Four Quick Tips to Make Your Mitochondrial DNA Results More Useful

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Roberta Estes

Mitochondrial DNA is a special type of DNA passed from mothers to all of their children, but only females pass it on – unmixed with any DNA from the fathers. This means that mitochondrial DNA provides a laser line focus straight back in time on your mother’s matrilineal line. You can also test your father or his siblings, or grandma herself, to obtain your paternal grandmother’s lineage.

Focus

It’s a misperception that mitochondrial DNA is more difficult to use than autosomal DNA. Surnames do change with every generation in your mitochondrial lineage, but they change in autosomal for women too.

Mitochondrial DNA is the ONLY way to focus on just the tester’s matrilineal line and can be used in conjunction with autosomal DNA. Mitochondrial DNA also reaches further back in time, beyond that 5-6 generation approximate threshold for autosomal.

Because the surnames change, females lines are inherently more difficult to research, so it’s fortuitous that we have an extra genetic tool that we can utilize.

There are easy steps we can take to increase the productivity of mitochondrial research, beginning with making sure you have taken the full sequence test at Family Tree DNA. (Which just happens to be on sale right now for Mother’s Day – click here.)

The HVR1 and HVR2 “mtPlus” level is introductory. You’ll need the all 16,569 mitochondria locations tested with the mtFull full sequence test for high-resolution matching.

How can you make your mitochodrial DNA results more useful genealogically? Good question. Here are 4 quick tips to do exactly that!

Tip 1: Trees

The backbone of genealogy is trees.

Million Mito tree.png

Please be sure you have a tree uploaded and extended as far as possible on your matrilineal line by clicking on myTree at the top of your personal page and either uploading a GEDCOM file or creating your tree. Because surnames do change, a complete matrilineal tree is important for other people to find descendant surnames of your ancestor – and vice versa. That’s exactly how I connected my ancestor to her family.

Tip 2: Earliest Known Ancestor

Million Mito account settings.png

Complete your Earliest Known Direct Maternal (matrilineal) Ancestor field by clicking on the drop-down by your name, then on “Account Settings” at upper right, then on “Genealogy” and “Earliest Known Ancestors,” shown below with the red stars. Complete your information.

Million Mito ancestor.png

Note that “earliest known” means on your direct matrilineal line only – your mother’s mother’s mother’s line. It does NOT mean your “oldest” ancestor on your mother’s side of the tree. That’s a common misconception. They aren’t asking for that guy who lived to be 104.

Enter the name for the last known person in your mother’s mother’s mother’s direct line – which of course is a female.

When finished, be sure to click on Save, near the bottom.

Click to enlarge

Your Earliest Known Ancestor is the critically important information shown on the matches page, above. You want to see other people’s genealogy information, and they want to see yours.

Please feel free to contact people who don’t have any Earliest Known Ancestor showing and suggest that they complete this field. I’ve actually had very good luck emailing my matches who don’t provide that information and include “how-to” instructions. Feel free to send them a link to this article!

Tip 3: Matches Map

When surnames or an obvious connection are lacking, geography can be critically important. If all testers completed the location of their Earliest Known Ancestor on the Matches Map, everyone would benefit.

Million Mito matches maps.png

Select Matches Map, above, to update the geographic location of your earliest known ancestor.

Million Mito map.png

Matches Map information allows matches to see if their ancestors are located near to yours (and vice versa) and may unveil previously unknown information, such as a mysterious Scandinavian history for the person whose earliest known ancestor is the white pin found in Germany. Why are the majority of her full sequence matches found in Scandinavia?

Maybe a cluster of matches in a common geography will lead you to discover a new ancestor – or a previously veiled history. You don’t know what you don’t know, which is why we test.

Tip 4: Check Back

Check your matches from time to time to see if someone has updated their information or you’ve missed a critical new match.

I discovered a brick-wall-breaking match that I had been inadvertently ignoring for almost 6 years. (My bad!!!)

Check your own information occasionally to be sure you didn’t forget to update your contact information, ancestors or tree with new discoveries.

Get Results!

Concerned that you won’t understand your results? Here’s a step-by-step series about how to navigate and interpret the various tools and options on your personal mtDNA page.

If you haven’t yet tested your mitochondrial DNA, now is the perfect time. Many people are taking advantage of recent “enforced leisure” to focus on genealogy research. Click here to check your account, order or upgrade.

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Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Transfers

FamilyTreeDNA – Y, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing
MyHeritage DNA – ancestry autosomal DNA only, not health
MyHeritage DNA plus Health
MyHeritage FREE DNA file upload – transfer your results from other vendors free
AncestryDNA – autosomal DNA only
23andMe Ancestry – autosomal DNA only, no Health
23andMe Ancestry Plus Health
LivingDNA

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
Charting Companion – Charts and Reports to use with your genealogy software or FamilySearch

Genealogy Research

Legacy Tree Genealogists – professional genealogy research

Fun DNA Stuff

Celebrate DNA – customized DNA themed t-shirts, bags and other items

DNAPainter Instructions and Resources

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Roberta Estes

DNAPainter garden

DNAPainter is one of my favorite tools because DNAPainter, just as its name implies, facilitates users painting their matches’ segments on their various chromosomes. It’s genetic art and your ancestors provide the paint!

People use DNAPainter in different ways for various purposes. I utilize DNAPainter to paint matches with whom I’ve identified a common ancestor and therefore know the historical “identity” of the ancestors who contributed that segment.

Those colors in the graphic above are segments identified to different ancestors through DNA matching.

DNAPainter includes:

The ability to paint or map your chromosomes with your matching segments as well as your ethnicity segments
The ability to upload or create trees and mark individuals you’ve confirmed as your genetic ancestors
A number of tools including the Shared cM Tool to show ranges of relationships based on your match level and WATO (what are the odds) tool to statistically predict or estimate various positions in a family based on relationships to other known family members

A Repository

I’ve created this article as a quick-reference instructional repository for the articles I’ve written about DNAPainter. As I write more articles, I’ll add them here as well.

The Chromosome Sudoku article introduced DNAPainter and how to use the tool. This is a step-by-step guide for beginners.

DNA Painter – Chromosome Sudoku for Genetic Genealogy Addicts

Where do you find those matches to paint? At the vendors such as Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe and GedMatch, of course. The Mining Vendor Matches article explains how.

DNAPainter – Mining Vendor Matches to Paint Your Chromosomes

Touring the Chromosome Garden explains how to interpret the results of DNAPainter, and how automatic triangulation just “happens” as you paint. I also discuss ethnicity painting and how to handle questionable ancestors.

DNA Painter – Touring the Chromosome Garden

You can prove or disprove a half-sibling relationship using DNAPainter – for you and also for other people in your tree.

Proving or Disproving a Half Sibling Relationship Using DNAPainter

Not long after Dana Leeds introduced The Leeds Method of clustering matches into 4 groups representing your 4 grandparents, I adapted her method to DNAPainter.

DNAPainter: Painting the Leeds Method Matches

Ethnicity painting is a wonderful tool to help identify Native American or minority ancestry segments by utilizing your estimated ethnicity segments. Minority in this context means minority to you.

Native American and Minority Ancestors Identified Using DNAPainter Plus Ethnicity Segments

Creating a tree or uploading a GEDCOM file provides you with Ancestral Trees where you can indicate which people in your tree are genetically confirmed as your ancestors.

DNAPainter: Ancestral Trees

Of course, the key to DNA painting is to have as many matches and segments as possible identified to specific ancestors. In order to do that, you need to have your DNA working for you at as many vendors as possible that provide you with matching and a chromosome browser. Ancestry does not have a browser or provide specific paintable segment information, but the other major vendors do, and you can transfer Ancestry results elsewhere.

DNAPainter: Painting “Bucketed” Family Tree DNA Maternal and Paternal Family Finder Matches in One Fell Swoop

Family Tree DNA offers the wonderful feature of assigning your matches to either a maternal or paternal bucket if you connect 4th cousins or closer on your tree. Until now, there was no way to paint that information at DNAPainter en masse, only manually one at a time. DNAPainter’s new tool facilitates a mass painting of phased, parentally bucketed matches to the appropriate chromosome – meaning that triangulation groups are automatically formed!

Triangulation in Action at DNAPainter

DNAPainter provides the ability to triangulate “automatically” when you paint your segments as long as you know which side, maternal or paternal, the match originates. Looking at the common ancestors of your matches on a specific segments tracks that segment back in time to its origins. Painting matches from all vendors who provide segment information facilitates once single repository for walking your DNA information back in time.

Paint Your Way Up Your Tree with MyHeritage, AutoClusters and DNAPainter – Free Webtember Webinar

This webinar is available through Legacy Family Tree Webinars, which you can join, here, and discusses literally how to paint your way back in time using DNAPainter with information from MyHeritage’s tools including SmartMatches, Theories of Family Relativity, and AutoClusters. Discover which ancestors your DNA came from.

Paint LivingDNA Chromosome Segments to DNAPainter

LivingDNA added family matching and a chromosome browser which enables your match information to be copied and pasted into DNAPainter.

DNA Transfers

Some vendors don’t require you to test at their company and allow transfers into their systems from other vendors. Those vendors do charge a small fee to unlock their advanced features, but not as much as testing there.

Ancestry and 23andMe DO NOT allow transfers of DNA from other vendors INTO their systems, but they do allow you to download your raw DNA file to transfer TO other vendors.

Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage and GedMatch all 3 accept files uploaded FROM other vendors. Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage also allow you to download your raw data file to transfer TO other vendors.

These articles provide step-by-step instructions how to download your results from the various vendors and how to upload to that vendor, when possible.

Here are some suggestions about DNA testing and a transfer strategy:

DNA Testing and Transfers – What’s Your Strategy?

Paint and have fun!!!

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Disclosure

Thank you so much.

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Legacy Tree Genealogists for genealogy research

Quick Tip – Working With Match Notifications from Family Tree DNA

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Roberta Estes

Have you ever wondered WHY you received yet another match notification e-mail from Family Tree DNA? Do you have trouble finding the new match they are referring to?

When you receive a match notification from Family Tree DNA that you have new matches, it’s exciting, ESPECIALLY if you have a high resolution match.

However, sometimes match notifications can be confusing, so here are 4 quick tips for you to get the most out of those match notifications.

Of course, the first thing you want to do is to click on the blue “VIEW MY MATCHES” link to see who’s new in the genetic neighborhood.

However, you may not see a new match when you first view your page. Here are some reasons why and the resolution is super easy.

Tip 1 – Your Match May Show at Different Levels

Both mitochondrial and Y DNA matching occurs at different levels depending on two things:

The level that you have tested
The level at which the match occurred

This means that in the case of the notification above, I’m only going to find my match at the HVR1 or entry level results of my mitochondrial DNA.

However, when you click to sign in to your account through the e-mail message link, you AUTOMATICALLY see your highest level tested first.

This match is for my HVR1 level, but the first match screen I see upon signing in is full sequence results, so I won’t see my new match at this level.

Many people don’t think about the fact that they’re looking at their highest testing level, and the match may be at a lower testing level.

If your match matches you at the highest level, they are likely, but not guaranteed to match you at the lower levels too.

Whether you do or don’t match at lower levels depends on where the various mutations fall in the tested portion of your genome.

In other words, you could match at the full mitochondrial sequence level, but NOT at the HVR1 or HVR2 levels – and vice versa of course.

This is true for both mitochondrial and Y DNA which both test at various levels.

Tip 2 – Select Dropdowns to See Other Levels

You’ll notice the dropdown box, below.

Be sure to view your matches at the level that the e-mail indicates. In my case, I need to switch to the HVR1 level.

Look, there’s my new match! I can tell that the first person only tested at the HVR1 and HVR2 levels, and not at the full sequence level, so there is no possibility that I’ll match them at that level.

That is, unless they upgrade.

I’m going to contact my match and ask about their earliest known ancestor. They didn’t provide that information, nor do they have a tree, so I’m going to suggest both. If we find some commonality at that level, maybe they’ll become inspired to upgrade to the full mitochondrial level test and we can see if we continue to match there as well.

Men’s Y DNA results have different drop down match level options of course, but in essence the concept of matching at different levels is the same.

Tip 3 – Match Thresholds

Both Y and mitochondrial DNA have different matching criteria at various testing levels.

The mitochondrial DNA match threshold is shown below:

This explains why a match might show at a higher testing level, but not at a lower level. If you have one mutation and the mismatching piece of DNA occurs in the HVR1 mitochondrial region where one mismatch means you won’t be considered a match, you’ll match at the full sequence level but not at either the HVR1 or HVR2 levels.

Mismatches are shown as genetic distance on your matches page. In other words a genetic distance of 1 means you mismatch at 1 location at that testing level. You can read about genetic distance here.

Y DNA match thresholds are shown in the table below:

For Y DNA, if your one mutation occurs in the first 12 markers, you won’t be shown as a match at that level (unless you are both in a common DNA project,) but you will be shown at higher match levels as a match.

Tip 4 – Changing Match Notifications

What, you don’t want so many match notifications?

You do have the ability to disable match notifications at any level, but be aware that DISABLING MATCH NOTIFICATIONS ALSO DISABLES MATCHING at that level. Therefore, I don’t recommend disabling match notifications beyond the HVR1 or 12 marker tests, and I personally don’t have any disabled. I do not want to miss that fateful match under any circumstances!

To change your notifications, click on the orange “Manage Personal Information” link below your profile picture on your personal page.

Then, click on “Match and E-Mail Settings” where you’ll see the following:

If you make changes, be sure to click the orange “Save” button, or it won’t.

Summary

When you receive a new match notification from Family Tree DNA, don’t forget to check each level for matching. Sorting by match date will show you which matches are the most recent.

Look for common ancestors, surnames (Y DNA) and locations. Reach out to your matches and most of all, enjoy!

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Disclosure

Thank you so much.

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Legacy Tree Genealogists for genealogy research

Quick Tip – Sharing a Link to Your Tree at Family Tree DNA

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Roberta Estes

Did you know that you can share a link to view your tree that you have built, or uploaded, at Family Tree DNA even if the person you’re sharing with does NOT have an account at Family Tree DNA?

In fact, maybe they will decide they want to test their DNA after you share with them.

Matches Already See Your Tree

If you match with someone at Family Tree DNA, they can easily see your tree by clicking on the little pedigree icon on their match to you, shown at right, below. You’re already sharing your tree with your matches – and they with you.

Icons are blue for people with trees, and grey for those who still need to upload a tree or create one online, like this person.

Share with Anyone, Anyplace

Many people don’t realize that you can easily share a link to your tree with anyone, anyplace – not just people you match at Family Tree DNA.

And it’s very easy.

Just click on your “myfamilytree” link on your personal page to display your tree.

You’ll see a link to “Share Tree”, in the upper right hand area, shown below.

Family Tree DNA then provides you with a link to copy, paste and share. As an added benefit, they tell you exactly how the privacy on your tree has been configured and give you the opportunity to modify your privacy settings before sharing the link to your tree.

Sharing your tree with people to a site where no subscription is needed is a great way to get people interested in DNA testing and it couldn’t be any easier.

Click here to sign in and share your tree with someone, today.

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Disclosure

Thank you so much.

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Quick Tip – Making Your DNA Results More Clickable

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Roberta Estes

There are many motivations for DNA testing. Some people want to connect with relatives to share information. Just think, your match may have photos of your family that you’ve never seen!

If contacting and connecting with your relatives is your motivation, you’ll want your user profile to be the most click-friendly and attractive possible.

How do people decide which profiles to click on and which to bypass, especially now that so many people are testing and one can’t possibly contact them all?

I’m including several click-friendly factors here, but probably the number one decision criteria is your profile photo, or lack of one.

Use a Profile Photo

You want your photo to be inviting and friendly. Lack of a photo means a missed opportunity.

Have someone take a smiling photo of you, without anything distracting or polarizing in the photo, and post to your profile. Look friendly! Your photo needs to say, “Talk to me. I won’t bite your head off.”

People like to look at photos and are more likely to spend time on results that have photos attached. Do you pause, look at photos of your matches to see if they look like you? I do.

Don’t like any of your current photos? Have someone take a new one. My husband took the one above in the yard last month with his cell phone.

Still don’t like your picture? That’s OK, post a baby photo or something cute.

Grow a Tree

Not every vendor has the ability to upload trees. 23and me does not, but Family Tree DNA, Ancestry and MyHeritage do today.

The purpose of genetic genealogy is genealogy – and trees are inherent to the success of finding those common lines – regardless of whether or not you’ve tested for autosomal DNA, Y line DNA or mitochondrial DNA. Your matches are going to want to see your ancestor in the line relevant to them.

Furthermore, once you’ve created a tree, you can upload the same tree to any of the vendors where you have tested, except for 23andMe who has no tree capacity.

At Family Tree DNA, you can upload a GEDCOM file or create a tree from scratch.

Be sure to link your relatives who have tested to your tree too, so that your results show your phased Family Finder matches indicating which side of your tree certain matches come from. You can see the red, blue and purple icons indicating whether the matches are related maternally, paternally, or both, below. I have over 1000 matches assigned to parental sides simply by connecting my DNA matches to their proper place in my tree.

(You can click to enlarge any image.)

After you upload a GEDCOM file, Family Tree DNA then extracts your tree surnames and populates the surname feature so that when you have matches, you can see common surnames in your trees.

In the example above, the common surnames in our trees are bolded, at right, and float to the top of the list so they are easily viewable.

You can enter the surnames by hand, but if you don’t have a tree, or hand entered surnames, you don’t receive the bolded surname matches.

At Ancestry, your tree is compared to all of your matches’ trees and if you have a common ancestor in the tree within the past 9 generations, Ancestry flags your result with a green leaf signifying that there is a DNA tree hint.

Clicking on “View Match” shows you your match’s tree and yours side by side.

If you don’t upload or create a tree, you won’t be able to take advantage of this feature. Once you upload or create your tree, be SURE to link your DNA to you in your tree, or it’s the same as having no tree in terms of DNA benefits.

To link your DNA test to your tree at Ancestry, click on the DNA tab, then on Settings and scroll down about half way.

Share, Share, Share

Nothing turns matches off quite as fast as discovering that your tree is not public. It’s akin to saying that I want to see yours, but I’m not showing you mine.

I’m not referring here to keeping living people private, or even the first generation or two. That’s understandable. I’m referring to trees that are entirely private as evidenced by the little lock by the green leaf below.

I used to contact my private matches and ask, nicely, which ancestor we share in common. They can see my tree, and benefit from seeing my tree by knowing who the common ancestor is, and the path to that ancestor, but I can’t. Truthfully, I’ve stopped asking. I received very few replies.

I simply bypass these locked trees after looking to see who I match in common, to see if I can surmise who the common ancestor is by virtue of comparison to our matches in common.

Yes, I know many people feel strongly about private trees, but if you’re looking for contacts, private trees have a very chilling effect out the gate.

In order to benefit from having a tree, but not giving away the store either, I only have a direct line tree at Ancestry – meaning only my ancestors. In some cases, I do have siblings for my ancestors, but not extended family lines.

Use Real Names

People have a more positive reaction to real names rather than names like RJEcatlover or RJE33724306219.

Your real name option may be gone if someone else has the same name, especially at Ancestry, but in that case, use something approaching your real name. Mine is RobertaEstes13 at Ancestry because there were obviously 12 subscribers by that name in front of me. So far, none are DNA matches.

At other places, I tend to use a middle initial to differentiate myself.

Females need to consider using their birth name and not a married name. Not only is this in keeping with their names in the tree, it’s more relevant to the genealogy at hand.

Always record your ancestors in your tree by their birth name, not their married name. I Many of my matches to the male only of a couple are a result of the fact that John Doe’s wife was records as Jane Doe, not Jane Smith, her birth name.

Contact Information

Different vendors handle contacts between testers in different ways. Regardless of the vendor’s methodology, you need to make yourself accessible if you want contacts, and respond to requests.

Family Tree DNA provides e-mail addresses to matches. This is the most direct method of contact,and my preference because there are less steps that can go wrong. It does mean that you have to keep your e-mail address current.

Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage require you to utilize their internal message system for communications. This adds a layer of communication that can go awry. For instance, if the e-mail sent by the vendor hits the spam filter, or never gets sent, or bounces, you, as the originator, have no way of knowing. Of course, you still need to keep your e-mail address current with the vendor, regardless.

Both 23andMe and Ancestry retain the messages sent and received, so you can check on their system to see if you have new or unread communications.

Having said that, both systems have had recent, ongoing or intermittent glitches – lost messages when 23andMe transitioned to the New Experience and reports of DNA messages not being recorded in your Ancestry mailbox, meaning messages initiated through the green as opposed to the tan button.

Additionally, Ancestry’s e-mail notification system is well known for not reliably delivering messages, especially through the DNA message links, so check your messages often. That’s the little grey envelope icon at the top right of your Ancestry signon page.

I keep track of my contacts through any vendor separately, so if there is a hiccup, it’s not the end of my documentation.

Oh, and if you’re sending a contact request, use proper English and punctuation (not text-eze), along with providing your name and the name of the person you match. Many people manage multiple kits, not that we’re DNA addicts or anything like that!

Summary

I hope these quick tips have helped you “decorate” and refine your profile in a useful way that encourages your matches to click and make contact. Those contacts may be the first step in breaking down those pesky brick walls. You just never know who has that piece of information that you need – or the photo of great-grandma!

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Disclosure

Thank you so much.

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Quick Tip – Calculating Cousin Relationships Easily

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Roberta Estes

Lots of people struggle with figuring out exactly how two people are related.

Most genealogy programs include a relationship feature, but what if you are working with a new genetic cousin whose line isn’t yet in your genealogy software? Hopefully, that happens often!

There are also nice reference charts available, like this one provided by Legacy Tree Genealogists.

However, rather than trying to figure out who fits where, it’s easier and quicker for me to quickly sketch this out by hand on a scrap piece of paper. I can do this while looking at someone’s tree or an e-mail much more easily than I can deal with charts or software programs.

Rather than make you look at my chicken scratches, I’ve typed this into a spreadsheet with some instructions to make your life easier.

Common Couple Ancestor

This first example shows a common couple ancestor – as opposed to calculating a relationship to someone where your common ancestor’s children were half siblings because the ancestor had children by two spouses.

Down one side, list your direct line from that ancestor couple to you.

On the other side, list your matches direct line from that ancestral couple to them.

The first generation, shown under relationship, will be siblings.

The next generation will be first cousins

The next generation will be second cousins, and so forth.

You can see that Ronald and Louise are one generation offset from each other. That’s called “once removed,” so Ronald and Louise are third cousins once removed, or 3C1R.

If Ronald’s child had tested, instead of Ronald, Ronald’s child and Louise would be third cousins twice removed, because they would be two generations offset, or 3C2R.

See how easy this is!

Half Sibling Relationships

In the circumstance where Ronald and Louise didn’t share an entire ancestral couple, meaning their common ancestor had a different spouse, the relationship looks like this:

The only difference in the relationship chart is that Jane and Joe are half siblings, not full siblings, and each generation thereafter is also “half.”

The relationship between Louise and Ronald is half third cousins once removed.

It’s easy to figure relationships using this quick methodology!

Update: I can tell from the comments that the next question is how much DNA to these various relationships share, on average. The chart below is from the article Concepts – Relationship Predictions, where you can read more about this topic and the chart.