Welcome to Ancestral DNA Explained!

 Are you trying to use DNA testing to grow your family tree, or find living relatives?   Having trouble, or just don't know what to do?
   
     LET COUSIN JANICE EXPLAIN IT FOR YOU!!!

      I have a Master's Degree in Genetics from San Diego State University.  Its from 1982, so I can't clone anything.  But, I explain Genetics and how to search using DNA testing.  I got mine from Ancestry, and I'm also on FTDNA and GEDmatch.
      I have some BIG holes in my family tree, and I trying to fill them using DNA testing.  It took me months just to get 3 DNA matches that correspond to people in my tree.  I've taken to asking my DNA matches from Ancestry and FTDNA to get on GEDmatch, which is very technical and scares off a lot of people.  And while emailing with my matches, I found that a whole lot of very bright people don't know how DNA works when it comes to finding ancestors or other relatives.
      So I'm starting this blog to help you all out.  My relatives, my husband's relatives, the relatives of our relatives, and so on, if you need some lessons on DNA, this is what my blog is about.  If I can help you and get some advertisers, feel free to click on them and send me some nickels.

Genealogy: your family tree

You can pay to do your family tree on Ancestry, or use a free site like Family Search, or both, or just do it on paper, and keep it somewhere.  Thats what my grandfather did, before he died in 1967, and lucky for me, I found in 1999 after my grandmother died.

Ok not the greatest, but he put some great info on here!   I have been able to really expand on this branch of my family:

But this is not a formal family tree.  I took some shortcuts here on this diagram, which I used to show my 2nd cousins the basics of this branch, as many of the descendants still live in the same area, and weren't sure how they related.  You can draw little diagrams like this with the basic Paint program that comes with most computers.  All I use are the writing function, rectangles, and lines.

          Basic  Human Genetics 1

You typically have 46 chromosomes in the nuclei of your cells.

         22 Pairs of Autosomes - the non sex chromosomes
           
          2  Sex chromosomes - so called because they determine your gender.


If you have 2 "X" chromosomes, you're a woman.

If you have an "X" and a "Y" chromosome, you're a man.


       These 46 chromosomes are in the nucleus of a cell.  The nucleus is the control center of the cell, and the chromosomes are like the computers that make code to run what the functions of that cell is.


Outside the nucleus, there are other parts, and one of those are the mitochondria.  They also contain their own DNA.

      The DNA in the Mitochondria is called mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA.  It codes for the making of new mitochondria.

DNA is a very large molecule that makes up most of each chromosome.  When the cells gets ready to divide, the chromosomes coil up into the X shape that you typically see a chromosome depicted as.  Usually though, they are uncoiled so they can be accessed by the cell's machinery to make the code for all the enzymes and other proteins the cell needs.

    

 Basic Human Genetics 2

 

Regular cell division - "Mitosis"
       Say you need a new cell in your Big toe.  A cell's 46 chromosomes will each make copies of themselves, they will line up, and the pairs will be divided, each set going to its own part of the original cell, where they will each form their own nucleus.  The  cell then divides into two, which each new cell having one of the new nuclei.  The new cells will be genetic clones of each other.  So mitosis is the kind of cell division that happens in your TOE, and most other parts of your body.

Sex cell division - "Meiosis"

 Time to propagate the species!

In Women:  In the ovaries, the precursor cell to the eggs divide, but instead of each chromosome making a copy of itself, each of the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes lines up with its mate.  So, the Chromosome 1 you got from your father will line up with the Chr 1 you got from your mother.  Then they will "cross-over", meaning that they will exchange pieces with each other. There will be at least one cross-over, sometimes 2  or more, so you end up with a Chromosome 1 that has some from your Dad, then your Mom, then your Dad, etc.   The same goes for all the other Autosomal Chromosomes.  

 X chromosomes in women: there are 2, and they also cross-over.     

Because they divided with out making copies of themselves, the egg only has 23 chromosomes.

Mitochondria: mitochondria also go into the egg.

In Men: In the testes, the precursor to the sperm  does the same lining up and crossing over for the 22 autosomes

X and Y chromosomes in men:  because they don't match, the X and the Y don't cross-over in men.  They do hold onto each other at one end during this process though, which I think is kind of sweet.

Mitochondria: no mitochondria go into the sperm.

Sperm + Egg = Baby!!  well not most of the time. Either the egg is not there at the right time, or the sperm, or if you get fertilization the uterus is often not receptive to implantation, or something went wrong in meiosis or...but that's why they call it "The miracle of life"!

Family Math

How  you relate to your primary relatives:

Your mom:  You got 23 chromosomes from your mom.  22 autosomes and 1 X chromosome. You also got your mitochiondria, therefore your mtDNA, from your mom.   You are 1 generation separated from your mom.

Your dad: You got 23 chromosomes from your dad.  If you are a man, you got 22 autosomes and your Y chromosome from your dad.   If you are a woman, you got 22 chromosomes and your second X chromosome from your Dad. You are 1 generation removed from your mom.

Important concept here: If you are a woman, the X chromosome you got from your dad did NOT cross-over in him.  It is a nearly exact copy of the chromosome that your paternal grandmother passed to your dad.  It is a cross-over hybrid of your great grandfather's and your great grandfather's X chromosome.  LIke a little time capsule, but in DNA,

Your siblings: Cross-overs happen every time a sperm or an egg is made, but they are different every time.   You may get the tip of your grandfather's chromosome 1, while your brother got the tip of your grandmother's.  On average, full siblings share 1/2, or 50%, of their DNA.

Family Math 2

 How do you like these Family Math diagrams I made?  I did them for a teacher, so she could hook the youth of our country into genealogy!!

   Actually, I remember growing up with a lot of 1st cousins and 2nd cousins around, and the ones in between I never could understand.

DNA you get from your grandparents:

If you are a woman:  You got around 1/4 of your autosomal DNA from your paternal grandfather. Same for your other 3 grandparents. You did NOT get any of the DNA on your X chromosomes from your paternal grandfather.  This can be  helpful when you are looking at your X-chromosome matches on GEDmatch.  If you have an X match, its not from your paternal grandfather's side.   One of your X chromosomes came directly from your paternal grandmother, and the other is a cross-ove rmix of your maternal grandparents.

If you are a man: You got around 1/4 of your autosomal DNA from each of your grandparents.  You got your Y chromosome from your paternal grandfather.  You got your X chromosome from your mother, and it is a cross-over mix of your maternal grandparents' X chromosomes.  Anyone you is an X match to you, it is on your mother's side.

Basic Family Tree

Okay you've started on your family tree. You have the names of your cousins. aunts, uncles, grandparents, even some great-grandparents that you know came from Finland (where they love genealogy btw).    The convention for drawing a family tree are fathers on the left, mothers on the right.  A line directly connecting 2 people is a marriage or other kind of union.  Lines going down connect the children to the parents,  If there are more than one child, the line goes down to a horizontal bar, and lines descend from it to the children.

         You are the "you" in this family tree.  You know your paternal grandfather was born in Finland.  Your mother's parents, you know her father was a Polish Jew and her mother was part Hungarian.  But your Paternal Grandmother Susan, nobody knows anything about her background.

         Now lets go get DNA tested.  You buy the kit, swab your mouth or spit into a tube, send it in, WAIT 4 to 8 weeks to get the results back.

         Say you get these results:

          20% Finnish

          15% Ashkenazi Jewish

          15% East European

          10% Irish

          10% Native American

           9% Scandinavian

           8% Italy/Greece

           7% Iberian

           6% Great Britain

Hey, grandmother Susan might have been Native American.  

Your DNA test results

Part 1

So you've gotten your DNA test results back, with several ethnicities listed that you can assign to branches of your tree, but some are a complete surprise. Where did that Native American come from?  Not from your grandfathers, they were both born in Europe. How about your grandmothers?  They have both long since passed away, but you have cousins and aunts and uncles still around to test.

       If your paternal cousins show Native American in their ancestry, but your maternal ones do not, then you can safely assume that your Paternal Grandmother Susan had Native American ancestry.

       What else came from her?  The Irish? Italian?

Your list of DNA relatives

2nd cousin:  Lauren C.

3rd - 4th cousin: Levi H.

                           Antti S.

4th - 6th cousin:    John R.

                              Sarah J.

                              Talia B.

                              Karen A.

5th - 8th cousin: there are over 100 of them, but save them for later.

          Your DNA 2nd cousin, Lauren C., you asked your aunts and uncles and no ones ever heard of her.  You contact Lauren, she is overjoyed to hear from you, and find out you have Finnish ancestry.  She has Finnish ancestry too!!  But she doesn't know where its from, as she never knew her father.  But she was born in San Francisco.  Suddenly, your Uncle Mike Jr. remembers this really great party he went to when he was stationed in San Francisco.  He gets a DNA tests, and Lauren is his daughter, and everyone is happy:

Your DNA test results

 part 2

You go down the list of close (less than 6th cousin) matches:

Levi H. is more than 50% Ashenazi Jewish, and his grandmother came from Poland, but he doesn't know her maiden name or anything about her family.  You tentatively put him down as a possible relative from your Grandfather Samuel's side.

Antti S. is Antti Mattson Seppala.  His grandfather is Daniel Ericson Seppala, b. 1885 Finland. Antti has your entire Seppala family tree going back to 1600.   This is pretty much what happened to my father-in-law, there are great records in Finland. Of course they are all in Finnish, but Antti was happy to share everything he has with you, and send you pictures as well.   Why isn't everyone like Finnish people!!!

John R. has a private tree, and never answers your emails.  

Sarah J.  is 40% Eastern European, and 40% Irish.   She has a known great-grandfather from Hungary. You put her down as possibly from your grandmother Lisa's side.

Talia B. is 25% Native American from a tribe in Washington state.  She is also  known Irish and Welsh.   Grandmother Susan is looking like a better possibility as your Native American ancestor, as she was born in Seattle.

Karen A. is 30% Finnish and 30% Italian/Greek.  You leave her as a ? for now.

Sometimes you can tell where someone will belong in your tree, but a lot of time you won't.  That's when it helps to go to GEDmatch.org.

How to upload your DNA data to GEDmatch:

            1.     Go to the Ancestry DNA home page. There is a button marked settings, open it             and click on ”Download your DNA”

2.     Ancestry will send you an email confirming your request. When you get it,       open it and confirm your request.

3.     Go back to your DNA settings page, and click on Download your DNA.  It will be downloaded to your computer (your download files), as a zip flie. Leave it as a zip file.

4.     Go to GEDmatch.com, register, and you will be sent to the GEDmatch home page. One of the options, the light blue box on the right is “File uploads”.

5.     Click on the Ancestry option. This takes you to another page, where you add some info such as name, screenname or alias, and gender.

6.     The last part on this page is “Click on browse..” this takes you back to your computer so you can click on your DNA file in your download files.

7.     Then click the other button,  “Upload”.

8.     Leave GEdmatch running for 10-30 minutes while it does what it has to do. You don’t have to do anything during this time, and its pretty boring, so I suggest get up and get some coffee or water or something,

9.     When they say “Completed”, that’s (almost) it!! They assign you a Kit#, which you need to keep somewhere.

10.    You can use the “one-to-one” kit comparison at this point, but the best stuff comes from the “one-to-many” option, which you  need to wait a day or two to do.

GEDmatch explained 1

GEDmatch is a free website where people can compare their chromosomes to each other and find out if they share enough DNA to be related to each other "during historical time", which is from around 1600 to the present day.

The 1st feature of GEDmatch that you get to use is "one-to-one" compare.  You will need to use that "tool" a lot.
Open "one-to-one".  Put your Kit number, that GEDmatch gave you after your upload was finished, in one box, and put someone else's number in the other. You might get:
Comparing Kit Axxxxxxx(Janice Jxxxxxxx) and Fxxxxxxx (Anatoly Nxxxxx)


Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 700 SNPs
Mismatch-bunching Limit = 350 SNPs
Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 7.0 cM

Chr	Start Location	End Location	Centimorgans (cM)	SNPs
3	41,191,492	55,638,633	9.8	2,812

Largest segment = 9.8 cM
Total of segments > 7 cM = 9.8 cM
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 5.4

NOTICE that your info is open to anyone who is DNA related to you, or knows your Kit #.  So you may want to use an alias and a new email for GEDmatch.   

Some definitions:
        SNPs: single nucleotide pairs. DNA is like a ladder, the rungs are composed of 4 nucleotides: C, T, A, G.  The order that the nucleotides are in is the actual code that make you.
            Chr: chromosome.  This match is on chromosome 3

REMEMBER THAT YOU HAVE 2  of every autosome!!!
So if someone else comes along that matches you at that spot, you will have to run one-to-one to each other.

Centimorgans:  1/100 of a "Morgan". A Morgan is the length of DNA that would experience a cross-over (See post: 'Basic Human Genetics 2' for info on cross-overs) 1% per generation.  A centiMorgan would experience 0.01% per generation.

GEDmatch sets their limit of relatedness to 7.0 cM and 700 SNP's.  Other DNA sites have different thresholds, Ancestry's is more liberal.

MCRA: most recent common ancestor.  GEDmatch tends to be rather liberal with this.  Add 2 generations, this is the actual range one would expect to find the common ancestor.  In this example: 5.4 to 7.4 generations.

GEDmatch explained 2

One-to-many matches

Once your DNA data has been "sync"ed, you're going to try one-to-many matches, to see who are related to. You have a choice of autosomal or X matches.  Start with either, you'll do both eventually.

Haplogroup

Autosomal

X chr

Kit Nbr

Type

List

Select

Sex

Mt

Y

Details

Total cM

largest cM

Gen

Details

Total cM

largest cM

Name

Email

Axxxxx

F2

L

M

U5A2b

A

2973.7

263.7

1.1

X

108.8

70.5

*DDJ

xxx@xxx

Fxxxxx

F2

L

U

A

27.9

22.5

4.5

X

0

0

AB

xxx@xxx

Mxxxxx

V3

L

M

A

27.9

22.5

4.5

X

0

0

AB

xxx@xxx

Fxxxxxx

F2

L

U

A

27.3

15.9

4.5

X

0

0

CD

xxx@xxx

Mxxxxx

V4

L

M

A

23.3

23.3

4.6

X

0

0

KH

xxx@xxx

Mxxxxx

V3

L

F

A

26.1

18.9

4.6

X

0

0

KT

xxx@xxx

Axxxxxx

F2

L

F

A

24.2

16.8

4.6

X

0

0

MM

xxx@xxx

This is the top of my "one-to-many" matches.  The person I relate to the most, *DDJ, is my full brother.  We are 1 generation from our common ancestors, mom & dad.  GEDmatch assigns "1.1 gens" to us; sharing 45% of our DNA is within natural variation.  

DDJ's mtDNA haplogroup is U5A2b (so is mine).  Haplogroup testing is done at 23andMe, FTDNA, and other places.  We did not have ours tested, but our maternal 1st cousin did.   Our moms were sisters, so we have a direct maternal line.

On to the next match, AB.  4.5 generations back!! I look at his tree, and don't see the match.  Same with the other 4 people here.

So I click on the "select" box for each, then on the next page select an option.  I like "Chr browse", but you should eventually try all the options. "Segment CSV file" is very good for generating lists of where on what chr. the 'hard matching' (7 cM or over) segments are on.

GEDmatch explained 3

Organizing your DNA matches

 If you're like me, and can't find any obvious matches at first, you will need to try other methods. This is what I'm doing:

1. Organizing my matches by chromosome.

  I like using the Chr browse option, and I copy the info it generates into an Excel spreadsheet:

Match ID Type Name Matching segments  on Chromosome 8 4 V4 P K (Mxxxx)                        6,778,120 - 12770918 (9.3525 cM) 2 V4 B J(Mxxxx)                      19,754,748 - 24562586 (8.8901 cM) (734 SNP) J. A (FTDNA)                      21,287,496 - 29081350 (11.65 cM) 1 F2 L T (Axxxx)                      21,422,266 - 27024449 (8.9514 cM)

Sct/Eng

S F  (Axxxxx)

29,802,177

- 38, 701, 633 (6.1 cM) (1491 SNP)

England

Gypsy

*SD (Mxxxxxx)

42,587,505

- 55028701 (5.6998 cM)

Xmatch

I keep the "Match ID" and "Type" columns if I find out information on my matches. 

Yes, I am part Gypsy, and this is how I found that out.  

When I get another match on this chromosome, I can add it at the bottom, and use the "sort" function of Excel to place it in order. You can also do this with the "CSV" function, but it only goes down to 7 cM.  I save segments that are 5-7 cM, if the person also has another piece that is over 7 cM.

I also note if an autosomal match also is a X-match. An X-match rules out a match on my paternal grandfather's side.

GEDmatch explained 4

Chromosome X

Do your chromosome X matches like your other autosomal matches. Pay special attention to those that share autosomal DNA with you as well, even if its under 7 cM!!

Enter the autosomal DNA from an X match on that autosomal's spread sheet, even if its less than 7 cM.

This is a little shortcut for finding out what side of your family the match is on.

David's X matches:

			Haplogroup					Autosomal				XDNA
Kit Nbr				Sex	Mt	Y			Total cM	largest cM	Gen		Details	Total cM	largest cM		Name
Axx					U5A2b				2973.7	263.7	1.1		X	108.8	70.5		Janice
Fxx				F					0	0			X	10.2	10.2		MM
Mxx				F	Hxx				0	0			X	9.1	9.1		GG
Axx				F					6.7	6.7	7.5		X	8.8	8.8		CD
Mxx				M	Hxx	Rx			5.4	5.4	7.7		X	8.6	8.6		JG
Mxx				M	Uxx	Ex			0	0			X	8.4	8.4		WR
Axx				U					0	0			X	8.4	8.4		XX
Fxx				F					0	0			X	8.4	8.4		KL

I took some of the information in the chart off so it would fit the page.

Notice that 3 people share autosomal as well as X DNA with David.   Me (Janice),CD and JG.  I ran the Chr browser tool, and put the autosomal DNA segments on the matching chromosome.

You can't really tell how distant an Xmatch is, because of it's pattern of inheritance.  When it's in a man, it doesn't cross-over. You can have 10 generations of mother to daughter only, and in the same family 10 generations, with 5 fathers  involved in passing down the X.  The line with the fathers have fewer cross-overs, so the matching segments will be larger, all its still the same 10 generations.

The matches "GG" and "JG" happen to be brother and sister. David does not share autosomal DNA with GG, although he does with JG.  They are both the same number of generations back though.

When someone comes along and matches to JG on the autosomal, I'll know he is from the same side of the family as JG.

ALL of David's X matches come from our mom's side of the family. They are a mix of the X chromosomes of our maternal grandparents.

Janice's Xmatches:

Haplogroup

Autosomal

Xdna

Kit Nbr

Sex

Mt

Y

Total cM

largest cM

Gen

Details

Total cM

largest cM

Name

Axxx

M

U5A2b

2973.7

263.7

1.1

X

108.8

70.5

*DDJ

Mxxx

F

Hx

0

0

X

19.2

19.2

HC

Mxxx

M

Hx

Rxx

5.7

5.7

7.6

X

19.2

19.2

SD

Axxx

F

0

0

X

19.2

19.2

LP

Fxxx

F

0

0

X

18.4

18.4

MA

Axx

F

Lx

0

0

X

18.1

18.1

RV

Mxx

F

Hx

0

0

X

18

18

ES

some of them anyway.  I have many more matches than David does, because I have 2 X chromosomes.  About 25% of my Xmatches, I share with David.

I got a mix of my maternal grandparents on one X, and a mix of my paternal grandmother's parents (my great-grandparents) on the other.