You took the test. You got your results. You connected with that third cousin who has the same great-great-grandfather. But, what about those dozens of other DNA matches? What do you do when their tree is private and you can’t compare results? What do you do when you’ve looked at their tree and can’t figure out exactly how you are related? Join Crista Cowan as she shares some tips for using DNA cousin matches to grow your family tree.
Want to watch the previous AncestryDNA presentation where Crista discusses ethnicity and a little bit of the science behind how DNA is passed from generation to generation? Click here: http://ancstry.me/VPCUXG
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I have about 60 first cousins but only two have had their DNA done on any major site :/
I have over a 1000 Im not doing much with it!..hahaha Who has time for that! I know people with more than I have. Its called colonial..Basically if your ancestors came over on the mayflower you will have thousands of matches!
OMG I have 100 2,3 and 4 cousin matches! And I just completed my DNA
Thank you for this presentation, it’ll help me weed through them all
I’ve got 118 cousin matches – 4th cousin or closer and not one hint! Why is this? 360 pages of matches in total but not one hint!
I’m of Jewish decent and I get way too many cousins on ancestry lol
The biggest issue I find with shared DNA matches is sheer volume. Since checking my matches this morning, there have been another 8 matches in the last 2 hours.
I thought you only share one set of grandparents with your first cousins?
on the matching dna results, why does the first name have a yellow star?
Awesome information! This was very helpful. I didn't know what to do with my matches.
I bought an ancestry dna kit… Do I need to have a membership to contact any relatives I'm related to? Just wondering… if anybody could answer that would be great, thank you!
Wonderful video! Great tips that will really help. I have problems researching my mother's paternal side because of an unusual surname. So far I've found 4 different spellings; ugh! I think a lot has to do with census takers spelling phonetically, but it's very frustrating. BTW, I have 300 4th cousin matches, 25 3rd cousin, 20 2nd, & 1 1st cousin matches.
Found a half sibling yesterday that everyone, including him, were unaware of, thanks to ancestry!!!
I hope you get your grandmother tested love to see the results ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Very important point that everyone who takes the DNA test also publishes their tree.
I have SO MANY cousin matches, yet only four people have made their tree available!
I guess these folks are like the ones who got their test as a gift & were only interested in finding out their ethnicity.
I've asked them to share, but so far… crickets!
Great video, thanks!
413, 4th COUSINS OR CLOSER!
what do I do when I attach dna test to wrong person
I have a question. My shared hint matches jumped from 98 to 146. Two days later it fell to 133. I made no changes to my tree. What made that number fall to 133 in just two days before I had time to research?
Am I related to every single person on my dna match list? Even the most distant?
I am lost – all I really wanted to find out was who my paternal grandfather was, what ethnicity – nationality – I have all the information on my mother's side back into the seventeen hundreds – all central Europa mostly Germany (Prussia) and I have everything on my father'side, only up to his mother – but all I have found records on was my Grandfather was either a ship's captain or officer who produced a child back in the late eighteen hundreds – my grandmother used her maiden name, but we could not find who that ship's (steamer in those days) officer was. I am 86 years of age now and would find out who my grand father father's side was _ HELP how do I find out??
My daughter in law has ( 2 ) 4th cousins according to Ancestry.
Let me see if I understand correctly…when I have a wavy leaf and it shows the chart of how we're connected, is this connection made from the info each of us has entered on our tree or is it because we actually share DNA?
I'm adopted and my biological cousin did the DNA of my biological mother. I's still trying to figure out how to connect the link of my biological mother to her profile in my tree. i just wish that when a match is made that it indicated if it was maternal or paternal.
Are you having any trouble getting AncestryDNA to load with Chrome? I have tried for the last week and can not get it to load with Chrome after having no problems for over a month. AncestryDNA does not work very well with Internet Explorer and it is the only way I can get in now. I spoke to someone a week ago and she said to go in through Explorer, but I assumed she was going to talk to the tech department about it, but I guess not. Just wondering if you were having issues as well.
One thing I found is, my brother has just done 3 generations. I did my DNA and now where to connect the dots with all of these cousins. It is daunting but so exciting as well. Years ago my mother connected me to my Italian cousins. There were 2nd, third, fourth, etc. cousins in California. I was flabbergasted. I lost touch but I know my family is huge.
I have 869 4C or closer……….I believe that some or many of those may be more distant. The reason is one grandmother is of French-Canadian ancestry, and my "Swedish" Great-Grandmother is of "Forest Finn" ancestry. Both groups were very insular for 200-300 years. I think it throws the algorithm off.
As you keep adding people to your tree does ancestry update things like the shakey leaf in Ancestry DNA and DNA Circles?
My husband has over 6600 DNA matches with 4th cousins or higher. Why would he have so many? What is the best name to put as the main name when a person has changed their name? Both first and last or similar to their name but different.
2,612 4th cousins or closer. 6 2nd cousins. 40 3rd cousins. So same great-grandparents for 2nd and 2nd great for 3rd, correct? Husband was placed for adoption. We don't know either Biological Father or Mother. Let the research begin!
What does "Family Tree Maker" do that Ancestry.ca does not? I don't understand why I would need both.
My paternal uncle and I share 4 pages of DNA matches together. Why my paternal uncle dna results is some different then my?
Thanks, very helpful.
I have 662 4th cousins on my DNA matches!! Holy smokes! Where do I even begin??
30:26 where do you find this page an Ancestry?
My mum is adopted and I bought her the test for xmas… it has been really interesting! Mum found her biological mum years ago but unfortunatly they did not get along. We knew from her side that her ancestry was Dutch and Scottish. Mum has really dark tan skin, dark/medium blonde hair and blue/green eyes. She had always speculated her biological father was of some type of darker skinned ethnicity….interestingly mum was almost half scandinavian, irish and western european with only a trace amount of middle eastern/jewish…. I am hoping to use the ancestry cousins to broaden what I have managed to find from what we know of mums bio mum and possibly even connect to her paternal line. We get stuck on the bio maternal line at the point of immigration as naturalisation and immigration papers do not list next of kin 🙁 so fascinating!
Through Ancestry .Com I have gone back to Adam on two lines of my ancestry. How do I verify that track??
If I have a parent with advanced Alzheimer's how can I take an Ancestry DNA test with them? Spitting won't work. Thanks.
I have 860 4th cousin matches feeling very overwhelmed!! Any Tips?
how do is see their (matches) family tree (we are both subscribers to ancestry). Their name is not recognized in the member directory?
I only got one 4th cousin match and 13 5th-8th cousin matches. Hopefully more people will register and i'll find more people 🙁
Thank you so much for another excellent video. I binge watch these over and over. I have a question. I know you strongly recommend one tree, yet my mother is adopted, and I have created a separate tree for the biological line. What do you recommend in that case? I know it's throwing off some of my matches.
Wondering how to go about find birth records pre 1900s. or birth records in general, vitalstats charges to much imo for something with just some names on it. I was told to check churches, but how would u find a church from 1887 or 1852?
This is super helpful, but has it been updated at all? Especially since Ancestry is directing us away from the desktop software.