I took the test, now what?

Now that you’ve taken the DNA test and you’re waiting to get your results. If you haven’t done so already take this time to broaden your family tree. In order to figure out who these matches are in your family, you need a broad tree. When I say broad, I mean you need to trace the descendants of your ancestors siblings. 

For an autosomal DNA test, like Ancestry, 23andMe or MyHeritage, you will get an ethnicity estimate or admixture. This is often presented as a pie graph and tells the percentage of your DNA that matches a specific country or region. Some people have DNA from 1 or 2 regions, while others have 10+!

In addition to finding out where your ancestors originated, you will also be connected with thousands of relatives who have also tested. Those closest to you will share the most centimorgans, listed as cM. A cM is a unit of measure that tells how much DNA is shared. The highest value is around 3500 for a parent of identical twin. Some sites will list cousins with as little as 5cM, so as you would imagine, there’s a lot of room between 5 and 3500. Most sites understand that the average person doesn’t know what a centimorgan is, so they also suggest a relationship. It is important to know, however that for most cM values, more than one relationship is possible. For example, around 1700 could indicate that your DNA match is your grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, or half-sibling! I highly recommend a DNA cM relationship chart for reference. 

If your parents were tested, your matches will be separated by mothers and fathers side. Some people take a DNA test in hopes of finding unknown family, wile some find unknown family members by accident! Use your tree to try to clarify connections between you and your DNA matches. Be as thorough and factual as you can be with your tree. Understand that documents will only tell you what was recorded, but may not be biologically accurate. For example, there is not a record that tells you who my maternal grandmothers biological father is. She’s never in a census with him. His name is not on her birth or death records. If I didn’t have the knowledge of truth, many of my DNA matches would be confusing. Oral family history can also lead you astray, unfortunately. DNA will tell you what is true, even if it is not supported by oral history or documentation. 

Once you have the most complete tree you can create, you can start to place your known DNA matches in your tree. These can help you figure out which family line mystery matches belong to. Most sites will allow you to see matches you have in common. For example, Teresa is a cousin through my maternal grandmother. Any matches we share should be a part of that line. Notice I said “should,” that’s because there may be connections between family lines, which can cause overlap. In some families this overlap is distant and may be related to slavery. In some cases, overlap in family lines may have another explanation......

Next week, we need to get honest. Come back, because we will be talking openly about kissing cousins, officially known as endogamy!