I know this is probably a really silly question that more than likely has an obvious answer that I can't find. I just got my results today and cannot figure out how to tell which results (people's) relation to me is paternal or maternal. Is there a way to differentiate between maternal and paternal. I was adopted but found my birth mother years ago and some of the surnames I recognize as being her line but she always refused to identify my father's identity to me so this is really important to me. Thanks so much :) Susan White
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
You can't tell from the results you have - that's the bad news. There are lots of people who can help you and guide you along the way - that's the good news. Start by joining one of the DNA Adoption Yahoo Groups. The answer gets deleted if I include a link,
Read Richard Hill's book "Finding Family with DNA Testing" and check his Website. dna-testing-adviser.com/
These groups are a wonderful community with a wealth of knowledge as well as some useful software for evaluating data and adoption angels who can guide you through the process. groups.yahoo.com/group/AdoptionDNA/ groups.yahoo.com/group/DNAAdoption
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
Thank you so much! :) Sue
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
You should probably start with investigating those matches who are most likely to share common ancestors on the "known" side of your tree. I took a look at your tree and the good news is that many of the known surnames on your maternal side are uncommon surnames. Run a filter for each of your known surnames and then investigate the trees of all of your matches who share those surnames. The rarer the surname, the more likely it is that you are truly related to any of your matches who also have that same surname in their tree. Verify a common ancestor with one of your matches and you can then at least eliminate that person as being related to you through your father's side in most cases.
After reviewing a large number of your "unknown" matches you will likely start to see some of the same surnames popping up again and again. After you have been able to flesh out your maternal tree a bit more and see that those names that keep popping up do not appear to be connected to anyone on your maternal side, you will have a pretty good idea that the people with those recurring surnames are likely connected to you on your paternal side.
Since you know most of the recent generation ancestors on your mother's side, pay careful attention to the geographical locations of those ancestors. Next, look at the geographical locations of the most recent ancestors of your closest DNA matches. If you're lucky you may find that your own ancestors lived on the same town and maybe even the same neighborhood as a recent ancestor of one of your closest DNA matches.
Good luck. Keep looking and you'll find some answers.
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
Google gedmatch, go to their website, download your raw dna (just follow the instructions). Results may take a while, then compare results and eliminate maternal side matches. Any questions feel free to contact me. People from Ancestry, Family Tree, and 23 & me, download to this site so you have a large database. James T. Muller
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
Did you ever figure out anything on the paternal side? I have the exact same issue. I linked a tree containing my birth mother's family and have been trying to do process of elimination but I'm not sure it will pan out,
Thanks!
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
You need to test a 2nd person for atDNA results. It should me a known blood relative, and you would know which side of the family this person comes from. When you have your atDNA results and your relatives results you can then check your matches. If the relative is paternal, those matches you share are your paternal side. Problem for adopts is they don't know their relatives. So now checking atDNA matches look for the best match that shares the most DNA and see if you can contact them and find a common ancestor. With yDNA all those matching a male are likely related but that can go back a long ways to a common ancestor. Often the more markers tested in yDNA will show a closer relationship if you find a match. With mtDNA is is more difficult to find a relative. Either way you should test your yDNA if you are male, mtDNA if you are female then,your atDNA. Now look at your matches in either yDNA or mtDNA and see if any show up in your atDNA. The enter process depends on other people doing genealogy DNA. Today many are taking the atDNA because of special low prices. Often these people have not taken the mtDNA or yDNA test. Remember the more distant the cousin match may be the farther back in time you need to go to find a common ancestor and this relies on having a good genealogy family tree to review. If you go back to a 5th cousin you may find thousands of possible trees you need to search. I recommend only focusing on 1st or 2nd cousin matches (if you have them) which increases your success of finding a common ancestor. You also need to check back once in a while since more folks get tested all the time. I recommend checking back about every 6 months.
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Re: Maternal or Paternal?
Paul is right. I am a female looking for my birth father (so no Y to rely on).
A few years ago, I found my maternal family by complex genealogical searches here, on Ancestry (Thanks to Ancestry !). Unfortunately, my birth mother has passed away. But since then, I am part of this family.
I knew my maternal family was from French Canadian, French; Scottish and English descent. My paternal background is from Germany and Eastern Europe of recent immigration (mid 1950's).
Already I can quite easily identify on what side my matches are (by looking at their own matches) Gedmatch is particularly useful for that because you can "investigate" your matches at your ease before contacting them.
But if I did not know these details ???
Recently I was able to have a maternal aunt tested on FTDNA. This is very useful because anytime we have a match in common it is obviously on my maternal side.
If we don't have the match in common it could be paternal or it could be because of a DNA segment that was passed (by my maternal grandparents) to my mother but NOT to my aunt.
But at least - this reduces the number of possibilities, because I have a lot of not so close matches that could be on my father's side (4th to 5th cousins). This is because recent European (or actual europeans) are underrepresented in these databases.
Good luck
Maj Montreal, Canada
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