Do I really have 400/800 4th or closer cousins?

Maybe!

https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics

https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics

What percentage of your cousins will match your DNA?

Simplified version of the relationship chart from the ISOGG wiki (courtesy Dimario, Wikimedia Commons)

The "G" trick

The cousin level = the number of "G"s , else the greats plus one

If you are in different generations take the shorter path and the other is removed by the generation difference

Do I really have to look through thousands of matches?

NO!

Start with the low hanging fruit, "extended family" about 3rd cousins or closer

(75cM and larger)

Cousin Matches

1. How much shared DNA in centimorgans (cMs)?
2. Who else do they match?
3. How many segments? (More than 2 is best)
4. Closer cousins will have larger longest segments (20 cM or more especially if endogamous)

The matches called 2nd cousin at Ancestry share 200-600? cM but can easily be other relations, most of mine are 1st once and twice removed

I indicate the actual relationship first thing in the little notepad

My real 2nd cousins are at the bottom of the 2nd cousin list and also at the top of the 3rd cousin "bin"

Notice that most have either a green or blue dot, the first one has both because he is a 1st cousin once removed so shares 2 great grandparent lines (dots = groups)

There is an online calculator at

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Enter the cMs and get probable relationships 

At Ancestry click on the + next to a match to assign it to a group with the color you choose

You need a good family tree for this!

Ancestry has done a lot of the work for you by searching trees for common ancestors

Clicking on a match name on the match list takes you to the match page for that person which can show the common ancestors

Clicking on a "Common Ancestor" brings up a display like this showing the relationship pathways

Next go back to the match page and click shared matches, give them all a dot for this family line (Munsons are green)!

Shared matches only go out to 4th cousins (20cM)

Click on the funny icon to connect them to that person in your tree via a panel on the right

Typically when you log in you want to see your new matches, if you catch them early they are more likely to respond to your messages

Personally I used to look at just 4th cousins or better who were unviewed and recent but then Ancestry added a centimorgan filter!

Another approach is to look for the descendants of a specific ancestor via ThruLines on your DNA home page

Unlike the Shared Matches feature, ThruLines finds even distant cousins

put your cursor on an ancestor on this page and see how many DNA descendants are here

So to check for Halling side matches I looked at Josephine's parents on the ThruLines page ... More matches than to her! So 6 Halling matches

Click on Peder

Click on the EVALUATE to see where the information is from the right column will slide in to show tree information

But how do I copy this information to my tree?

When you click on the family tree name in the EVALUATE panel

up comes the information about this person in the same box -

every name in blue is clickable

Save to tree brings up a box, start typing, it looks in your tree for that person

Scroll down the page and see all the family members. Just like when you click a green leaf.

Any facts can be clicked over to your tree

Add a tree tag showing this is a DNA Connection

Click on her name to go to her profile in the other tree

then you can use Save to Tree as before

One last tip: Click on your match's name on their match page to get to their profile and see whether they have logged in recently

MyHeritage also finds the relationships using many trees

called the Theory of Family Relativity

You can select just the matches with "theories"

click on Filters then All tree details then click Has Theory ...

MyHeritage matches are presented on card like boxes with much information

Here is the MyHeritage theory, it only uses our two trees but many theories use multiple trees

An example of using multiple trees

As on Ancestry, to copy information over start with the person who is in your tree

Look at the profile in your tree first

If the match looks good then use Smart Matches to find the other tree

When you find the smart match click Review Match

Look carefully and if it is a match click Confirm Match

A large selection of her relatives can be copied over as well

My free presentation about cousin matching at MyHeritage is posted on FaceBook - click here

Family Tree DNA

• Takes uploads from elsewhere

• Has trees but no automatic tree searching 

Click on the family tree icon to 

see something like this

Family Tree DNA

• You can email a match directly from the match list, no messaging system

• If a match uploads a tree that is indicated and clickable

• You can sort by largest segment, useful if your family is endogamous

• The total cM are inflated since small segments are included so cut at 100cm?

23andme

23andme has some excellent tools for searching your DNA relative list

At 23andme you can connect your tree to your profile

for your matches to see BUT

it does not do any tree searching or matching of ancestors for you

23andme has an exciting feature, it predicts a tree from your matches (works less well with endogamy)

Looking more closely, it predicts people who are descended from his grandparents and also from a set of great grandparents

This is really just an advanced form of clustering, the most exciting recent tool for DNA (next talk!)

Managing your Cousin Matches

1. How much shared DNA in centimorgans (cMs)?
2. Who else do they match?
3. How many segments? (More than 2 is best)
4. Closer cousins will have larger longest segments (20 cM or more especially if endogamous)

QUESTIONS?