The other day, Blaine Bettinger looked at his top 50 matches
across four testing companies. He was
careful to note that his analysis only included individuals that he didn’t personally
test. The results are posted the
Facebook group Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques. I was impressed with this tactic.
Taking advantage of a snowy day, I decided to look at my top
100 matches that I hadn’t tested or hadn’t influenced to test, as there are
over 60 family members that fit this category over all platforms – with some
having their results uploaded to FTDNA and MyHeritage. Since I was involved with
the music business early in my career, I named these matches as my "Hot 100" as an
homage to Billboard.
I decided to look at these 100 matches two ways: by the testing
company and by the possible connection via one of my grandparents. Match sizes ranged from 43cM to 315cM.
BY COMPANY
Ancestry
Ancestry’s large customer base was probably the reason the
bulk of my matches were found in their database. Seventy-four of my Hot 100 tested
with Ancestry with 70 of those being unique to their database. Both my mother
and I were Ancestry beta testers in 2012. I added my wife, who had tested
previously at 23andMe. Being that she was adopted, I was hoping to find a
relative to her birth father, as we knew her birth mother. We found her
paternal first cousin in 2018 via an Ancestry match. We also found several maternal first cousins as
well. In addition to the three kits that
I manage, there are five close relatives I’ve influenced to test who are on Ancestry.
23andMe
Fifteen of my Hot 100 were found at 23andMe with 12 being
unique to this company. I began testing
with 23andMe in 2010 and have 27 kits on this platform. Additionally, there are three
other customers who I’ve influenced to test. Up until 2013, I primarily used 23andMe as
my autosomal testing company of choice; however, the subscription pricing model
which they adopted several years ago and later dropped was my reason for moving
to FTDNA as my primary testing source.
MyHeritage
The newest autosomal company in the mix, MyHeritage,
produced 13 matches with 10 being unique to this company. I have one test and
several transfers from my surname lineage at MyHeritage. Several of these unique participants are
related to me twice. I will further address this below.
FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA)
FamilyTreeDNA produced five matches with only one
unique to the FTDNA database. I often test family members with FTDNA and the
bulk of my new participants test at FTDNA, as I often test the males with my
surname with Y-DNA, so it is important to take care of both with one kit and sample. All my
23andMe tests and one Ancestry test have been transferred to FTDNA making a total of 58 kits from my family on FTDNA.
I had someone ask me the other day why there were so few of my
matches from FamilyTreeDNA. I was surprised by the low number as well. My guess
is that both Ancestry and 23andMe do a considerable amount of advertising on
TV, radio, and online and this has a profound influence on consumer behavior. MyHeritage has done some online advertising
as well. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen or heard an ad for FTDNA.
LivingDNA
While LivingDNA's matching application is in it's beta phase, I have one match and this individual, who has also tested with FamilyTreeDNA, is within the Hot 100.
Multiple Testing Companies/GEDMatch
Like Blaine, I didn’t find many individuals in my Hot
100 who tested at multiple companies: only seven in total. One tested at 23andMe and FTDNA, one tested
at Ancestry and MyHeritage, one tested at Ancestry and 23andMe, one tested at
23andMe and MyHeritage, one tested at FTDNA and LivingDNA, and two tested at three companies: one with Ancestry,
MyHeritage, and FTDNA and the other with Ancestry, 23andMe, and FTDNA.
As far as those uploading to GEDMatch, I have five
individuals I haven’t tested who match at 43cM or higher. Unfortunately, I
cannot identify three of these individuals due to the aliases being used.
BY CONNECTION
In this exercise, I decided also to determine the common
ancestor of my Hot 100 matches. While this was not always possible, I was able,
in most cases, to identify the grandparent through which the connection was likely
to have occurred. These assumptions are not conclusive, as the matches may be through a completely different line.
Unknowns
Twelve percent of my matches were identified as unknown
paternal (3%) and unknown maternal (9%). Further delineation of the relationships
were impossible to ascertain due to the subjects not matching others in my
family. The basis of whether these individuals were maternal or paternal
was determined on whether the subjects matched my mother or not. My father died decades before the
advent of commercial DNA testing.
All 12 matched me and at least one of my brothers. It appears that by not matching my known
second cousins and half-cousins (or anyone else who was closely related to me
and my siblings) that the common ancestor might be further back in time than others
in the Hot 100.
Paternal Grandfather
The connections to my paternal grandfather, George Hood
Owston (1879-1924), are the smallest known group overall. While I’ve concentrated my research with targeted testing on my surname lineage, very few (10%) who are related through my grandfather have tested on
their own. Four of those are descended from my grandfather’s brother, Ovington
French Owston.
 |
| My paternal grandfather: George H. Owston, circa 1905 |
Paternal Grandmother
It doesn’t surprise me that the majority of the Hot 100 are
related to me through my paternal grandmother, Lora Gardner Day
(1874-1953). I realized this with my
first test through 23andMe in 2010 and chalked it up to her Colonial New
England ancestry. Many of these matches may be related to me through several
different colonial lines.
In addition, seven of these matches are through my
grandmother’s first marriage which produced three daughters who lived to the
age of majority. My father was from her second marriage. Most of these matches are descended from my
father’s half-sister Ruth while one each is through his half-sisters Nathalie and
Blanche. These rank at 1, 2, 4, 6, 17,
and 84.
 |
| My father with his mother, Lora Day Owston, circa 1924 |
Because of the age difference between my dad and his sisters
and with me being the youngest of 14 grandchildren of my grandmother (and the only one born after her
death), I only met six of my 11 half-cousins who were born between 1917 and 1943. Only
three are still living. Facebook has opened the possibility knowing my
cousins’ children and grandchildren from this side of the family.
Mixed Paternal Grandparents
Some of my closest matches come from a unique relationship
that connects to three of my great grandparents. My grandmother’s sister, Susie Eva Day (1871-1946),
was married to my grandfather’s uncle, John Freemont Merriman (1862-1941), the
brother of Mary Emma Merriman Owston (1856-1895). This couple influenced my
grandparent’s marriage in 1911. John and
Susie’s 12 children were first cousins to my father via his mother and first
cousins, once removed via his father.
These individuals are among my strongest matches and many have tested at
MyHeritage. Descendants of John and Susie Merriman ranked at 3, 7, 16, 18, 20,
52, & 62.
Maternal Grandfather
Fifteen percent of the total are connected to my maternal
grandfather, John Alva Brakeall (1883-1957). Many of the distant matches who
have larger amounts of shared DNA may be due to being related to me through
multiple lines, as my great-grandparents were second cousins. Most of these are
more closely related through my great-grandfather, but two recent testers are
more closely related to me via my great-grandmother’s brother, John Staley.
 |
| Me and my maternal grandfather, Alva Brakeall, 1957 |
Maternal Grandmother
Finally, the biggest surprise is the number of matches through
my maternal grandmother, Rose Pauline Schad (1885-1976). Up until recently, there were no matches that
could be connected through her lineage, as her family was our most recent
immigrants to North America.
Additionally, my grandmother was 7/8 German and 1/8 French Waldenses who
settled in Württemberg in the 1690s and who didn’t intermarry with local
Germans until the early 19th century. Most of these matches are
descended from the sisters of my grandmother or sisters of my
great-grandfather. Only one can be
traced to our Waldensian connection.
 |
| Me and my maternal grandmother, Rose Schad Brakeall, 1974 |
CONCLUSION
This was an interesting exercise that I hadn’t attempted in
the past and it opened my eyes to the number of individuals who share DNA with
me and our connections. It was also
helpful to see the importance of testing at Ancestry, as the bulk of my matches
came from this company; however, 26% of my matches did not test at Ancestry.
With this, it is important to test at all autosomal companies so that you
wouldn’t miss any matches. Of the 19 individuals that matched at 100cM or
higher, three tested only at MyHeritage and one tested at 23andMe. If you are
only testing at one company, you may be missing important matches.
