© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 1 -
Genetic Genealogy Update for W.I.S.E. Rev. 20180123
Greg Liverman, PhD Pinewood Genealogy [email protected] +1 719.689.0787
1 UPDATES AT ANCESTRY & 23ANDME
Ancestry and 23andMe reports are typically closest to the paper trail genealogy compared to other companies
More reference groups, reference groups realigned
More detail reported (smaller geographic areas)
1.1 ANCESTRY 60 major reference groups
1000 fine scale regions
40,000 total samples
Improved details in the Americas and Africa
1.2 23ANDME
1.2.1 Ancestry Update
Updated to 1500 reference groups worldwide
more granular breakdown of Ancestry Composition results for customers with Central Asian, South Asian,
western Asian, and North African ancestry
More granularity (finer detail) available to testers
1.2.2 Family Tree
This tree is constructed purely from DNA relationships. It is improved compared to last October, but still not perfect.
The arrow indicate that the circles matches should be linked to a different ancestor
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 2 -
2 MATCH VISUALIZATIONS
2.1 MANUAL
2.2 AUTO CLUSTERS Available for a small fee from
Genetic Affairs (https://geneticaffairs.com/)
DNA Gedcom (https://www.dnagedcom.com/)
MyHeritage (included in paid subscription or upgrade)
GEDmatch (included in paid Tier 1)
Name Match IDEstimated
RelationshipTotal CM
Match #1
Mother
Match #9
David McLain &
Julia Strong
Match #6
Estes &
Stearns
Match #8
Michael Frock &
Margaret Barker
Match #11
William Thompson &
Margaret Cox
Match #14
Frock?
Mother 1 PARENT_CHILD 3443
First Cousin 2 1C1R 972
Match #3 3 SECOND_COUSIN 405
Match #4 4 SECOND_COUSIN 251
Match #5 5 THIRD_COUSIN 143
Match #6 6 THIRD_COUSIN 121
Match #7 7 THIRD_COUSIN 118
Match #8 8 THIRD_COUSIN 113
Match #9 9 THIRD_COUSIN 110
Match #10 10 THIRD_COUSIN 110
Match #11 11 THIRD_COUSIN 109
Match #12 12 THIRD_COUSIN 104
Match #13 13 THIRD_COUSIN 104
Match #14 14 THIRD_COUSIN 104
Match #15 15 THIRD_COUSIN 101
Match #16 16 THIRD_COUSIN 98
Match #17 17 THIRD_COUSIN 93
Match #18 18 THIRD_COUSIN 91
Match #19 19 FOURTH_COUSIN 76
Match #20 20 FOURTH_COUSIN 75
Match #21 21 FOURTH_COUSIN 67
Match #22 22 FOURTH_COUSIN 65
Match #23 23 FOURTH_COUSIN 64
Match #24 24 FOURTH_COUSIN 64
Match #25 25 FOURTH_COUSIN 63
Match #26 26 FOURTH_COUSIN 63
Match #27 27 FOURTH_COUSIN 61
Match #28 28 FOURTH_COUSIN 59
Match #29 29 FOURTH_COUSIN 59
Match #30 30 FOURTH_COUSIN 59
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 3 -
The tool downloads your matches from a site (Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, FTDNA) and produces spreadsheets
and visual charts of how your matches match each other. Each cluster probably has an ancestral couple in
common…with you. By researching those matches backwards using POG (Plain Ol’ Genealogy), you can discover
your ancestor.
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 4 -
2.3 AUTO TREES AT GENETIC AFFAIRS Similar to Ancestry ThruLines or MyHeritage Theory of Family Relativity. Created from the trees attached to the
DNA profiles of people who match me.
3 LAW ENFORCEMENT TESTING AND INVESTIGATIVE GENETIC
GENEALOGY
Only FTDNA and GEDmatch allow law enforcement kits (created from crime scene DNA) to be uploaded and
matched with customers who have opted-in for matching with LW kits
We have always known that a court subpoena could change what law enforcement had access to. Some companies
have stated they would fight subpoenas.
In July 2019, GEDmatch accepted a subpoena to open the entire database, even kits that had opted-out, to
matching with a law enforcement kit. This was discovered months after the fact when the officer announced
it at a conference.
While 23andMe and Ancestry have publicly stated they would fight subpoenas in court, other companies have
not made similar promises
GEDmatch has been sold to Verogen, a for-profit forensic genetics firm. Verogen has pledge to continue to develop
tools for use by genetic genealogists and not change any of the operation. GEDmatch has well over 1 million kits, but
fewer than 200,000 have opted in for law enforcement matching
FTDNA has created their own investigative genetic genealogy department, headed by Barbara Rae Ventner.
Cold cases are still being solved using genetic genealogy despite many customers opting out of matching with law
enforcement kits.
Additional for-profit companies are starting up. Law enforcement agencies are training their employees in genealogy
and bringing investigative genetic genealogy in-house
Always read the terms carefully. Make sure your testers read and understand the terms. Realize that companies may
change their behavior or policies. Make decisions based on your values.
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 5 -
4 Y-DNA SNP TREES
Y-DNA projects are leveraging next generation genome testing of the Y-chromosome to build family trees from SNP
mutations
Large numbers of men have to test at high levels (FTDNA Big Y-700 or lineage-specific SNP tests) to get the data
necessary to construct these trees
Eventually, a test result will be sufficient to place a man on the tree and identify his paternal lineage.
One example of this is the Big Tree (www.ytree.net) that has over 4000 surnames and over 4600 haplogroups all
within the R-haplogroup family. Most men from W.I.S.E. countries are haplogroup “R”
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 6 -
5 AUTOSOMAL TESTING GROWTH
Reference: "Genealogical Database Growth Slows", Leah Larkin, The DNA Geek
(https://thednageek.com/genealogical-database-growth-slows/ : accessed 19 Jan 2020).
People are still testing at all companies. All the databases are growing.
The database size is not growing as fast as it was since mid-2018.
o The slowdown has affected Illumina’s outlook to investors and stock prices
“Illumina Cuts Forecasts As Consumer Tests, Genomics Initiatives Lag”, 30 Jul 2019.
“Illumina Stock Dips As Consumer Genomics Weighs On Quarterly Beat”, 24 Oct 2019
o 23andMe lays-off 100 employees, 14% of their workforce
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/23/23andme-lays-off-100-people-ceo-anne-wojcicki-
explains-why.html, 23 Jan 2020
How does this effect Genealogists?
o We will get more matches, just not as many as fast as before
o We need to be diligent about informing testers of the privacy considerations.
Using Autosomal DNA to Find an Unknown Ancestor
© 2020 Mark Gregory Liverman - 7 -
6 NOTES
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