I
have had my DNA analyzed at 23andme, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA (Y-DNA). My wife also did hers at 23andme.
Periodically
we get emails about matches in their databases. The 23andme list alerted me to several cousins from my mother’s
mother’s line. The highest match in terms of percentage of DNA was 11.1% on 31
segments and that was my first cousin who I know very well. Five of the next seven
highest are his children.
My
maternal haplogroup is H; the chart looks very much like my wife’s with
branches spreading out through Europe. The one that runs through central Europe
makes sense as I know we have German and likely French connections. Apart from
the generalized depiction, it is not much use to me. My paternal haplogroup,
R-P311, a subgroup of R-M269 which is the most common haplogroup in western
Europe. Again it does not add much to our family history.
I
contacted a few of the other cousins on the list and we found more about each
other’s branches. I did not learn much more about the line that we did not
already know from years of normal family history research, particularly that my
aunt did in the 1970s. Nevertheless, having more contact with distant family
members was interesting.
There
have been no matches on my father’s side on any of the databases.
On
my wife’s side, 23andme has provided
no family contacts although there have been several individuals who think they
are related. The highest shared match is 2.22% on eight segments, so this
individual could be a cousin. A message sent to her has not received a reply
yet. All the rest of the 1,277 “relatives” have less than 1% match which I
think is within the margin of error and likely few are members of any family
line. Her haplogroup, H3g, indicates her line came through Europe. One branch
goes through the northern part of the continent which fits as all of her
ancestors we have traced are from northern Scotland and the Shetland Islands.
From
the FamilyTreeDNA database I have no
hits. Not that I expected many. I know my male line back pretty far in Devon
and I did not think there would necessarily be too many members of my Shepheard
family that would have taken a Y-DNA test.
I
did persuade a cousin from my mother’s family to take the Y-DNA test (the first
cousin I mentioned above). We thought he would be best positioned to be able to
reach members of our common 2nd great-grandfather (maternal to me,
paternal to him) who had migrated to the US from Germany in the early 1800s. We
have no information about where specifically this ancestor came from, when he
arrived or who his immediate or ancestral families were. So far we have had no
matches for our Miller line that go any further back than we do. My cousin died
earlier this year but his daughter and I will continue to monitor his
information on FTDNA to see if anyone shows up.
I
get regular notices form MyHeritage
about matches. There are 85 so far. They give you a range of relationships but
they are generally so broad, such as “1st cousin twice removed to 5th
cousin” that they seem either not reliable or not meaningful. Only three have
more than 1% shared DNA, the largest 1.7%, which may only be within the margin
of error and not a true familial match.
The
ethnicity description has me all over the place with 97.3% as Europe (that
works) and 61.2% of that as British or Irish (that works, too). That’s ok, but
Sardinian at 8.3%? South Asian at 1.9%? Or Native American at 0.8%? I have
doubts about those.
As
I indicated I have sent messages to a few cousins. Some have replied; many have
not. A few did not have a valid email address. There have been some messages
sent by individuals who have absolutely no connection to our families. I always
wonder why people have their DNA analyzed and then do not follow up with possible
family members who share a significant amount.
I
guess, overall, our experience is limited in learning about other lines of the
family. We are still better off with information gleaned from the traditional
sources through the normal research methods. But I hope we eventually make a
breakthrough with the Millers. It will all have been worth it then.
