Finding Your
Finding Your
Family History
by Robert Cox
People who take a DNA test with any of the major DNA testing firms like Ancestry, MyHeritage, or 23 & Me can expect several interesting reports in the results supplied by the testing company. One of these is a list of people who share DNA with the person who ordered the test. These are called“ shared matches” on Ancestry,“ DNA matches” on MyHeritage, and“ relatives in common” on 23 & Me.
Knowing that you have shared matches is interesting, but it can be even more interesting to know how you are related to your shared matches. In particular, finding the ancestors that you share in common and the path of descent from those shared ancestors to you and your shared match can help each of you expand your family tree. If you and your shared match contact each other, you may be able to share interesting family stories about your shared family history. These stories can help put some flesh on the bones of raw, dry genealogical data found in historical records.
Both Ancestry and MyHeritage allow users to contribute family trees. These companies can then use the family trees to find ancestral connections between their members. On Ancestry, it is possible to link one’ s family tree to one’ s DNA results. If the tree is either“ public” or“ private searchable,” Ancestry will attempt to find the ancestors in common between each person with a DNA test and all of his or her shared matches.
Let’ s see how this information is provided by looking at an example. When I got my Ancestry DNA results, Ancestry notified me that I had a shared match with Ancestry Name“ caltick.”
In the rightmost column, Ancestry notes it has found a potential“ Common ancestor.”
Using Automated Tools to Link DNA Matches
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Clicking on this shared match entry will take me over to a webpage with
Clicking on the first box will bring up a diagram which will show the potential lines of descent( which it calls a“ ThruLine”) from our common great-grandfather Samuel Flick and down to each of us:
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The chart notes that“ caltick” and I share 242 centimorgans of DNA spread out among 11 DNA segments. MyHeritage has a similar matching tool called“ Theories of Family Relativity.”
It is important to keep in mind that these potential lines of descent are only as good as the data provided in the family trees submitted to the DNA testing company. So,“ ThruLines” are not always“ true lines.” But I have found in my research they are only incorrect in rare circumstances and are always useful suggestions in my search for distant cousins.
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Schatz, continued from page 3
Robert Schatz and his daughter Suzanne, when she was a teen
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Robert Schatz passed away in 1997 in Mountain View and is buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.
On a personal note, Robert’ s four children remember him for his great sense of humor, how easy he was to talk to, his love of golf, dominos, and cards, and his generosity.
His first son John, worked for the school district in Fallon, Missouri. His daughter, Suzanne Wilson, is retired after working 28 years for the Santa Clara Superior Court. His two younger sons, Matthew and Michael are computer executives in Texas.
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Robert’ s sons Matt and Mike |
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