evidence to suggest Pierre is the father of the sisters, Catherine LeJeune and Edmee LeJeune. In fact, given that Jeanne was born about 1659, Pierre, if he was her father, may have been born as late as 1627, which makes it impossible for him to have been Catherine and Edmee’s father.

That speculation was before the advent of DNA testing, and before Stephen White discovered that there was also a Jean LeJeune who was awarded land exactly where Catherine is known to have been living a few years later.

While it would be nice to unravel this entire cat’s cradle of confusion, the questions we are seeking to answer definitively here are:

Are Catherine LeJeune (born 1633) and Edmee LeJeune (born 1624) actually sisters?
Is the mother of Catherine LeJeune and her sister, Edmee LeJeune, Native American or European?
Is Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard, born about 1659, “d’un nation sauvagé” another sister of the LeJeune sisters?
What else is revealed about the LeJeune sisters and their ancestors? Is there something else we should know?

I’ll provide a summary of the combined evidence after our step-by-step mitochondrial analysis.

Testing for Sisters

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to all of their children, but only females pass it on.

Since we have two LeJeune females, believed to be sisters, we need mitochondrial DNA from direct matrilineal testers for each woman. This is particularly important because we know unquestionably that Edmee was born in France in 1624, prior to Acadian settlement in New France, so her DNA should be European. If they match, it means that Catherine was born to the same mother who was not Native. If they don’t match, there’s a different message.

In some cases, a match might mean that they were born to females related on the matrilineal line, like first cousins, for example. But in the early days of Acadia, there were no European females other than the handful, less than a dozen, who arrived on the Saint-Jehan in 1636.

Fortunately, we have multiple testers for each woman in two DNA projects at FamilyTreeDNA, the only DNA testing company that provides mitochondrial DNA testing and matching. Testers can join special interest projects, and both the Mothers of Acadia Project, and the Acadian AmerIndian Project have testers who descend from the LeJeune sisters.

I’ve identified 28 descendants of Catherine, and 25 from Edmee, giving us a total of 53 known matrilineal descendants to work with. Not all are shown publicly, in projects. Catherine has a known total of 14 testers, and Edmee has 17 that are shown publicly. All testers are members of haplogroup U6a7a1a.

The fact that the descendants of these women match each other, often exactly, combined with Catholic parish register dispensations for their descendants, when taken together, prove conclusively that Catherine and Edmee were sisters, not paternal half-sisters.

Let’s look at each piece of evidence.

Mitochondrial DNA Results

When the lab finishes processing the mtFull test, the results are posted to the account of the test taker.

Click on any image to enlarge

You’ll see the Maternal Line Ancestry section which displays your mitochondrial mtDNA Results.

The three tabs we will be primarily working with are:

mtDNA Matches
Matches Maps
Discover Haplogroup Reports, which includes another dozen+ reports and an updated Migration Map
Advanced Matching

At the bottom right of your page, you’ll see two haplogroup badges.

The one at right is called the “Legacy” haplogroup, which means the haplogroup you were assigned prior to the release of the new Mitotree.

The Mitotree mtDNA Haplogroup, with the green “Beta” at the bottom, is the new Mitotree haplogroup, which I wrote about in a series of articles:

Your old Legacy haplogroup will never change, because it’s the 2016 version that was not updated by the previous tree-keepers. That’s why the FamilyTreeDNA R&D team, me included, developed and birthed the new Mitotree. There were thousands of new haplogroups that could be defined to kick-start our genealogy, so we did.

The mitochondrial tree went from about 5000 branches to over 40,000 in the new Mitotree, each providing additional information to testers.

Not everyone received a new haplogroup, but about 75% of testers did, and another new Mitotree version will be released soon. In order to receive a new haplogroup, testers needed to:

Have at least one qualifying, stable mutation that had not been previously used to define a haplogroup
Match at least one other person in the same haplogroup branch with the same mutation(s)

In the case of the LeJeune sisters, there were no mutations that met all of the qualifications, so their known descendants did not receive a new haplogroup. That’s fine, though, because it’s not the name but the messages held by the information that’s important – and there’s a LOT to work with.

Let’s start with matches.

Matches

Of course, the first thing everyone does is click to see their matches.

The default is Detail View, but I prefer Table View (top left) because you can see more matches on the same page.

Catherine’s descendant whose matches are shown here has 108 Full Sequence matches, which are labeled as the “Coding Region.” The Coding Regions is the mtFULL test and includes both the HVR1 and HVR2 regions. Viewing Coding Region matches means they have taken the mtFull test, which sequences all 16,569 locations of the mitochondria.

When you click on the “Coding Region”, you are seeing matches to people who took all three test levels, not just the first one or two.

There are three test levels to view:

HVR1
HVR1+HVR2 both
Coding Region, which is in addition to the HVR1+HVR2 regions

You can no longer order three different test levels today, although at one time you could. As costs decreased, it no longer made sense to offer multiple testing levels, and often the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 results, which only tested about 500 locations each, would confuse people.

People at the lower HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 levels, known as mtPlus, can upgrade to the complete mtFull level, and should.

However, because some people only tested at those lower levels, matches are still shown at three levels, with different match thresholds for each level.

Matches at the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 levels *might* be entirely irrelevant, reaching back thousands of years. They could also be much more current, and critical to your genealogy, so don’t assume. Just one unstable mutation can cause a mismatch though, and at lower levels, cause you not to match someone with the same ancestor, which is why the full sequence test is so critically important.

For some testers, matches at lower levels sometimes provide the ONLY match to your known ancestor. So don’t skip over them. If you find a critical match there, you can email the tester to see if they will upgrade to the mtFull test.

People who test only at the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 level receive a more refined haplogroup after they upgrade, so the haplogroups between the HVR1/HVR2 testers and the full sequence test won’t match exactly. For the LeJeune sisters, the haplogroup for HVR1/HVR2-only testers is U6a and for full sequence testers, it’s U6a7a1a.

While full sequence matches are wonderful, if you’re searching for a particular ancestor and the ONLY place they appear is the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 testing levels, you’ll want to pursue the match. You may also want to evaluate lower level matches if their ancestors are from a specific location – like France – even if their earliest known ancestor (EKA) is not your ancestor.

To view your HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 matches, just click on either of those links. You’ll see ALL of the results, including everyone who took the full sequence test. In this case, that means that the 217 HVR1 (hypervariable region 1) results will include the 120 coding region (full sequence) tests. I’ve already looked through the full sequence matches, so that’s not what I want.

If you ONLY want to see testers who did NOT take the Full Sequence test, use the Filter option. Select Filter, then the features you seek.

Fortunately, the LeJeune sisters have lots of known descendants at the mtFull level to work with, so we will focus on their full sequence matches.

Your Focus

On the matches page, you’ll be immediately interested in two fields:

Maternal Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) – the direct matrilineal ancestor of your match – unless they got confused and entered someone else
Their Tree

Viewing the first several matches only produced one match to someone whose earliest known ancestor (EKA) is listed as Catherine or Edmee LeJeune, but perhaps the next group will be more productive. Note that females’ EKAs, earliest known ancestors, are sometimes challenging, given surname changes. So unfamiliar EKAs could represent generational differences and sometimes offer other hints based on their information.

Shifting to the detail view for a minute, you’ll want to review the genetic distance, meaning whether you’re an exact match or not.

If you’re not an exact match, a genetic distance of “1 step” means that you match except for one mutation at a specific location.

If you have a genetic distance greater than 3, meaning 4 mutations or more, you won’t be shown as a match on this match list. However, you can still be a haplogroup match, which we’ll discuss in the Discover section.

Essentially, with more than 3 mutations difference, it’s unlikely (but not impossible) that your match is genealogically relevant – meaning you probably won’t be able to identify your most recent common ancestor (MRCA).

However, that doesn’t mean that haplogroup-only matches can’t provide important clues, and we will look under every rock!

A Slight Detour – Confirmation Bias

This is a good place to mention that both ancestors and their location (country) of origin are provided by (some) testers to the best of their ability and understanding.

This tester selected “United States Native American” as the location for their earliest known ancestor. We don’t know why they entered that information. It could be that:

The tester did not understand that the maternal country of origin means the direct MATRILINEAL line, not just someplace on the maternal side
Selina Sinott was Native on her father’s side, or any line OTHER than her direct matrilineal line.
They relied on oral history or made a guess
They found the information in someone else’s tree
They found all of the LeJeune information confusing (because it is)

The tester has provided no tree, so we can’t do any sleuthing here, but an Ancestry search shows a woman by that name born in 1855 in Starksboro, VT to Louis Senott and Victoria Reya. A further search on Victoria leads me to Marie Lussier who leads me to Marguerite Michel who leads me to Marie Anne Lord (Lore, Laure), who lived in Acadia, whose ancestor is…drum roll…Catherine LeJeune. You get the idea.

Yes, you may need to extend other people’s trees.

The Point

However, and this is the point – if you’re looking for confirmation that the LeJeune sisters were Native American, this ONE tester who entered Native American for an unknown reason is NOT the confirmation you’re looking for. Don’t get sucked into confirmation bias, or into categorically believing what someone else entered without additional information.

You need haplogroup confirmation, but, in this case, you don’t have it. However, if you’re new to genetic genealogy, you don’t know that yet, so hold on. We’re still getting there. This is why we need to review all of the reports.

And trust me, I’m not being critical because there isn’t a single seasoned genealogist who has NOT fallen down the rathole of excited confirmation bias or accepting information without further analysis – me included. We all need to actively guard against it, all the time. Confirm and weigh all of the evidence we do have, and seek missing evidence.

Let’s go back to the match results.

Matches – Haplogroups and Haplotypes

Scrolling down the Table View, the next group of matches shows many more matches to descendants of both Catherine and Edmee LeJeune.

Next, you’ll notice that there’s a Mitotree haplogroup, U6a7a1a, AND an F number. In this case, they are both checked in blue, which means you share the exact same haplogroup with that tester, and the exact same haplotype cluster, which is the F number.

I wrote about haplotype clusters, here.

If NEITHER box is checked, you don’t share either the haplogroup nor the haplotype cluster.

You can match the haplogroup, but not the haplotype cluster, which means the haplogroup box will be checked, but the haplotype cluster will not. If you share the same haplotype cluster, you WILL share the same haplogroup, but the reverse is not true.

What is a Haplotype Cluster, and why do they matter?

Haplotype Clusters

We need to talk about exact matches and what they mean. Yes, I know it seems intuitive, but it isn’t.

There are three types of matches

Matching and Genetic Distance on your Match List
Haplotype matching
Haplogroup matching

Without getting (too much) into the weeds, an Exact Match in the Genetic Distance column on your match list excludes locations 309 and 315 because they are too unstable to be considered reliable for matching. So, 309 and 315 are EXCLUDED from this type of matching. In other words, you may or may not match at either or both of those locations. They are ignored for matching on your match list.

Locations 309 and 315 are also EXCLUDED from haplogroup definitions.

A haplotype F cluster match indicates that everyone in that cluster is an exact match, taking into consideration EVERY mutation, INCLUDING 309 and 315.

	309 and 315	Why
Matching and Genetic Distance	Excluded	Unstable, probably not genealogically relevant and may be deceptive, leading you down a rathole
Haplogroup Definition	Excluded	Too unstable for tree branching and definition
Haplotype F Clusters	Included	Might be genealogically useful, so everyone can evaluate the rathole for themselves

Some people think that if they don’t match someone exactly, they can’t have the same ancestor as people who do match exactly, but that’s not true. “Mutations happen” whenever they darned well please. Downstream mutations in stable locations that match between two or more testers will form their own haplogroup branch.

The most distant matches are shown on the last match page, and as you can see below, some descendants of Catherine and Edmee LeJeune have a 1-step difference with our tester, meaning a genetic distance of one, or one mutation (disregarding 309 and 315). One match has a 2-step mutation.

The fact that their F numbers are not the same tells you that their mutations are different from each other, too. If two of those people also matched each other, their F# would be identical.

The mutations that do not (yet) form a haplogroup, and are included in your haplotype cluster, are called Private Variants, and you cannot see the private variants of other people. Clearly, you and anyone in your haplotype cluster share all of the same mutations, including Private Variants.

Evaluating Trees and EKAs

By reviewing the matches, their EKAs, and the trees for the matches of Catherine’s descendants, I was able to create a little mini-tree of sorts. Keep in mind that not everyone with an EKA has a tree, and certainly not everyone who uploaded a tree listed an EKA. So be sure to check both resources. Here’s how to add your EKA, and a one-minute video, here.

The good news is that if your match has a WikiTree link when you click on their tree icon, you know their tree actually reaches back to either Edmee or Catherine if that’s their ancestor, and you’re not dealing with a frustrating, truncated two or three-generation tree, or a private tree. You can add your WikiTree link at FamilyTreeDNA here, in addition to any other tree you’ve linked.

Takeaways from Matches

You can identify your common ancestor with other testers. By viewing people’s trees and emailing other testers, you can often reconstruct the trees from the tester back through either Catherine or Edmee LeJeune.
Your primary focus should be on the people in your haplotype cluster, but don’t neglect other clusters where you may find descendants of your ancestor.
If you see a male EKA name, or something other than a female name in the EKA field, like a location, the tester was confused. Only females pass their mitochondrial DNA to their descendants.
If you’re searching for an ancestor whose mitochondrial DNA you don’t carry, use projects and WikiTree to see if you can determine if someone has tested from that line. From viewing the project results, I already knew that the LeJeune sisters had several descendants who had tested.
If you’re searching for your ancestor on your match list, and you don’t find them in the full sequence results, use the filter to view people who ONLY took the HVR1 and HVR1+HVR2 tests to see if the results you seek are there. They won’t be on your full sequence match list because they didn’t test at that level. Testers at the lower levels will only have a partial, estimated haplogroup – in this case, U6a.
For Edmee and Catherine LeJeune, we have enough testers to ensure that we don’t have just one or two people with the same erroneous genealogy. If you do find someone in a project or at WikiTree claiming descent from the same ancestor, but with a different haplogroup, you’ll need to focus on additional research to verify each step for all testers.

Resources:

Matches Maps

The Matches Map is a great visual resource. That “picture is worth 1000 words” tidbit of wisdom definitely applies here.

Clicking on the Matches Maps displays the locations that your matches entered for their EKA.

In the upper left-hand corner, select “Full Sequence,” and only the full sequence matches will be displayed on the map. All full sequence testers also have HVR1/HVR2 results, so those results will be displayed under that selection, along with people who ONLY took the HVR1 or HVR1/HVR2 tests.

We know that the Acadians originally came from France, and their descendants were forcibly expelled from Nova Scotia in 1755. Families found themselves scattered to various locations along the eastern seaboard, culminating with settlements in Louisiana, Quebec, and in some cases, back in France, so this match distribution makes sense in that context.

Be sure to enlarge the map in case pins are on top of or obscuring each other.

Some people from other locations may be a match, too. Reviewing their information may assist with breaking down the next brick wall. Sometimes, additional analysis reveals that the tester providing the information was confused about what to complete, e.g., male names, and you should disregard that pin.

Takeaways from the Matches Map

These results make sense for the LeJeune sisters. I would specifically look for testers with other French EKAs, just in case their information can provide a (desperately needed) clue as to where the LeJeune family was from in France.

Reviewing other matches in unexpected locations may provide clues about where ancestors of your ancestor came from, or in this case, where descendants of the LeJeune sisters wound up – such as Marie Josephe Surette in Salem, Massachusetts, Catherine LeJeune’s great-granddaughter.
Finding large clusters of pins in an unexpected location suggests a story waiting to be uncovered. My matrilineal ancestor was confirmed in church records in Wirbenz, Germany, in 1647 when she married, but the fact that almost all of my full sequence matches are in Scandinavia, clustered in Sweden and Norway, suggests an untold story, probably involving the 30 Years War in Germany that saw Swedish troop movement in the area where my ancestor lived.
For my own mitochondrial DNA test, by viewing trees, EKAs, and other hints, including email addresses, I was able to identify at least a country for 30 of 36 full sequence matches and created my own Google map.
You can often add to the locations by creating your own map and including everyone’s results.

Resources:

Mitochondrial DNA Part 4 – Techniques for Doubling Your Useful Matches

Mitochondrial DNA Myth – Mitochondrial DNA is not Useful because the Haplogroups are “Too Old”

Before we move to the Discover Reports, I’m going to dispel a myth about haplogroups, ages, genealogical usefulness, and most recent common ancestors known as MRCAs.

Let me start by saying this out loud. YES, MITOCHONDRIAL DNA IS USEFUL FOR GENEALOGY and NO, OLDER HAPLOGROUPS DO NOT PREVENT MITOCHONDRIAL DNA FROM BEING USEFUL.

Here’s why.

The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is the person who is the closest common ancestor of any two people.

For example, the mitochondrial DNA MRCA of you and your sibling is your mother.

For your mother and her first cousin, the mitochondrial MRCA is their grandmother on the same side, assuming they both descend from a different daughter. Both daughters carry their mother’s undiluted mitochondrial DNA.

A common complaint about mitochondrial DNA is that “it’s not genealogically useful because the haplogroups are so old” – which is absolutely untrue.

Let’s unravel this a bit more.

The MRCA of a GROUP of people is the first common ancestor of EVERY person in the group with each other.

So, if you’re looking at your tree, the MRCA of you, your sibling, and your mother’s 1C in the example above is also your mother’s grandmother, because your mother’s grandmother is the first person in your tree that ALL of the people in the comparison group descend from.

Taking this even further back in time, your mother’s GGG-grandmother is the MRCA for these five people bolded, and maybe a lot more descendants, too.

At that distance in your tree, you may or may not know the name of the GGG-grandmother and you probably don’t know all of her descendants either.

Eventually, you will hit a genealogical brick wall, but the descendants of that unknown “grandmother” will still match. You have NOT hit a genetic brick wall.

A haplogroup name is assigned to the woman who had a mutation that forms a new haplogroup branch, and she is the MRCA of every person in that haplogroup and all descendant haplogroups.

However, and this is important, the MRCA of any two people, or a group of people may very well be downstream, in your tree, of that haplogroup mother.

As you can clearly see from our example, there are four different MRCAs, depending on who you are comparing with each other.

Mom – MRCA of you and your sibling
Grandmother – MRCA of you, your sibling, your mom and your mom’s 1C
GGG-Grandmother – MRCA of all five bolded descendants
Haplogroup formation – MRCA of ALL tested descendants, and all downstream haplogroups, many of whom are not pictured

Many of the testers may, and probably do, form haplotype clusters beneath this haplogroup.

When you are seeking a common ancestor, you really don’t care when everyone in that haplogroup was related, what you seek is the common ancestor between you and another person, or group of people.

If the haplogroup is formed more recently in time, it may define a specific lineage, and in that case, you will care because that haplogroup equates to a woman you can identify genealogically. For example, let’s say that one of Catherine LeJeune’s children formed a specific haplogroup. That would be important because it would be easy to assign testers with that haplogroup to their appropriate lineage. That may well be the case for the two people in haplogroup U6a7a1a2, but lack of a more recent haplogroup for the other testers does not hinder our analysis or reduce mitochondrial DNA’s benefits.

That said, the more people who test, the more possibilities for downstream haplogroup formation. Currently, haplogroup U6a7a1a has 34 unnamed lineages, just waiting for more testers.

Haplogroup ages are useful in a number of ways, but haplogroup usefulness is IN NO WAY DEPRICATED BY THEIR AGE. The haplogroup age is when every single person in that haplogroup shares a common ancestor. That might be useful to know, but it’s not a barrier to genealogy. Unfortunately, hearing that persistent myth causes people to become discouraged, give up and not even bother to test, which is clearly self-defeating behavior. You’ll never know what you don’t know, and you won’t know if you don’t test. That’s my mantra!

The LeJeune sisters provide a clear example.

OK, now on to Discover.

mtDNA Discover

Next, we are going to click through from the mtDNA Results and Tools area on your personal page to Discover Haplogroup Reports. These reports are chapters in your own personal book, handed down from your ancestors.

Discover is also a freely available public tool, but you’ll receive additional and personalized information by clicking through when you are signed into your page at FamilyTreeDNA. Only a subset is available publicly.

mtDNA Discover was released with the new Mitotree and provides fresh information weekly.

Think of Discover as a set of a dozen reports just for your results, with one more, Globetrekker, an interactive haplogroup map, coming soon.

Resources:

When you click through to Discover from your results, Discover defaults to your haplogroup. In this case, that’s U6a7a1a for the LeJeune sisters.

Let’s begin with the first report, Haplogroup Story.

Haplogroup Story

The Haplogroup Story is a landing page that summarizes information about your ancestor’s haplogroup relevant to understanding your ancestor’s history. Please take the time to actually READ the Discover reports, including the information buttons, not just skim them.

Think of Discover as your own personalized book about your ancestors – so you don’t want to miss a word.

You’ll see facts on the left, each one with a little “i” button. Click there or mouse over for more information about how that fact was determined.

When we’re talking about haplogroup U6a7a1a, it sounds impersonal, but we’re really talking about an actual person whose name, in this case, we will never know. We can determine the ancestor of some haplogroups that formed within a genealogical timeframe. The LeJeune ancestor in question is the person in whose generation the final mutation in a long string of mutations created the final “a” in haplogroup U6a7a1a.

Think of these as a long line of breadcrumbs. By following them backwards in time and determining when and where those breadcrumbs were dropped, meaning when and where the mutation occurred, we begin to understand the history of our ancestor – where she was, when, and which cultures and events shaped her life.

U6a7a1a was formed, meaning this ancestor was born, about 50 CE, so about 1950 years ago. This means that the ancestor of ANY ONE PERSON with this haplogroup could have lived anytime between the year 50 CE and the year of their mother’s birth.

This is VERY important, because there is an incredible amount of misunderstanding about haplogroup ages and what they mean to you.

The year 50 CE is the year that the common ancestor of EVERY PERSON in the haplogroup was born, NOT the year that the common ancestor of any two or more people was born.

By way of illustration, the LeJeune sisters were born in about 1624 and 1633, respectively, not 50 CE, and their most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is their mother, who would have been born between about 1590 and 1608, based on their birth years.

For reference, I’ve created this genealogical tree from individuals who took the mitochondrial DNA test and have identified their mitochondrial lineage on the LeJeune mother’s profile at Wikitree

You can see that both Edmee and Catherine have mitochondrial DNA testers through multiple daughters. I’ve color coded the MRCA individuals within each group, and of course their mother is the MRCA between any two people who each descend from Edmee and Catherine.

Mitochondrial DNA matches to the LeJeune sisters’ descendants could be related to each other anywhere from the current generation (parent/child) to when the haplogroup formed, about 50 CE.

You can easily see that all of these testers, even compared with their most distant relatives in the group, share a common ancestor born between 1590 and about 1608. Other people when compared within the group share MCRAs born about 1717 (blue), 1778 (peach), 1752 (green), 1684 (pink), 1658 (mustard), and 1633 (red).

Soooooo…a haplogroup born in 50 CE does NOT mean that you won’t be able to find any genealogical connection because your common ancestor with another tester was born more than 1900 years ago. It means that the common ancestor of EVERYONE who is a member of haplogroup U6a7a1a (and downstream haplogroups) was born about 50 CE.

The parent haplogroup of U6a7a1a is haplogroup U6a7a1, which was born about 1450 BCE, or about 3450 years ago.

In the graphic, I’ve shown other unknown genealogical lineages from U6a7a1 and also downstream haplogroups.

Haplogroup U6a7a1 is the MRCA, or most recent common ancestor of haplogroup U6a7a1a, and anyone who descends from haplogroup U6a7a1 or any of the 23 downstream lineages from U6a7a1, including 5 descendant haplogroups and 18 unnamed lineages.

The LeJeune haplogroup, U6a7a1a, has 35 descendant lineages. One downstream haplogroup has already been identified – U6a7a1a2 – which means two or more people share at least one common, stable, mutation, in addition to the mutations that form U6a7a1a. Thirty-four other lineages are as yet unnamed.

The fact that there are 34 unnamed lineages means that people with one or more private variants, or unique mutations, are candidates for a new branch to form when someone else tests and matches them, including those variants.

You’re a candidate for a new haplogroup in the future if no one else matches your haplotype cluster number, or, potentially, as the tree splits and branches upstream.

When a second person in a lineage tests, those two people will not only share a common haplotype cluster F#, they will share a new haplogroup too if their common mutation is not excluded because it’s unstable and therefore unreliable.

There are 127 members of haplogroup U6a7a1a today, and their EKAs are noted as being from France, Canada, the US, and other countries that we’ll view on other pages.

Haplogroup U6a7a1a has been assigned two Discover badges:

Imperial Age – “an age noted for the formation and global impact of expansive empires in many parts of the world.” In other words, colonization, which is certainly true of the French who battled with the English to colonize New England, Acadia, and New France.
mtFull Confirmed (for testers only)

Additionally, the LeJeune sisters have one Rare Notable Connection, and three Rare Ancient Connections, all of which may shed light on their history.

Takeaways from the Haplogroup Story

The Haplogroup Story provides an overview of the haplogroup
You can easily see how many testers fall into this haplogroup and where they have indicated as the origin of their matrilineal line.
The haplogroup may have several new haplogroup seeds – 34 in this case – the number of unnamed lineages
You can share this or other Discover pages with others by using the “share page” link in the upper right-hand corner.
Don’t be discouraged by the age of the haplogroup, whether it’s recent or older.

Next, let’s look at Country Frequency.

Country Frequency

Country Frequency shows the locations where testers in haplogroup U6a7a1a indicate that their EKA, or earliest known matrilineal ancestor, is found. The Country Frequency information is NOT limited to just your matches, but all testers in haplogroup U6a7a1a, some of whom may not be on your match list. Remember, only people with 3 mutations difference, or fewer, are on your match list.

Haplogroup distribution around the world is very informative as to where your ancestors came from.

There are two tabs under Country Frequency, and I’d like to start with the second one – Table View.

Table View displays all of the user-provided country locations. Note that the Haplogroup Frequency is the percentage of total testers in which this haplogroup is found in this particular country. These frequencies are almost always quite small and are location-based, NOT haplogroup based.

There are now 40,000 haplogroups, and in haplogroup U, the LeJeune sisters are 6 branches down the tree with U6a7a1a.

In total, 127 testers are members of haplogroup U6a7a1a, and 42 of those claim that their ancestor is from France, which comprises 1% of the people who have taken the full sequence mitochondrial DNA test whose ancestor is from that location.

Let’s do the math so you can see how this is calculated and why it’s typically so small. For our example, let’s say that 8000 people in the database have said their matrilineal ancestor is from France. Of the 127 haplogroup U6a7a1a members, 42 say their ancestor is from France. Divide 42 by 8,000, which is 0.00525, and round to the nearest percentage – which is 1%.

The best aspect of this page is that you can see a nice summary of the locations where people indicate that their earliest known U6a7a1a ancestor was found.

Please note that the last entry, “Unknown Origins,” is the bucket that everyone who doesn’t provide a location falls into. That row is not a total but includes everyone who didn’t provide location information.

These location results make sense for the LeJeune sisters – maybe except for Ireland and Belgium. Some people don’t understand the directions, meaning that a matrilineal ancestor or direct maternal ancestor is NOT your literal “oldest” ancestor on your mother’s side of the tree who lived to be 105, but your mother-to-mother-to-mother-to-mother ancestor, so check to see if these people with unusual locations are in your match list and view their tree or reach out to them.

We don’t know why the person who selected Native American made that choice, but I’d bet it has to do with confusion about the “other” LeJeune female, Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard. Based on Catherine and her sister, Edmee LeJeune’s haplogroup through more than 50 testers, U6a7a1a, Native is incorrect.

Of course, that tester wouldn’t have known that if they completed their EKA information before they tested. Perhaps they entered information based on the stories they had heard, or flawed genealogy, and didn’t think to go back and correct it when their results were ready, indicating that Native was mistaken.

On the “Map View” tab, the locations are shown using a heat map, where the highest percentages are the darkest. Here, both France and Canada are the darkest because that’s the most common selection for this haplogroup with 1% each, while the rest of the countries registered with less <1%.

These colors are comparative to each other, meaning that there is no hard and fast line in the sand that says some percentage or greater is always red.

To summarize these two tables, because this is important:

The Table View shows you how many people selected a specific country for their ancestor’s location, but the frequency is almost always very low because it’s based on the total number of testers in the entire database, comprised of all haplogroups, with ancestors from that country.
The Map View shows you a heat map for how frequently a particular location was selected, as compared to other locations, for this haplogroup.

To view the difference between adjacent haplogroups, I always compare at least one haplogroup upstream. In this case, that’s the parent haplogroup, U6a7a1.

The Parent Haplogroup

If you look at haplogroup U6a7a1, just one haplogroup upstream, you’ll see that for Mauritania, the total number of U6a7a1 descendants tested is only “1”, but the haplogroup frequency in Mauritania is 10% which means that there are only 10 people who have been tested in the database altogether from Mauritania – and one person is haplogroup U6a7a1.

However, due to substantial under-sampling of the Mauritania population, the frequency for Mauritania, 10%, is higher than any other location.

Also, remember, these are user-reported ancestor locations, and we have no idea if or how these people determined that their ancestor is actually from Mauritania.

Please only enter actual known locations. For example, we don’t want haplogroup U6a7a1 members to look at this informatoin, then add Mauritania as their location because now they “know” that their ancestor is from Mauritania.

On the Map View, Mauritania is dark red because the percentage is so high – never mind that there are only 10 testers who report matrilineal ancestors from there, and only one was U6a7a1.

This map illustrates one reason why taking the full sequence test is important. Viewing partial haplogroups can be deceiving.

Catherine and Edmee LeJeune’s matrilineal descendants who only tested at the HVR1 or HVR1+HVR2 level receive a predicted haplogroup of U6a, born about 21,000 years ago. That’s because the full 16,569 locations of the mitochondria need to be tested in order to obtain a full haplogroup, as opposed to about 500 locations in the HVR1 and HVR1/2, each, respectively.

U6a – The Result for HVR1/HVR2-Only Testers

So, let’s look at what haplogroup U6a reveals, given that it’s what early LeJeune descendants who ordered the lower-level tests will see.

In the Table View for U6a, below, you see that the top 5 counties listed by haplogroup frequency are five North African countries.

A total of 801 people are assigned to haplogroup U6a, meaning the majority, 757, report their ancestors to be from someplace else. If two people from the Western Sahara (Sahrawi) comprise 67% of the people who tested, we know there are only three people who have tested and selected that location for their ancestors.

If you didn’t understand how the display works, you’d look at this report and see that the “top 5” countries are North African, and it would be easy to interpret this to mean that’s where Catherine and Edmee’s ancestors are from. That’s exactly how some people have interpreted their results.

Scrolling on down the Table View, 50 testers report France, and 10 report the US, respectively, with France showing a Haplogroup Frequency of 1% and the US <1%.

The balance of U6a testers’ ancestors are from a total of 57 other countries, plus another 366 who did not select a location. Not to mention that U6a was born 21,000 years ago, and a lot has happened between then and the 1620/1630s when Catherine and Edmee were born to a French mother.

The real “problem” of course is that haplogroup U6a is only a partial haplogroup.

The U6a map shows the highest frequency based on the number of testers per country, which is why it’s dark red, but the Table View reports that the actual number of U6a testers reporting any specific country. France has 50. Next is the US, also with 50, which often means people are brick-walled here. You can view the U6a table for yourself, here.

Why is this relevant for Catherine and Edmee LeJeune? It’s very easy to misinterpret the map, and for anyone viewing U6a results instead of U6a7a1a results, it’s potentially genealogically misleading.

Use Country Frequency with discretion and a full understanding of what you’re viewing, especially for partial haplogroups from HVR1/HVR2 results or autosomal results from any vendor.

If someone tells you that the LeJeune sisters are from someplace other than France, ask where they found the information. If they mention Africa, Morocco or Portugal, you’ll know precisely where they derived the information.

This information is also available on your Maternal Line Ancestry page, under “See More,” just beneath the Matches tab. Haplogroup Origins and Ancestral Origins present the same information in a different format.

Discover is a significant improvement over those reports, but you’ll still need to read carefully, understand the message, and digest the information.

Takeaways from Country Frequency

Evaluate the results carefully and be sure to understand how the reports work.
Use complete, not partial haplogroups when possible.
The Haplogroup Frequency is the number of people assigned to this haplogroup divided by the entire number of people in the database who report that country location for their matrilineal ancestor. It is NOT the percentage of people in ONLY haplogroup U6a7a1a from a specific country.
Table view shows the number of testers with this haplogroup, with the percentage calculated per the number of people who have tested in that country location.
The Map shows the highest frequency based on the number of testers per country.
Use the map in conjunction with the haplogroup age to better understand the context of the message.

Globetrekker, which has not yet been released, will help by tracking your ancestors’ paths from their genesis in Africa to where you initially find that lineage.

Before we move on to the Mitotree, let’s take a minute to understand genetic trees.

About Genetic Trees

The Mitotree is a genetic tree, also called a phylogenetic tree, that generally correlates relatively closely with a genealogical tree. The more testers in a particular haplogroup, the more accurate the tree.

FamilyTreeDNA provides this disclaimer information about the genetic tree. The Mitotree you see is a nice and neat published tree. The process of building the tree is somewhat like making sausage – messy. In this case, the more ingredients, the better the result.

The more people that test, the more genetic information is available to build and expand the tree, and the more accurate it becomes.

The recent Mitotree releases have moved the haplogroup “dates” for the LeJeune sisters from about 21,000 years ago for HVR1/HVR2 U6a testers to 50 CE for full sequence testers, and this may well be refined in future tree releases.

Mutations

Mutations and how to interpret them can be tricky – and this short section is meant to be general, not specific.

Sometimes mutations occur, then reverse themselves, forming a “back mutation”, which is usually counted as a branch defining a new haplogroup. If a back mutation happens repeatedly in the same haplogroup, like a drunken sailor staggering back and forth, that mutation is then omitted from haplogroup branch formation, but is still counted as a mismatch between two testers.

A heteroplasmy is the presence of two or more distinct results for a specific location in different mitochondria in our bodies. Heteroplasmy readings often “come and go” in results for different family members, because they are found at varying threshold levels in different family members, causing mismatches. Heteroplasmies are currently counted only if any person has 20% or greater of two different nucleotides. So, if you have a 19% heteroplasmy read for a particular location, and your sister has 21%, you will “not” have a heteroplasmic condition reported, but she will, and the location will be reported as a mismatch.

If you have a heteroplasmy and another family member does not, or vice versa, it’s counted as as a “mismatch,” meaning you and that family member will find yourselves in different haplotype clusters. Hetroplasmies do not presently define new tree branches. I wrote about heteroplasmies, here.

Takeaways from the Genetic Tree Disclaimer

DNA is fluid, mutations happen, and all mutations are not created equal.
Thankfully, you really don’t need to understand the nitty-gritty underpinnings of this because the scientists at FamilyTreeDNA have translated your results into reports and features that take all of this into consideration.
Testing more people helps refine the tree, which fills in the genetic blanks, refining the dates, and expanding branches of the tree.

Resources:

Mitochondrial DNA Resource Page
What is a Heteroplasmy and Why Do I Care?
Understanding mtDNA Haplogroups
I covered the basics of DNA, including the different types of mutations in my book, The Complete Guide To FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autoisomal and X-DNA

Ok, now let’s look at the Time Tree

Time Tree

The Time Tree displays your haplogroup on the Mitotree timeline. In other words, it shows us how old the haplogroup is in relation to other haplogroups, and testers.

The Time Tree displays the country locations of the ancestors of testers who are members of that and descendant or nearby haplogroups. You can view the haplogroup U6a7a1a Time Tree, here, and follow along if you wish. Of course, keep in mind that the tree is a living, evolving entity and will change and evolve over time as updated tree versions are released.

Mousing over the little black profile image, which is the person in whom this haplogroup was born, pops up information about the haplogroup. Additionally, you’ll see black bars with a hashed line between them. This is the range of the haplogroup formation date. Additional details about the range can be found on the Scientific Details tab, which we’ll visit shortly.

On your Matches tab, remember that each match has both a haplogroup and a haplogroup cluster F# listed.

On the Time Tree, individual testers are shown at right, with their selected country of origin. In this case, you’ll see the person who selected “Native American” at the top, followed by France, Canada, the US, and other flags.

Haplogroup U6a7a1a includes several haplotype clusters, designated by the rounded red brackets. In this view, we can see several people who have haplotype cluster matches. Everyone has a haplotype assignment, but a haplotype cluster is not formed until two people match exactly.

In the Time Tree view, above, you can see two clusters with two members each, and the top of a third cluster at the bottom.

In case you’re wondering why some of the globes are offset a bit, they positionally reflect the birth era of the tester, rounded to the closest 25 years, if the birth year is provided under Account Settings. If not, the current tester position defaults to 1950.

Scrolling down to the next portion of the window shows that the third cluster is VERY large. Inside the cluster, we see Belgium, Canada, and France, but we aren’t even halfway through the cluster yet.

Continuing to scroll, we see the cluster number, F7753329, in the middle of the cluster, along with the French flag, two from Ireland, four from the US, and the beginning of the large unknown group.

In this fourth screenshot, at the bottom of the display, we see the balance of haplotype cluster #F7753329, along with eight more people who are not members of that haplotype cluster, nor any other haplotype cluster.

Finally, at the bottom, we find haplogroup U6a7a1a2, a descendant haplogroup of U6a7a1a. Are they descendants of the LeJeune sisters?

Looking back at our tester’s match list, the two people who belong to the new haplogroup U6a7a1a2 haven’t provided any genealogical information. No EKA or tree, unfortunately. The haplogroup formation date is estimated as about 1483, but the range extends from about 1244-1679 at the 95^th percentile. In other words, these two people could be descendants of:

Either Catherine or Edmee LeJeune, but not both, since all of their descendants would be in U6a7a1a2.
An unknown sister to Catherine and Edmee.
A descendant line of an ancestor upstream of Catherine and Edmee.

Takeaways from the Time Tree

The visualization of the matches and haplotype clusters illustrates that the majority of the haplogroup members are in the same haplogroup cluster.
Given that two women, sisters, are involved, we can infer that all of the mutations in this haplotype cluster were common to their mother as well.
Haplotype cluster #F7753329 includes 19 testers from Catherine and 17 from Edmee.
Downstream haplogroup U6a7a1a2 was born in a daughter of haplogroup U6a7a1a, as early as 1244 or as late as 1679. Genealogy information from the two testers could potentially tell us who the mutation arose in, and when.
As more haplogroup U6a7a1a2 testers provide information, the better the information about the haplogroup will become, and the formation date can be further refined.

Smaller haplotype clusters have a story to tell too, but for those, we’ll move to the Match Time Tree.

Match Time Tree

The Match Time Tree is one of my favorite reports and displays your matches on the Time Tree. This feature is only available for testers, and you must be signed in to view your Match Time Tree.

By selecting “Share Mode”, the system obfuscates first names and photos so you can share without revealing the identity of your matches. I wrote about using “Share Mode” here. I have further blurred surnames for this article.

The Match Time Tree incorporates the tree view, with time, the names of your matches PLUS their EKA name and country, assuming they have entered that information. This is one of the reasons why the EKA information is so important.

This display is slightly different than the Time Tree, because it’s one of the features you only receive if you’ve taken the mtFull test and click through to Discover from your account.

The Time Tree view is the same for everyone, but the Match Time Tree is customized for each tester.

Your result is shown first, along with your haplotype cluster if you are a member of one.

You can easily see the names of the EKAs below the obfuscated testers’ names.

While we immediately know that descendants of both Catherine and Edmee are found in the large cluster #F7753329, we don’t yet know which ancestors are included in other haplotype clusters.

Haplogroup U6a7a1a includes two smaller haplotype clusters with 2 people each.

We know a few things about each of these clusters:

The people in each cluster have mutations that separate them from everyone else except the other person in their cluster
The results are identical matches to the other person in the cluster, including less reliable locations such as 309 and 315
There are other locations that are excluded from haplogroup formation, but are included in matching, unlike 309 and 315.
Given that they match only each other exactly, AND they did not form a new haplogroup, we know that their common unique mutation that causes them to match only each other exactly is unreliable or unstable, regardless of whether it’s 309, 315, a heteroplasmy, or another marker on the list of filtered or excluded variants.

Only the tester can see their own mutations. By inference, they know the mutations of the people in their haplotype cluster, because they match exactly.

If you’re a member of a cluster and you’re seeking to determine your common ancestor, you’ll want to analyze each cluster. I’ve provided two examples, below, one each for the red and purple clusters.

Red Haplotype Cluster #F3714849

Only one person in the red cluster has included their EKA, and the tree of the second person only reaches to three generations. Tracking that line backwards was not straightforward due to the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia.

The second person listed their EKA as Edmee LeJeune, but they have a private tree at MyHeritage, so their matches can’t see anything. I wonder if they realize that their matches can’t view their tree.

We are left to wonder if both people descend from Edmee LeJeune, and more specifically, a common ancestor more recently – or if the unstable mutation that they share with each other is simply happenstance.

E-mailing these testers would be a good idea.

Purple Haplotype Cluster #F2149611

Evaluating the purple cluster reveals that the common ancestor is Catherine LeJeune. The question is twofold – how are these two people related downstream from Catherine, and how unstable is their common mutation or mutations.

Fortunately, both people have nice trees that track all the way back to Catherine.

Unfortunately, their MRCA is Francoise, the daughter of Catherine. I say unfortunately, because two additional testers also descend from Francoise, and they don’t have the haplotype cluster mutation. This tells us that the cluster mutation is unreliable and probably not genealogically relevant because it occurred in two of Francoise’s children’s lines independently, but not all four.

In other words, that specific mutation just happened to occur in those two people.

This is exactly why some mutations are not relied upon for haplogroup definition.

Takeaways from the Match Time Tree

The time tree is a wonderful visualization tool that shows all of your matches, their EKAs and countries, if provided, in haplotype clusters, on the Time Tree. This makes it easy to see how closely people are related and groups them together.
On your match page, you can easily click through to view your matches’ trees.
You can use both haplotype clusters (sometimes reliable) and downstream haplogroups (reliable) to identify and define lineages on your family tree. For example, if a third person matches the two in haplogroup U6a7a1a2, the child haplogroup of U6a7a1a, and you could determine the common ancestor of any two of the three, you have a good idea of the genealogical placement of the third person as well.
You know that if people form a haplotype cluster, but not a new haplogroup, that their common haplotype cluster-defining mutation is less reliable and may not be genealogically relevant.
On the other hand, those less reliable mutations may not be reliable enough for haplogroup definition, but may be relevant to your genealogy and could possibly define lineage splits. Notice all my weasel words like “may,” “may not” and “possibly.” Also, remember our purple cluster example where we know that the mutation in question probably formed independently and is simply chance.
I can’t unravel the ancestors of the red cluster – and if I were one of those two people, especially if I didn’t know who my ancestor was, I’d care a lot that the other person didn’t provide a useful tree. Don’t forget that you can always reach out via email, offer to collaborate, and ask nicely for information.
We need EKAs, so please encourage your matches to enter their EKA, upload a tree or link to a MyHeritage tree, and enter a Wikitree ID in their FamilyTreeDNA profile, all of which help to identify common ancestors.

Resources:

Classic Tree

FamilyTreeDNA invented the Time Tree and Match Time Tree to display your results in a genealogically friendly way, but there is important information to be gleaned from other tree formats as well.

The Classic Tree presents the Mitotree, haplogroup and haplotype information in the more traditional format of viewing phylogenetic trees, combining their beneficial features. There’s a lot packed in here.

In this default view, all of the Display Options are enabled. We are viewing the LeJeune haplogroup, U6a7a1a, with additional information that lots of people miss.

The countries identified as the location of testers’ earliest known ancestors (EKA) are shown.

Listed just beneath the haplogroup name, five people are members of this haplogroup and are NOT in a haplotype cluster with anyone else, meaning they have unique mutations. When someone else tests and matches them, depending on their mutation(s), a new haplogroup may be formed. If they match exactly, then at least a new haplotype cluster will be formed.

Portions of three haplotype clusters are shown in this screenshot, designated by the F numbers in the little boxes.

Additional information is available by mousing over the images to the right of the haplogroup name.

Mousing over the badge explains the era in which the haplogroup was born. Rapid expansion was taking place, meaning that people were moving into new areas.

Mousing over the date explains that the scientists behind the Mitotree are 95% certain about the date range of the birth of this haplogroup, rounded to 50 CE. Remember, your common ancestor with ALL haplogroup members reaches back to this approximate date, but your common ancestor with any one, or a group, of testers is sometime between the haplogroup formation date, 50 CE, and the present day.

Mousing over the year shows the confidence level, and the date range at that level. These dates will probably be refined somewhat in the future.

If haplogroup members have private variants, it’s likely or at least possible that a new branch will split from this one as more people test

Mousing over the star displays the confidence level of the structure of this portion of the Mitotree based on what could be either confusing or conflicting mutations in the tree. For haplogroup U6a7a1a, there’s no question about the topology, because it has a 10 of 10 confidence rating. In other words, this branch is very stable and not going to fall off the tree.

Every haplogroup is defined by at least one mutation that is absent in upstream branches of the tree. Mutations are called variants, because they define how this sample, or branch, varies from the rest of the branches in the Mitotree.

These two mutations, A2672G and T11929C, are the haplogroup-defining mutations for U6a7a1a. Everyone in haplogroup U6a7a1a will have these two mutations in addition to all of the mutations that define directly upstream haplogroups (with extremely rare exceptions). Haplogroup-defining mutations are additive.

There may be more haplogroup-defining mutations than are displayed, so click on the little paper icons to copy to your clipboard.

You can view upstream haplogroups and downstream haplogroups, if there are any, by following the back arrows to upstream haplogroups, and lines to downstream haplogroups.

For example, I clicked on the arrow beside haplogroup U6a7a1a to view its parent haplogroup, U6a7a1, and a second time to view its parent, haplogroup U6a7a. If I click on the back arrow for U6a7a, I’ll continue to climb up the tree.

Beneath U6a7a, you can see the haplogroup branches, U6a7a1a and U6a7a2.

Beneath U6a7a1, you’ll notice:

People who don’t share haplotype clusters with anyone
Three haplotype clusters
Five descendant haplogroups from U6a7a1, including the LeJeune sister’s haplogroup U6a7a1a.

To expand any haplogroup, just click on the “+”.

You may see icons that are unfamiliar. Mouse over the image or click on the “Show Legend” slider at upper right to reveal the decoder ring, I mean, legend.

You can read more about the symbols and how haplogroups are named, here, and see more about types of mutations in the Scientific Details section.

Takeaways from the Classic Tree

The Classic Tree provides a quick summary that includes important aspects of a haplogroup, including when it was formed, which mutations caused it’s formation, and each branch’s confidence level.
It’s easy to back your way up the tree to see where your ancestor’s founding haplogroups were located, which speaks to your ancestor’s history. Patterns, paths, and consistency are the key.
Ancient DNA locations in your tree can provide a very specific location where a haplogroup was found at a given point in time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where the haplogroup was born, or that they are your ancestor. We will get to that shortly.
You can share this page with others using the “Share Page” function at the top right.

Ancestral Path

The Ancestral Path is a stepping-stone chart where you can view essential information about each haplogroup in one row, including:

Age and era
Number of years between haplogroups
Number of subclades
Number of modern-day testers who belong to this haplogroup
Number of Ancient Connections that belong to this haplogroup, including all downstream haplogroups

This “at a glance” history of your haplogroup is the “at a glance” history of your ancestors.

The number in the column titled “Immediate Descendants”, which is the number of descendant haplogroups, tells a story.

If you see a large, or “larger” number there, that indicates that several “child” haplogroups have been identified. Translated, this means that nothing universally terrible has occurred to wipe most of the line out, like a volcano erupting, or a famine or plague that would constitute a constraining bottleneck event. Your ancestors’ children survived and apparently thrived, creating many descendant downstream haplogroups, known as an expansion event.

If you see a smaller number, such as rows 5, 7, 8, 9, and 13, each of which have only two surviving branches, yours and another, several branches probably didn’t survive to the present day. This may reflect a bottleneck where only a few people survived or the lines became extinct over time, having no descendants today. Either that, or the right people haven’t yet tested. Perhaps they are living in a particularly undersampled region of the world, a tiny village someplace, or there aren’t many left.

The two most recent haplogroups have the most subclades, indicating that your ancestors were successfully reproducing in the not-too-distant past. Mutations occurred because they randomly do, creating new haplogroups, and several haplogroup members have tested today. Hopefully, genealogy can connect us further.

The next column, “Tested Modern Descendants,” tallies the total number of testers as it rolls up the tree. So, each haplogroup includes the testers in its downstream (child) haplogroups. The 127 people in haplogroup U6a7a1a include the two people in haplogroup U6a7a1a2, and the 226 people in haplogroup U6a7a1 include the 127 people in haplogroup U6a7a1a.

Looking at other types of trees and resources for each haplogroup can suggest where our ancestors were at that time, perhaps correlating with world or regional history that pertains to the lives of those ancestors.

In our case, the LeJeune sisters’ ancestors did well between 3450 years ago through the formation of U6a7a1a, about 1950 years ago. 3500 years ago, in Europe, settlements were being fortified, leadership was emerging as complex social patterns formed, and trade networks developed that spanned the continent and beyond.

Between 20,000 and 3,450 years ago, not so much. This correlates to the time when early European farmers were moving from Anatolia, bringing agriculture to Europe en masse. However, they were not the first people in Europe. Early modern humans arrived and lived in small groups about 50,000 years ago.

And they very nearly didn’t survive. Many lines perished.

Takeaways from the Ancestral Path

The Ancestral Path shows the stepping stones back to Mitochondrial Eve, dropping hints along the way where expansions occurred, meaning that your ancestors were particularly successful, or conversely, where a bottleneck occurred and the lineage was in jeopardy of extinction.
In some cases, where a lot of time has passed between haplogroups, such as 8,000 years between U and U6, we’re seeing the effect of lineages dying out. However, with each new tester, there’s the possibility of a previously undiscovered branch split being discovered. That’s precisely what happened with haplogroup L7.

Migration Map

The Discover Migration Map shows the path that your ancestor took out of Africa, and where your base ancestral haplogroup was formed.

Mousing over the little red circle displays the haplogroup, and the area where it originated. Based on this location where U6 was found some 31,000 years ago, we would expect to find U6 and subgroups scattered across North Africa, the Levant, and of course, parts of Eurasia and Europe.

It’s interesting that, based on what we know using multiple tools, it appears that haplogroup U initially crossed between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, at the present-day Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. Today, that crossing is about 15 nautical miles, but the sea level was much lower during earlier times in history, including the last glacial maximum. Humans would have seen land across the water, and could potentially have swum, drifted, or perhaps used early boats.

Over the next 10,000+ years, haplogroup U trekked across the Arabian peninsula into what is present-day Iran, probably moving slowly, generation by generation, then turning back westward, likely in a small group of hunter-gatherers, crossing the Nile Delta into North Africa, present-day Egypt.

They probably fished along the Nile. Food would have been plentiful along rivers and the sea.

It’s exciting to know that the ancestors of the LeJeune sisters lived right here, perhaps for millennia.

There’s more, however.

The Migration Map shows the location of the genetically closest Ancient DNA results to your haplogroup, obtained from archaeological excavations. This mapped information essentially anchors haplogroup branches in locations in both space and time.

Ancient DNA samples are represented by tiny brown trowels. Clicking on each trowel provides summary information about the associated sample(s) in that location.

Takeaways from the Migration Map

Scientists have estimated the location where your base haplogroup originated. For the LeJeune sisters, that’s haplogroup U6 in North Africa along the Mediterranean Sea.
The trowels show the locations of the genetically closest archaeological samples, aka Ancient Connections, in the FamilyTreeDNA data base.
These Ancient Connections displayed on the map may change. New samples are added regularly, so your older samples, except for the oldest two, which remain in place for each tester, will roll off your list when genetically closer Ancient Connections become available.
There are no Ancient Connections for the LeJeune sisters in France today, but keep in mind that Europe is closely connected. Today’s French border is only about 25 miles as the crow flies from Goyet, Belgium. France, sea to sea, is only about 500 miles across, and at its closest two points, less than 250 miles.
Samples found at these locations span a large timeframe.

There’s a LOT more information to be found in the Ancient Connections.

Ancient Connections

Ancient Connections is one of my favorite Discover features. This information would never have been available, nor synthesized into a usable format, prior to the introduction of Mitotree and mtDNA Discover. Ancient Connections unite archaeology with genealogy.

The first thing I need to say about Ancient Connections is that it’s unlikely that these individuals are YOUR direct ancestors. Unlikely does not mean impossible, but several factors, such as location and timeframe need to be considered.
What is certain is that, based on their mitochondrial haplogroup, you SHARE a common ancestor at some point in time.
Ancient samples can be degraded, with missing genetic location coverage. That means that not every mutation or variant may be able to be read.
Different labs maintain different quality criteria, and location alignments may vary, at least somewhat, lab to lab. While this is always true, it’s particularly relevant when comparing ancient DNA results which are already degraded.
Samples are dated by archaeologists using a variety of methodologies. FamilyTreeDNA relies on the dates and historical eras provided in the academic papers, but those dates may be a range, or contain errors.
Obtaining information from ancient DNA samples isn’t as easy or straightforward as testing living people.

However, the resulting information is still VERY useful and incredibly interesting – filling in blanks with data that could never be discerned otherwise.

Many people mistakenly assume that these Ancient Connections are their ancestors, and most of the time, not only is that not the case, it’s also impossible. For example, a woman who lived in 1725 cannot be the ancestor of two sisters who were born in 1624 and 1633, respectively.

When you click on Ancient Connections, you see a maximum of about 30 Ancient Connections. Information about the genetically closest burial is displayed first, with the most distant last on the list.

Please note that the final two are the oldest and will (likely) never change, or “roll off” your list, unless an even older sample is discovered. When new samples become available and are genetically closer, the oldest other samples, other than the oldest two, do roll off to make space for the closer haplogroups and their corresponding samples.

Obviously, you’ll want to read every word about these burials, because nuggets are buried there. I strongly encourage you to read the associated papers, because these publications reveal snippets of the lives of your haplogroup ancestors and their descendants.

The small pedigree at right illustrates the relationship between the ancient sample and the haplogroup of the tester. Three things are listed:

El Agujero 8, the name assigned by the authors of the paper that published the information about this ancient sample
The haplogroup of the LeJeune descendant who tested
The haplogroup of their common ancestor.

If no haplogroup is specifically stated for the ancient sample, the sample is the same haplogroup as the common shared ancestor (MRCA), meaning the tester and the ancient sample share the same haplogroup.

The Time Tree beneath the description shows the tester’s haplogroup, (or the haplogroup being queried), the ancient sample, and their common ancestral haplogroup.

Let’s analyze this first sample, El Agujero 8.

The person whose remains were sampled lived about 1375 years ago (I’ve averaged the range), in the Canary Islands, and is part of the Guanche culture.
The Guanche are the indigenous people of the Canary Islands, already established there before the arrival of Europeans and the Spanish conquest of the 1400s.
The Guanche people are believed to have arrived in the Canaries sometime in the first millennium BCE (2000-3000 years ago) and were related to the Berbers of North Africa.
This makes sense if you consider the Migration map and geographic proximity.
Haplogroup U6a7a1, the haplogroup of El Agujero 8, is the shared ancestral haplogroup with the LeJeune sisters.
That woman, U6a7a1, lived around 1450 BCE, or 3450 years ago, probably someplace in North Africa, the Mediterranean basin, or even in the Nile Delta region, given the correlation between the Canary Islands settlement, the Berbers, and the Migration Map.
This does NOT mean that the ancestor of the LeJeune sisters lived in the Canary Islands. It means that a descendant of their MRCA, haplogroup U6a6a1, the shared common ancestor with the LeJeune sisters, lived in the Canary Islands.

Ancient Connections Chart Analysis Methodology

I create an Ancient Connection chart for each haplogroup I’m dealing with. We’re analyzing the LeJeune sisters today, but I track and analyze the haplogroup for every ancestor whose haplogroup I can find, or for whom I can find a descendant to test.

In this chart, YA=years ago and is based on the year 2000. KYA=thousand years ago, so 10 KYA is 10,000 years ago.

Name	Person Lived	Location & Culture	Haplogroup, Date & Age	Shared (MRCA) Haplogroup, Date & Age	Note
LeJeune Sisters	Born 1624 & 1633	French Acadian	U6a7a1a, 50 CE, 1950 YA	U6a7a1a, 50 CE, 1950 YA	In Acadia by 1643/44
El Agujero 8	1375 CE	Canary Islands, Guanche	U6a7a1 1450 BCE, 3450 YA	U6a7a1 1450 BCE, 3450 YA	Guanche arrived in Canaries in 1^st millennium BCE, related to Berbers
Djebba 20824	6000 BCE	Jebba, Bājah, Tunisia, Neolithic	U6a3f3’4’5 c 5000 BCE, 7000 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	This archaeology site is on the northernmost point of North Africa
Djebba 20825	5900 BCE	Djebba, Bājah, Tunisia, Neolithic	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	This archaeology site is on the northernmost point of North Africa
Egyptian Mummy 2973	200 BCE	Abusir el-Meleq, Giza, Egypt, Ptolemaic Kingdom	U6a3h^, 1450 BCE, 3450 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Nile Delta probably, paper says they share ancestry with near easterners
Egyptian Mummy 2888	100 BCE	Abusir el-Meleq, Giza, Egypt, Ptolemaic Kingdom	U6a2a’c, 11,000 BCE, 13,000 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Nile Delta probably, paper says they share ancestry with near easterners
Segorbe Giant (6’3”)	1050 CE	Plaza del Almudín, Valencia, Spain, Islamic necropolis burial	U6a1a1, 14,000 BCE, 16,000 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Paper says his genetic makeup is Berber and Islamic Spain, buried in Islamic style on right side facing Mecca.
Sweden Skara	1050 CE	Varnhem, Skara, Sweden, Viking Swedish culture	U6a1a3a, 7350 BCE, 9350 YA,	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Viking burial
Chapelfield 696	1180 CE	Chapelfield, Norwich, England, Ashkenazi Jewish Medieval age	U6a1b1b. 400 BCE, 2400 YA	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000KYA	Possibly the 1190 antisemitic Norwich massacre
Montana Mina 38	1200 CE	Montana Mina, Lanzarote, Spain (Canary Islands), Guanche culture	U6a1a1b1	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Guanche arrived in Canaries in 1^st millennium BCE, related to Berbers
Amina	1725 CE	Gaillard Center, Charleston, South Carolina, Enslaved African American burials	U6a5b’f’g, 9550 BCE, 11,550 YA,	U6a1”9 19,000 BCE, 21,000 YA	Remains of pre-Civil War enslaved Africans unearthed in Charleston, SC
Doukanet el Khoutifa 22577	4400 BCE	Doukanet el Khoutifa, Mars, Tunisia, Maghrebi cultural group	U6b, 6500 BCE, 8500 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Late Stone Age, shows some admixture with European Hunter-Gatherers, possibly back and forth from Sicily
Guanche 12	625 CE	Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), Guanche, Medieval	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Guanche arrived in the Canaries in 1^st millennium BCE, related to Berbers
Guanche 14	775 CE	Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), Guanche, Medieval	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Ditto above
Antocojo 27	875 CE	Antocojo, La Gomera, Spain (Canary Islands)	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Ditto above
Guanche 13	900 CE	Cave, Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), Medieval	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Ditto above
Guanche 1	1090 CE	Cave, Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), Medieval	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Ditto above
Barranco Majona 30	1325 CE	Barranco Majona, La Gomera, Spain (Canary Islands), Guanche late Medieval	U6b1a1’6’8’9, 1 BCE, 2100 YA	U6a’b’d’e, 23,000 BCE, 25,000 YA	Ditto above
Kostenki 14	36,000 BCE	Markina Gora, Kostyonki, Voronezh Oblast, Russia	U2, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	European/Asian steppe earliest hunter-gatherers. Farming didn’t arrive until 10 KYA. Admixture from Asia as well.
Kostenki 12	31,000 BCE	Volkovskaya, Voronezh region, Russian Federation.	U2c’e, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Early hunter-gatherer
Krems 3	29,000 BCE	Wachtberg in Krems, Lower Austria, Austria, Gravettian culture	U5, 32,000 BCE, 34,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Endured the ice age, sophisticated toolmaking, Venus figures, mobile lifestyle, mammoth hunters
Krems Twin 1	28,800 BCE	Left bank of the Danube, Krems-Wachtberg, Austria, Gravettian culture	U5, 32,000 BCE, 34,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Double grave for twins, 1 newborn, one age about 50 days
Krems Twin 2	28,800 BCE	Left bank of the Danube, Krems-Wachtberg, Austria, Gravettian culture	U5, 32,000 BCE, 34,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Ditto above
Vestonice 13	28,900 BCE	Pavlovské Hills, South Moravia, Czech Republic, Grevettian culture	U8b^, 37,000 BCE, 39,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Ice Age Europe, few samples before farming introduced. Believe these Gravettian individuals are from a single founder population before being displaced across a wide European region.
Vestonice 14	28,900 BCE	Dolni Vestonice, Brezi, Czech Republic, Gravettian culture	U5, 32,000 BCE, 34,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Ditto above
Vestonice 16	28,900 BCE	Dolni Vestonice, Brezi, Czech Republic, Gravettian culture	U5, 32,000 BCE, 34,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Ditto above
Grotta delle Mura child	15,100 BCE	Grotta delle Mura, Bari, Italy, Paleolithic Italian culture	U2”10, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	This baby, interred in a small shoreline cave, was less than 9 months old and had blue eyes
Goyette Q2	13,100 BCE	Troisième Caverne, Goyet, Belgium, Magdaleian culture named after the La Madeleine rock shelter in France	U8a, 10,000 BCE, 12,000 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	These hunter-gatherer people may have been responsible for the repopulation of Northern Europe. Cave art, such as that at Altamira, in Northern Spain is attributed to the Magdalenian culture.
Villabruna 1	12,000 BCE	Villabruna, Italy, Paleolithic culture	U5b2b, 9700 BCE, 11,700 YA	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Rock shelter in northern Italy where this man was buried with grave goods typical of a hunter and covered in painted stones with drawings. The walls were painted in red ochre.
Oberkasel 998	12,000 BCE	Oberkassel , Bonn, Germany, Western Hunter-Gatherer culture	U5b1	U, 43,000 BCE, 45,000 YA	Double burial found in a quarry with 2 domesticated dogs and grave goods. Genis classification was uncertain initially as they were deemed, “close to Neanderthals.”

Creating a chart serves multiple functions.

First, it allows you to track connections methodically. As more become available, older ones fall off the list, but not off your chart.
Second, it allows you to analyze the results more carefully.
Third, it “encourages” you to spend enough time with these ancient humans to understand and absorb information about their lives, travels, and migrations – all of which relate in some way to your ancestors.

When creating this chart, I looked up every shared haplogroup to determine their location and what could be discerned about each one, because their story is the history of the LeJeune sisters, and my history too.

Ok, so I can’t help myself for a minute here. Bear with me while we go on a little Ancient Connections tour. After all, history dovetails with genetics.

How cool is it that the LeJeune sisters’ ancestor, around 20,000 years ago, who lived someplace in the Nile Delta, gave birth to the next 1000 (or so) generations?

Of course, the Great Pyramids weren’t there yet. They were built abotu 4600 years ago.

Those women gave birth to two women about 2200 years ago whose mummified remains were found in the Pyramids at Giza. The associated paper described Egypt in this timeframe as a cultural crossroads which both suffered and benefitted from foreign trade, conquest and immigration from both the Greeks and Romans.

You can read more about burials from this timeframe in The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt, here. A crossroads is not exactly what I was expecting, but reading the papers is critically important in understanding the context of the remains. This book is but one of 70 references provided in the paper.

Some burials have already been excavated, and work continues in the expansive pyramid complex.

The Egyptian sun is unforgiving, but Giza eventually gives up her secrets. Will more distant cousins of the LeJeune sisters be discovered as burial chambers continue to be excavated?

We know little about the lives of the women interred at Giza, but the life of another Ancient Connection, Amina, strikes chords much closer to home.

Amina, an enslaved woman, is another descendant of that woman who lived 20,000 years ago. She too is related to the Giza mummies.

Amina was discovered in a previously unknown burial ground in downtown Charleston, SC, that held the remains of enslaved people who had been brought, shackled, from Africa to be sold. Amina’s remains convey her story – that she was kidnapped, forced into the Middle Passage, and miraculously survived. She succumbed around 1725 in Charleston, SC, near the wharf, probably where her prison ship docked.

Charleston was a seaport where more than a quarter million enslaved people disembarked at Gadsden’s Wharf, awaiting their fate on the auction block. The location where Amina’s burial was found is only about 1000 feet from the wharf and is now, appropriately, considered sacred ground. Ohhh, how I’d like to share this information with Amina.

A hundred years earlier, a different ancestor of that women who lived 20,000 years ago gave birth to the mother of the LeJeune sisters, someplace in France.

Moving further back in time, another distant cousin was unearthed at the Kostyonki–Borshchyovo archaeological complex near the Don River in Russia.

Photographed by Andreas Franzkowiak (User:Bullenwächter) – Archäologisches Museum Hamburg und Stadtmuseum Harburg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58260865

Markina Gora is an incredibly famous location yielding both specimens included here, as well as this famous Venus figurine from the Gravettian culture, dating from about 27,000 years ago.

Bust of Kostenki 14 reconstructed from the burial.

The earliest of these hunter-gatherers in Europe, believed to be a small group of humans, interbred with Neanderthals. Kostenki 14 carried Neanderthal introgression dating back to about 54,000 years ago.

A layer of volcanic ash, thought to be from a volcano near Naples that erupted about 39,000 years ago, is found above the remains, speaking to events that our ancestors survived after this man lived.

I know we’ve traveled far back in history from the LeJeune sisters, but these ancient humans, the MRCA of each upstream haplogroup, are our ancestors, too.

What does all this mean?

At first glance, it’s easy to assume that all of the locations are relevant to our direct ancestors. Not only that, many people assume that all of these people ARE our ancestors. They aren’t.

Creating the Ancient Conenctions Chart should help you gain perspective about how these people are related to you, your ancestors, and each other.

Each individual person is connected to you and your ancestors in various ways – and their stories weave into yours.

Discover provides everyone has a mini-Timeline for each Ancient Connection. It’s easy to see that the tester, who tested in the modern era, since the year 1950, is not descended from El Agujaro 8, who lived in the 1300s and whose common (shared) haplogroup with the tester, U6a7a1, was born between 2100 BCE and 900 BCE, or between 4100 and 2900 years ago. The most probable date is about 3450 years ago.

The Timeline for each ancient sample includes:

Your haplogroup’s mean birth year
Ancient Connection’s birth year
Ancient Connection’s haplogroup mean birth year, if different from the common haplogroup (in the example above, 3 and 4 are the same)
Birth year of your common ancestor (MRCA), which is your common haplogroup

It’s easy to see the relevant information for each sample, but it’s not easy to visualize the trees together, so I’m creating a “rough” tree in Excel to help visualize the “big picture”, meaning all of the Ancient Connections.

How Do I Know Which Ancient Connections Even MIGHT Be My Ancestors and How We Are All Related?

That’s a great question and is exactly why I created this chart in an ancient haplogroup spreadsheet.

Click on any image to enlarge

In this chart, you can see the LeJeune sisters, in red, at the bottom, and their direct line hereditary haplogroups, in purple, descending from haplogroup U at the top.

Branching to the left and right from intersections with their purple hereditary haplogroups are other branches that the LeJeune sisters don’t share directly. However, the ancient remains that carry those haplogroups are “haplocousins” at a distant point in time, with our LeJeune sisters.

There only two burials that carry the same ancestral haplogroup as the LeJeune sisters:

El Agujero 8, haplogroup U6a7a1 who lived in the Canary Islands in the year 1275
Djebba 20825, who lived in Tunisia about 6,100 years ago

Clearly, Djebba, with a common haplogroup that lived about 21,000 years ago cannot be the ancestor of the LeJeune sisters, but they share a common ancestor. If Djebba was an ancestor of the LeJeune sisters, then Djebba would also descend from haplogroup U6a7, born about 20,600 years ago, like the LeJeune sisters do.

A cursory glance might suggest that since the sample, El Agujero 8 lived in the Canary Islands about 1275, haplogroup U6a7a1 was born there. However, if you read the papers associated with all of the samples found in the Canaries, Tunisia, Spain and other locations, you’ll discover that these populations moved back and forth across the Mediterranean. You’ll also discover that the earliest European haplogroup U samples found in Europe are believed to be the founders of haplogroup U in Europe. It’s possible that U6 dispersed into Italy and Spain, regions with significant exchange with North Africa.

It’s extremely unlikely that El Agujero 8, who lived about the year 1275 CE, was the ancestor of the LeJeune sisters, but it’s not entirely impossible. What’s more likely is that they descended from a common population that moved between Spain, the Canaries, and North Africa where other similar burials are found, like Tunisia. We know that Rome largely conquered France during the Gallic Wars (56-50 BCE), so it’s not terribly surprising that we find haplogroup U6a7a1 and descendants scattered throughout Europe, the Iberian peninsula, the Roman empire, and North Africa.

Sometime between the birth of haplogroup U6a7a1, about 3450 years ago, the descendants of that woman found their way both to France before the 1600s and also to the Canaries before 1275.

Takeaways from Ancient Connections

I recommend that you read the associated academic papers and publications that provide the Ancient Connections mitochondrial haplogroups. Those publications are chock full of important cultural information.
Globetrekker, which won’t be released until some time after the next release of the Mitotree, will help with tracking the path of your ancestors, especially where it’s complex and uncertain.
The “haplosisters” and “haplocousins” of the French LeJeune sisters are quite diverse, including Egyptian pyramid burials in Giza, a Muslim necropolis burial in Spain, a Viking in Sweden, indigenous Canary Islanders, a Tunisian site on the Northern-most tip of Africa, a Jewish burial in England, an enslaved woman in South Carolina, the Markina Gora site in Russia, caves in Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany and Italy.
Ancient Connections are more than just interesting. On another genealogical line, I found a necropolis burial with my ancestor’s haplogroup located about 9 km from where my ancestor is believed to have lived, dating from just a few hundred years earlier.
FamilyTreeDNA adds more Ancient Connections weekly.

Resources

Notable Connections

Notable Connections are similar to Ancient Connections, except they are generally based on modern-day or relatively contemporary testers and associated genealogy. Some samples are included in both categories.

Three Notable Connections are included with the public version of Discover, and additional Notable Connections are provided, when available, for testers who click through from their account.

Some Notable Connections may be close enough in time to be useful for genealogy based on their haplogroup, their haplogroup history, and the tester’s history as well.

In this case, the closest two Notable Connections are both included in Ancient Connections, so we know that the rest won’t be closer in time.

The common ancestor, meaning common haplogroup, of Cheddar Man and the rest, reaches all the way back to haplogroup U, born about 45,000 years ago, so these particular Notable Connections can be considered “fun facts.”

However, if the first (closest) notable connection was a famous person who lived in France in the 1600s, and was the same or a close haplogroup, that could be VERY beneficial information.

Takeaways from Notable Connections

Mostly, Notable Connections are just for fun – a way to meet your haplocousins.
Notable Connections are a nice way to emphasize that we are all connected – it’s only a matter of how far back in time.
That said, based on the haplogroup, location and date, you may find Notable Connections that hold hints relevant to your ancestry.

Scientific Details

Scientific Details includes two pages: Age Estimates and Variants.

Scientific Details Age Estimates

Haplogroup ages are calculated using a molecular clock that estimates when the mutation defining a particular haplogroup first arose in a woman.

Since we can’t go back in time, test everyone, and count every single generation between then and now – scientists have to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree.

The more people who test, the more actual samples available to use to construct and refine the Mitotree.

The “mean” is the date calculated as the most likely haplogroup formation date.

The next most likely haplogroup formation range is the 68% band. As you can see, it’s closest to the center.

The 95% and 99% likelihood bands are most distant.

I know that 99% sounds “better” than 68%, but in this case, it isn’t. In fact, it’s just the opposite – 99% takes in the widest range, so it includes nearly all possibile dates, but the center of the range is the location most likely to be accurate.

The full certainty range is the entire 100% range, but is extremely broad. The mean is the date I normally use, UNLESS WE ARE DEALING WITH CONTEMPORARY DATES.

For example, if the LeJeune sisters’ haplogroup was formed in 1550 CE at the mean, I’d be looking at the entire range. Do their approximate birth years of 1624 and 1633 fall into the 68% range, or the 95% range, and what are the years that define those ranges?

Scientific Details Variants

Next, click on the Variants tab.

To view your haplotype cluster, the F#, and your private variants, slide “Show private variants” at upper right above the black bar to “on.” This feature is only available for testers who sign in and click through to mtDNA Discover from their page.

The Variants tab provides lots of information, beginning with a summary of your:

Haplotype cluster F number, which I’ve blurred
Private variants, if any
End-of-branch haplogroup information

The most granular information is shown first.

Your haplotype cluster number is listed along with any private variants available to form a new haplogroup. In this case, there are no private variants for these haplotype cluster members. Every cluster is different.

Just beneath that, listed individually, are the variants, aka SNPs, aka mutations that identify each haplogroup. The haplogroup with the red square is yours.

Everyone in this haplogroup shares these two mutations: A2672G and T11929C. Because two variants define this haplogroup, it’s possible that one day it will split if future testers have one but not the other variant.

Information in the following columns provides details about each mutation. For example, the first mutation shown for haplogroup U6a7a1a is a transition type SNP mutation in the coding region, meaning it’s only reported in the full sequence test, where the A (Adenine) nucleotide, which is ancestral, mutated to a G (Guanine) nucleotide which is derived. This is essentially before (reference) and after (derived).

If you mouse over the Weight column, you’ll see a brief explanation of how each mutation is ranked. Essentially, rarer mutation types and locations are given more weight than common or less stable mutation types and/or locations.

Mutations with orange and red colors are less stable than green mutations.

Following this list from top to bottom essentially moves you back in time from the most recently born haplogroup, yours, to haplogroup L1”7, the first haplogroup in this line to branch from Mitochondrial Eve, our common ancestor who lived about 143,000 years ago in Africa.

View More

Clicking on the “View More” dropdown exposes additional information about the various types of mutations and Filtered Variants. Filtered Variants, in the current version of the Mitotree, are locations combined with specific mutation types that are excluded from branch formation.

Please note that this list may change from time to time as the tree is updated.

Takeaways from Scientific Details

Based on the Age Estimate for haplogroup U6a7a1a, it’s most likely to have formed about the year 29, but could have formed anytime between about 186 BCE and 230 CE. While this range may not be terribly relevant for older haplogroups, ranges are very important for haplogroups formed in a genealogical era.
People who are members of this example haplotype cluster do not have any private variants, so they are not candidates to receive a new haplogroup unless the upstream tree structure itself changes, which is always possible.
A significant amount of additional scientific information is available on these two tabs.
A list of locations currently excluded from haplogroup formation is displayed by clicking on the “View more” dropdown, along with information about various types of mutations. This list will probably change from time to time as the tree is refined.

Compare

Compare is a feature that allows you to compare two haplogroups side by side.

Let’s say we have an additional woman named LeJeune in Acadia, aside from Catherine and Edmee. As it happens, we do, and for a very long time, assumptions were made that these three women were all sisters.

Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard was born about 1659 and died after 1708. She is the daughter of unknown parents, but her father is purported to be Pierre LeJeune born about 1656, but there’s no conclusive evidence about any of that.

Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard married twice, first to Francois Joseph. Their daughter, Catherine Joseph’s marriage record in 1720 lists Jeanne, Catherine’s mother, as “of the Indian Nation.”

Several direct matrilineal descendants of Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard have joined the Acadian AmerIndian DNA Project, revealing her new Mitotree haplogroup as haplogroup A2f1a4+12092, which is Native American.

If Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard born about 1659, and Edmee and Catherine LeJeune, born about 1624 and 1633, respectively, are full or matrilineal half-siblings, their mitochondrial DNA haplogroups would match, or very closely if a new branch had formed in a descendant since they lived.

Let’s use the Compare feature to see if these two haplogroups are even remotely close to each other.

Click on “Compare.”

The first haplogroup is the one you’re searching from, and you’ll choose the one to compare to.

Click on “Search a haplogroup” and either select or type a haplogroup.

The two haplogroups are shown in the little pedigree chart. The origin dates of both haplogroups are shown, with their common shared ancestor (MRCA) positioned at the top. The most recent common, or shared, ancestor between Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard, who was “of the Indian Nation” and Catherine and Edmee LeJeune is haplogroup N+8701, a woman born about 53,000 years ago.

There is absolutely NO QUESTION that these three women DO NOT share the same mother.

Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard is matrilineally Native, and sisters Caterine and Edmee LeJeune are matrilineally European.

Takeaways from Compare

The MRCA between Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard and sisters, Edmee and Catherine LeJeune is about 53,000 years ago.
Jeanne was clearly not their full or maternal sister.
Compare provides an easy way to compare two haplogroups.

Suggested Projects

Projects at FamilyTreeDNA are run by volunteer project administrators. Some projects are publicly viewable, and some are not. Some project results pages are only visible to project members or are completely private, based on settings selected by the administrator.

When testers join projects, they can elect to include or exclude their results from the public project display pages, along with other options.

The “Suggested Projects” report in Discover provides a compilation of projects that others with the haplogroup you’re viewing have joined. Keep in mind that they might NOT have joined due to their mitochondrial DNA. They may have joined because of other genealogical lines.

While these projects aren’t actually “suggested”, per se, for you to join, they may be quite relevant. Viewing projects that other people with this haplogroup have joined can sometimes provide clues about the history of the haplogroup, or their ancestors, and therefore, your ancestors’ journey.

Remember, you (probably) won’t match everyone in your haplogroup on your matches page, or the Match Time Tree, so projects are another avenue to view information about the ancestors and locations of other people in this haplogroup. The projects themselves may provide clues. The haplogroup projects will be relevant to either your haplogroup, or a partial upstream haplogroup.

The haplogroup U6 project includes multiple U6 daughter haplogroups, not just U6a7a1a, and includes testers whose ancestors are from many locations.

The U6 project has labeled one group of 38 members the “Acadian cluster.” Of course, we find many descendants of Catherine and Edmee LeJeune here, along with testers who list their earliest known ancestor (EKA) as a non-Acadian woman from a different location.

The ancestors of Martha Hughes, who lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Mary Grant from Bathhurst, New Brunswick may well be descendants of Edmee or Catherine.

Or, perhaps they are a descendant of another person who might be a connection back to France. If you’re the Hughes or Grant tester, you may just have tested your way through a brick wall – and found your way to your LeJeune ancestors. If you’re a LeJeune descendant, you might have found a link through one of those women to France. Clearly, in either case, additional research is warranted.

For descendants of Catherine and Edmee, you’re looking for other testers, probably from France, whose ancestors are unknown or different from Edmee and Catherine. That doesn’t mean their genealogy is accurate, but it does merit investigation.

Check to see if someone with that EKA is on your match list, then check their tree.

For Catherine and Edmee LeJeune, other than Martha and Mary, above, there was only one EKA name of interest – a name of royalty born in 1606. However, research on Marie Bourbon shows that she was not the mother of the LeJeune sisters, so that tester is either incorrect, or confused about what was supposed to be entered in the EKA field – the earliest known direct matrilineal ancestor.

You may also find people in these projects who share your ancestor, but have not upgraded to the full sequence test. They will have a shorter version of the haplogroup – in this case, just U6a. If they are on your match list and their results are important to your research, you can reach out to them and ask if they will upgrade.

If you’re working on an ancestor whose mitochondrial DNA you don’t carry, you can contact the project administrator and ask them to contact that person, offering an upgrade.

Takeaways from Suggested Projects

Suggested Projects is a compilation of projects that other people with this haplogroup have joined. Haplogroup-specific projects will be relevant, but others may or may not be.
Testers may have joined other projects based on different lineages that are not related to their mitochondrial line.

We’re finished reviewing the 12 Discover reports, but we aren’t finished yet with the LeJeune analysis.

Another wonderful feature offered by FamilyTreeDNA is Advanced Matching, which allows you to search using combinations of tests and criteria. You’ll find Advanced Matching on your dashboard.

Advanced Matching

Advanced Matching, found under “Additional Tests and Tools,” is a matching tool for mitochondrial DNA and other tests that is often overlooked.

You select any combination of tests to view people who match you on ALL of the combined tests or criteria.

Be sure to select “yes” for “show only people I match in all selected tests,” which means BOTH tests. Let’s say you match 10 people on both the mitochondrial DNA and Family Finder tests. By selecting “Yes,” you’ll see only those 10 people. Otherwise you’ll get the list of everyone who matches you on both tests individually. If you have 100 mitochondrial matches, and 2000 autosomal matches, you’ll see all 2100 people – which is not at all what you want. You wanted ONLY the people who match you on both tests – so be sure to select “yes.”

The combination of the FMS, full sequence test, plus Family Finder displays just the people you match on both tests – but keep in mind that it’s certainly possible that you match those people because of different ancestors. This does NOT mean you match on both tests thanks to the LeJeune sisters. You could match another tester because of a different Acadian, or other, ancestor.

This is especially true in endogamous populations, or groups, like the Acadians, with a significant degree of pedigree collapse.

Advanced Matching Tip

You can also select to match within specific projects. This may be especially useful for people who don’t carry the mitochondrial DNA of the LeJeune sisters, but descend from them.

Switching to my own test, I’ve selected Family Finder, and the Acadian AmerIndian Project, which means I’ll see everyone who matches me on the Family Finder test AND is a member of that project.

Given that I’ve already identified the haplogroup of Catherine LeJeune, I can use known haplogroups to filter autosomal matches, especially in focused projects such as the Acadian AmerIndian Project. This helps immensely to identify at least one way you’re related to other testers.

By clicking on the match’s name, I can see their EKA information. By clicking on their trees, I can verify the ancestral line of descent.

Of course, in Acadian genealogy, I’m probably related to these cousins through more than one ancestor, but using Advanced Matching, then sorting by haplogroup is a great way to identify at least one common ancestor!

Takeaways from Advanced Matching

Advanced Matching is a wonderful tool, but make sure you’re using it correctly. Click “Yes” to “Show only people I match in all selected tests.” Please note that if you select all three levels of mtDNA test, and you don’t match at the HVR1 level due to a mutation, that person won’t be shown as a match because you don’t match them on all test levels selected. I only select “FMS” and then my second test.
You may match someone on either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA and the autosomal Family Finder through different ancestral lines.
Advanced Matching is a great way to see who you match within a project of specific interest – like the Acadian AmerIndian Project for the LeJeune sisters.
You will match people outside of projects, so don’t limit your analysis.

Drum Roll – LeJeune Analysis

It’s finally time to wrap up our analysis.

The original questions we wanted to answer were:

Were Edmee and Catherine LeJeune actually sisters?
Was their mother Native American?
Was the third woman, Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard, also their sister?
Are there any other surprises we need to know about?

We now have answers, so let’s review our evidence.

Based on the haplogroup of Edmee and Catherine LeJeune both, U6a7a1a, which is clearly NOT of Native American origin, we can conclude that they are NOT Native American through their matrilineal side.
Native American haplogroups are subsets of five base haplogroups, and U is not one of them.

There’s other information to be gleaned as well.

Based on the haplogroup of Jeanne LeJeune dit Briard, A2f1a4+12092, plus her daughter’s marriage record, we can conclude that (at least) her mother was Native American.
Based on Jeanne’s Native American haplogroup alone, we can conclude that she is not the full sister of the Catherine and Edmee LeJeune.
Based on Jeanne’s birth date, about 1659, it’s clear that she cannot be the full sibling of Catherine born about 1633, and Edmee LeJeune, born about 1624, and was probably a generation too late to be their paternal half sister. Later lack of dispensations also suggests that they were not half-siblings.
Based on the known Acadian history, confirmed by contemporaneous records, we can state conclusively that Edmee LeJeune was born in France and Catherine probably was as well. The first Acadian settlement did not occur until 1632, and the first known families arrived in 1636.
Based on the fact that Catherine and Edmee’s haplogroups match, and many of their descendants’ mitochondrial DNA matches exactly, combined with later dispensations, we can conclude that Catherine and Edmee were sisters.
We can conclusively determine that Catherine and Edmee were NOT Native on their matrilineal side, and given that they were born in France, their father would have been European as well. However, we cannot determine whether their descendants married someone who was either Native or partially Native.
We know that information for partial haplogroup U6a, provided for HVR1 and HVR1+HVR2-only testers is not necessarily relevant for full sequence haplogroup U6a7a1a.
The recent Mitotree release has moved the haplogroup “dates” for the LeJeune sisters from about 21,000 years ago for HVR1/HVR2 U6a testers to 50 CE for full sequence testers,. These dates may well be refined in future tree releases.
Having multiple testers has provided us with an avenue to garner a massive amount of information about the LeJeune sisters, in spite of the fact that their haplogroup was born about 50 CE.
The LeJeune sisters are related to, but not descended from many very interesting Ancient Connections. Using our Ancient Connections spreadsheet, we can rule out all but one Ancient Connection as being a direct ancestor of the LeJeune sisters, but they are all “haplocousins,” and share common ancestors with the sisters.
While we cannot rule out the genetically closest Ancient Connection, El Agujero 8, who lived about 1275 CE in the Canary Islands as their direct ancestor, it’s very unlikely. It’s more probable that they share a common ancestor in haplogroup U6a7a1 who lived about 3450 years ago, whose descendants spread both into France by the 1600s and the Canary Islands by the 1200s.

By now, you’re probably thinking to yourself that you know more about my ancestors than your own. The good news is that mitochodnrial DNA testing and mtDNA Discover is available for everyone – so you can learn as much or more about your own ancestors.

Spread Encouragement – Be a Positive Nellie!

Unfortunately, sometimes people are discouraged from mitochondrial DNA testing because they are told that mitochondrial haplogroups are “too old,” and matches “are too distant.” Remember that the MRCA of any two people, or groups of people is sometime between the haplogroup formation date, and the current generation – and that’s the information we seek for genealogy.

Furthermore, it’s those distant matches, beyond the reach of autosomal matching, that we need to break down many brick walls – especially for female ancstors. I offer testing scholarships for ancestors whose mitochondrial DNA is not yet represented. It’s information I can’t obtain any other way, and I’ve broken through many brick walls!

We don’t know what we don’t know, and we’ll never know unless we take the test.

Imagine how much could be gained and how many brick walls would fall if everyone who has tested their autosomal DNA would also take a mitochondrial DNA test.

Which ancestors mitochodrial DNA do you need? The best place to start is with your own, plus your father’s, which gives you both grandmother’s mtDNA and directly up those lines until you hit that brick wall that needs to fall.

Additional Resources

Roberta’s Books:

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA – for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA for those ordering the paperback from outside the US

_____________________________________________________________

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 e-mail 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 your price but helps me keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the affiliate 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

FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
MyHeritage Omni comprehensive “everything included” subscription plan
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA – for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA for those ordering the paperback from outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Great News – Both e-Pub and Print Version of “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA” Now Available Worldwide

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Roberta Estes

Anyone, anyplace, can order the full-color, searchable, e-pub version of The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA from the publisher, Genealogical.com, here.
Customers within the US can order the black and white print book from the publisher, here.
Customers outside the US can order the print book from their country’s Amazon website. The publisher does not ship print books outside the US due to customs, shipping costs, and associated delays. They arranged to have the book printed by an international printer so that it can be shipped directly to Amazon for order fulfillment without international customers incurring additional expenses and delays. If you ordered the book previously from Amazon and a long delivery time was projected, that should be resolved now and your book should be arriving soon.

Comprehensive

This book is truly comprehensive and includes:

247 pages
More than 267 images
288 footnotes
12 charts
68 tips
Plus, an 18-page glossary

To view the table of contents, click here. To order, click here.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and your support.

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, 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 e-mail 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 your price but helps me 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

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA Released in Hardcopy

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Roberta Estes

Just what many of you have been waiting for! The hardcopy print version of the Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA has just been released.

The e-pub version was previously released and is available to worldwide customers only from the publisher. Now, the paperback print version is available too.
Click here to order the print version from the publisher in the US.
International customers must order the printed book from their country’s Amazon website to avoid delays, customs, and increased shipping costs.

As shown in the table of contents below, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA contains lots of logically organized information! It includes basic education about genetic genealogy and how it works, instructions on using the FamilyTreeDNA tests and tools, plus an extensive glossary.

Enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, 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 e-mail 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 your price but helps me 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

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Announcing: The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA; Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Roberta Estes

I’m so very pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA.

For the first time, the publisher, Genealogical.com, is making the full-color, searchable e-book version available before the hardcopy print version, here. The e-book version can be read using your favorite e-book reader such as Kindle or iBooks.

Update: The hardcopy version was released at the end of May and is available from the publisher in the US and from Amazon internationally.

This book is about more than how to use the FamilyTreeDNA products and interpreting their genealogical meaning, it’s also a primer on the four different types of DNA used for genealogy and how they work:

Autosomal DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Y-DNA
X-DNA

There’s a LOT here, as shown by the table of contents, below

This book is chocked full of great information in one place. As an added bonus, the DNA glossary is 18 pages long.

I really hope you enjoy my new book, in whatever format you prefer.

_____________________________________________________________

Follow DNAexplain on Facebook, 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 e-mail 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 your price but helps me 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

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
AncestryDNA Plus Traits
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
OldNews – Old Newspapers with links to save to MyHeritage trees
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Books

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US
The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Bennett Greenspan: Meet My Extended Family & Discover Extraordinary Deep Heritage

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Roberta Estes

“My ancestors are in my soul. I can’t get them out of my mind.”

Bennett Greenspan

“And yes, I brake for cemeteries.”

Bennett Greenspan gave an incredibly interesting presentation at the 15th International Genetic Genealogy Conference held by FamilyTreeDNA in November 2023. Since his retirement in January 2021, he has been able to focus on his genealogy. Once a genealogist, always a genealogist.

Bennett said some things I hadn’t thought about, and now I’m viewing Y-DNA matches with a different perspective – based on how he’s using his results.

Ever since I met him, Bennett’s focus has been to use genetics to unravel his complex Jewish heritage.

The questions that drive Bennett are the same ones that motivate most genealogists:

Who are we?
Where did we come from?
Where were we before we were there?
How did my ancestors get there?

Bennett “lost his family lines” before the mid-1800s due to his Jewish heritage, exacerbated in the 1930s by the devastation wrought by the Holocaust. Families were either killed or scattered to survive. It has been through Y-DNA in particular that he has been able to establish unquestionable and confirmed connections with other Greenspan men, sometimes by similar but different surnames, like Green, and sometimes with other surnames entirely.

When Bennett first started down this path, he tested more than 62 men before actually finding one a decade later that matched his Y-DNA. Bennet commented that it was “a little frustrating.”

Persistence is the key, and sometimes, genealogy is a waiting game, but that’s small comfort to genealogists during that unproductive waiting period.

Eventually, Bennett reassembled his family, at least somewhat, but it was a long journey. Here’s Bennett’s incredible story, including surprises, as he tells it.

Bennett discovered genealogy at age 12 and, like many genealogists, created a pedigree chart by talking to his family.

I love the mark-outs. How many of us still have our first chart with its edits?

This is the young Bennett Greenspan, whose interest in genealogy would one day unlock secrets for all of us!

It was a long way from a decade with no matches to finding his genetic kin in Ukraine.

The Big Y-700 Time Tree shows Bennett’s lineage in Ukraine, but stepping back in time, some descendants of his ancestors are found in adjacent locations.

Bennett was passionately discussing his matches on the time tree and in the Greenspan project, so I visited the Greenspan DNA Project, where the earliest known ancestors of Bennett’s Big Y matches are shown on the Group Time Tree.

Bennett’s closest matches are shown as descendants of haplogroup J-ZS1718. He has additional matches who are not in the Greenspan project. Since this is the Group Time Tree, it only displays the people in that project, along with their earliest known ancestors, Isaac and Usher Greenspan.

12-Marker Matches

Bennett never fails to amaze me. He said something very important and profound about 12-marker matches that I really hadn’t thought about – at least not this way.

As a community, we are often guilty of discounting 12-marker matches, those that don’t match us at 25-markers or above, or with different surnames, as “too far back in time” or otherwise irrelevant. I always look at the names and earliest known ancestors of 12-marker matches, because that person may have tested back in the day when fewer markers were available. But if I don’t recognize something, I move on.

However, Bennett said that, ”Y-12 matches reach back to a common ancestor. 12-marker matches are not a quirk. They are related to you, just further back in time. You share a common ancestor with them, someplace. They may be more distant, but they are still your close matches.”

I’ve been in too much of a hurry for a quick win, and ignoring the (apparently not so) obvious.

Determining when and where their ancestors lived also paves the way to discover yours. Your Y-DNA and theirs were in the same place at the same time.

Of Bennett’s 171 12-marker matches, 107 have upgraded to the Big Y, probably mostly due to his encouragement. This benefits both them and Bennett by fleshing out the history of that entire group of men, including how they got to where they are found in the first available records. The Time Tree shows when Big Y testers shared a common ancestor, and based on Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) locations, where. This provides further information about the lives of ancestors before contemporary records – in other words – people that we can never identify by name. It’s a window into ancestors before surnames.

Bennett notes that testers need to know their ancestral village or location to be most useful within the project, and of course, they need to enter their EKA information. Location information is how the Migration Map, Matches Map, and Discover tools, including the Time Tree, are built.

What Happened in Spain?

Bennett’s ancestors and those of his 12-marker matches are found in Spain, and as Bennett says, “One son stayed and one left about the year 296.”

While we have no idea of their names, based on the Time Tree combined with the cluster of earliest known ancestors, we know that they were in Spain, and when.

Their family story is revealed in the bifurcation of the tree found beneath haplogroup J-L823, formed about 296 CE. One line stayed in Spain, and Bennett’s line migrated to eastern Europe where that man’s descendants, including Bennett’s family, are found in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, and other eastern European locations. The closer to you in the tree and in time, the more relevant to your more recent ancestral story.

However, Bennett’s deeper ancestry, the migration of his ancestors to Spain, was only revealed by testing those more distantly related men. Those same men could well have been ignored entirely because they only matched at 12 markers.

According to Bennett, “Y-12 markers are important because these are the men most closely related to you in a database of 1 million men.”

How incredibly profound. How much have I been cavalierly overlooking?

How does this actually apply to Bennett’s results?

Bennett’s Spanish Matches

Bennett has the following STR panel matches who indicate that their EKA are from Spain. You can see that they match Bennett on a variety of panels.

X = yes, match
No = no match
Blank = not tested at that level.

In the Big Y GD column, the genetic distance (GD) is displayed as 15/660 where 15 is the number of mismatches, or the cumulative genetic distance ABOVE the 111 panel, and 660 is the number of STR markers above 111 with results.

The Big Y-500 test guaranteed a minimum of 500 total STR markers, and the Big Y-700 guarantees a minimum of 700 total STR markers, plus multiple scans of the balance of the Y chromosome for SNP mutations that define haplogroups. Testers don’t receive the same number of markers because the scan technology sometimes doesn’t read a specific location.

Tester	12	25	37	67	111	Big Y Test	Big Y GD	Big Y Match	Haplogroup
AA	X	X	X	No	No	Yes	15/660	No	J-FTD8826
DT	X	X	No	No	X	Yes	17/664	No	J-FTE50318
JG	X	X				No		No
AR	No	No	X	X		No		No
ELR	X	X	X			No		No
EL	X	X				Yes	17/666	No	J-FTE50318
GC	X	X	X	X		No		No
JC	X					No		No
JLG	X	X	No	No	No	Yes	14/662	No	J-FTE23540
MF	X	X	No	X	No	Yes	15/665	No	J-FTD91126
MT	X	X	X	X		No		No
BE	X	X	X	X	X	Yes	20/664	No	J-BY1795
DR	X	X	X	X	X	Yes	16/660	No	J-FTC87344
EC	X	X	X	X	X	Yes	15/665	No	J-FTC87344
GM	X	X	No	No	No	Yes	16/650	No	J-FTD28153
GM	X	X	X	X	No	Yes	17/664	No	J-FTD11019
LS	X	X	No	No	No	Yes	18/666	No	J-FTD28153
NE	X	X	X	X	X	Yes	23/597	No	J-BY1795
NC	X					No		No
RR	X	X	X	No	X	Yes	22/659	No	J-BY1795
TT	X	X	X	X	X	Yes	16/647	No	J-FTC87344
XG	X	X	X	No	No	Yes	17/523	No	J-BY167283
JA	X	X	No	No	No	Yes	15/646	No	J-FTD11019

Of those 23 Spanish matches, sixteen have upgraded to Big Y tests, 14 of which are Big Y-700s, resulting in nine different haplogroups, all of which are descendants of Haplogroup J-L823. How cool is that?

The “Nos” in the Big Y Match Column aren’t mistakes. That’s right – none of these men match Bennett on the Big Y test, meaning they had more than a 30 mutation difference between them and Bennett on the Big Y test.

At first glance, you’d think that Bennett would have been disappointed, but that’s not the case at all! In fact, it was the information provided by these distant Spanish matches that provided Bennett with the information that his line had split sometime around the year 296 CE, with one branch remaining in Spain and his branch migrating to Eastern Europe, where he has lots of matches.

DNA Plus History

What was happening in Spain or the Iberian peninsula that involved the Jewish people about that time? Historical records exist of Jews living in that region before the fall of the Second Temple in about 70 CE, including records of Jews being expelled from Rome in 139 for their “corrupting influence.”

Furthermore, the Ancient DNA Connections for haplogroup J-L823, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all of those branches, includes connections to multiple burials from:

Lebanon
Iran
Rome (from 1-400 CE)
Turkey
Jordan

Clearly, Bennett’s ancestor was in the Iberian peninsula around or before 296 CE. One branch stayed, winding up in Spain, and one headed for Europe.

Without these matches, some who didn’t match above the 12 or 25 marker level, how would Bennett have EVER known that his Jewish ancestors left the Middle East for Spain in the early years? How would he have known they migrated from Spain to Eastern Europe, and how would he have known that his line did not migrate directly from the Levant to Eastern Europe in the 9^th century?

Big Y matches are typically within about 1500 years, but non-matches are still INCREDIBLY valuable. Without them, you can’t completely assemble your family story.

I noticed on the Time Tree that in Bennett’s Eastern European line, one of his ancestor’s brother lineages includes the Katzenellenbogen Rabbinic Lineage derived from ancient DNA samples.

Bennett’s successes have resulted from contacting his matches and encouraging upgrades. So how did he do it? What’s the magic sauce?

Contacting Matches

How to contact matches successfully is a question I see often. In fact, FamilyTreeDNA recently wrote about that in an article, here.

Bennett’s methodology for contacting his matches to encourage an upgrade is that he sends an email explaining why he’s encouraging them to upgrade, followed by a 2^nd email three days later.

Bennett tells the recipient that we are at an inflection point in time. “It’s winter, the wind is blowing hard, and many of the leaves are gone.”

In other words, we need to cast the net wider and capture what we can, while we can. Unfortunately, many early testers have died, and with them, chapters of history are perishing.

Collaboration is key. In addition to encouraging upgrades, Bennett also offers Zoom calls to these groups of men to explain the results if they are interested.

What a GREAT idea! I need to begin offering that as well.

Upgrade Request

Bennett reaches out to his matches at various levels, but he expects his closer STR matches, meaning at the 67 and 111 marker level with the fewest mismatches, to match him on a Big Y-700 test and connect someplace between 300-600 years ago, which helps everyone flesh out their tree.

Bennett’s email:

Hello <name>,

Since you have already made a sizable investment in your Y-DNA, you now know that we come from the dominant male Middle Eastern group (Haplogroup J) of men who <subject here>.

What’s really neat is that our Y-DNA has recently been found in an archaeological site in Northwestern Jordan dated to about 4200 years ago. I know this because I upgraded to the Big Y, which tests SNPs, looking at several million locations on the Y chromosome of each man.

One academic customer recently compared this new technology as the difference between looking into space with binoculars versus the Hubble Telescope.

I don’t know if you are familiar with your list of matches at the highest level you’ve tested for, either Y-67 or Y-111. If you are, you should recognize my name and the names of others who have taken the Big Y test.

You’ll see what you’ll gain by letting me upgrade your test for you and determining whether you are related to my line – probably between about 200 years and 500 years.

This might be the second time that I have written to you on this matter; can I presume if I don’t hear from you that you’re not really interested in the Y-DNA subject anymore?

Can I run the test so that I can see how closely we are related – at my expense? (Of course, you get to see how closely related we are, too).

Please reply to me and say “yes.” You don’t even have to put a 🙂 if you don’t want to.

I started this company and this industry over 20 years ago. I predict that you will be happy with the history of YOU that this upgrade will uncover.

Best,

Bennett Greenspan

As you can see, this email can easily be personalized further and adapted to matches at the 37, 25, and 12 marker levels – or even Family Finder matches, now that intermediate-range haplogroups are being reported.

What’s Next?

I’m going back to every one of the kits I sponsored or that represent descendants of one of my ancestors to review their matches again – focusing not just on the closest matches with common surnames, but also on locations – and specifically at lower matching levels. I’ll also be checking their Family Finder matches for male surname matches, or similar surnames.

As is evident from Bennett’s tests, an entire mine of diamonds is out there, just waiting to be unearthed by a Big Y test.

And to think that some people have been advising people to ignore 12-marker matches out-of-hand because they are “entirely irrelevant.” They aren’t – for two reasons.

First, some early testers only tested to that level
Second, because of the deeper history that Big Y tests from those matches will uncover

You can view your Y-DNA matches, upgrade your own Y-DNA test, or order a Big Y-700 test if you haven’t yet tested by clicking here. What’s your next step?

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FamilyTreeDNA 2023 Update – Past, Present and Future

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Roberta Estes

At the FamilyTreeDNA International Conference on Genetic Genealogy, held November 3-5 in Houston for group project administrators, product and feature updates were scattered across both days in various presentations.

I’ve combined the updates from FamilyTreeDNA into one article.

I’ve already written two articles that pertain to the conference.

15^th Annual FamilyTreeDNA Conference for Genetic Genealogy – Reunion, Reception and Keynote

FamilyTreeDNA has already begun rolling the new Y DNA haplogroups from Family Finder autosomal tests, which I wrote about here:

FamilyTreeDNA Provides Y DNA Haplogroups from Family Finder Autosomal Tests

I still have at least two more articles to publish from this conference that was chocked full of wonderful information from a wide range of talented speakers.

Past, Present, and Future with Katy Rowe-Schurwanz

Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, FamilyTreeDNA’s Product Manager, provided an update on what has been accomplished in the four and a half years since the last conference, what’s underway now, and her wish list for 2024.

Please note the word “wish list.” Wish list items are NOT commitments.

Recent Milestones

A lot has been happening at FamilyTreeDNA since the last conference.

Acquisition and Wellness Bundles

As everyone is aware, at the end of 2020, myDNA acquired Gene by Gene, the parent company of FamilyTreeDNA, which included the lab. As a result, the FamilyTreeDNA product menu has expanded, and wellness bundles are now available for FamilyTreeDNA customers.

If you’re interested, you can order the Wellness product in a bundle with a Family Finder test, here.

You can add the Wellness product for $39 if you’ve already tested.

New TIP (Time Prediction) STR Report

Did you notice that the old TIP report for Y DNA STR markers was replaced with an updated version several months ago?

To view the new report, sign on and select your Y DNA matches. At the far right of each match you’ll see these three icons representing a pedigree chart, notes, and the TIP (Time Predictor) report.

The updated TIP report includes wonderful new graphs and age estimates for each match category, which you can read about, here. Each category, such as 67-marker matches, has time estimates in which a common ancestor might have lived at each possible genetic distance.

Math is our friend, and thankfully, someone else has done it for us!

Please note that the Big Y SNP dates are MUCH more accurate for a variety of reasons, not limited to the instability and rapid mutation rate of STR mutations.

MyOrigins3

MyOrigins3, FamilyTreeDNA’s ethnicity offering, added over 60 new reference populations for a total of 90, plus chromosome painting. You can read about MyOrigins features here, and the white paper, here.

This is one of my favorite improvements because it allows me to identify the segment location of my population ancestries, which in turn allows me to identify people who share my minority segments such as Native American and African.

Due to a lack of records, these relationships are often exceedingly difficult to identify, and MyOrigins3 helps immensely.

Additional Releases

Additional products and features released since the last conference include:

Family Finder improvements include a User Interface (UI) update, matching changes, and loading improvement. You can read the new Family Finder matching white paper, here.
Y DNA match pages received a UI update, too.
Lots of information buttons and boxes were added on many pages.
Many new and updated articles in the Help Center, here.

Discover

Released in July 2022, Discover is the amazing new free product that details your ancestor’s Y DNA “story” and his walk through time and across the globe.

In the past 18 months, all of the Discover features are new, so I’m only making a brief list here. The great thing is that everyone can use Discover if you know or can discover (pardon the pun) the haplogroup of your ancestral lines. Surname projects are often beneficial for finding your lineages.

Haplogroup Story includes haplogroup location, ages derived from the earliest known ancestor (EKA) of your matches, and ancient DNA samples. Please be sure you’ve entered or updated your EKA, and that the information is current. You can find instructions for how to update or add your EKA here.
A recent addition to the haplogroup story includes Haplogroup Badges.
Country Frequency showing where this haplogroup is found with either a table view or an interactive map
Famous and infamous Notable Connections, including Mayflower passengers, Patriots from the American Revolution, US presidents, royal houses, artists, musicians, authors, pirates, sports figures, scientists, and more.

If you know of a proven connection to a notable figure, contact customer support and let them know! Notable connections are added every week.

One famous Discover connection is Ludwig von Beethoven which resulted from a joint academic study between FamilyTreeDNA and academic researchers. It’s quite a story and includes both a mystery and misattributed parentage. You can see if you match on Discover and read about the study, here.

Updated Migration Map, including locations of select ancient DNA sites
The Time Tree, probably the most popular Discover report, shows the most current version of the Y DNA phylotree, updated weekly, plus scientifically calculated ages for each branch. Tree node locations are determined by your matches and their EKA countries of origin. I wrote about the Time Tree, here.
Anticipated in early 2024, the EKA and block tree matches will also be shown on the Time Tree in Discover for individual Big Y testers, meaning they will need to sign in through their kits.
The Group Time Tree, visible through group projects, takes the Time Tree a step further by including the names of the EKA of each person on the Time Tree within a specific project. Information is only displayed for project members who have given permission to include their data. You can select specific project groupings to view, or the entire project. I wrote about the Group Time Tree here and here.
Globetrekker is an exclusive Big Y mapping feature discussed here, here, here, and here.
Ancient Connections includes more than 6,100 ancient Y DNA results from across the globe, which have been individually analyzed and added for matching in Discover. Ancient Connections serve to anchor haplogroups and provide important clues about matches, migration paths and culture. New connections are added weekly or as academic papers with adequate Y DNA coverage are released.
Your Ancestral Path, which lists the haplogroups through every step from the tester back to Y Adam and beyond. Additional information for each haplogroup in your path includes “Time Passed” between haplogroups, and “Immediate Descendants,” meaning haplogroups that descend from each subclade. New columns recently added include “Tested Modern Descendants” and “Ancient Connections.”
Suggested Projects include surname, haplogroup, and geographic projects. Katy said that people joining projects are more likely to collaborate and upgrade their tests. You can also see which projects other men with this haplogroup have joined, which may well be projects you want to join too.
Scientific Details provides additional information, such as each branch’s confidence intervals and equivalent variables (SNPs). You can read more here.
Compare Haplogroups is the most recent new feature, added just last month, which allows you to enter any two haplogroups and compare them to determine their most recent common ancestral haplogroup. You can read about Compare Haplogroups, here.

Please note that the Studies feature is coming soon, providing information about studies whose data has been included in Discover.

You can read about Discover here, here, here, and here.

If you’re interested, FamilyTreeDNA has released a one-minute introduction to Y DNA and Discover that would interest new testers, here.

Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) Improvement

Another improvement is that the earliest known ancestor is MUCH easier to enter now, and the process has been simplified. The EKAs are critical for Discover, so PLEASE be sure you’ve entered and updated your EKA.

Under the dropdown beside your name in the upper right-hand corner of your personal page, select Account Settings, then Genealogy and Earliest Known Ancestors. Complete the information, then click on “Update Location” to find or enter the location on a map to record the coordinates.

It’s easy. Just type or drop a pin and “Save.”

Saving will take you back to the original EKA page. Save that page, too.

Recommended Projects on Haplogroups & SNPs Page

You’re probably aware that Discover suggests projects for Y DNA testers to join, but recommended haplogroup projects are available on each tester’s pages, under the Y DNA Haplotree & SNPs page, in the Y DNA STR results section.

If there isn’t a project for your immediate haplogroup, just scroll up to find the closest upstream project. You can also view this page by Variants, Surnames and Countries.

This is a super easy tool to use to view which surnames are clustered with and upstream of your haplogroup. With Family Finder haplogroups being assigned now, I check my upstream haplogroups almost daily to see what has been added.

For example, my Big Y Estes results are ten branches below R-DF49, but several men, including Estes testers, have been assigned at this level, thanks to Y DNA haplogroups from Family Finder testing. I can now look for these haplogroups in the STR and Family Finder matches lists and see if those men are receptive to Big Y testing.

Abandoned Projects

Sometimes group project administrators can no longer function in that capacity, resulting in the project becoming abandoned. FamilyTreeDNA has implemented a feature to help remedy that situation.

If you discover an abandoned project, you can adopt the project, spruce things up, and select the new project settings. Furthermore, administrators can choose to display this message to recruit co-administrators. I need to do this for several projects where I have no co-admin.

If you are looking for help with your project, you can choose to display the button
through the Project Profile page in GAP. For non-project administrators, if you’d like to help, please email the current project administrators.

New Kit Manager Feature

FamilyTreeDNA has added a “Kit Manager” feature so that an individual can designate another person as the manager of their kit.

This new setting provides an avenue for you to designate someone else as the manager of your DNA test. This alerts FamilyTreeDNA that they can share information with both of you – essentially treating your designated kit manager the same as you.

If you’re the kit manager for someone else, you NEED to be sure this is completed. If that person is unavailable for some reason, and support needs to verify that you have legitimate access to this kit, this form and the Beneficiary form are the ONLY ways they can do that.

If your family member has simply given you their kit number and password, and for some reason, a password reset is required, and their email address is the primary contact – you may be shut out of this kit if you don’t complete this form.

Beneficiary Page

Additionally, everyone needs to be sure to complete the Beneficiary page so that in the event of your demise, FamilyTreeDNA knows who you’ve designated to access and manage your DNA account in perpetuity. If you’ve inherited a kit, you need to add a beneficiary to take over in the event of your death as well.

What is FamilyTreeDNA working on now?

Currently in the Works

Katy moved on to what’s currently underway.

Privacy and Security

Clearly, the unauthorized customer data exposure breach at 23andMe has reverberated through the entire online community, not just genetic genealogy. You can read about the incident here, here, here, and here.

FamilyTreeDNA has already taken several steps, and others are in development and will be released shortly.

Clearly, in this fast-moving situation, everything is subject to change.

Here’s what has happened and is currently planned as of today:

Group Project Administrators will be required to reset their password soon.

Why is this necessary?

Unauthorized access was gained to 23andMe accounts by people using the same password for multiple accounts, combined with their email as their user ID. Many people use the same password for every account so that they can remember it. That means that all a hacker needs to do is breach one account, and they can use that same information to “legitimately” sign in to other accounts. There is no way for the vendor to recognize this as unauthorized since they have both your user ID and password.

That’s exactly what happened at 23andMe. In other breaches, this information was exposed, and hackers simply tried the same username and password combination at 23andMe, exposing the entire account of the person whose account they signed in “as.” This includes all of their matches, genetic tree, shared matches, matches of matches, ethnicity, and segments. They could also have downloaded both the match list and the raw DNA file of the compromised account.

At FamilyTreeDNA, project administrators can select their own username, which could be their email, so they will be required to reset their password.

Additional precautions have been put in place on an interim basis:

A pause in the ability to download match and segment information.
A pause in accepting 23andMe uploads.

Administrators will also be required to use two-factor authentication (2FA.) To date, two of the four major vendors are requiring 2FA. I would not be surprised to see it more broadly. Facebook recently required me to implement 2FA there, too, due to the “reach” of my postings, but 2FA is not required of everyone on Facebook.

Please note that if you received an email or message that is supposedly from any vendor requiring 2FA, GO DIRECTLY TO THAT VENDOR SITE AND SIGN IN. Never click on a link in an email you weren’t expecting. Bad actors exploit everything.

Customers who are not signing in as administrators are not required to implement 2FA, nor will they be required to reset their password.

Personally, I will implement 2FA as soon as it’s available.

While 2FA is an extra step, it’s easy to get used to, and it has already literally saved one of my friends from an authorized hack on their primary and backup email accounts this week. Another friend just lost their entire account on Facebook because someone signed in as them. Their account was gone within 15 minutes.

2FA is one of those things you don’t appreciate (at all) until it saves you, and then, suddenly, you’re incredibly grateful.

At this point in time, FamilyTreeDNA users will NOT be required to do a password reset or implement 2FA. This is because customers use a kit number for sign-in and not a username or email address. I would strongly recommend changing your password to something “not easy.” Never reuse passwords between accounts.

I really, really want you to visit this link at TechRepublic and scroll down to Figure A, which shows how long it takes a hacker to crack your password. I guarantee you, it’s MUCH quicker than you’d ever expect.

Kim Komando wrote about this topic two years ago, so compare the two charts to see how much easier this has become in just two years.

Again, if you receive an email about resetting your password, don’t click on a link. Sign in independently to the vendor’s system, but DO reset your password.

FamilyTreeDNA also engages in additional security efforts, such as ongoing penetration testing.

New Permissions

Additionally, at FamilyTreeDNA, changes were already in the works to separate out at least two permissions that testers can opt-in to without granting project administrators Advanced rights.

Download data
Purchase tests

The ability to purchase tests can be very important because it allows administrators to order and pay for tests or upgrades on behalf of this tester anytime in the future.

Family Finder Haplogroups

FamilyTreeDNA has already begun releasing mid-level Y DNA haplogroups for autosomal testers in a staggered rollout of several thousand a day.

I wrote about this in the article, FamilyTreeDNA Provides Y DNA Haplogroups from Family Finder Autosomal Tests, so I’m not repeating all of that information here – just highlights.

The Family Finder haplogroup rollout is being staggered and began with customers on the most recent version of the testing chip, which was implemented in March of 2019.
Last will be transfers/uploads from third parties.
Haplogroups resulting from tests performed in the FTDNA labs will be visible to matches and within projects. They will also be used in both Discover and the haplotree statistics. This includes Family Finder plus MyHeritage and Vitagene uploads.
Both MyHeritage and Vitagene are uploaded or “transferred” via an intracompany secure link, meaning FamilyTreeDNA knows that their information is credible and has not been manipulated.
Haplogroups derived from tests performed elsewhere will only be visible to the user or a group administrator viewing a kit within a project. They will not be visible to matches or used in trees or for statistics.
Any man who has taken a Y DNA STR test will receive a SNP-confirmed, updated haplogroup from their Family Finder test that replaces their predicted haplogroup from the STR test.

Please read this article for more information.

New Discover Tools and Updates

Discover content continues to be updated, and new features are added regularly, creating an increasingly robust user experience.

Soon, group administrators will be able to view all Discover features (like Globetrekker) when viewing kits of project members who have granted an appropriate level of access.

Ancient and Notable connects are added weekly, and a new feature, Study Connections, will be added shortly.

Study Connections is a feature requested by customers that will show you which study your academic matches came from. Today, those results are used in the Y DNA tree, but the source is not detailed.

Anticipated in early 2024, the EKA and block tree matches will also be shown on the Time Tree in Discover for individual Big Y testers (not publicly).

Big Y FaceBook Group

FamilyTreeDNA has ramped up its social media presence. They launched the Big Y Facebook group in July 2023, here, which currently has just under 9000 members. Several project administrators have volunteered their time to help manage the group.

FamilyTreeDNA Blog

In addition, FamilyTreeDNA is publishing at least one blog article each week, and sometimes more. You can view or subscribe here. Some articles are written by FamilyTreeDNA staff, but project administrators and customers author other content.

Multi-Language Support

Translation of the main FamilyTreeDNA website and results pages to Spanish has begun, with more languages planned soon.

Paypal, Payments, and Gift Cards

Paypal has been added as a payment selection, along with a PayPal option that provides the ability to make payments.

Additionally, a gift card can be purchased from the main page.

Million Mito Project & Mitotree

Work on the Million Mito Project is ongoing.

The Million Mito Project was launched in 2020 as a collaborative effort between FamilyTreeDNA’s Research & Development Team and the scientific portion of the Genographic Project. I’m a team member and wrote about the Million Mito Project, here.

We’re picking up from where the Phylotree left off in 2016, analyzing 20 times more mtDNA full sequences and reimagining the mtDNA Haplotree. By examining more mtDNA data and applying the processes that allowed FamilyTreeDNA to build the world’s largest Y DNA Haplotree, we can also create the world’s largest Mitotree.

In 2022, the first update was released, authored by the Million Mito team, with the discovery of haplogroup L7. You can read about this amazing discovery rooted deep in the tree here, here, and here. (Full disclosure: I’m a co-author.)

Not only that, but “Nature Scientific Reports” selected this article as one of five named Editor’s Choice in the Mitogenomics category, here. In the science world, that’s a HUGE deal – like the genetic Emmy.

Here’s one example of the type of improvements that can be expected. Currently, the formation of haplogroup U5a2b2a reaches back to about 5000 years ago, but after reanalysis, current branches originated between 500 and 2,500 years ago, and testers are clustered more closely together.

This is SOOO exciting!!!

Just as Discover for Y DNA results was built one feature at a time, the same will be true for MitoDiscover. That’s my name, not theirs.

As the new Mitotree is rolled out, the user interface will also be updated, and matching will function somewhat differently. Specifically, it’s expected that many more haplogroups will be named, so today’s matching that requires an exact haplogroup match to be a full sequence match will no longer work. That and other matching adjustments will need to be made.

I can hardly wait. I have so many results I need to be able to view in a tree format and to place in a timeframe.

You can be included in this exciting project, learn more about your matrilineal (mother’s) line, and hopefully break down some of those brick walls by taking the full sequence mitochondrial DNA test, here.

After the new Mitotree is rolled out and the Y DNA Family Finder haplogroups are completed, Family Finder customers, where possible, will also receive at least a basic-level mitochondrial haplogroup. Not all upload files from other vendors include mtDNA SNPs in their autosomal files. The mitochondrial Family Finder haplogroup feature isn’t expected until sometime in 2025, after the new tree and MitoDiscover are complete.

The Future

What’s coming later in 2024, or is ongoing?

Privacy Laws

Most people aren’t aware of the new privacy laws in various states, each of which has to be evaluated and complied with.

The effects of these changes will be felt in various areas as they are implemented.

New Kits Opted Out of IGG

Since late August, all new FTDNA kits are automatically opted OUT of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) by default.

Regular matching consent and IGG matching consent have been separated during onboarding.

Biobanking Separate Consent

Another consent change is to have your sample biobanked. FamilyTreeDNA has always maintained your sample for “roughly 25 years.” You could always ask to have your sample destroyed, but going forward, you will be asked initially if you want your sample to be retained (biobanked.) It’s still free.

Remember, if someone declines the biobanking option, their DNA will be disposed of after testing. They can’t order upgrades without submitting a new sample. Neither can their family after they’re gone. I ordered my mother’s Family Finder test many years after she had gone on to meet our ancestors – and I’m incredibly grateful every single day.

MyHeritage Tree Integration

An exciting change coming next year is tree integration with MyHeritage.

And no, before any rumors get started, FAMILYTREEDNA IS NOT MERGING WITH MYHERITAGE. It’s a beneficial marriage of convenience for both parties.

In essence, one of the primary focuses of MyHeritage is trees, and they do that very well. FamilyTreeDNA is focused on DNA testing and their existing trees have had issues for years. MyHeritage trees are excellent, support pedigree collapse, provide search capabilities that are NOT case sensitive, SmartMatching, and much more.

If you don’t have a MyHeritage account, creating one is free, and you will be able to either port your existing FamilyTreeDNA tree, or begin one there. If you’re already a MyHeritage member, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage are planning together for a smooth integration for you. More detailed information will be forthcoming as the integration progressed and is released to customers.

You’ll be able to connect multiple kits to your tree at MyHeritage, just like you can at FamilyTreeDNA today, which enables family matching, aka bucketing.

You can also have an unlimited number of different trees at MyHeritage on the same account. You’re not limited to one.

After you link your initial FamilyTreeDNA kit to the proper person in your MyHeritage tree, you’ll be able to relink any currently linked kits.

MyHeritage will NOT receive any DNA information or match information from FamilyTreeDNA, and yes, you’ll be able to use the same tree independently at MyHeritage for their DNA matching.

You’ll still be able to view your matches’ trees, except it will actually be the MyHeritage tree that will be opened at FamilyTreeDNA in a new tab.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a win-win-win, and customers of both companies aren’t losing anything.

One concern is that some FamilyTreeDNA testers have passed away and cannot transition their tree, so a view-only copy of their tree will remain at FamilyTreeDNA so that their matches can still see their tree.

Big Y Infrastructure

Katy mentioned that internal discussions are taking place to see what changes could be made to improve things like matching and test processing times.

No changes are planned for SNP or STR coverage, but discussions are taking place about a potential update to the Telomere to Telomere (T2T) reference. No promises about if or when this might occur. The last part of the human genome to be fully sequenced, the T2T reference model includes the notoriously messy and unreliable region of the Y chromosome with many repeats, duplications, gaps, and deletions. Some data from this region is probably salvageable but has previously been omitted due to the inherent problems.

I’m not sure this shouldn’t be in the next section, the Wishlist.

Wishlist

There are lots of good things on the Wishlist – all of which I’d love.

I’d have difficulty prioritizing, but I’d really appreciate some Family Finder features in addition to the items already discussed. I’d also like to see some GAP (administrator) tool updates.

Which items do you want to see most?

Katy said that FamilyTreeDNA is NOT planning to offer a Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) test anytime soon. So, if you’re holding your breath, please don’t. Based on what Katy did say, WGS is very clearly not a consideration in 2024 and I don’t expect to see it in 2025 either unless something changes drastically in terms of technology AND pricing.

While WGS prices have come down, those consumer tests are NOT scanned at the depth and quality required for advanced tests like the Big Y or even Family Finder. Normally consumer-grade WGS tests are scanned between 2 and 10 times, where the FamilyTreeDNA lab scans up to 30 times in order to obtain a quality read. 30X scans are in the same category as medical or clinical grade whole genome scans. Significantly higher quality scans mean significantly higher prices, too, so WGS isn’t ready for genealogy prime time yet.

Additionally, commercially available WGS tests are returned to the customer “as is,” and you’re left to extract the relevant SNPs and arrange them into files, or find someone else to do that. Not to mention, in order to preserve the integrity of their database, FamilyTreeDNA does not accept Y or mitochondrial DNA uploads.

Recently, I saw two WGS files with a 20-25% no-call rate for the autosomal SNPs required for the Family Finder test. Needless to say, that’s completely unacceptable. Some tools attempt to “fix” that mess by filling in the blanks in the format of either a 23andMe or Ancestry file so you can upload to vendors, but that means you’re receiving VERY unreliable matches.

The reason none of the major four vendors offer WGS testing for genealogists is because it’s not financially feasible nor technologically beneficial. The raw data file alone won’t fit on most home computers. WGS is just not soup yet, and it won’t be for the general consuming public, including relevant tools, for at least a few years.

I’ve had my whole genome sequenced, and trust me, I wish it were feasible now, but it just isn’t.

Suggestions Welcomed

Katy said that if you have suggestions for items NOT on the wishlist today to contact her through support.

I would add that if you wish to emphasize any specific feature or need above others, please send that feedback, politely, to support as well.

Katy ended by thanking the various teams and individuals whose joint efforts together produce the products we use and enjoy today.

Lab Update

Normally, DNA testing companies don’t provide lab updates, but this conference is focused on group project administrators, who are often the most dedicated to DNA testing.

A lab update has become a tradition over the years.

Linda Jones, Lab Manager, provided a lab update.

You may or may not know that the FamilyTreeDNA lab shifted gears and stepped up to handle Covid testing.

Supply-chain shortages interfered, but the lab ran 24×7 between 2020 and 2022.

Today, the lab continues to make improvements to processes with the goal of delivering the highest quality results in a timely manner.

On Monday, after the conference, attendees could sign up for a lab tour. You might say we are a rather geeky bunch and really enjoy the science behind the scenes.

Q&A and Thank You

At the end of the conference, the FamilyTreeDNA management team answered questions from attendees.

Left to right, Daniel Au, CTO; Linda Jones, Lab Manager; Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, Product Manager; Clayton Conder, VP Marketing; Goran Runfeldt, Head of R&D; and Andrew Gefre, Development Manager. Not pictured, Jeremy Balkin, Support Manager; Kelly Jenkins, VP of Operations; and Janine Cloud, Group Projects Manager. Janine is also responsible for conferences and events, without whom there would have been no 2023 FamilyTreeDNA conference. Janine, I can’t thank you enough!

A huge thanks to all of these people and many others, including the presenters, CSRs, IT, and other FamilyTreeDNA team members for their support during the conference, enabling us to enjoy the conference and replenish the well of knowledge.

_____________________________________________________________

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DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
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DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
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Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books
American Ancestors – Wonderful selection of genealogy books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

DNA: In Search of…Full and Half-Siblings

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Roberta Estes

This is the fifth article in our series of articles about searching for unknown close family members, specifically; parents, grandparents, or siblings. However, these same techniques can be applied by genealogists to identify ancestors further back in time as well.

I introduced the “In Search of” series in the article, DNA: In Search of…New Series Launches.
In the second article, DNA: In Search of…What Do You Mean I’m Not Related to My Family? – and What Comes Next? we discussed the discovery that something was amiss when you don’t match a family member that you expect to match, then how to make sure a vial or upload mix-up didn’t happen. Next, I covered the basics of the four kinds of DNA tests you’ll be able to use to solve your mystery.
In the third article, In Search of…Vendor Features, Strengths, and Testing Strategies, we discussed testing goals and strategies, including testing with and uploading to multiple autosomal DNA vendors, Y DNA, and mitochondrial DNA testing. We reviewed the vendor’s strengths and the benefits of combining vendor information and resources.
In the fourth article, DNA: In Search of…Signs of Endogamy, we discussed the signs of endogamy and various ways to determine if you or your recent ancestors descend from an endogamous population.

Please note that if a family member has tested and you do NOT see their results, ask them to verify that they have chosen to allow matching and for other people to view them in their match list. That process varies at different vendors.

You can also ask if they can see you in their results.

All Parties Need to Test

Searching for unknown siblings isn’t exactly searching, because to find them, they, themselves, or their descendant(s) must have taken a DNA test at the same vendor where you tested or uploaded a DNA file.

You may know through any variety of methods that they exist, or might exist, but if they don’t take a DNA test, you can’t find them using DNA. This might sound obvious, but I see people commenting and not realizing that the other sibling(s) must test too – and they may not have.

My first questions when someone comments in this vein are:

Whether or not they are positive their sibling actually tested, meaning actually sent the test in to the vendor, and it was received by the testing company. You’d be surprised how many tests are living in permanent residence on someone’s countertop until it gets pushed into the drawer and forgotten about.
If the person has confirmed that their sibling has results posted. They may have returned their test, but the results aren’t ready yet or there was a problem.
AND that both people have authorized matching and sharing of results. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your vendor’s customer care if you need help with this.

Sibling Scenarios

The most common sibling scenarios are when one of two things happens:

A known sibling tests, only to discover that they don’t match you in the full sibling range, or not at all, when you expected they would
You discover a surprise match in the full or half-sibling range

Let’s talk about these scenarios and how to determine:

If someone is a sibling
If they are a full or half-sibling
If a half-sibling, if they descend from your mother or father

As with everything else genetic, we’ll be gathering and analyzing different pieces of evidence along the way.

Full and Half-Siblings

Just to make sure we are all on the same page:

A full sibling is someone who shares both parents with you.
A half-sibling is someone who shares one parent with you, but not the other parent.
A step-sibling is someone who shares no biological parents with you. This situation occurs when your parent marries their parent, after you are both born, and their parent becomes your step-parent. You share neither of your biological parents with a step-sibling, so you share no DNA and will not show up on each other’s match lists.
A three-quarters sibling is someone with whom you share one parent, but two siblings are the other parent. For example, you share the same mother, but one brother fathered you, and your father’s brother fathered your sibling. Yes, this can get very messy and is almost impossible for a non-professional to sort through, if even then. (This is not a solicitation. I do not take private clients.) We will not be addressing this situation specifically.

Caution

With any search for unknown relatives, you have no way of knowing what you will find.

In one’s mind, there are happy reunions, but you may experience something entirely different. Humans are human. Their stories are not always happy or rosy. They may have made mistakes they regret. Or they may have no regrets about anything.

Your sibling may not know about you or the situation under which you, or they, were born. Some women were victims of assault and violence, which is both humiliating and embarrassing. I wrote about difficult situations, here.

Your sibling or close family member may not be receptive to either you, your message, or even your existence. Just be prepared, because the seeking journey may not be pain-free for you or others, and may not culminate with or include happy reunions.

On the other hand, it may.

Please step back and ponder a bit about the journey you are about to undertake and the possible people that may be affected, and how. This box, once opened, cannot be closed again. Be sure you are prepared.

On the other hand, sometimes that box lid pops off, and the information simply falls in your lap one day when you open your match list, and you find yourself sitting there, in shock, staring at a match, trying to figure out what it all means.

Congratulations, You Have a Sibling!

This might not be exactly what runs through your mind when you see that you have a very close match that you weren’t expecting.

The first two things I recommend when making this sort of discovery, after a few deep breaths, a walk, and a cup of tea, are:

Viewing what the vendor says
Using the DNAPainter Shared cM Relationship Chart

Let’s start with DNAPainter.

DNAPainter

DNAPainter provides a relationship chart, here, based on the values from the Shared cM Project.

You can either enter a cM amount or a percentage of shared DNA. I prefer the cM amount, but it doesn’t really matter.

I’ll enter 2241 cM from a known half-sibling match. To enter a percent, click on the green “enter %.”

As you can see, statistically speaking, this person is slightly more likely to be a half-sibling than they are to be a full sibling. In reality, they could be either.

Looking at the chart below, DNAPainter highlights the possible relationships from the perspective of “Self.”

The average of all the self-reported relationships is shown, on top, so 2613 for a full sibling. The range is shown below, so 1613-3488 for a full sibling.

In this case, there are several possibilities for two people who share 2241 cM of DNA.

I happen to know that these two people are half-siblings, but if I didn’t, it would be impossible to tell from this information alone.

The cM range for full siblings is 1613-3488, and the cM range for half-siblings is 1160-2436.

The lower part of the matching range, from 1160-1613 cM is only found in half-siblings.
The portion of the range from 1613-2436 cM can be either half or full siblings.
The upper part of the range, from 2436-3488 cM is only found in full siblings.

If your results fall into the center portion of the range, you’re going to need to utilize other tools. Fortunately, we have several.

If you’ve discovered something unexpected, you’ll want to verify using these tools, regardless. Use every tool available. Ranges are not foolproof, and the upper and lower 10% of the responses were removed as outliers. You can read more about the shared cM Project, here and here.

Furthermore, people may be reporting some half-sibling relationships as full sibling relationships, because they don’t expect to be half-siblings, so the ranges may be somewhat “off.”

Relationship Probability Calculator

Third-party matching database, GEDmatch, provides a Relationship Probability Calculator tool that is based on statistical probability methods without compiled user input. Both tools are free, and while I haven’t compared every value, both seem to be reasonably accurate, although they do vary somewhat, especially at the outer ends of the ranges.

When dealing with sibling matches, if you are in all four databases, GEDmatch is a secondary resource, but I will include GEDmatch when they have a unique tool as well as in the summary table. Some of your matches may be willing to upload to GEDmatch if the vendor where you match doesn’t provide everything you need and GEDmatch has a supplemental offering.

Next, let’s look at what the vendors say about sibling matches.

Vendors

Each of the major vendors reports sibling relationships in a slightly different way.

Sibling Matches at Ancestry

Ancestry reports sibling relationships as Sister or Brother, but they don’t say half or full.

If you click on the cM portion of the link, you’ll see additional detail, below

Ancestry tells you that the possible relationships are 100% “Sibling.” The only way to discern the difference between full and half is by what’s next.

If the ONLY relationship shown is Sibling at 100%, that can be interpreted to mean this person is a full sibling, and that a half-sibling or other relationship is NOT a possibility.

Ancestry never stipulates full or half.

The following relationship is a half-sibling at Ancestry.

Ancestry identifies that possible range of relationships as “Close Family to First Cousin” because of the overlaps we saw in the DNAPainter chart.

Clicking through shows that there is a range of possible relationships, and Ancestry is 100% sure the relationship is one of those.

DNAPainter agrees with Ancestry except includes the full-sibling relationship as a possibility for 1826 cM.

Sibling Matches at 23andMe

23andMe does identify full versus half-siblings.

DNAPainter disagrees with 23andMe and claims that anyone who shares 46.2% of their DNA is a parent/child.

However, look at the fine print. 23andMe counts differently than any of the other vendors, and DNAPainter relies on the Shared cM Project, which relies on testers entering known relationship matching information. Therefore, at any other vendor, DNAPainter is probably exactly right.

Before we understand how 23andMe counts, we need to understand about half versus fully identical segments.

To determine half or full siblings, 23andMe compares two things:

The amount of shared matching DNA between two people
Fully Identical Regions (FIR) of DNA compared to Half Identical Regions (HIR) of DNA to determine if any of your DNA is fully identical, meaning some pieces of you and your sibling’s DNA is exactly the same on both your maternal and paternal chromosomes.

Here’s an example on any chromosome – I’ve randomly selected chromosome 12. Which chromosome doesn’t matter, except for the X, which is different.

Your match isn’t broken out by maternal and paternal sides. You would simply see, on the chromosome browser, that you and your sibling match at these locations, above.

In reality, though, you have two copies of each chromosome, one from Mom and one from Dad, and so does your sibling.

In this example, Mom’s chromosome is visualized on top, and Dad’s is on the bottom, below, but as a tester, you don’t know that. All you know is that you match your sibling on all of those blue areas, above.

However, what’s actually happening in this example is that you are matching your sibling on parts of your mother’s chromosome and parts of your father’s chromosome, shown above as green areas

23andMe looks at both copies of your chromosome, the one you inherited from Mom, on top, and Dad, on the bottom, to see if you match your sibling on BOTH your mother’s and your father’s chromosomes in that location.

I’ve boxed the green matching areas in purple where you match your sibling fully, on both parents’ chromosomes.

If you and your sibling share both parents, you will share significant amounts of the same DNA on both copies of the same chromosomes, meaning maternal and paternal. In other words, full siblings share some purple fully identical regions (FIR) of DNA with each other, while half-siblings do not (unless they are also otherwise related) because half-siblings only share one parent with each other. Their DNA can’t be fully identical because they have a different parent that contributed the other copy of their chromosome.

	Total Shared DNA	Fully Identical DNA from Both Parents
Full Siblings	~50%	~25%
Half Siblings	~25%	0

Full siblings are expected to share about 50% of the same DNA. In other words, their DNA will match at that location. That’s all the green boxed locations, above.
Full siblings are expected to share about 25% of the same DNA from BOTH parents at the same location on BOTH copies of their chromosomes. These are fully identical regions and are boxed in purple, above.

You’ll find fully identical segments about 25% of the time in full siblings, but you won’t find fully identical segments in half-siblings. Please note that there are exceptions for ¾ siblings and endogamous populations.

You can view each match at 23andMe to see if you have any completely identical regions, shown in dark purple in the top comparison of full siblings. Half siblings are shown in the second example, with less total matching DNA and no FIR or completely identical regions.

Please note that your matching amount of DNA will probably be higher at 23andMe than at other companies because:

23andMe includes the X chromosome in the match totals
23andMe counts fully identical matching regions twice. For full siblings, that’s an additional 25%

Therefore, a full sibling with an X match will have a higher total cM at 23andMe than the same siblings elsewhere because not only is the X added into the total, the FIR match region is added a second time too.

Fully Identical Regions (FIR) and Half Identical Regions (HIR) at GEDmatch

At GEDMatch, you can compare two people to each other, with an option to display the matching information and a painted graphic for each chromosome that includes FIR and HIR.

If you need to know if you and a match share fully identical regions and you haven’t tested at 23andMe, you can both upload your DNA data file to GEDmatch and use their One to One Autosomal DNA Comparison.

On the following page, simply enter both kit numbers and accept the defaults, making sure you have selected one of the graphics options.

While GEDmatch doesn’t specifically tell you whether someone is a full or half sibling, you can garner additional information about the relationship based on the graphic at GEDmatch.

GEDMatch shows both half and fully identical regions.

The above match is between two full siblings using a 7 cM threshold. The blue on the bottom bar indicates a match of 7 cM or larger. Black means no match.

The green regions in the top bar indicate places where these two people carry the same DNA on both copies of their chromosome 1. This means that both people inherited the same DNA from BOTH parents on the green segments.

In the yellow regions, the siblings inherited the same DNA from ONE parent, but different DNA in that region from the other parent. They do match each other, just on one of their chromosomes, not both.

Without a tool like this to differentiate between HIR and FIR, you can’t tell if you’re matching someone on one copy of your chromosome, or on both copies.

In the areas marked with red on top, which corresponds to the black on the bottom band, these two siblings don’t match each other because they inherited different DNA from both parents in that region. The yellow in that region is too scattered to be significant.

Full siblings generally share a significant amount of FIR, or fully identical regions of DNA – about 25%.

Half siblings will share NO significant amount of FIR, although some will be FIR on very small, scattered green segments simply by chance, as you can see in the example, below.

This half-sibling match shares no segments large enough to be a match (7 cM) in the black section. In the blue matching section, only a few small green fragments of DNA match fully, which, based on the rest of that matching segment, must be identical by chance or misreads. There are no significant contiguous segments of fully identical DNA.

When dealing with full or half-siblings, you’re not interested in small, scattered segments of fully identical regions, like those green snippets on chromosome 6, but in large contiguous sections of matching DNA like the chromosome 1 example.

GEDmatch can help when you match when a vendor does not provide FIR/HIR information, and you need additional assistance.

Next, let’s look at full and half-siblings at FamilyTreeDNA

Sibling Matches at FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA does identify full siblings.

Relationships other than full siblings are indicated by a range. The two individuals below are both half-sibling matches to the tester.

The full range when mousing over the relationship ranges is shown below.

DNAPainter agrees except also gives full siblings as an option for the two half-siblings.

FamilyTreeDNA also tells you if you have an X match and the size of your X match.

We will talk about X matching in a minute, which, when dealing with sibling identification, can turn out to be very important.

Sibling Matches at MyHeritage

MyHeritage indicates brother or sister for full siblings

MyHeritage provides other “Estimated relationships” for matches too small to be full siblings.

DNAPainter’s chart agrees with this classification, except adds additional relationship possibilities.

Be sure to review all of the information provided by each vendor for close relationships.

View Close Known Relationships

The next easiest step to take is to compare your full or half-sibling match to known close family members from your maternal and paternal sides, respectively. The closer the family members, the better.

It’s often not possible to determine if someone is a half sibling or a full sibling by centiMorgans (cMs) alone, especially if you’re searching for unknown family members.

Let’s start with the simplest situation first.

Let’s say both of your parents have tested, and of course, you match both of them as parents.

Your new “very close match” is in the sibling range.

The first thing to do at each vendor is to utilize that vendor’s shared matches tool and see whether your new match matches one parent, or both.

Here’s an example.

Close Relationships at FamilyTreeDNA

This person has a full sibling match, but let’s say they don’t know who this is and wants to see if their new sibling matches one or both of their parents.

Select the match by checking the box to the left of the match name, then click on the little two-person icon at far right, which shows “In Common” matches

You can see on the resulting shared match list that both of the tester’s parents are shown on the shared match list.

Now let’s make this a little more difficult.

No Parents, No Problem

Let’s say neither of your parents has tested.

If you know who your family is and can identify your matches, you can see if the sibling you match matches other close relatives on both or either side of your family.

You’ll want to view shared matches with your closest known match on both sides of your tree, beginning with the closest first. Aunts, uncles, first cousins, etc.

You will match all of your family members through second cousins, and 90% of your third cousins. You can view additional relationship percentages in the article, How Much of Them is in You?.

I recommend, for this matching purpose, to utilize 2^nd cousins and closer. That way you know for sure if you don’t share them as a match with your sibling, it’s because the sibling is not related on that side of the family, not because they simply don’t share any DNA due to their distance.

In this example, you have three sibling matches. Based on your and their matches to the same known first and second cousins, you can see that:

Sibling 1 is your full sibling, because you both match the same maternal and paternal first and second cousins
Sibling 2 is your paternal half-sibling because you both match paternal second cousins and closer, but not maternal cousins.
Sibling 3 is your maternal half-sibling because you both match maternal second cousins and closer, but not paternal cousins.

Close Relationships at Ancestry

Neither of my parents have tested, but my first cousin on my mother’s side has. Let’s say I have a suspected sibling or half-sibling match, so I click on the match’s name, then on Shared Matches.

Sure enough, my new match also matches my first cousin that I’ve labeled as “on my mother’s side.”

If my new match in the sibling range also matches my second cousins or closer on my father’s side, the new match is a full sibling, not a half-sibling.

Close Relationships at MyHeritage

Comparing my closest match provided a real surprise. I wonder if I’ve found a half-sibling to my mother.

Now, THIS is interesting.

Hmmm. More research is needed, beginning with the age of my match. MyHeritage provides ages if the MyHeritage member authorizes that information to be shared.

Close Relationships at 23andMe

Under DNA Relatives, click on your suspected sibling match, then scroll down and select “Find Relatives in Common.”

The Relatives in Common list shows people that match both of you.

The first common match is very close and a similar relationship to my closest match on my father’s side. This would be expected of a sibling. I have no common matches with this match to anyone on my mother’s side, so they are only related on my father’s side. Therefore they are a paternal half-sibling, not a full sibling.

More Tools Are Available

Hopefully, by now, you’ve been able to determine if your mystery match is a sibling, and if so, if they are a half or full sibling, and through which parent.

We have some additional tools that are relevant and can be very informative in some circumstances. I suggest utilizing these tools, even if you think you know the answer.

In this type of situation, there’s no such thing as too much information.

X Matching

X matching, or lack thereof, may help you determine how you are related to someone.

There are two types of autosomal DNA. The X chromosome versus chromosomes 1-22. The X chromosome (number 23) has a unique inheritance path that distinguishes it from your other chromosomes.

The X chromosome inheritance path also differs between men and women.

Here’s my pedigree chart in fan form, highlighting the ancestors who may have contributed a portion of their X chromosome to me. In the closest generation, this shows that I inherited an X chromosome from both of my parents, and who in each of their lines could have contributed an X to them.

The white or uncolored positions, meaning ancestors, cannot contribute any portion of an X chromosome to me based on how the X chromosome is inherited.

You’ll notice that my father inherited none of his X chromosome from any of his paternal ancestors, so of course, I can’t inherit what he didn’t inherit. There are a very limited number of ancestors on my father’s side whom I can inherit any portion of an X chromosome from.

Men receive their Y chromosome from their fathers, so men ONLY receive an X chromosome from their mother.

Therefore, men MUST pass their mother’s X chromosome on to their female offspring because they don’t have any other copy of the X chromosome to pass on.

Men pass no X chromosome to sons.

We don’t need to worry about a full fan chart when dealing with siblings and half-siblings.

We only need to be concerned with the testers plus one generation (parents) when utilizing the X chromosome in sibling situations.

These two female Disney Princesses, above, are full siblings, and both inherited an X chromosome from BOTH their mother and father. However, their father only has one X (red) chromosome to give them, so the two females MUST match on the entire red X chromosome from their father.

Their mother has two X chromosomes, green and black, to contribute – one from each of her parents.

The full siblings, Melody, and Cinderella:

May have inherited some portion of the same green and black X chromosomes from their mother, so they are partial matches on their mother’s X chromosome.
May have inherited the exact same full X chromosome from their mother (both inherited the entire green or both inherited the entire black), so they match fully on their mother’s X chromosome.
May have inherited the opposite X from different maternal grandparents. One inherited the entire green X and one inherited the entire black X, so they don’t match on their mother’s X chromosome.

Now, let’s look at Cinderella, who matches Henry.

This female and male full sibling match can’t share an X chromosome on the father’s side, because the male’s father doesn’t contribute an X chromosome to him. The son, Henry, inherited a Y chromosome instead from his father, which is what made them males.

Therefore, if a male and female match on the X chromosome, it MUST be through HIS mother, but could be through either of her parents. In a sibling situation, an X match between a male and female always indicates the mother.

In the example above, the two people share both of their mother’s X chromosomes, so are definitely (at least) maternally related. They could be full siblings, but we can’t determine that by the X chromosome in this situation, with males.

However, if the male matches the female on HER father’s X chromosome, there a different message, example below.

You can see that the male is related to the female on her father’s side, where she inherited the entire magenta X chromosome. The male inherited a portion of the magenta X chromosome from his mother, so these two people do have an X match. However, he matches on his mother’s side, and she matches on her father’s side, so that’s clearly not the same parent.

These people CAN NOT be full siblings because they don’t match on HER mother’s side too, which would also be his mother’s side if they were full siblings.
They cannot be maternal half-siblings because their X DNA only matches on her father’s side, but they wouldn’t know that unless she knew which side was which based on share matches.
They cannot be paternal half-siblings because he does not have an X chromosome from his father.

They could, however, be uncle/aunt-niece/nephew or first cousins on his mother’s side and her father’s side. (Yes, you’re definitely going to have to read this again if you ever need male-female X matching.)

Now, let’s look at X chromosome matching between two males. It’s a lot less complicated and much more succinct.

Neither male has inherited an X chromosome from their father, so if two males DO match on the X, it MUST be through their mother. In terms of siblings, this would mean they share the same mother.

However, there is one slight twist. In the above example, you can see that the men inherited a different proportion of the green and black X chromosomes from their common mother. However, it is possible that the mother could contribute her entire green X chromosome to one son, Justin in this example, and her entire black X chromosome to Henry.

Therefore, even though Henry and Justin DO share a mother, their X chromosome would NOT match in this scenario. This is rare but does occasionally happen.

Based on the above examples, the X chromosome may be relevant in the identification of full or half siblings based on the sexes of the two people who otherwise match at a level indicating a full or half-sibling relationship.

Here’s a summary chart for sibling X matching.

X Match	Female	Male
Female	Will match on shared father’s full X chromosome, mother’s X is the same rules as chromosomes 1-22	Match through male’s mother, but either of female’s parents. If the X match is not through the female’s mother, they are not full siblings nor maternal half-siblings. They cannot have an X match through the male’s father. They are either full or half-siblings through their mother if they match on both of their mother’s side. If they match on his mother’s side, and her father’s side, they are not siblings but could be otherwise closely related.
Male	Match through male’s mother, but either of female’s parents. If the X match is not through the female’s mother, they are not full siblings nor maternal half-siblings. They cannot have an X match through the male’s father. They are either full or half-siblings through their mother if they match on both or their mother’s side. If they match on his mother’s side, and her father’s side, they are not siblings but could be otherwise closely related.	Both males are related on their mother’s side – either full or half-siblings.

Here’s the information presented in a different way.

DOES match X summary:

If a male DOES match a female on the X, he IS related to her through HIS mother’s side, but could match her on her mother or father’s side. If their match is not through her mother, then they are not full siblings nor maternal half-siblings. They cannot match through his father, so they cannot be paternal half-siblings.
If a female DOES match a female on the X, they could be related on either side and could be full or half-siblings.
If a male DOES match a male on the X, they ARE both related through their mother. They may also be related on their father’s side, but the X does not inform us of that.

Does NOT match X summary:

If a male does NOT match a female on the X, they are NOT related through HIS mother and are neither full siblings nor maternal half-siblings. Since a male does not have an X chromosome from his father, they cannot be paternal half-siblings based on an X match.
If a male does NOT match a male, they do NOT share a mother.
If a female does NOT match another female on the X, they are NOT full siblings and are NOT half-siblings on their paternal side. Their father only has one X chromosome, and he would have given the same X to both daughters.

Of the four autosomal vendors, only 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA report X chromosome results and matching, although the other two vendors, MyHeritage and Ancestry, include the X in their DNA download file so you can find X matches with those files at either FamilyTreeDNA or GEDMatch if your match has or will upload their file to either of those vendors. I wrote step-by-step detailed download/upload instructions, here.

X Matching at FamilyTreeDNA

In this example from FamilyTreeDNA, the female tester has discovered two half-sibling matches, both through her father. In the first scenario, she matches a female on the full X chromosome (181 cM). She and her half-sibling MUST share their father’s entire X chromosome because he only had one X, from his mother, to contribute to both of his daughters.

In the second match to a male half-sibling, our female tester shares NO X match because her father did not contribute an X chromosome to his son.

If we didn’t know which parents these half-sibling matches were through, we can infer from the X matching alone that the male is probably NOT through the mother.

Then by comparing shared matches with each sibling, Advanced Matches, or viewing the match Matrix, we can determine if the siblings match each other and are from the same or different sides of the family.

Under Additional Tests and Tools, Advanced Matching, FamilyTreeDNA provides an additional tool that can show only X matches combined with relationships.

Of course, you’ll need to view shared matches to see which people match the mother and/or match the father.

To see who matches each other, you’ll need to use the Matrix tool.

At FamilyTreeDNA, the Matrix, located under Autosomal DNA Results and Tools, allows you to select your matches to see if they also match each other. If you have known half-siblings, or close relatives, this is another way to view relationships.

Here’s an example using my father and two paternal half-siblings. We can see that the half-siblings also match each other, so they are (at least) half-siblings on the paternal side too.

If they also matched my mother, we would be full siblings, of course.

Next, let’s use Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA.

Y DNA and Mitochondrial DNA

In addition to autosomal DNA, we can utilize Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in some cases to identify siblings or to narrow or eliminate relationship possibilities.

Given that Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA both have distinctive inheritance paths, full and half-siblings will, or will not, match under various circumstances.

Y DNA

Y DNA is passed intact from father to son, meaning it’s not admixed with any of the mother’s DNA. Daughters do not inherit Y DNA from their father, so Y DNA is only useful for male-to-male comparisons.

Two types of Y DNA are used for genealogy, STR markers for matching, and haplogroups, and both are equally powerful in slightly different ways.

Y DNA at FamilyTreeDNA

Men can order either 37 or 111 STR marker tests, or the BIg Y which provides more than 700 markers and more. FamilyTreeDNA is the only one of the vendors to offer Y DNA testing that includes STR markers and matching between men.

Men who order these tests will be compared for matching on either 37, 111 or 700 STR markers in addition to SNP markers used for haplogroup identification and assignment.

Fathers will certainly match their sons, and paternal line brothers will match each other, but they will also match people more distantly related.

However, if two men are NOT either full or half siblings on the paternal side, they won’t match at 111 markers.

If two men DON’T match, especially at high marker levels, they likely aren’t siblings. The word “likely” is in there because, very occasionally, a large deletion occurs that prevents STR matching, especially at lower levels.

Additionally, men who take the 37 or 111 marker test also receive an estimated haplogroup at a high level for free, without any additional testing.

However, if men take the Big Y-700 test, they not only will (or won’t) match on up to 700 STR markers, they will also receive a VERY refined haplogroup via SNP marker testing that is often even more sensitive in terms of matching than STR markers. Between these two types of markers, Y DNA testing can place men very granularly in relation to other men.

Men can match in two ways on Y DNA, and the results are very enlightening.

If two men match on BOTH their most refined haplogroup (Big Y test) AND STR markers, they could certainly be siblings or father/son. They could also be related on the same line for another reason, such as known or unknown cousins or closer relationships like uncle/nephew. Of course, Y DNA, in addition to autosomal matching, is a powerful combination.

Conversely, if two men don’t have a similar or close haplogroup, they are not a father and son or paternal line siblings.

FamilyTreeDNA offers both inexpensive entry-level testing (37 and 111 markers) and highly refined advanced testing of most of the Y chromosome (Big Y-700), so haplogroup assignments can vary widely based on the test you take. This makes haplogroup matching and interpretation a bit more complex.

For example, haplogroups R-M269 and I-BY14000 are not related in thousands of years. One is haplogroup R, and one is haplogroup I – completely different branches of the Y DNA tree. These two men won’t match on STR markers or their haplogroup.

However, because FamilyTreeDNA provides over 50,000 different haplogroups, or tree branches, for Big Y testers, and they provide VERY granular matching, two father/son or sibling males who have BOTH tested at the Big Y-700 level will have either the exact same haplogroup, or at most, one branch difference on the tree if a mutation occurred between father and son.

If both men have NOT tested at the Big Y-700 level, their haplogroups will be on the same branch. For example, a man who has only taken a 37/111 marker STR test may be estimated at R-M269, which is certainly accurate as far as it goes.

His sibling who has taken a Big Y test will be many branches further downstream on the tree – but on the same large haplogroup R-M269 branch. It’s essential to pay attention to which tests a Y DNA match has taken when analyzing the match.

The beauty of the two kinds of tests is that even if one haplogroup is very general due to no Big Y test, their STR markers should still match. It’s just that sometimes this means that one hand is tied behind your back.

Y DNA matching alone can eliminate the possibility of a direct paternal line connection, but it cannot prove siblingship or paternity alone – not without additional information.

The Advanced Matching tool will provide a list of matches in all categories selected – in this case, both the 111 markers and the Family Finder test. You can see that one of these men is the father of the tester, and one is the full sibling.

You can view haplogroup assignments on the public Y DNA tree, here. I wrote about using the public tree, here.

In addition, recently, FamilyTreeDNA launched the new Y DNA Discover tool, which explains more about haplogroups, including their ages and other fun facts like migration paths along with notable and ancient connections. I wrote about using the Discover tool, here.

Y DNA at 23andMe

Testers receive a base haplogroup with their autosomal test. 23andMe tests a limited number of Y DNA SNP locations, but they don’t test many, and they don’t test STR markers, so there is no Y DNA matching and no refined haplogroups.

You can view the haplogroups of your matches. If your male sibling match does NOT share the same haplogroup, the two men are not paternal line siblings. If two men DO share the same haplogroup, they MIGHT be paternal siblings. They also might not.

Again, autosomal close matching plus haplogroup comparisons include or exclude paternal side siblings for males.

Paternal side siblings at 23andMe share the same haplogroup, but so do many other people. These two men could be siblings. The haplogroups don’t exclude that possibility. If the haplogroups were different, that would exclude being either full or paternal half-siblings.

Men can also compare their mitochondrial DNA to eliminate a maternal relationship.

These men are not full siblings or maternal half-siblings. We know, unquestionably, because their mitochondrial haplogroups don’t match.

23andMe also constructs a genetic tree, but often struggles with close relative placement, especially when half-relationships are involved. I do not recommend relying on the genetic tree in this circumstance.

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to all of their children, but only females pass it on. If two people, males or females, don’t match on their mitochondrial DNA test, with a couple of possible exceptions, they are NOT full siblings, and they are NOT maternal half-siblings.

Mitochondrial DNA at 23andMe

23andMe provides limited, base mitochondrial haplogroups, but no matching. If two people don’t have the same haplogroup at 23andMe, they aren’t full or maternal siblings, as illustrated above.

Mitochondrial DNA at FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA provides both mitochondrial matching AND a much more refined haplogroup. The full sequence test (mtFull), the only version sold today, is essential for reliable comparisons.

Full siblings or maternal half-siblings will always share the same haplogroup, regardless of their sex.

Generally, a full sibling or maternal half-sibling match will match exactly at the full mitochondrial sequence (FMS) level with a genetic distance of zero, meaning fully matching and no mismatching mutations.

There are rare instances where maternal siblings or even mothers and children do not match exactly, meaning they have a genetic distance of greater than 0, because of a mutation called a heteroplasmy.

I wrote about heteroplasmies, here.

Like Y DNA, mitochondrial DNA cannot identify a sibling or parental relationship without additional evidence, but it can exclude one, and it can also provide much-needed evidence in conjunction with autosomal matching. The great news is that unlike Y DNA, everyone has mitochondrial DNA and it comes directly from their mother.

Once again, FamilyTreeDNA’s Advanced Matching tool provides a list of people who match you on both your mitochondrial DNA test and the Family Finder autosomal test, including transfers/uploads, and provides a relationship.

You can see that our tester matches both a full sibling and their mother. Of course, a parent/child match could mean that our tester is a female and one of her children, of either sex, has tested.

Below is an example of a parent-child match that has experienced a heteroplasmy.

Based on the comparison of both the mitochondrial DNA test, plus the autosomal Family Finder test, you can verify that this is a close family relationship.

You can also eliminate potential relationships based on the mitochondrial DNA inheritance path. The mitochondrial DNA of full siblings and maternal half-siblings will always match at the full sequence and haplogroup level, and paternal half-siblings will never match. If paternal half-siblings do match, it’s happenstance or because of a different reason.

Sibling Summary and Checklist

I’ve created a quick reference checklist for you to use when attempting to determine whether or not a match is a sibling, and, if so, whether they are half or full siblings. Of course, these tools are in addition to the DNAPainter Shared cM Tool and GEDmatch’s Relationship Predictor Calculator.

	FamilyTreeDNA	Ancestry	23andMe	MyHeritage	GEDmatch
Matching	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shared Matches	Yes – In Common With	Yes – Shared Matches	Yes – Relatives in Common	Yes – Review DNA Match	Yes – People who match both or 1 of 2 kits
Relationship Between Shared Matches	No	No	No	Yes, under shared match	No
Matches Match Each Other*	Yes, Matrix	No	Yes, under “View DNA details,” then, “compare with more relatives”	Partly, through triangulation	Yes, can match any kits
Full Siblings	Yes	Sibling, implies full	Yes	Brother, Sister, means full	No
Half Siblings	Sibling, Uncle/Aunt-Niece/Nephew, Grandparent-Grandchild	Close Family – 1C	Yes	Half sibling, aunt/uncle-niece-nephew	No
Fully Identical Regions (FIR)	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Half Identical Regions (HIR)	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
X matching	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Unusual Reporting or Anomalies	No	No, Timber is not used on close relationships	X match added into total, FIR added twice	No	Matching amount can vary from vendors
Y DNA	Yes, STRs, refined haplogroups, matching	No	High-level haplogroup only, no matching	No	No, only if tester enters haplogroup manually
Mitochondrial DNA	Yes, full sequence, matching, refined haplogroup	No	High-level haplogroup only, no matching	No	No, only if tester enters haplogroup manually
Combined Tools (Autosomal, X, Y, mtDNA)	Yes	No	No	No	No

*Autoclusters through Genetic Affairs show cluster relationships of matches to the tester and to each other, but not all matches are included, including close matches. While this is a great tool, it’s not relevant for determining close and sibling relationships. See the article, AutoClustering by Genetic Affairs, here.

Additional Resources

Some of you may be wondering how endogamy affects sibling numbers.

Endogamy makes almost everything a little more complex. I wrote about endogamy and various ways to determine if you have an endogamous heritage, here.

Please note that half-siblings with high cM matches also fall into the range of full siblings (1613-3488), with or without endogamy. This may be, but is not always, especially pronounced in endogamous groups.

As another resource, I wrote an earlier article, Full or Half Siblings, here, that includes some different examples.

Strategy

You have a lot of quills in your quiver now, and I wish you the best if you’re trying to unravel a siblingship mystery.

You may not know who your biological family is, or maybe your sibling doesn’t know who their family is, but perhaps your close relatives know who their family is and can help. Remember, the situation that has revealed itself may be a shock to everyone involved.

Above all, be kind and take things slow. If your unexpected sibling match becomes frightened or overwhelmed, they may simply check out and either delete their DNA results altogether or block you. They may have that reaction before you have a chance to do anything.

Because of that possibility, I recommend performing your analysis quickly, along with taking relevant screenshots before reaching out so you will at least have that much information to work with, just in case things go belly up.

When you’re ready to make contact, I suggest beginning by sending a friendly, short, message saying that you’ve noticed that you have a close match (don’t say sibling) and asking what they know about their family genealogy – maybe ask who their grandparents are or if they have family living in the area where you live. I recommend including a little bit of information about yourself, such as where you were born and are from.

I also refrain from using the word adoption (or similar) in the beginning or giving too much detailed information, because it sometimes frightens people, especially if they know or discover that there’s a painful or embarrassing family situation.

And, please, never, ever assume the worst of anyone or their motives. They may be sitting at their keyboard with the same shocked look on their face as you – especially if they have, or had, no idea. They may need space and time to reach a place of acceptance. There’s just nothing more emotionally boat-capsizing in your life than discovering intimate and personal details about your parents, one or both, especially if that discovery is disappointing and image-altering.

Or, conversely, your sibling may have been hoping and waiting just for you!

Take a deep breath and let me know how it goes!

Please feel free to share this article with anyone who could benefit.

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In Search of…Vendor Features, Strengths, and Testing Strategies

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Roberta Estes

This is the third in our series of articles about searching for unknown close family members, specifically; parents, grandparents, or siblings. However, these same techniques can be applied to ancestors further back in time too.

I introduced the series in the article, DNA: In Search of…New Series Launches.
In the second article, DNA: In Search of…What Do You Mean I’m Not Related to My Family? – and What Comes Next?, we discussed the discovery that something was amiss, then how to make sure a vial or upload mix-up didn’t happen. That was followed by the basics of the four kinds of DNA tests you’ll be able to use to solve your mystery.

In this article, we are going to discuss your goals and why testing or uploading to multiple vendors is advantageous – even if you could potentially solve the initial mystery at one vendor. Of course, the vendor you test with first might not be the vendor where the mystery will be solved, and data from multiple vendors might just be the combination you need.

Testing Strategy – You Might Get Lucky

I recommended in the first article that you go ahead and test at the different vendors.

Some people asked why, and specifically, why you wouldn’t just test at one vendor with the largest database first, then proceed to the others if you needed to.

That’s a great question, and I want to discuss the pros and cons in this article more specifically.

Clearly, that is one strategy, but the approach you select might differ based on a variety of considerations:

You may only be interested in obtaining the name of the person you are seeking – or – you may be interested in finding out as much as possible.
You may find that your best match at one company is decidedly unhelpful, and may even block you or your efforts, while someone elsewhere may be exactly the opposite.
Solving your mystery may be difficult and painful at one vendor, but the answer may be infinitely easier at a different vendor where the answer may literally be waiting.
There may not be enough, or the right information, or matches, at any one vendor, but the puzzle may be solvable by combining information from multiple vendors and tests. Every little bit helps.
You may have a sense of urgency, especially if you hope to meet the person and you’re searching for parents, siblings or grandparents who may be aging.
You may be cost-sensitive and cannot afford more than one test at a time. Fortunately, our upload strategy helps with that too. Also, watch for vendor sales or bundles.

From the time you order your DNA test, it will be about 6-8 weeks, give or take a week or two in either direction, before you receive results.

When those results arrive, you might get lucky, and the answer you seek is immediately evident with no additional work and just waiting for you at the first testing company.

If that’s the case, you got lucky and hit the jackpot. If you’re searching for both parents, that means you still have one parent to go.

Unidentified grandparents can be a little more difficult, because there are four of them to sort between.

If you discover a sibling or half-sibling, you still need to figure out who your common parent is. Sometimes X, Y, and mitochondrial DNA provides an immediate answer and is invaluable in these situations.

It’s more likely that you’ll find a group of somewhat more distant relatives. You may be able to figure out who your common grandparents or great-grandparents are, but not your parent(s) initially. Often, the closer generation or two is actually the most difficult because you’re dealing with contemporary records which are not publicly available, fewer descendants, and the topic may be very uncomfortable for some people. It’s also complicated because you’re often not dealing with “full” relationships, but “half,” as in half-sibling, half-niece, half-1C, etc.

You may spend a substantial amount of time trying to solve this puzzle at the first vendor before ordering your next test.

That second test will also take about 6-8 weeks, give or take. I recommend that you order the first two autosomal tests, now.

Order Your First Two Autosomal Tests

The two testing companies with the largest autosomal databases for comparison, Ancestry, and 23andMe, DO NOT accept DNA file uploads from other companies, so you’ll need to test with each individually.

Fortunately, you CAN transfer your autosomal DNA tests to both MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA, for free.

You will have different matches at each company. Some people will be far more responsive and helpful than others.

I recommend that you go ahead and order both the Ancestry and 23andMe tests initially, then upload the first one that comes back with results to both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage. Complete, step-by-step download/upload instructions can be found here.

You can also upload your DNA file to a fifth company, Living DNA, but they are significantly smaller and heavily focused on England and Great Britain. However, if that’s where you’re searching, this might be where you find important matches.

You can also upload to GEDMatch, a popular third-party database, but since you’re going to be in the databases of the four major testing companies, there is little to be gained at GEDMatch in terms of people who have not tested at one of the major companies. Do NOT upload to GEDMatch INSTEAD of testing or uploading to the four major sites, as GEDMatch only has a small fraction of the testers in each of the vendor databases.

What GEDMatch does offer is a chromosome browser – something that Ancestry does NOT offer, along with other clustering tools which you may find useful. I recommend GEDMatch in addition to the others, if needed or desired.

Ordering Y and Mitochondrial DNA Tests

We reviewed the basics of the different kinds of DNA, here.

Some people have asked why, if autosomal DNA shows relatives on all of your lines, would one would want to order specific tests that focus on just one line?

It just so happens that the two lines that Y and mitochondrial DNA test ARE the two lines you’re seeking – direct maternal – your mother (and her mother), and direct paternal, your father (and his father.)

These two tests are different kinds of DNA tests, testing a different type of DNA, and provide very focused information, and matches, not available from autosomal DNA tests.

For men, Y DNA can reveal your father’s surname, which can be an invaluable clue in narrowing paternal candidates. Knowing that my brother’s Y DNA matched several men with the surname of Priest made me jump for joy when he matched a woman of that same last name at another vendor.

Here’s a quote from one of the members of a Y DNA project where I’m the volunteer administrator:

“Thank you for your help understanding and using all 4 kinds of my DNA results. By piecing the parts together, I identified my father. Specifically, without Y DNA testing, and the Big Y test, I would not have figured out my parental connection, and then that my paternal line had been assigned to the wrong family. STR testing gave me the correct surname, but the Big Y test showed me exactly where I fit, and disproved that other line. I’m now in touch with my father, and we both know who our relatives are – two things that would have never happened otherwise.”

If you fall into the category of, “I want to know everything I can now,” then order both Y and mitochondrial DNA tests initially, along with those two autosomal tests.

You will need to order Y (males only) and mitochondrial DNA tests separately from the autosomal Family Finder test, although you should order on the same account as your Family Finder test at FamilyTreeDNA.

If you take the Family Finder autosomal test at FamilyTreeDNA or upload your autosomal results from another vendor, you can simply select to add the Y and mitochondrial DNA tests to your account, and they will send you a swab kit.

Conversely, you can order either a Y or mitochondrial DNA test, and then add a Family Finder or upload a DNA file if you’ve already taken an autosomal DNA test to that account too. Note – these might not be current prices – check here for sales.

You will want all 3 of your tests on the same account so that you can use the Advanced Matches feature.

Using Advanced Matches, you’ll be able to view people who match you on combinations of multiple kinds of tests.

For example, if you’re a male, you can see if your Y DNA matches also match you on the Family Finder autosomal test, and if so, how closely?

Here’s an example.

In this case, I requested matches to men with 111 markers who also match the tester on the Family Finder test. I discovered both a father and a full sibling, plus a few more distant matches. There were ten total combined matches to work with, but I’ve only shown five for illustration purposes.

This information is worth its weight in gold.

Is the Big Y Test Worth It?

People ask if the Big Y test is really worth the extra money.

The answer is, “it depends.”

If all you’re looking for are matching surnames, then the answer is probably no. A 37 or 111 marker test will probably suffice. Eventually, you’ll probably want to do the Big Y, though.

If you’re looking for exact placement on the tree, with an estimated distance to other men who have taken that test, then the answer is, “absolutely.” I wish the Big Y test had been available back when I was hunting for my brother’s biological family.

The Big Y test provides a VERY specific haplogroup and places you very accurately in your location on the Y DNA tree, along with other men of your line, assuming they have tested. You may find the surname, as well as being placed within a generation or a few of current in that family line.

Additionally, the Discover page provides estimates of how far in the past you share a common ancestor with other people that share the same haplogroup. This can be a HUGE boon to a male trying to figure out his surname line and how closely in time he’s related to his matches.

Big Y NPE Examples

Y DNA SNP mutations tested with the Big Y test accrue a mutation about every generation, or so. Sometimes we see mutations in every generation.

Here’s an example from my Campbell line. Haplogroups are listed in the top three rows.

I created this spreadsheet, but FamilyTreeDNA provides a block tree for Big Y testers. I’ve added the genealogy of the testers, with the various Big Y testers at the bottom and common ancestors above, in bold.

We have two red NPE lines showing. The MacFarlane tester matches M. Campbell VERY closely, and two Clark males match W. Campbell and other Campbells quite closely. We utilized autosomal plus the Y results to determine where the unknown parentage events occurred. Today, if you’re a Clark or MacFarlane male, or a male by any other surname who was fathered by a Y chromosome Campbell male (by any surname), you’ll know exactly where you fit in this group of testers on your direct paternal line.

Y DNA is important because men often match other men with the same surname, which is a HUGE clue, especially in combination with autosomal DNA results. I say “often,” because it’s possible that no one in your line has tested, or that your father’s surname is not his biological surname either.

Y and mitochondrial DNA matches can be HUGELY beneficial pieces of information either by confirming a close autosomal relationship on that line, or eliminating the possibility.

Lineage-Specific Population Information

In addition to matching other people, both Y and mitochondrial DNA tests provide you with lineage-specific population or “ethnicity” information for this specific line which helps you focus your research.

For example, if you view the Y DNA Haplogroup Origins shown for this tester, you’ll discover that these matches are Jewish.

The tester might not be Jewish on any other genealogical line, but they definitely have Jewish ancestry on their Y DNA, paternal, line.

The same holds true for mitochondrial DNA as well. The main difference with mitochondrial DNA is that the surname changes with each generation, haplogroups today (pre-Million Mito) are less specific, and fewer people have been tested.

Y and Mitochondrial DNA Benefits

Knowing your Y and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups not only arm you with information about yourself, they provide you with matching tools and an avenue to include or exclude people as your direct line paternal or maternal ancestors.

Your Y and mitochondrial DNA can also provide CRITICALLY IMPORTANT information about whether that direct line ancestor belonged to an endogamous population, and where they came from.

For example, both Jewish and Native populations are endogamous populations, meaning highly intermarried for many generations into the past.

Knowing that helps you adjust your autosomal relationship analysis.

Why Order Multiple Tests Initially Instead of Waiting?

If you’ve been adding elapsed time, two autosomal tests (Ancestry and 23andMe), two uploads (to FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage,) a Y DNA test, and a mitochondrial DNA test, if all purchased serially, one following the other, means you’ll be waiting approximately 6-8 months.

Do you want to wait 6-8 months for all of your results? Can you afford to?

Part of this answer has to do with what, exactly, you’re seeking, and how patient you are.

Only you can answer that question.

A Name or Information?

Are you seeking the name or identity of a person, or are you seeking information about that person?

Most people don’t just want to put a name to the person they are seeking – they want to learn about them and the rest of the family that door opens.

You will have different matches at each company. Even after you identify the person you seek, the people you match may have trees you can view, with family photos and other important information. (Remember, you can’t see living people in trees.) Your matches may have first-person information about your relative and may know them if they are living, or have known them.

Furthermore, you may have the opportunity to meet that person. Time delayed may not be able to be recovered or regained.

One cousin that I assisted discovered that his father had died just six weeks before he broke through that wall and made the connection.

Working with data from all vendors simultaneously will allow you to combine that data and utilize it together. Using your “best” matches at each company, augmented by X, Y, and/or mitochondrial DNA, can make MUCH shorter work of this search.

Your closest autosomal matches are the most important and insightful. In this series, I will be working with the top 15 autosomal results at each vendor, at least initially. This approach provides me with the best chance of meaningful close relationship discoveries.

Data and Vendor Results Integration

Here’s a table of my two closest maternal and paternal matches at the four major vendors. I can assign these to maternal or paternal sides, because I know the identity of my parents, and I know some of these people. If an adoptee was doing this, the top 4 could all be from one parent, which is why we work with the top 15 or so matches.

Vendor	Closest Maternal	Closest Paternal	Comments
Ancestry	1C, 1C1R	Half-1C, 2C	I recognized both of the maternal and neither of the paternal.
23andMe	2C, 2C	1C1R, half-gr-niece	Recognized both maternal, one paternal
MyHeritage	Mother uploaded, 1C	Half-niece, half-1C	Recognized both maternal, one paternal
FamilyTreeDNA	Mother tested, 1C1R	Parent/child, half-gr-niece uploaded	Recognized all 4

To be clear, I tested my mother’s mitochondrial DNA before she passed away, but because FamilyTreeDNA archives DNA samples for 25 years, as the owner/manager of her DNA kit, I was able to order the Family Finder test after she had passed away. Her tests are invaluable today.

Then, years later, I uploaded her results to MyHeritage.

If I was an adopted child searching for my mother, I would find her results in both databases today. She’ll never be at either 23andMe or Ancestry because she passed away before she could test there and they don’t accept uploads.

Looking at the other vendors, my half-niece at MyHeritage is my paternal half-sibling’s daughter. My half-sibling is deceased, so this is as close as I’ll ever get to matching her.

At 23andMe, the half-great-niece is my half-siblings grandchild.

It’s interesting that I have no matches to descendants of my other half-sibling, who is also deceased. Maybe I should ask if any of his children or grandchildren have tested. Hmmmm…..

You can see that I stand a MUCH BETTER chance of figuring out close relatives using the combined closest matches of all four databases instead of the top matches from just one database. It doesn’t matter if the database is large if the right person or people didn’t test there.

Combine Resources

I’ll be providing analysis methodologies for working with results from all of the vendors together, just in case your answer is not immediately obvious. Taking multiple DNA tests facilitates using all of these tools immediately, not months later. Solving the puzzle sooner means you may not miss valuable opportunities.

You may also discover that the door slams shut with some people, or they may not respond to your queries, but another match may be unbelievably helpful. Don’t limit your possibilities.

Let’s take a look at the strengths of each vendor.

Vendor Strengths and Things to Know

Every vendor has product strengths and idiosyncracies that the others do not. All vendors provide matches and shared matches. Each vendor provides ethnicity tools which certainly can be useful, but the features differ and will be covered elsewhere.

Ancestry – Ancestry has the largest autosomal database and includes ThruLines, but no Y or mitochondrial DNA testing, no clusters, no chromosome browser, no triangulation, and no X chromosome matching or reporting. Ancestry provides genealogical records, advanced tools, and full tree access to your matches’ trees with an Ancestry subscription. Ancestry does not allow downloading your match list or segment match information, but the other vendors do.
23andMe – 23andMe has the second largest database. They provide triangulation and genetic trees that include your closest matches. Many people test at 23andMe for health and wellness information, so 23andMe has people in their database who are not specifically interested in genealogy and probably won’t have tested elsewhere, but may be invaluable to your search. 23andMe provides Y and mtDNA high-level haplogroups only, but no matching or other haplogroup information. If you purchase a new test or have a V5 ancestry+health current test, you can expand your matches from a limit of 1500 to about 5000 with an annual membership. For seeking close relatives, you don’t need those features, but you may want them for genealogy. 23andMe is the only vendor that limits their customers’ matches.
MyHeritage – MyHeritage has the third largest database that includes lots of European testers. MyHeritage provides triangulation, Theories of Family Relativity, and an integrated cluster tool* but does not report X matches and does not offer Y or mitochondrial DNA testing. MyHeritage accepts autosomal DNA file uploads from other testing companies for free and provides access to advanced DNA features for a one-time unlock fee. MyHeritage includes genealogical records and full feature access to advanced DNA tools with a Complete Subscription. (Free 15 days trial subscription, here.)
FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder (autosomal) – FamilyTreeDNA is the oldest DNA testing company, meaning their database includes people who initially tested 20+ years ago and have since passed away. This, in essence, gets you one generation further back in time, with the possibility of stronger matches. Their Family Matching feature buckets and triangulates your matches, assigning them to your maternal or paternal sides if you link known matches to their proper place in your tree, even if your parents have not tested. FamilyTreeDNA accepts uploads from other testing companies for free and provides advanced DNA features for a one time unlock fee.
FamilyTreeDNA – FamilyTreeDNA is the only company that offers both Y and mitochondrial DNA testing products that include matching, integration with autosomal test results, and other tools. These two tests are lineage-specific and don’t have to be sorted from your other ancestral lines.

I wrote about using Y DNA results, here.

I wrote about using mitochondrial DNA results, here.

*Third parties such as Genetic Affairs provide clustering tools for both 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. Clustering is integrated at MyHeritage. Ancestry does not provide a tool for nor allow third-party clustering. If the answer you seek isn’t immediately evident, Genetic Affairs clustering tools group people together who are related to each other, and you, and create both genetic and genealogical trees based on shared matches. You can read more about their tools, here.

Fish in all the Ponds and Use All the Bait Possible

Here’s the testing and upload strategy I recommend, based on the above discussion and considerations. The bottom line is this – if you want as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, order the four tests in red initially. Then transfer the first autosomal test results you receive to the two companies identified in blue. Optionally, GEDMatch may have tools you want to work with, but they aren’t a testing company.

What	When	Ancestry	23andMe	MyHeritage	FamilyTreeDNA
Order autosomal	Initially	X	X
Order Y 111 or Big-Y DNA test if male	Initially				X
Order mitochondrial DNA test	Initially if desired				X
Upload free autosomal	When Ancestry or 23andMe results are available			X	X
Unlock Advanced Tools	When you upload			$29	$19
Optional GEDMatch free upload	If desired, can subscribe for advanced tools

When you upload an autosomal DNA file to a vendor site, only upload one file per site, per tester. Otherwise, multiple tests simply glom up everyone’s match list with multiple matches to the same person.

Multiple vendor sites will hopefully provide multiple close matches, which increase your opportunity to discover INFORMATION about your family, not just the identity of the person you seek.

Or maybe you prefer to wait and order these DNA tests serially, waiting until one set of results is back and you’re finished working with them before ordering the next one. If so, that means you’re a MUCH more patient person than me. 😊

Our next article in this series will be about endogamy, how to know if it applies to you, and what that means to your search.

_____________________________________________________________

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DNA Purchases and Free Uploads

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial, and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – Autosomal DNA test
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – Upload your DNA file from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – Autosomal DNA test
23andMe Ancestry – Autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health

Genealogy Products and Services

MyHeritage FREE Tree Builder – Genealogy software for your computer
MyHeritage Subscription with Free Trial
Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
Legacy Family Tree Software – Genealogy software for your computer
Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors
NewspaperArchive – Search different newspapers for your ancestors

My Book

DNA for Native American Genealogy – by Roberta Estes, for those ordering the e-book from anyplace, or paperback within the United States
DNA for Native American Genealogy – for those ordering the paperback outside the US

Genealogy Books

Genealogical.com – Lots of wonderful genealogy research books

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – Professional genealogy research

Top Ten RootsTech 2022 DNA Sessions + All DNA Session Links

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Roberta Estes

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
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	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
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
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
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
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
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
90	How to Track DNA Kits in MyHeritage`	MyHeritage	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W0zBbkBJ5w	28
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
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
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
121	Native American DNA – Ancient and Contemporary Maps	Roberta Estes (live)	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFTl2vXUz_0	212 plus 483 live viewers
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
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	183
128	2. An Introduction to Visual Phasing	Tanner Blair Tolman	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRpQ8EVOShI	110
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	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	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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FamilyTreeDNA Relaunch – New Feature Overview

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Roberta Estes

The brand-new FamilyTreeDNA website is live!

I’m very pleased with the investment that FamilyTreeDNA has made in their genealogy platform and tools. This isn’t just a redesign, it’s more of a relaunch.

I spoke with Dr. Lior Rauchberger, CEO of myDNA, the parent company of FamilyTreeDNA briefly yesterday. He’s excited too and said:

“The new features and enhancements we are releasing in July are the first round of updates in our exciting product roadmap. FamilyTreeDNA will continue to invest heavily in the advancement of genetic genealogy.”

In other words, this is just the beginning.

In case you were wondering, all those features everyone asked for – Lior listened.

Lior said earlier in 2021 that he was going to do exactly this and he’s proven true to his word, with this release coming just half a year after he took the helm. Obviously, he hit the ground running.

A few months ago, Lior said that his initial FamilyTreeDNA focus was going to be on infrastructure, stability, and focusing on the customer experience. In other words, creating a foundation to build on.

The new features, improvements, and changes are massive and certainly welcome.

I’ll be covering the new features in a series of articles, but in this introductory article, I’m providing an overview so you can use it as a guide to understand and navigate this new release.

Change is Challenging

I need to say something here.

Change is hard. In fact, change is the most difficult challenge for humans. We want improvements, yet we hate it when the furniture is rearranged in our “room.” However, we can’t have one without the other.

So, take a deep breath, and let’s view this as a great new adventure. These changes and tools will provide us with a new foundation and new clues. Think of this as finding long-lost documents in an archive about your ancestors. If someone told me that there is a potential for discovering the surname of one of my elusive female ancestors in an undiscovered chest in a remote library, trust me, I’d be all over it – regardless of where it was or how much effort I had to expend to get there. In this case, I can sit right here in front of my computer and dig for treasure.

We just need to learn to navigate the new landscape in a virtual room. What a gift!

Let’s start with the first thing you’ll see – the main page when you sign in.

Redesigned Main Page

The FamilyTreeDNA main page has changed. To begin with, the text is darker and the font is larger across the entire platform. OMG, thank you!!!

The main page has been flipped left to right, with results on the left now. Projects, surveys, and other information, along with haplogroup badges are on the right. Have you answered any surveys? I don’t think I even noticed them before. (My bad!)

Click any image to enlarge.

The top tabs have changed too. The words myTree and myProjects are now gone, and descriptive tabs have replaced those. The only “my” thing remaining is myOrigins. This change surprises me with myDNA being the owner.

The Results & Tools tab at the top shows the product dropdowns.

The most popular tabs are shown individually under each product, with additional features being grouped under “See More.”

Every product now has a “See More” link where less frequently used widgets will be found, including the raw data downloads. This is the Y DNA “See More” dropdown by way of example.

You can see the green Updated badge on the Family Finder Matches tab. I don’t know if that badge will always appear when customers have new matches, or if it’s signaling that all customers have updated Family Finder Matches now.

We’ll talk about matches in the Family Finder section.

The Family Finder “See More” tab includes the Matrix, ancientOrigins, and the raw data file download.

The mitochondrial DNA section, titled Maternal Line Ancestry, mtDNA Results and Tools includes several widgets grouped under the “See More” tab.

Additional Tests and Tools

The Additional Tests and Tools area includes a link to your Family Tree (please do upload or create one,) Public Haplotrees, and Advanced Matches.

Public haplotrees are free-to-the-public Y and mitochondrial DNA trees that include locations. They are also easily available to FamilyTreeDNA customers here.

Please note that you access both types of trees from one location after clicking the Public Haplotrees page. The tree defaults to Y-DNA, but just click on mtDNA to view mitochondrial haplogroups and locations. Both trees are great resources because they show the location flags of the earliest known ancestors of the testers within each haplogroup.

Advanced Matches used to be available from the menu within each test type, but since advanced matching includes all three types of tests, it’s now located under the Additional Tests and Tools banner. Don’t forget about Advanced Matches – it’s really quite useful to determine if someone matches you on multiple types of tests and/or within specific projects.

Hey, look – I found a tooltip. Just mouse over the text and tabs on various pages to see where tooltips have been added.

Help and Help Center

The new Help Center is debuting in this release. The former Learning Center is transitioning to the Help Center with new, updated content.

Here’s an example of the new easy-to-navigate format. There’s a search function too.

Each individual page, test type, and section on your personal home page has a “Helpful Information” button.

On the main page, at the top right, you’ll see a new Help button.

Did you see that Submit Feedback link?

If you click on the Help Center, you’ll be greeted with context-sensitive help.

I clicked through from the dashboard, so that’s what I’m seeing. However, other available topics are shown at left.

I clicked on both of the links shown and the content has been updated with the new layout and features. No wonder they launched a new Help Center!

Account Settings

Account settings are still found in the same place, and those pages don’t appear to have changed. However, please keep in mind that some settings make take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Family Finder Rematching

Before we look at what has changed on your Family Finder pages, let’s talk about what happened behind the scenes.

FamilyTreeDNA has been offering the Family Finder test for 11 years, one of two very early companies to enter that marketspace. We’ve learned so much since then, not only about DNA itself, but about genetic genealogy, matching, triangulation, population genetics, how to use these tools, and more.

In order to make improvements, FamilyTreeDNA changing the match criteria which necessitated rematching everyone to everyone else.

If you have a technology background of any type, you’ll immediately realize that this is a massive, expensive undertaking requiring vast computational resources. Not only that, but the rematching has to be done in tandem with new kits coming in, coordinated for all customers, and rolled out at once. Based on new matches and features, the user interface needed to be changed too, at the same time.

Sounds like a huge headache, right?

Why would a company ever decide to undertake that, especially when there is no revenue for doing so? The answer is to make functionality and accuracy better for their customers. Think of this as a new bedrock foundation for the future.

FamilyTreeDNA has made computational changes and implemented several features that require rematching:

Improved matching accuracy, in particular for people in highly endogamous populations. People in this category have thousands of matches that occur simply because they share multiple distant ancestors from within the same population. That combination of multiple common ancestors makes their current match relationships appear to be closer in time than they are. In order to change matching algorithms, FamilyTreeDNA had to rewrite their matching software and then run matching all over to enable everyone to receive new, updated match results.
FamilyTreeDNA has removed segments below 6 cM following sustained feedback from the genealogical community.
X matching has changed as well and no longer includes anyone as an X match below 6 cM.
Family Matching, meaning paternal, maternal and both “bucketing” uses triangulation behind the scenes. That code also had to be updated.
Older transfer kits used to receive only closer matches because imputation was not in place when the original transfer/upload took place. All older kits have been imputed now and matched with the entire database, which is part of why you may have more matches.
Relationship range calculations have changed, based on the removal of microsegments, new matching methodology and rematching results.
FamilyTreeDNA moved to hg37, known as Build 37 of the human genome. In layman’s terms, as scientists learn about our DNA, the human map of DNA changes and shifts slightly. The boundary lines change somewhat. Versions are standardized so all researchers can use the same base map or yardstick. In some cases, early genetic genealogy implementers are penalized because they will eventually have to rematch their entire database when they upgrade to a new build version, while vendors who came to the party later won’t have to bear that internal expense.

As you can see, almost every aspect of matching has changed, so everyone was rematched against the entire database. You’ll see new results. Some matches may be gone, especially distant matches or if you’re a member of an endogamous population.

You’ll likely have new matches due to older transfer kits being imputed to full compatibility. Your matches should be more accurate too, which makes everyone happy.

I understand a white paper is being written that will provide more information about the new matching algorithms.

Ok, now let’s check out the new Family Finder Matches page.

Family Finder Matches

FamilyTreeDNA didn’t just rearrange the furniture – there’s a LOT of new content.

First, a note. You’ll see “Family Finder” in some places, and “Autosomal DNA” in other places. That’s one and the same at FamilyTreeDNA. The Family Finder test is their autosomal test, named separately because they also have Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests.

When you click on Family Finder matches for the first time, you will assuredly notice one thing and will probably notice a second.

First, you’ll see a little tour that explains how to use the various new tools.

Secondly, you will probably see the “Generating Matches” notice for a few seconds to a few minutes while your match list is generated, especially if the site is busy because lots of people are signing on. I saw this message for maybe a minute or two before my match list filled.

This should be a slight delay, but with so many people signing in right now, my second kit took longer. If you receive a message that says you have no matches, just refresh your page. If you had matches before, you DO have matches now.

While working with the new interface this morning, I’ve found that refreshing the screen is the key to solving issues.

My kits that have a few thousand matches loaded Family Matching (bucketing) immediately, but this (Jewish) kit that has around 30,000 matches received this informational message instead. FamilyTreeDNA has removed the little spinning icon. If you mouse over the information, you’ll see the following message:

This isn’t a time estimate. Everyone receives the same message. The message didn’t even last long enough for me to get a screenshot on the first kit that received this message. The results completed within a minute or so. The Family Matching buckets will load as soon as the parental matching is ready.

These delays should only happen the first time, or if someone has a lot of matches that they haven’t yet viewed. Once you’ve signed in, your matches are cached, a technique that improves performance, so the loading should be speedy, or at least speedier, during the second and subsequent visits.

Of course, right now, all customers have an updated match list, so there’s something new for everyone.

Getting Help

Want to see that tutorial again?

Click on that little Help box in the upper right-hand corner. You can view the Tutorial, look at Quick References that explain what’s on this page, visit the Help Center or Submit Feedback.

Two Family Finder Matches Views – Detail and Table

The first thing you’ll notice is that there are two views – Detail View and Table View. The default is Detail View.

Take a minute to get used to the new page.

Detail View – Filter Matches by Match Type

I was pleased to see new filter buttons, located in several places on the page.

The Matches filter at left allows you to display only specific relationship levels, including X-Matches which can be important in narrowing matches to a specific subset of ancestors.

You can display only matches that fall within certain relationship ranges. Note the new “Remote Relative” that was previously called speculative.

Parental Matching and Filtering by Test Type or Trees

All of your matches are displayed by default, of course, but you can click on Paternal, Maternal or Both, like before to view only matches in those buckets. In order for the Family Matching bucketing feature to be enabled, you must attach known relatives’ DNA matches to their proper place in your tree.

Please note that I needed to refresh the page a couple of times to get my parental matches to load the first time. I refreshed a couple of times to be sure that all of my bucketed matches loaded. This should be a first-time loading blip.

There’s a new filter button to the right of the bucketing tabs.

You can now filter by who has trees and who has taken which kinds of tests.

You can apply multiple filters at the same time to further narrow your matches.

Important – Clearing Filters

It’s easy to forget you have a filter enabled. This section is important, in part because Clear Filter is difficult to find.

The clear filter button does NOT appear until you’ve selected a filter. However, after applying that filter, to clear it and RESET THE MATCHES to unfiltered, you need to click on the “Clear Filter” button which is located at the top of the filter selections, and then click “Apply” at the bottom of the menu. I looked for “clear filter” forever before finding it here.

You’re welcome😊

Enhanced Search

Thank goodness, the search functionality has been enhanced and simplified too. Full name search works, both here and on the Y DNA search page.

If you type in a surname without selecting any search filters, you’ll receive a list of anyone with that word in their name, or in their list of ancestral surnames. This does NOT include surnames in their tree if they have not added those surnames to their list of ancestral surnames.

Notice that your number of total matches and bucketed people will change based on the results of this search and any filters you have applied.

I entered Estes in the search box, with no filters. You can see that I have a total of 46 matches that contain Estes in one way or another, and how they are bucketed.

Estes is my birth surname. I noticed that three people with Estes in their information are bucketed maternally. This is the perfect example of why you can’t assume a genetic relationship based on only a surname. Those three people’s DNA matches me on my mother’s side. And yes, I confirmed that they matched my mother too on that same segment or segments.

Search Filters

You can also filter by haplogroup. This is very specific. If you select mitochondrial haplogroup J, you will only receive Family Finder matches that have haplogroup J, NOT J1 or J1c or J plus anything.

If you’re looking for your own haplogroup, you’ll need to type your full haplogroup in the search box and select mtDNA Haplogroup in the search filter dropdown.

Resetting Search Results

To dismiss search results, click on the little X. It’s easy to forget that you have initiated a search, so I need to remember to dismiss searches after I’m finished with each one.

Export Matches

The “Export CSV” button either downloads your entire match list, or the list of filtered matches currently selected. This is not your segment information, but a list of matches and related information such as which side they are bucketed on, if any, notes you’ve made, and more.

Your segment information is available for download on the chromosome browser.

Sort By

The Sort By button facilitates sorting your matches versus filtering your matches. Filters ONLY display the items requested, while sorts display all of the items requested, sorting them in a particular manner.

You can sort in any number of ways. The default is Relationship Range followed by Shared DNA.

Your Matches – Detail View

A lot has changed, but after you get used to the new interface, it makes more sense and there are a lot more options available which means increased flexibility. Remember, you can click to enlarge any of these images.

To begin with, you can see the haplogroups of your matches if they have taken a Y or mitochondrial DNA test. If you match someone, you’ll see a little check in the haplogroup box. I’m not clear whether this means you’re a haplogroup match or that person is on your match list.

To select people to compare in the chromosome browser, you simply check the little square box to the left of their photo and the chromosome browser box pops up at the bottom of the page. We’ll review the chromosome browser in a minute.

The new Relationship Range prediction is displayed, based on new calculations with segments below 6 cM removed. The linked relationship is displayed below the range.

A linked relationship occurs when you link that person to their proper place in your tree. If you have no linked relationship, you’ll see a link to “assign relationship” which takes you to your tree to link this person if you know how you are related.

The segments below 6 cM are gone from the Shared DNA total and X matches are only shown if they are 6 cM or above.

In Common With and Not In Common With

In Common With and Not In Common With is the little two-person icon at the right.

Just click on the little person icon, then select “In Common With” to view your shared matches between you, that match, and other people. The person you are viewing matches in common with is highlighted at the top of the page, with your common matches below.

You can stack filters now. In this example, I selected my cousin, Don, to see our common matches. I added the search filter of the surname Ferverda, my mother’s maiden name. She is deceased and I manage her kit. You can see that my cousin Don and I have 5 total common matches – four maternal and one both, meaning one person matches me on both my maternal and paternal lines.

It’s great news that now Cousin Don pops up in the chromosome browser box at the bottom, enabling easy confusion-free chromosome segment comparisons directly from the In Common With match page. I love this!!!.

All I have to do now is click on other people and then on Compare Relationship which pushes these matches through to the chromosome browser. This is SOOOO convenient.

You’ll see a new tree icon at right on each match. A dark tree means there’s content and a light tree means this person does not have a tree. Remember, you can filter by trees with content using the filter button beside “Both”.

Your notes are shown at far right. Any person with a note is dark grey and no note is white.

If you’re looking for the email contact information, click on your match’s name to view their placard which also includes more detailed ancestral surname information.

Family Finder – Table View

The table view is very similar to the Detail View. The layout is a bit different with more matches visible in the same space.

This view has lots of tooltips on the column heading bar! Tooltips are great for everyone, but especially for people just beginning to find their way in the genetic genealogy world.

I’ll have to experiment a bit to figure out which view I prefer. I’d like to be able to set my own default for whichever view I want as my default. In fact, I think I’ll submit that in the “Submit Feedback” link. For every suggestion, I’m going to find something really positive to say. This was an immense overhaul.

Chromosome Browser

Let’s look at the chromosome Browser.

You can arrive at the Chromosome Browser by selecting people on your match page, or by selecting the Chromosome Browser under the Results and Tools link.

Everything is pretty much the same on the chromosome browser, except the default view is now 6 cM and the smaller segments are gone. You can also choose to view only segments above 10 cM.

If you have people selected in the chromosome browser and click on Download Segments in the upper right-hand corner, it downloads the segments of only the people currently selected.

You can “Clear All” and then click on Download All Segments which downloads your entire segment file. To download all segments, you need to have no people selected for comparison.

The contents of this file are greatly reduced as it now contains only the segments 6 cM and above.

Family Tree

No, the family tree has not changed, and yes, it needs to, desperately. Trust me, the management team is aware and I suspect one of the improvements, hopefully sooner than later, will be an improved tree experience.

Y DNA

The Y DNA page has received an update too, adding both a Detail View and a Table View with the same basic functionality as the Family Finder matching above. If you are reading this article for Y DNA only, please read the Family Finder section to understand the new layout and features.

Like previously, the match comparison begins at the 111 marker level.

However, there’s a BIG difference. If there are no matches at this level, YOU NEED TO CLICK THE NEXT TAB. You can easily see that this person has matches at the 67 level and below, but the system no longer “counts down” through the various levels until it either finds a level with a match or reaches 12 markers.

If you’re used to the old interface, it’s easy to think you’re at the final destination of 12 markers with no matches when you’re still at 111.

Y DNA Detail View

The Y-DNA Detail and Table views features are the same as Family Finder and are described in that section.

The new format is quite different. One improvement is that the Paternal Country of Origin is now displayed, along with a flag. How cool is that!

The Paternal Earliest Known Ancestor and Match Date are at far right. Note that match dates have been reset to the rerun date. At this point, FamilyTreeDNA is evaluating the possibility of restoring the original match date. Regardless, you’ll be able to filter for match dates when new matches arrive.

Please check to be sure you have your Country of Origin, Earliest Known Ancestor, and mapped location completed and up to date.

Earliest Known Ancestor

If you haven’t completed your Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) information, now’s the perfect time. It’s easy, so let’s do it before you forget.

Click on the Account Settings gear beneath your name in the right-hand upper corner. Click on Genealogy, then on Earliest Known Ancestors and complete the information in the red boxes.

Direct paternal line means your father’s father’s father’s line – as far up through all fathers as you can reach. This is your Y DNA lineage, but females should complete this information on general principles.
Direct maternal line means your mother’s mother’s mother’s line – as far up through all mothers that you can reach. This is your mitochondrial DNA lineage, so relevant for both males and females.

Completing all of the information, including the location, will help you and your matches as well when using the Matches Map.

Be sure to click Save when you’re finished.

Y DNA Filters

Y DNA has more filter options than autosomal.

The Y DNA filter, located to the right of the 12 Markers tab allows testers to filter by:

Genetic distance, meaning how many mutations difference between you and your matches
Groups meaning group projects that the tester has joined
Tree status
Match date
Level of test taken

If none of your matches have taken the 111 marker test or you don’t match anyone at that level, that test won’t show up on your list.

Y DNA Table View

As with Family Finder, the Table View is more condensed and additional features are available on the right side of each match. For details, please review the Family Finder section.

If you’re looking for the old Y DNA TiP report, it’s now at the far right of each match.

The actual calculator hasn’t changed yet. I know people were hoping for the new Y DNA aging in this release, but that’s yet to follow.

Other Pages

Other pages like the Big Y and Mitochondrial DNA did not receive new features or functionality in this release, but do sport new user-friendly tooltips.

I lost track, but I counted over 100 tooltips added across the platform, and this is just the beginning.

There are probably more new features and functionality that I haven’t stumbled across just yet.

And yes, we are going to find a few bugs. That’s inevitable with something this large. Please report anything you find to FamilyTreeDNA.

Oh wait – I almost forgot…

New Videos

I understand that there are in the ballpark of 50 new videos that are being added to the new Help Center, either today or very shortly.

When I find out more, I’ll write an article about what videos are available and where to find them. People learn in various ways. Videos are often requested and will be a popular addition. I considered making videos, but that’s almost impossible for anyone besides the vendor because the names on screens either need to be “fake” or the screen needs to be blurred.

So hurray – very glad to hear these are imminent!

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned for new developments. As Lior said, FamilyTreeDNA is investing heavily in genetic genealogy and there’s more to come.

My Mom used to say that the “proof is in the pudding.” I’d say the myDNA/FamilyTreeDNA leadership team has passed this initial test with flying colors.

Of course, there’s more to do, but I’m definitely grateful for this lovely pudding. Thank you – thank you!

I can’t wait to get started and see what new gems await.

Take a Look!

Do you have more matches?

Are your matches more accurate?

How about predicted relationships?

How has this new release affected you?

What do you like the best?

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Disclosure

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Transfers

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Genealogy Products and Services

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Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Genealogy and DNA classes, subscription-based, some free
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Newspapers.com – Search newspapers for your ancestors