Connecting with cousin on My Heritage/ DNA results

[Illberidingshotgun]

Hi, have been using My Heritage for a few months and have sent them my DNA. I receive regular emails about DNA matches, usually distant (3rd - 5th cousins). My cousin recently sent his DNA off to them as well, and again connecting with lots of distant relatives, but we have not "matched". Our mothers are half sisters (different fathers) but we would still be much closer relatives than the notifications that we are getting.

Has anyone else had difficulties with this site (or others) actually recognising relatively close family members via DNA results?

Are you sure about your two mothers' heritage? That might explain it. The only anomaly I have is on Ancestry, where my Grandson comes up as 1st/2nd cousin!!

Yes, well as certain as I can be. There is a mystery around my aunty's father (she was the elder child) but there has never been a suggestion that their mother was not the mother of both of them.

That's very weird then! It would be interesting to see what would show up if you both registered DNA on a different site.

Join the DNA detectives Facebook page. Someone on there will help you work it out. Half first cousins should be quite a significant cm match. May also be worth uploading your results to GEDmatch.

@81Byerley

That's very weird then! It would be interesting to see what would show up if you both registered DNA on a different site.

That should make no difference - I think you're misunderstanding what the DNA test shows.

If you test your DNA with Ancestry, or 23 and Me, or My Heritage or whatever the results will be the same - your DNA make-up is fixed and will not change. Similarly, your relative's DNA is fixed and does not change depending on who they test with.

A site like DNA painter will help you make sense of results, by telling you how much DNA within a range you can expect to share with any given relative. So 50% with a parent, 25% with a grandparent and so on. This should let you untangle whether there is really something "off" with your results or not.

According to 23 and Me, you would expect to share around 6.25% of DNA with a first half-cousin, but it could be anything between 2% and 11%.

If your results are outside this range then it's not that the test is "wrong" - DNA does not lie. You will have to delve deeper to work it out, but bear in mind you might be opening a massive can of worms by doing so.

customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170668-Average-Percent-DNA-Shared-Between-Relatives

@ RaspberryCoulis, thank you yes, I didn't mean the DNA would be different, I meant there may have been an error on the website, and the correct information would show somewhere else, just as I presume my Grandson would not show as my cousin on another site.

Thanks everyone, so useful suggestions. I'm waiting to hear back from my cousin and we'll try and work it all out.

How does one upload results to GEDMatch

Sorted. I've googled it.

@81Byerley

@ RaspberryCoulis, thank you yes, I didn't mean the DNA would be different, I meant there may have been an error on the website, and the correct information would show somewhere else, just as I presume my Grandson would not show as my cousin on another site.

There’s quite a range of possible shared DNA between grandparents and grandchildren - anything from 17% to over 30%, because of recombination it’s not often a straight 25%, so the shared amount can make other relationships just as likely.

EG one of my children’s results showing how much DNA is inherited from me and each of my parents - quite a big difference

Did you not match with your cousin at all, or was the percentage lower than you expected? If it helps: i share 12.2% with a full 1st cousin, 4.1% with a 2nd cousin, and around 2% with three different half second cousins. All from myHeritage.

If you do not match with your half first cousin at all then there is likely to be something amiss with your family tree. It is very common for DNA testing to reveal many family secrets.