Results are through!

[Phoenix]

So, my first question is: clearly you don't get ALL your DNA matches at once, so do they start by populating one side of the family?
Just about all my close matches so far are Dad's dad's side. Am working through, but very little on Mum's dad and NOTHING on Mum's mum :(

[Phoenix]

Oh and I can't do name searches yet. Reckon that'll take a day or two to populate.

[ElizabethHerts]

Phoenix, I'm a complete novice, so excuse the silly question!

Is it obvious for which side of the family you are getting matches?

[Merry]

I only have one cousin match where I know which side of the family the person fits. It's dad's side as they have his surname which is relatively uncommon. The person doesn't have a tree and I have no idea who they are though.

I could get mum's DNA tested in order to split my results, but it would be pretty unethical as she wouldn't understand why she was spitting into a tube, and might refuse to do it in any case.

I don't have any matches where I have any idea how the people connect to me. This has caused me to lose interest somewhat. I did my test in the hope of proving some of my research was correct (and/or that no milkmen etc were involved in my biological tree!) rather than because I want to find living relations to chat with.

[Olde Crone]

I do feel that dna testing is rather like buying a top of the range tv with only limited instructions and those in Chinese. The inference being it's not their fault you are finding it so difficult to understand, rather that you must be a bit thick.

OC

[Phoenix]

I don't have any matches where I have any idea how the people connect to me.


I have over 400 pages of matches, so far. That will take me probably 3 months to work through. Based on Best Mate's tree, I'm sure there will be some I cannot unravel.

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, I'm a complete novice, so excuse the silly question!

Is it obvious for which side of the family you are getting matches?

I recognised a couple of the testers straight away, and most of the matches relate to them. In fairness, I've only looked at the dozen or so closest matches so far.

[kiterunner]

Phoenix, I don't remember a delay in matches showing up when I got my results, though of course any kind of glitch is possible with Ancestry nowadays.

However, it would be impossible for them (ancestry) to pick out matches on one side of your family (apart from the very few cases where both your linked trees go back to your shared ancestor), unless one or both of your parents have already been tested, in which case you get "Father" and / or "Mother" buttons to click to see the matches on each side.

What happens when you click the "Search matches" button?

[Phoenix]

Nothing. That isn't in place yet. If it were, I could spot Mum's matches.

[kiterunner]

Try refreshing the page a few times or using a different browser?

[Jill]

There were no matches when OH's DNA was first on Ancestry, surprisingly it was Boxing Day, then I remembered it is not a public holiday in the US. Matches appeared a couple of days later, which bashed down somebody else's brickwall re identity of a grandfather but has got us no further forward.

[Merry]

I have over 400 pages of matches, so far. That will take me probably 3 months to work through. Based on Best Mate's tree, I'm sure there will be some I cannot unravel.

My results say:

183 4th cousins or closer

but when I click "View all DNA matches" I only get 44 show up (that's less than one page).

When you take about 'working through' your matches, what do you actually do? I don't understand what you can do if they don't have a tree (most of mine) or only have a tree that makes no sense?

[kiterunner]

What I do for each one is click to view the shared matches, and see if I can figure out what the connection is between some of them in the hope that it will lead me to the connection between them and my own tree. I get a load of sheets of A4 and draw up some rough and ready family trees for them, to see if I can spot where they join each other. (I take the info that they have and try to add more generations to their tree.) If they have no tree, sometimes you can figure out who they are from their user name, or if you click through to their ancestry profile page, it might list their research interests, or lead you through to their message board posts.

[kiterunner]

My results say:

183 4th cousins or closer

but when I click "View all DNA matches" I only get 44 show up (that's less than one page).

Is it the same on another browser or another computer, Merry?

[Merry]

Tried another browser and I can get them all now. Thanks for your response. I'm going to open a new thread because I don't want to clog this one with my next Q!!

[marquette]

We have had my Dads DNA results since October, but only now am I getting to go through them all. He has 319 close matches. So far over 100 of them share DNA with other members of his fathers family!

At the top or the bottom of the page, there is a small "1" with arrows to find the following pages (Yeah, it took me a while to see it too).

As you click on View Match there is a little "Add Note" underneath the name and details. I always try to add the date, whether they have a family tree (attached or unlinked), how many people in it, and whether it is any use (4 private people are NO help). I also try to note a couple of known matches.

You can look at this note while you are still on the main matches page (little square after the name) - this saves you having to look back into the View Match for everyone when you have forgotten who they belong to.

I think Ancestry just loaded a whole lot more results - we keep getting a lot of new matches - including one yesterday who is a descendant of the third sibling of my Dad's great -grandfather, all of whom came to Australia. I cannot identify any of the descendants of the two siblings who stayed in England, but all I need is a name I recognise !

Conversely, there is only one match for Dad's mum's direct family line - a fourth cousin in the USA. Not one of the Australian Pages has had their DNA tested. Also on that side, none of Dads second (Dawson) cousins either. I can identify the Dawson matches and the Brazills, but only one of the matches has both, meaning that none of those Great-great-grandparents other descendants are tested either.


On his fathers side, his grandmother Laura was one of only two children, and her brother married her sister-in-law and they had only one child - the opportunities for DNA matches are severely limited. Laura's father, also, was the only one of his siblings to have children. DNA matches are going to be a long way back.

The same goes for his great grandmother Catherine, her only brother had no children, so the Tupper DNA matches are restricted. Catherine's parents both had several siblings with children, and I have found a match that I can prove with a paper trail, so I know I have the right family.

[Phoenix]

Granny IS my granny. Whew. But so far the only match I have is 6 cM, so thank goodness I know her tree. Perhaps Norfolk folks are mean, or don't like Ancestry.