Distant cousin on Ancestry asking me to share my DNA

[SippingSipsmith]

Hi

I'm just wondering if this is me being paranoid.

5th cousin or thereabouts has contacted me on Ancestry.com - we have 12 centimorgans matched which is tiny. Anyway he's sent me a message asking for my parents and grandparents names and told me a bit about his family history. Doesn't ring any bells for me. I eventually get back to him with a polite response with some vague surnames and regions but nothing more.

Anyway he gets back to me asking me to share my raw DNA code from the website with him.

All seems a bit odd. Is he looking to clone me what can he ascertain from my DNA?? Thanks

Erm... nothing? he can't actually clone you from your dna!!
Why did you sign up if not to get involved I stuff like this? Fleshing out family trees etc

I use Ancestry DNA but I don't think you can share a code on there - what I think he is getting at is Gedmatch. You can upload your raw dna file to it, you have a user code that you can search by (I think- I've not checked Gedmatch in a while). But from that he could see who else you match to on there and it also allows you to see on which chromosome you match on.

12cM is tiny though, whilst I have a few confirmed matches at that amount, most likely the connection is waaay back!

I thought that is part of the attraction ! Finding out who you are related to , I doubt he is expecting an invite for Christmas dinner.

It is and I have made a good few connections on there with some great people but like the person above says 12cM is a tiny tiny amount and to ask for the raw DNA file caught me a bit off guard plus lots of personal info - just wondering what he thinks he can gleam from it as it seemed a bit intrusive from 2nd message.

Obviously realise he can't clone me

I'd politely decline, but then I have no interest in finding people who maybe related to me!

Asking for your raw file itself is not on, when you download it you get warning messages from Ancestry saying it's now your responsibility to basically protect your data!

Some people get really carried away!

I was on a fb group with a really knowledgeable lady called Donna Rutherford who said not to really bother with matches under 30cM as the chances of a common ancestor being quite far back down the line are high. So if the names don't seem familiar on either side it's not worth pursuing.

Hope he leaves you alone OP!

@Schlobbob

Asking for your raw file itself is not on, when you download it you get warning messages from Ancestry saying it's now your responsibility to basically protect your data!

Some people get really carried away!

I was on a fb group with a really knowledgeable lady called Donna Rutherford who said not to really bother with matches under 30cM as the chances of a common ancestor being quite far back down the line are high. So if the names don't seem familiar on either side it's not worth pursuing.

Hope he leaves you alone OP!

Thanks @Schlobbob that's what I thought. Good to know I'm not being too paranoid on this one x

If you are in the UK there's nothing wrong with Gedmatch, just make sure you x the Police bit out.
I wouldn't use it in America as they don't give the option.

Upload your DNA to this and you'll get matches from all the sites, not just ancestry.
There's nothing dodgy about it, and it helps people work out how you may fit into their tree. Even if they put your name in their tree, it would show up private anyway.

Oh, I had a common ancestor at 8cM. It can happen, and with work I've found several others at the expected "Just noise, level"
I had 85k matches when I started and it's topping the 120k mark now.