Looking at Countries of Ancestry (formerly Ancestry Finder) at 23andMe

23andMe has a survey, Where Are You From? that asks people who test where their four grandparents were born. If you take it and agree to let people who match you know the information, the results are placed in the Ancestry Finder database.  The pictures below show the results of looking at my Ancestry Finder matches without and with colonial (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) matches included.

Chromosomes 1 through 22 and the X chromosome are shown. In the application you can select the number of grandparents who must be from the same country and the size of the match in centiMorgans (cM). You can also mouse over a match and see where their grandparents are from, the length of the match, and, if a public match, the name of the person.  Other data can be downloaded in a spreadsheet format for further examination.

The default view is of all 4 grandparents from the same country and a match of at least 7 cM in size and no Colonials.


The first picture below shows the results of looking at my matches with the grandparents matching or non-matching and the size set to the smallest length of 5cM or larger with no colonial matches. You can see that some chromosomes have greater coverage than others. Chromosomes 14, 21, and 22 have no matches. The large gold match on chromosome 1 is with someone with all four grandparents born in Norway.

The second picture has the same parameters but it includes Anglo-American Colonial countries.

Steven C Perkins' Ancestry Finder matches, 1gp, 5cM+, no Colonials

Steven C Perkins' Ancestry Finder matches, 1gp, 5cM+, with Colonials

Identified matches at FTDNA, Family Finder, and at 23andme, Relative Finder

I have 330 matches in Family Finder at FTDNA and have identified 13 relationships.

I have 1440 matches at 23andMe and am Sharing Genomes with 402. I have identified 15 relationships with those 402.

The success ratio at both services is comparable at about 4%.

I also have matches at GEDMATCH, but I have not been successful in identifying the relationship with any one there who is not already identified in Family Finder or Relative Finder.

If you are in the 23andMe database, a new feature of Ancestry Finder allows you to compare all of your matches and their matches to see if there are clusters at common locations. See this post for details on a method to download all your AF matches and their matches and use a spreadsheet for triangulation of the results:
https://www.23andme.com/you/community/thread/13225/

X Chromosome matches from 23andme

This chart is of my X Chromosome matches from Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder at 23andMe. The length of the line corresponds to the length of the match on the X chromosome. Because I am a male, I got one X chromosome from my mother.  She got an amalgam of the X chromosomes from her father and mother. I can only verify my relationship to three of the people on this chart.

SKD is my multiple 1st cousin and the relationship is through our mothers, who were sisters.  My 1st cousin and I share 6 of 8 great grandparents. We match at two locations on the X: 1-12, and 91-140.

LB and CF are 3rd cousins 1 remove and 2 removes, a mother and daughter. My 1st cousin and I share 4 of 16 GGreat grandparents with them, Swain, Ball, Kidd, and Stephens.  However, my 1st cousin does not match them or me at these locations on the X chromosome, but does match them on other chromosomes as I also do.

With HP, the link may be through the Hays/Hayes family of Overton and Fentress Co., Tennessee. HPs X line is from the same area. The mother of Maliza Stephens was Susan Hayes, and she and her husband, Zorababel Stephens, lived in Overton/Fentress Co., TN. This would subsume the links to LB and CF.

With three others, GA, JO, and CO, a mother and two of her sons, the relationship is unknown. My 1st cousin does share this match with them. We thought the relationship was on the Strunk/Strunck line, but that is not a direct line for them.

It is important to remember that a different cutoff is used for calling a match on the X chromosome between males, a male and a female, and between females:

Males: 200 SNPs, 1cM;
Male to Female: 600 SNPs, 6cM;
Female to Female: 1200 SNPs, 6cM.

This probably explains some match I have with females which do not show as a match for my female 1st cousin.

I am hoping to get some more 1st cousin matches to help to isolate matches to particular lines.

Here is a link to my pedigree charts:
Steven C Perkins 13 Generation Pedigree Charts 

Comparison of 23andme Relative Finder, Ancestry Finder and FTDNA Family Finder results

I'll repeat a post I made at 23andme on comparing success rates at both:

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Colonial American ancestry: Jamestown, Boston, Cambridge, Hartford, New Haven Colony, New Amsterdam, New Sweden, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Then spread out to North Carolina, South Carolina, both pre-Rev War; then Tennessee and Kentucky, post-Rev War.

• at 23andme I have 1050 RF matches and have confirmed 7 of those.
• at FTDNA I have 175 FF matches and have confirmed 10 of those.
• Two of my confirmed matches have tested both 23andme RF and FTDNA FF.
• I have 20 separate X Chromosome matches in RF and AF. That counts repeated people only once.
• I have no immediate matches at FTDNA. I have 54 close matches and 121 speculative matches. My closest confirmed matches are two 4th cousins.
• I have two known 1st cousins at 23andme and two unresponsive 2nd cousins. My closest confirmed match at 23andme is with a 3rd cousin once removed and her daughter.

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If you haven't done any tests I recommend starting at 23andme and then, when FTDNA opens the program, transferring your results to FTDNA. That way you get genealogical matches from both companies, you get mtDNA haplogroup and if a male, Y DNA haplogroup, and X chromosome matches at 23andme plus health info.

At FTDNA you get genealogy matches and when they get it ready, X chromosome matches. You have to pay separately for the Y DNA haplotype and haplogroup and the same for mtDNA. So from a cost perspective it is lower cost to start at 23andme and transfer to FTDNA UNLESS you also want detailed Y DNA /mtDNA readings.

23andMe Ancestry Finder versus 23andMe Relative Finder

When I logged into 23andMe last night and went to Relative Finder I had 506 matches. I sent sharing invitations to 5 of the new matches and I sent a separate invitation to a Public Profile match. The remaining match was from someone with multiple people on his profile.

People who appear in Relative Finder share at least 7.5cM of genetic data with you in one location. Once you agree to compare your genome in Ancestry Labs, Family Inheritance: Advanced you may find that you share segments between 5 and 7.5 cM. The matching in Relative Finder occurs automatically for everyone in the 23andMe database. Of course, each person can opt out of Relative Finder.

Ancestry Finder uses the lower 5 cM cutoff and can match you with people who would not automatically appear on Relative Finder IF the person has filled out the optional "Where are you from" survey. The survey asks for location information on you, your parents and your grandparents. This data is used to show where the grandparents of people who match you in Ancestry Finder were born. There are a number of limitations to this data: current country names are used which may not really reflect the ancestry/ethnicity of the match; the data is only as good as the information the person completing the survey knows; just because a match has grandparents from X country it does not mean you do.

Both Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder should be used to research your ancestry. At this time Ancestry Finder is more difficult to use and it is hoped it will be come more like Relative Finder or be merged with it to make it easier to use.

The provision for Public Profiles in both systems has made it easier to determine if some matches might be more useful that others. It also provides the opportunity for committed genetic genealogists to let others know they are willing to share data.

Ancestry Finder Beta at 23andMe

There is a new beta program at 23andMe called Ancestry Finder. This program uses the information from the survey on "Where are you From?" to map segments of your autosomal chromosomes to various nationalities. No time line has been given for rolling this out beyond the beta testers.

Some questions have been raised on whether this will be of practical use for Native American or African American testers since the number of persons from each group participating in 23andme is low. There is also some concern from European Americans who have long lines of ancestors born in America that the program will not give them much of interest.

It is hoped that those who have already completed the survey will be allowed to edit their replies to add information on ethnicity to supplement the location information.

A review has been posted at the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.