It's one thing to read that AncestryDNA has over 15 million people in its database. But when I first saw that I had 70,561 people with whom I share a sizable amount of DNA, and 1,526 of them were considered "close" matches, I felt really overwhelmed.
Those were the numbers on July 22, 2019 -- when I checked again on September 3, my total number of matches has increased to 72,005 and my "close" matches are 1,563!
Not everyone has these swollen numbers of genetic "relatives." Three-fourths of my family tree is made up of endogamous groups. My mother's Ashkenazi Jewish and my paternal grandfather came from generations of kissing cousins in the remote area of Santander Department, Colombia. My paternal grandmother's family is not endogamous, and one of my relatives on that side told me she has fewer than 100 DNA matches on Ancestry!
Ashkenazi Jews descend from only a few hundred people who lived in medieval Europe, and so many people in this group share numerous tiny pieces of shared DNA, reflecting common ancestry from a very distant past. Jennifer Mendelsohn, founder of Resistance Genealogy, has a great essay explaining Jewish endogamy: "No, You Don't Really Have 7,900 4th Cousins."
How do I find relevant AncestryDNA matches?
AncestryDNA sorts through matches based on:
~ ThruLines connected to my family tree (which may not always be accurate)
~ Surnames in family trees (assuming these users linked their trees with their profiles, which it seems only a minority portion of users do)
~ Places in family trees (which is helpful for more obscure ancestral places)
~ Users' names (even pulling results from what seem to be names used in registration but not shared as a screen name)
DNA matches can receive messages, but so far only a small portion have responded.
I also concentrated on users who shared a small number of chromosomal segments with relatively large amounts of DNA. Genealogist Kitty Cooper points out that segments of 10 cM or more of DNA are probably inherited from ancestors, segments of 6 to 9 cM are possibly inherited by descent, and segments shorter than 6 cM are too small to reflect ancestry.
Here are all my genetic matches with traceable genealogical links to me. Their first names are followed by M (for maternal relation) or P (paternal relation), and then how many cM of DNA and chromosome segments we share. The average amounts of shared cM for the different relationships come from the Shared cM Project.
1st cousin, once removed (average 439 cM)
Al M 620 cM / 33 segments
1st cousin, twice removed (average 229 cM)
Jerry M 177 cM / 16 segments
2nd cousin (average 233 cM)
Marjorie M 395 cM / 16 segments
Diana M 254 cM / 10 segments
2nd cousin, once removed (average 123 cM)
Armando P 151 cM / 8 segments
Sally M 151 cM / 9 segments
Mara M 94 cM / 8 segments
Andrew M 91 cM / 6 segments
3rd cousin (average 74 cM)
Isabel P 134 cM / 8 segments
Danielle M 57 cM / 2 segments
Taylor P 45 cM / 3 segments
3rd cousin, once removed (average 48 cM)
Jill M 61 cM / 6 segments
Gabriel P 23 cM / 2 segments
Emily M 19 cM / 3 segments
Eric M 12 cM / 3 segments
Marilyn M 9 cM / 2 segments
Half 3rd cousin, once removed (average 42 cM)
Jellissa P 47 cM / 2 segments
Luis P 34 cM / 2 segments
4th cousin (average 35 cM)
Nicholas M 21 cM / 1 segment
Mitchell M 19 cM / 3 segments
H. M 14 cM / 1 segment
B.D. M 14 cM / 3 segments
Gregg M 6 cM / 1 segment
4th cousin, once removed (average 28 cM)
Karina P 24 cM / 3 segments
T.M. M 11 cM / 1 segment
Half 4th cousin, once removed
Cristtian P 8 cM / 1 segment
Gabriel P 25 cM / 2 segments
M.C. P 22 cM / 3 segments
F.K. and I share 46 cM on 5 segments. Her ancestors lived in Zapatoca, Colombia, the same small town where many of my paternal grandfather's ancestors lived from the early 1700s to the mid 1800s. We share a number of common ancestors -- at least six of her 5th-great-grandparents and four of her 6th-great-grandparents, who in turn mostly descended from the same group of Indians and subsequent Spanish settlers of Santander Department.
Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut [at] gmail.com
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