This Just In: When You Get Your AncestryDNA Results

I wrote this post for my father’s cousin, whose AncestryDNA results just came in. I hope others can benefit from it as well.

First Look

When your DNA results from AncestryDNA finally arrive, you’ll get an email with a link that will take you to a page similar to the one below. Of course, you will see your name, not mine, in the ‘Hello’ greeting at the top.

 

If your focus is traditional genealogy, the first thing you’ll want to do is to link your DNA results to your tree, if you haven’t already.  (If you haven’t, the screen will say LINK TO TREE below the greeting. To link your DNA, click on the rectangular  settings button at the top right. This will take you to a page called Test Settings. The top half of the page looks like this:

 

On this page, you can select how often to receive emails from AncestryDNA about new matches (Email Settings), decide how your information is displayed to others (Privacy), link your DNA results to a tree, change the information about yourself, opt in/out of AncestryDNA’s research program, and invite others to see your DNA results. You will need to scroll down to see all of these settings.

For now, let’s focus on where your DNA is linked (Family Tree Linking). In the example above, my DNA results are not linked to a tree at all. To change that, click . On the next page, you will see this a pull-down menu to select a family tree in your account. (If you only have one tree, there won’t be much of a choice.)

Select the tree you want. Sometimes, Ancestry’s computers will have already identified you in the tree based on your name and birth date. If they were correct, confirm that’s who you are, and you’ll be taken back to the main DNA page. If not, click “NO”, and you’ll be offered a blank search field into which you can start typing the correct name as it appears in your tree. Once the computer has picked up the right person, select the name and click the green  button. Back on the main DNA page, the text below the ‘Hello’ greeting will now say “Linked to <your name>”.

One more thing you may want to do in Settings is to invite relatives to see your results. Click the SETTINGS button again and scroll to the section called “Sharing DNA Results” at the bottom of the page. You will see a button to . Click it, and on the popup that follows, enter the person’s email address or Ancestry user name into the blank field, and decide whether to make that person a Guest (who can’t make any changes) or an Editor (who can enter comments in the notes fields and change where your DNA results are linked). In most cases, Guest is fine, however if the invited person is someone you trust who is helping you with your results (as in an unknown parentage search), you’ll want to make them an Editor.

Click the SEND INVITATION button, then scroll back to the top of the page and click on  at the top left to return to the main DNA page.

Now, let’s consider three vertical panels that occupy the bulk of the main DNA page: Genetic Ancestry, DNA Matches, and DNA Circles.

 

Genetic Ancestry

Click the  button. The next page has two main features on the left, Ethnicity Estimate and Genetic Communities, with a map on the right that zooms as hover your computer cursor over either of those two features.

Ethnicity estimates need to be taken with a (large) grain of salt, especially for breakdowns within a continent. Explaining why is too much for this post, but suffice it to say that you needn’t have an identity crisis if, for example, you’re primarily of French and German extraction and your ethnicity estimate looks like mine above.

The Genetic Communities, on the other hand, tend to be quite detailed and accurate. Not everyone has them, though. You can read more about them here.

 

DNA Matches

Once you really dive into using your DNA results, you will spend most of your time and energy working with your DNA matches. Click  to see the list of people who share DNA with you. Some give their real names, some used an alias, and some show as initials followed by the text “(administered by by <name>”, when the data are being managed by someone other than the person who tested. The list is sorted by how much DNA they share and broken into categories: Parent/Child, Immediate Family, Close Family, 1st Cousin, 2nd Cousin, 3rd Cousin, 4th Cousin, and Distant Cousin.

 

With the exception of Parent/Child (self explanatory), the categories should be treated as approximations rather than iron clad. The more distant the category, the more “slop” there is in the estimate. The occasional full first cousin might drop down into the 2nd Cousin category but never into the 3rd Cousin one. However, sometimes a full second cousin might occasionally “drop” two categories into 4th Cousins. AncestryDNA tends to “round down” with their estimates, so relatives rarely show up in a category closer than the true relationship.

Notice along the right side of the list of people is a  button beside a statement about whether the person’s test results are linked to a tree. If you’ve linked your test results to a tree yourself, some matches may also have a small green leaf  icon indicating that Ancestry’s computers have found a possible connection, in the form of potential shared ancestors, in the two trees (yours and the match’s). This is called a Shared Ancestor Hint.

Along the top of the match list is a set of filters. These let you limit your visible list to people who meet certain criteria, either because they have a Shared Ancestor Hint (HINTS), are recent matches (NEW), because you flagged them as important (STARRED), or by membership in one of your Genetic Communities. If you’ve tested a parent at AncestryDNA, you can also filter by people who also match that parent (e.g., MOTHER).

Finally, SEARCH MATCHES brings up a pair of search fields, one for surname and one for location. You can use either or both fields to narrow your list of matches.

Find a DNA relative you’re interested in, and click  to go to their match page. The next page will have information specific to that person.

Here, you can see their name, predicted relationship, and ethnicity summary (if they’ve chosen to make that visible). You can click on the blue “Add note” link to add comments, such as a known or suspected relationship. If the match has a public tree linked to their DNA, you can scroll down the page to see a list of shared surnames and a summary pedigree. You can click   to see the complete tree. Some matches do have a public tree but haven’t yet linked it to their DNA results. In that case, you will see an option to select a tree near the bottom of the match’s page: .

(Note: If you are not an Ancestry subscriber, you will not be able to see the trees. Your options are to message the individual matches and ask them to “invite” you to see their trees or to subscribe. Ancestry has an “Insights” level of membership for $49/year that will give you access to the public trees but not to records like the census. It is only available by calling: 1-800-262-3787.)

If the match has a Shared Ancestor Hint and a public tree, you will see a chart showing the connection. (I added the DNA symbols; they are not part of the default system at AncestryDNA.)

 

 

Take a closer look at this bar:

The PEDIGREE AND SURNAMES tab is where you can see the other person’s tree and the Shared Ancestor Hint(s), if available. MAP AND LOCATIONS charts places around the globe that appear in your tree and your match’s tree. Locations in both trees are highlighted in a green. You can click on a birth location to see the ancestral names associated with that place.

The SHARED MATCHES tab shows third-party matches who share DNA with both you and the relative you’re currently examining. Shared Matches is an extremely useful way to group your DNA matches into different sides of your tree. For example, shared matches with my father’s paternal first cousin are almost certainly related to me through my father’s father.

Finally, note the  button at the top of the page. Use this to start an exchange of information with your DNA relative. I don’t recommend a long message to begin with, because the other person may not be an active Ancestry user or may even have passed away. A quick note mentioning possible connections (names, locations) and asking if they’re interested in sharing information will do for first contact.

To get back to your full list of matches, click  at the top left of the page. To get back to the main DNA page, click .

 

DNA Circles

If you have a tree linked to your DNA results, you may or may not have DNA Circles. These are groups of people who all have the same ancestors in their trees and who share DNA with at least some of the other people in the group. To see them, click . This is one of my Circles.

Note that I don’t share DNA with everyone in the Circle, only those connected to me by the yellow lines in the graphic. But everyone in the Circle shares DNA with at least one other person in it. You can click on the different matches around the circle to see their connections to one another, and you can reach out to them individually to share information about that ancestor.

Near the top of the page, you may see a  button. (This feature is in beta testing, so I’m not certain that it’s available to everyone.) The button will take you to a page that compiles information about the ancestor from multiple trees of Ancestry members. The “facts” should be vetted before adding them to your own tree, as with any details gleaned from someone else, especially if you don’t know their skills as a genealogist.

 

New Ancestor Discoveries

Finally, near the bottom of your main DNA page, you may see a section called New Ancestor Discoveries (NADs for short). NADs are, in essence, DNA Circles for people who aren’t already in your tree. That is, a DNA Circle was formed among other AncestryDNA users, and you match some of the members of that circle, even though your tree does not include that particular ancestor. NADs offer a direction for your research to break down brick walls.

 

Summary

This post is meant to be an overview of the main utilities in the AncestryDNA results. I have’t covered everything; there are a few additional gems to discover. Enjoy!

96 thoughts on “This Just In: When You Get Your AncestryDNA Results”

  1. So much good information here. This is all new to me and this is reassuring that I didn’t waste money getting the test done. Now maybe when the results come back I will know how to go about understanding it. Thank you for taking the time to give more insight to those of us without a scientific mind.

      1. Could you please contact me ? I have received some confusing results from ancestry and trying to wrap my mind around it and figure it out . Email me if possible . Thanks so much!!!

  2. Hi Leah, I just got my AncestryDNA results (it took 21 days, FYI), and I have linked them to a new public tree I created of just my direct ancestors. But I don’t see the Sharing DNA Results option where I can invite others to my DNA results. Have they eliminated this? Or am I just not doing something right?

    1. In the DNA tab at Ancestry (the page where it says ‘Hello, Amy’ at the top, click on the Settings button top-right. Then, scroll down to ‘DNA Result Access’ to add invited people.

      1. OK, I see it now. They changed the label or something. But who would I invite? You? 🙂

        So far I’ve not learned anything new from the Ancestry results, and I am still trying to figure out what the Shared Hints means and so on. Thanks, Leah.

  3. Amy what settings/trees do you recommend setting up for someone who is looking for their biological father as one project, and also looking to expand their maternal tree farther back and add details? Obviously this person would want the maternal relatives not to be able to view the paternal side at all, either the surnames on that side and if possible not the dna linked to that side.

    1. If you never want the maternal relatives to see the work you’ve done on the paternal side, create two separate trees: one maternal that is public (so you can share the research with the maternal side) and one paternal that is private and unsearchable (so the maternal side can’t see it). The drawback is that the DNA can only be attached to one tree at a time, so you’ll have to switch it back and forth when you’re working on one project versus the other. The Shared Ancestor Hints usually reset within an hour or so. When the DNA is attached to the paternal tree, it will appear to the maternal relatives in the DNA match as if the DNA is not linked to a tree at all.

      1. Oh, sounds complicated then. I heard that people had dozens of trees so they can work on one surname at a time and separate out their research with different lines,…but what you are saying is the dna can only be attached to one tree at a time….so the hints will only come in piecemeal.

        Well, what would be simple in your opinion, how would you approach it? I may have to sacrifice privacy. How do most people set it up if the main goal is to get dna/tree hints from an unknown paternal side?

        Any advice is welcome. I still have time yet until the dna results come in.

        1. Whether one tree or two is better will depend on what you want long-term. If you think you’ll never want the maternal side to see the biological paternal tree (once you solve it), then keep two trees. If you are comfortable with sharing that information eventually, you might prefer one tree. You can always change your mind and either merge two trees or separate out a single tree by using a third-party genealogy program that can sync with Ancestry (like Family Tree Maker).

          Personally, I prefer getting piecemeal hints, because then I know that all of the hints showing are on the side of my tree I’m researching at the time. I also prefer to have a single tree. I will sometimes detach my mother from myself (leave her in the tree, just make it so she’s not linked as my mother) so that the only hints I’m seeing are on my father’s side, or vice versa. I know other genealogists and search angels who prefer to keep separate trees, so there’s no one strategy that’s right for everyone.

        2. What if you don’t know who the biological father is?And hence no tree on that side, but do know that you have a DNA link to names that are likely paternal members….

        3. If you don’t know the biological father’s name, you can leave that person blank in your family tree. If you’re trying to identify him, I recommend making the tree private and unsearchable for a while so that you can experiment with it. Start by trying to find the connection between the likely paternal matches. Let’s say that leads you to a couple who might be your great grandparents. From there, it’s like a puzzle, where you’re putting the pieces together until the seeker fits in.

    1. Any information you do know, you can put into your tree provisionally. For example, if you know your mother’s mother was named Jane but don’t know her maiden name, just put Jane for how. And if you know your grandfather was Joe Black but don’t know his father’s given name, leave the given name blank for his father and put Black for the surname. You can fill in the details as you progress in your research.

  4. Thank you Leah, this was just in time as my Ancestry Test should be complete in a couple of weeks. It will be a bit longer before the big Y is completed. It is finally starting to jell. I have to say Ancestry has filled in more gaps than any other DNA site. Just the first tier filled in over 75 gaps. The fun part is finding out how my know relations really fit it. I remember calling one lady Grandma and found out she war really step Grandma. Thank you for all the good information You and the other knowledgeable DNA experts for taking the time to help those of us in the dark. k

      1. I am not looking for any earth shattering results, I just did it for any one in the future to have the results to compare to.

        1. Finally got Big Y results R-S1742 Now trying to figure out how that will help sort out the puzzles.

        2. Congrats! What batch were you? My father’s is 804 and he just got bumped another 2 weeks.

  5. Thanks for pointing out that AncestryDNA is ONLY linked to the main Ancestry tree site if you pay for a subscription to the tree side of things. I have just discovered this. Already tested with 23andMe, also FTDNA so thought I’d try AncestryDNA as well. A bit disappointed to see that although my dna matches have trees ….. but I cannot see them! When I click on a tree I’m taken to a page demanding more money! There should at least be some basic family tree info within the profile of each matching person, grandparents, great-grandparents names, towns, villages. Am I expecting too much? All I have is a list of names/matches and I have to message them individually to ask for tree details. A few have tried to give me access but that doesn’t seem to work?

    1. That’s not quite right. You can have a tree and link it to your DNA results in a free account. The limitation is that you can’t see the trees of your DNA matches unless they invite you. They should be able to invite you using either your user name at AncestryDNA or your email address.

      1. Oh, thanks I didn’t know that. Since discovered I can create a free tree within DNA part of site but that tree is only accessible to my DNA matches. I had a friend search for my tree at the public library computers and she couldn’t find it at all, hence why I think it must be tied to the DNA account.

        Still having trouble with invites so I’ll ask Ancestry about that.

        I guess my main gripe is that there are two discrete products and unsuspecting purchasers may not know this. I would pay a one-off fee to join tree side but I refuse to get sucked into an ongoing subscription.

        Enjoying your blog by the way, which I’ve just discovered.

        1. Ancestry’s site is divided into two “sides”: the family history side and the DNA side. All of the trees are in the family history side, even if you make the tree to link it to your DNA results. I suspect your friend can’t find it because it’s new and Ancestry’s computers haven’t “indexed” it yet. By that, I mean that the computer scan the tree and summarize the information in a way that will be searchable. They only index every few weeks, so if it hasn’t been indexed yet, that would explain why your friend couldn’t find it from the library.

          It’s true (and frustrating) that you can’t see the trees of your DNA matches without a subscription. There is a less expensive option, though, that Ancestry doesn’t advertise well. It’s called the Insights subscription, and it’s $49/year. It lets you see trees but not records (like the census). You can only order it over the phone. If the customer service representative says they don’t sell that subscription any more, ask to speak to a manager.

          I’m glad you enjoy the blog!

        2. Thank-you so much for that info. I’ll maybe buy the $49 access. I’m still on a learning curve with all of this 🙂

    2. I got my DNA results and all it was , was a pie chart of my heritage and maps showing where they were from, and percentage of each results. I thought I was getting more. The commercials show people saying they have ancestors like George Washington or from Africa or different ancestors all together. How do you get that results? If that is all you get from the initial results, it’s a bit disappointing for the money they charge for the test.

      1. Scroll down in the post to the sections called “DNA Matches” and “DNA Circles”. They will provide more information on what features are available with your test results. I also strongly recommend that you start to build a family tree in your AncestryDNA account and then “link” your DNA results to your record in the tree.

        1. I experienced the same disappointment as Barbara, I had done a 23andme and received an extensive breakdown by percentages – my father did the ancestry version and basically received – “85% Eastern Eurpopean, 8% unkown” with generic world maps – I talked to someone at Ancestry – but got no where. Am I missing something – is there some report similar to my 23andme that I can access for my father? Seems pretty scant for $100

        2. 23andMe has a single category for Eastern European, so your father would probably get similar results if he tested there.

        3. Mine listed Eastern European but also Slovakia, Balkan, Romania etc – gonna get him to do 23andme also, going to test it

        4. Those country assignments aren’t really part of their ethnicity estimation. They’re just listing countries that other people in the match list are from. If you’re interested in your origins, don’t spend much time with the ethnicity estimates. Instead, figure out how you are related to your DNA matches.

        5. I tested with Ancestry and paid
          for a six month subscription. When that expires, will I no longer have access to the tree I’m building? Also, how do I link my dna results to my record in my tree? Thanks for giving such good info.

        6. You will always have access to your own tree. The only thing that changes when you don’t have a subscription is that you will not be able to see the records (census, Social Security, probate, etc.) or the trees of other Ancestry users.

          To link your DNA test to your tree, go to your main DNA page, then click Settings at the top right. The next page will have a section called Family Tree Linking, where you can select your tree and then yourself in the tree.

  6. I’d just like to add a note in regards to my experience. I’ve used these features to confirm connections to family that were a bit vague. Over a years time, the research was very significant for me. I used my own dna and my grandmothers. However, I’ve noticed recently that quite a few of these ancestry connections are now missing. I’m quite put out by it, because now I am once again in limbo. Was the initial dna connection valid and if so, why are they now missing? Anyone else come across this?

    An example is that an ancestor of mine in North Carolina, who married a woman with the last name Kenan. There is no proof of the marriage, however this ancestor fought in the same regiment as this Kenan’s relative. It’s always been said she was a daughter of this Kenan relative, however the dates don’t add up. I felt it was a sister who came from N. Ireland with her brothers. Anyhow, the dna was coming up with quite a few matches of Kenan, and stemming from one a Thomas Kenan. The matches were with descendent of this man with up to 5 of his children. There was even a male descendent Kenan from this family I and my grandmother matched with. A total of up to 14 matches. As of today, there is only one! Where did all the matches go?

    I appreciate any feedback, and many thanks!

    1. Have you confirmed that the matches really are no longer in your list, or do you think they’re missing because they don’t come up when you search for the surname “Kenan”? Ancestry has been having problems with their surname search lately, so it may be that these matches still are there and that you’ll be able to find them again easily when Ancestry resolves the issue.

      1. Hello~ They seem to be gone completely. I appreciate the insight about the current issue AncestryDNA is having with surnames. I’ll have to give it time to see if it gets squared away. Thank you!

      2. Thanks for the info about the surname matches. I noticed that a lot of mine have disappeared from the results when I search by surname. In my case, they are still in my list of matches, but I only know to look for them since they appeared in the surname matches on previous searches.

        Before the matches disappeared, I was getting extra matches! By that I mean matches that didn’t have the surname I searched for in their tree. Now I’m not getting any matches at all for some surnames.

        Do you know if this is something Ancestry is working on?

        1. AncestryDNA has been having trouble with the surname search recently. The odd thing is that some users are experiencing problems and others aren’t. I’m sure they’re working on it, but I don’t know when it will be fixed.

          In the meantime, a workaround is to subscribe to DNAGedcom so that you can use the Client. The DNAGedcom Client is a stand-alone program that will scan your matches and their trees into csv files. You can search the csv files yourself, and the DNAGedcom website also has some tools for using those files on their website. (The first scan takes forever, so be patient. Subsequent scans are much faster.)

  7. Just to add an extra note to go with the initial post…the Kenan surname was passed down in the family line, showing great significance.

  8. I read your post just in time for my results from Ancestry DNA and used it as a guide. thank you for your tutorial. My uncle on my mothers side did his and I got a copy before mine to also use as a guide.The strange thing was a small amount of western Europe in both and 50% Great Britain in both.This does not match the paperwork on his as I know it based on immigration records same as mine.Now I have to study European migration between Britain and the continent.The rest makes sense except for “North American,German”1700.My great grandmother on my fathers side was an enigma until I found my grandfathers birth certificate and her actual name which was always an unknown.The problem was the wall were the paper trail ended with her grandparents 1834 marriage certificate which had no use full data.I know from my research through later census data both 3x grandparents were born in KY Indiana very early 1800s and his family was from Maryland and parts north into the early colonial period circa 1660.DNA does or does not go back that far into a family history?

    1. There are two components to the DNA test you took at Ancestry: the ethnicity estimates and the relative matching. Relative matching can reliably connect you to relatives with whom you share a common ancestor up to about 200 years ago, and it gets more hit-or-miss after that. Ethnicity estimates are intended to show your genetic history going back hundreds of years. However, this part of the science is challenging, and I don’t think any of the companies has perfected it yet.

    2. I should add that AncestryDNA also has Genetic Communities, which are sort of halfway between relative matching and ethnicity estimates. They may be called Migrations in your ethnicity report. We don’t get GCs for all of our ancestral lineages, but the ones we do get tend to be quite accurate.

  9. In summary, it means very little. It doesn’t matter where your DNA came from, since culture is not brought along with it. By far, the biggest contributors to who you are is what you experienced when growing up until now, i.e environment. That’s where your culture, interests, and values come from. These are not hereditary linked. If you have an inkling to wear a kilt, it has nothing to do with your DNA. The readout gives you a percentage of different geographic areas your DNA came from. By now most people’s DNA is pretty well mixed since people have been relocating a lot for centuries. It they went back three or four generations to the geographic areas listed for you, and they tested those people, they would find that their DNA came from all over as well, so your long term mixture of DNA is even more diluted.

    1. I don’t focus much on ethnicity estimates. Working with your matching relatives is far more valuable for genealogy.

      1. My husband has been contacted by a lady that just got her results back and it shows them as being first cousins, is that reliable? Her birth mother put her up for adoption when she was born and is trying to find any biological relatives. Is it accurate and safe to contact people who are showing as relatives?

        1. How fortunate for the adoptee! It certainly could be first cousins, but there are some other options that would share the same amount of DNA, for example, half aunt/uncle/niece/nephew or, if their ages are very different, great aunt/uncle/niece/nephew. In any case, there’s no doubt that she’s related to your husband in that range. I hope that there’s a lovely reunion pending!

        2. You may have figured this out by now by half siblings are also included in the Close Family-1st cousin range. When I first got my results I thought that the match that showed up was a 1st cousin (I was looking for information on my biological father) but he turned out to be my half- brother.

  10. I noticed that the “Ethnicity Estimate” box shown at the beginning of this article says “27% Ireland, 23% Great Britain, 50% other regions”. I am currently awaiting my results…but I sure hope I don’t get something like “50% Other regions”. That’s disappointingly vague. I was hoping for a little more detail. Are all Ancestry DNA results like that???

    1. If you click on “Other Regions”, it expands to show what areas are also represented. When I expand mine, I get:
      27% Ireland/Scotland/Wales
      23% Great Britain
      14% Iberian Peninsula
      9% Scandinavia
      6% Europe West

  11. Does Ancestry ever update the information? The only thing I ever see new on my DNA page is fourth cousins. The “Shared Ancestors” is exactly the same as the first time I looked at it, even though I have grown my tree immensely since getting my results. I know from looking at some of my matches trees that we have shared ancestors- with the exact same info, since I copied it from their trees. Also, the map doesn’t show new ancestors, nor corrections that I have made to existing birthplaces.

    1. Yes, they update continually. You can select the “New” filter in your match list to see matches you haven’t looked at yet. I’m not sure why you’re not seeing new Shared Ancestor Hints. You might want to reset your kit by unlinking your DNA results from you tree, waiting for the existing hints to disappear, then reattaching. (Warning: It might take a couple of days to complete the process.)

  12. I was afraid to try that! I’m guessing that I will lose the notes I have attached to my matches, but it might be worth the risk.

      1. Thank you SO much!!! It worked, there are now 40 shared ancestor hints. It only took a few hours. The map still leaves a bit to be desired- my Huron, Ontario, Canada Ancestors are showing up in Saskatchewan, but the shared ancestor hints will keep me busy enough to not worry about the map!

        1. Excellent! Sometimes the system just needs a little nudge.
          Re Saskatchewan, those are probably people who were just listed as “Canada”. They’re being mapped to Saskatchewan because it’s in the middle of the country map.

  13. Weird I was 808, i do have couple close matches but still trying to figure out how to see the matches. The good news is I now have over a thousand matches at Ancestry.com and FF matches are starting to jell. Mostly forth cousin or closer. One fifth cousin came into a dna circle though.

  14. Thanks, your posts are very helpful. My question is – is it possible to search for a match using their user name at Ancestry? A distant relative has contacted me via rootschat and she has tested with Ancestry too. How can I find her other than looking for her user name through pages and pages of matches ?
    Thanks

    1. You cannot search directly for a user name. There are two work-arounds. One is to install the AncestryDNA Helper extension on the Chrome internet browser. It will scan the matches and then give you the ability to search by user name when you’re viewing your matches in the Chrome browser. The initial scan is very time-consuming, though. The other is to use the DNAGedcom Client (available to subscribers at DNAGedcom.com). It will scan your matches to a csv file, which you can then search for user name.

      The alternative is to ask your distant relative to tell you one of the more unique surnames in her tree, and you can search for that surname with the existing search tools in Ancestry. Your relative will need to have her DNA linked to her tree.

  15. Thank you for your reply. I have managed to find her on ancestry by using your last suggestion and looking for one of her more obscure names. The relationship between this lady (Megan) and my husband is 4th cousins twice removed.

    However when I was on Megan’s profile file and selected my husband’s DNA test, Ancestry said that Megan was not on his DNA match list.

    Does this mean they are not related or could it be they just haven’t inherited enough of the same strain of DNA to be a match?

    I’d be grateful for your comments

    1. Only about 10% of 4C2R will match one another, so it’s not at all unusual that they don’t show up as matches to one another.

  16. Hello everyone. Maybe someone here can make sense of my situation. Ancestry DNA’s FAQ page does not have the answers I seek. I got my results back. They rightly matched me up with my parents, an uncle and some second cousins I know. The question is – why do I have two types of “low confidence” DNA which neither of my parents have? Mine says “Central Asian <1%" and "European Jewish<1%". None of my close family or relatives show this. Everything else matches up however.

    1. If neither of your parents show small amounts of those ethnicities, you should ignore them in your report. Ethnicity estimates are just that — estimates — and we should always remember that there is some uncertainty to them. It’s nice that they tell us which regions are low-confidence and which should be given more credence.

  17. I just got my results back and a few things were a bit confusing/surprising. My results said I was 47% Great Brittan which was a bit surprising because my mom is 100% dutch. upon further looking it looks as though the Great Brittan region includes the Netherlands as well, am I reading that right? I do have a few circles on the map that show up in England and Ireland but most of my circles are in the Netherlands. Secondly, my dad claims he is 50% Swedish and my results came back 33% scandanivian which I thought was pretty accurate until I zoomed in again on the map and all the results came back with circles in Denmark. Am I reading this correct?? we have paperwork showing ancestors in Sweden, maybe they were danes in Sweden?

  18. Thank you very much dnageek…I really appreciate it. You gave me some information which cannot be found on AncestryDNA’s page!!!

  19. I am awaiting my Ancestry DNA results now – I received an email saying it was in the lab processing phase. My sister and I decided to do this as our mom was adopted. With her blessing we ordered the kit. She is very curious as to what her roots are. My question is, if or should I say when we are biologically connected to my moms relatives, I’m concerned that they may not know of her existence. I’m not sure if this is opening up a huge can of worms. How do I go about explaining who we are if we are matched up with people we were unaware of?

    1. I would tell the truth. It should only be a “can of worms” if there is a very close match (first cousin or closer). That said, if your mother wants to find her birth family, you’ll probably have better luck by testing her directly rather than by testing yourself and your sister.

      1. Thank you for your reply. My Grandfather has everything my mom needs to know should she chose to open the proverbial envelope. She has chosen not to. She has had an amazing life filled with love. My sister and I discussed this a couple years ago but chose not to do the Ancestry DNA out of respect for my moms wishes. It was our mom who brought this up a couple months ago. She is extremely curious on the heritage part alone. We explained exactly what this process entailed and she was 100% on board. I guess only time will tell! We are eagerly awaiting the results!

  20. Hello, I sent my Ancestry DNA kit last month. It was confirmed by Ancestry that it arrived on March 13, 2018. Then I got an email on March 29, 2018 that the lab test processing started. So far, I have not received any results.

    So, my question is : does it take 2-4 weeks (as advertised), to get the results from the day they receive the sample or from the day the lab test process starts?

    1. The advertised time is 6–8 weeks, but it’s almost always faster than that. AncestryDNA is currently averaging about 9 days for the processing phase.

  21. Hello,

    Thank you for your article. It was very helpful. I have had AncestryDNA for quite some time but have not really looked into. I also have my tree private because I have found that people just copy over my data without looking at it. My tree is a work in progress. Anyway, a possible relative contacted me from a differest site and wanted to know how I came about a certain ancestor because it now connects it to him and he is wanting to know how I came up with the connection. After telling him my sources and theories, he is still skeptical. He has his DNA through Famiy Tree and has just recently did AncestryDNA. I thought that maybe we could see if we were related through AncestryDNA, but after reading more about it, I wonder if AncestryDNA is only about if you have trees that match. I would really like to know if this common ancestor that I have researched is really our common ancestor. Can AncestryDNA really tell if we are genetically matched? And how do I go about doing that? (I really don’t want to go public but if it will help I will do it)

    1. AncestryDNA matches people based on shared DNA, not based on what’s in their trees. (Notice how many matches you have who don’t have trees at all!) Then, and only then, if their computers find the same people (or are similar enough to trick the computer) in the trees of two people who already match one another, they’ll flag that as a “Shared Ancestor Hint”. Just like the “hints” in the trees that take you to possible records, you need to evaluate each one individually and decide for yourself whether to believe it.

      Note that it’s possible that you could be related through this particular shared ancestor and not share DNA, simply because you each inherited different bits from that shared ancestor. (This happens about 10% of the time with 3rd cousins, 50% of the time with 4th cousins, and more often than not with more distant cousins.) It’s also possible that you could share DNA but through a different shared ancestor than the one you’ve pinpointed. Which scenario is most likely will depend on how far back the ancestor is and how much DNA you share.

      1. Thank you for your reply. I appreciated your comment:
        “Notice how many matches you have who don’t have trees at all!”
        As you can see I don’t understand the whole thing, so I have seen matches that don’t have trees and couldn’t understand that. That helps. I will give it a try.
        Another question: Should I click the “Share DNA results” and share it with the relative? Would that be a good thing to do? We would be 6th Cousins

        1. There’s no need to share results with a 6th cousin unless you’re actively working together on a shared genealogy problem.

  22. I have purchased two DNA kits. One for myself and one for my husband. Is there any way that I will be able to view his and my DNA matches from the one family tree I have created on my account?

    1. Yes! You will have to register each kit in its own (free) account, but once you’ve done that, you can give one account “manager” rights to the other one. For example, if you want to do all of the work in your account, go into the Settings for your husband’s DNA account (make sure it’s the DNA settings and not the tree settings), scroll down to DNA Result Access, and click “Add a person”. Put your user name or email in the field and change the Role to Manager. There will be an email confirmation process. Once that’s completed, his test will be fully accessible from within your account.

  23. Thank you for your response. I contacted the help line at Ancestry DNA and the representative told me I would not be able to access both DNA tests from one account because they stopped that functionality a year ago. I asked if there was any way to link my husbands DNA to the tree on my account and she said the only way to do that was for him to pay for his own account.

    1. That’s not correct. Technically, the two tests will be in separate accounts, but once you assign yourself as manager of your husband’s test, they will function as if they are both in your account. You won’t have to log into his account again, and you don’t need two separate subscriptions to Ancestry.

    1. NADs have been discontinued by AncestryDNA. People who had them before can still see them (for now), but they’re not being generated for new testers.

  24. Your article has been very helpful. I am expecting my test results in about a week.
    While working on my tree I found my great grandfather died 3 years before my grandmother was born. Oops.
    I found who I am positive is her real father and added him to my tree, and some of his relatives. Is that the correct way to do it? I really just got lucky finding him.
    My mother’s real father is completely unknown so will be handled differently. I,m still hoping he’ll show up for me.

    1. Yes, you’re on the right track. Make sure your DNA test is “linked” to yourself in your family tree. Then, try to build back the tree of the supposed great grandfather. If you’re right about who he was, AncestryDNA should give you “Shared Ancestor Hints” for people who match you on that lineage.

  25. My DNA has matched me with over 250cms to a person they suggest is a 2nd or 3rd cousin and have given shared possible surnames but we cannot get a connection …where to now ?

    1. 250 cM is a great match! I would start by looking at the shared matches with this person for an indication of which side of your family they’re related on. For example, do they also match your maternal uncle? Your paternal first cousin? If they’re willing to collaborate, have them do the same. That will narrow down your search for the connection.

  26. This comments section is getting pretty old now, so I’m not sure if I’ll get a response, but I’m trying to find someone who can help narrow down the possible connection to a DNA match in my Ancestry DNA results. This person and I share NO (known) common ancestors in our trees, yet she’s listed as a 1st cousin in the Ancestry android app, or a 1st-2nd cousin on Ancestry’s web site (no idea why the two client platforms are different). The results are 782 cM across 16 segments, and we share 11% DNA. She’s also generation younger than I am, which to me indicates the connection has to come from someone no further back than one of her grandparents, or one of my parents, but I’m no expert. Are there people available that can help narrow down the possibilities based on these numbers? She’s just as anxious to find the connection as I am, but unfortunately her parents and grandparents are all deceased, so she can’t get any answers through her family.

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