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One Grandparent Hogs My Matches

Discussion in 'DNA Questions and Answers' started by GrahamC, Nov 23, 2018.

  1. GrahamC

    GrahamC LostCousins Member

    When possible I usually classify each of my matches (Ancestry) as belonging to one of my four grandparents' lines. I have found that one grandparent has more matches than the other three put together. Could it be the simple fact that more people in this branch are interested in family history or is there a more technical reason.
     
    GrahamC, Nov 23, 2018
    #1
    • Great question Great question x 1
  2. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    You mention here that your parents are 2nd cousins. Is the grandparent with lots more matches one through whom their ancestry joins up?
     
    Pauline, Nov 23, 2018
    #2
  3. GrahamC

    GrahamC LostCousins Member

    No!
     
    GrahamC, Nov 23, 2018
    #3
  4. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    You don't inherit an equal amount of DNA from each grandparent - you could in theory have 50% from one and 0% from another.

    But you haven't told us what the numbers are or how you are determining which quarter of your tree the matches come from - the anomaly could be random (eg if the numbers are small), or the numbers could be biased in some way by your methods.
     
    peter, Nov 23, 2018
    #4
  5. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    Or possibly the numbers could be biased due to where in the world the ancestors ended up. If say a couple of cousins from that line (regardless of how far back) went to the US and none of the other lines did, then the chances of getting a match on Ancestry are dramatically higher due to the fact that the number of tests sold to Americans is way more than all the other countries combined.
     
    Alexander Bisset, Nov 23, 2018
    #5
    • Agree Agree x 1
  6. GrahamC

    GrahamC LostCousins Member

    That could be the reason. I'm getting a lot of matches (confirmed by family trees) from USA in this particular line but also some from England and Australia. Several people are known to have emigrated to both Australia and USA.
     
    GrahamC, Nov 24, 2018
    #6
  7. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Another possibility is that the surnames associated with that grandparent are rarer, so it's easier to identify matches. That's one reason why I asking about numbers - if the total number of matches you've been able to allocate to the different quarters of your tree is only a few hundred out of tens of thousands, there are all sorts of possible biases.

    And if you have managed to allocate more than a few hundred matches to the different quarters of your tree, you've done a lot better than me!
     
    peter, Nov 24, 2018
    #7
  8. GrahamC

    GrahamC LostCousins Member

    I took my first hundred matches as a sample. After ignoring one first cousin I had 99.
    Paternal gfather 8
    Paternal gmother 44
    Maternal gfather 2
    Maternal gmother 4
    Unknown 41

    Paternal gfather and maternal gmother are first cousins.
     
    GrahamC, Nov 24, 2018
    #8
  9. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I really don't think you should read anything into it - not only is it a very small sample, it isn't really random.
     
    peter, Nov 24, 2018
    #9
  10. jorghes

    jorghes LostCousins Superstar

    My DNA matches could be said to be dominated by two things - either by my paternal side, but even within that, by links from a single 2x great grandparent. I get far more results from my fathers side, which has a lot of emigration to the USA and there are more results from there, but my Ashkenazi Jewish results (that 2x great grandmother) are numerous, probably because they were such an enclosed community.

    But I have had more matches with cousins I can chat to and compare notes on my maternal side, so I think it all evens out!
     
    jorghes, Nov 24, 2018
    #10
  11. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    If I look at my first hundred matches (99 + my sister) I likewise find one grandparent with more matches than the others, though it might be more accurate to say my mother is the one hogging all my matches!

    Paternal grandfather - 2
    Paternal grandmother - 5
    Maternal grandfather - 25
    Maternal grandmother - 12

    My connection to the other 45 matches is unknown, but of those 28 are in a 'shared matches' group, so whichever grandparent they connect to would actually have the most matches.

    So as Peter says, I guess figures from this small a sample don't really signify much.
     
    Pauline, Nov 25, 2018
    #11
  12. GrahamC

    GrahamC LostCousins Member

    I have a couple groups like that. I suppose its also possible that they are all related to each other but don't really belong to me at all.

    It certainly looks that way. Its interesting to see your figures from a similar sample. I'd be interested to see some other peoples figures.
     
    GrahamC, Nov 25, 2018
    #12
  13. Helen7

    Helen7 LostCousins Superstar

    This thread inspired me to tot up my DNA matches, and I found that so far I've positively identified only 38, the grandparent split being:
    Paternal grandfather - 15
    Paternal grandmother - 4
    Maternal grandfather - 5
    Maternal grandmother - 14
    The numbers obviously don't mean much on such a small sample. I was just glad to find some relatives on all 4 branches!

    Out of interest, I compared this with the split of my cousins found by traditional research (i.e. no DNA matching involved) which is:
    Paternal grandfather - 9
    Paternal grandmother - 4
    Maternal grandfather - 24 (half of these are 2nd cousins I knew about before starting research!)
    Maternal grandmother - 12
    Again, too small to draw any conclusions, but again relatives on all 4 branches is reassuring.
     
    Helen7, Nov 30, 2018
    #13

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