Those tricky DNA circles

I have began working thru the probate records of my Paternal Grandfather's Ogilvie and Harris lines which come together at my 5th Great Grandparents. My tree is at Ancestry where I have tested along with my sister and my Mom.  All of our DNA results are at GEDmatch as well.  As I work and look thru hints I like to check the profiles of others who have linked to or uploaded information.  When I visit their profile it also lets me check to see if there is a DNA match between me and that person.   I can also select other tests I admin to see if any of them match.  One of the good things about this is that if that person manages any other test and they match the test you have selected they will also appear beneath that profile, even if you don't match the profile but do have a match with one or more test which they admin.

Clicking on the word "your" lets you select other tests you admin to check against their profile

It's unclear to me when you don't find a match if it means they don't match you or if perhaps they haven't tested.  At this point I only give weight to the matches...and not any additional when they don't because I don't know if they have tested.

In this particular case my sister has the larger matches(17-20 cM segment) with both of these persons who tested and my Moderate match with the D.E. kit is only 6.6 cMs.  Ancestry has put us all in the Ann Knox circle together.  At this point there is not a Ogilvie or Harris Circle even though I do see descendants from at least 4 lines that descend from them working on trees.  Likely not enough of them have tested or the ones that have tested do not have DNA in common.  I contacted the main profile person and heard back from them within an hour(almost a record).  Now here is where it gets tricky.  The researcher has several tests at Ancestry(self, parent, sibling and maternal uncle) Along with the being included in the Ann Knox Circle for the testers profile, Shared Ancestor Hints for  Jacob Sutton and wife Ann Knox are shown as well as William Ogilvie and Mary Harris.   Since the Sutton/Knox and Ogilvie/Harris are on different sides of the main testers family we were able to determine that the match my sister has with  her is likely Ogilvie/Harris.  Looking at others who match at smaller amounts along the same segment and knowing the likely line, I have been able to find several others who appear to all have lineage back to this Ogilvie/Harris couple though I am still working on it.  To add too this.  The particular segment along which my sister(we are full siblings) matches is one which I and my sister do not have in common.  For that segment I have matches which come from our Paternal Grandmother's side of the family  This helps to know because it tells me if I match my PGM and my sister doesn't match me along that segment, that she got the only other segment that Dad could have given her....the one he got from his Dad, our PGF.

This is why it is important to look at the matching segments rather than rely on the DNA circles.  I cannot stress that enough.  I feel like the best approach to the DNA circles is to work them looking over the matches and trying to get as many as possible that match you at large amounts to GEDmatch where you can examine them more closely and prove or disprove each of the matches for that circle.

AncestryDNA Circles Spreadsheet strategy

This post is about how I am using the info in my AncestryDNA circle to choose which members in the circle would be most beneficial to ask to upload to GEDmatch.com.  If you are not aware of how DNA circles are formed please see the recommended reading links listed at the end of the article. They do have limitations.  You will need segment matches, chromosome browser, triangulation, documented research working together to prove descent.

I have been using the info from my autosomal DNA test which was done at AncestryDNA to map my DNA segments to my Ancestors.  I downloaded my raw DNA and uploaded to GEDmatch where I can compare to others who have tested at any of the other major sites and uploaded their results to the GEDmatch.com website.   I did also do the transfer to FTDNA of my results and other kits I admin because everyone will not upload to GEDmatch....It would be great...but it's just not going to happen. Much like a chromosome browser at Ancestry.  I can deal with that though.

I've tried setting some goals for my larger DNA circles.  My goal is to get as many of my DNA circle matches to upload as possible.  That said, there are other things I'd like to know in deciding which of those circle members would be the most helpful to my research.  

• Which of the members have matching DNA segments with me?
• How many centiMorgans does Ancestry guesstimate we share?
• Along which path do they descend?
• Are they uploaded to GEDmatch?

I chose one of my larger DNA circles---Jabel Putman 54 Members of which 24 match my kit.

After navigating to my DNA circles and selecting the Jabel Putman Circle this is what it looks like

From the Circle page I click on LIST to show the matches.  This particular circle has 3 pages of matches.  I opened my notepad and copy and pasted the listing of matches to my kit.  I then edited the info and inserted tabs so I could paste it into a spreadsheet.  I did a FIND & REPLACE ALL with DNA MATCH TO CIRCLE and replace with OOO,  Then I did a FIND & REPLACE ALL with DNA MATCH and replaced that text with XXX.(be careful not to reverse those two if you try this)

Once I had my layout like I wanted it, I pasted the info into a spreadsheet and adjusted the columns and added a column for GEDmatch # LINE(of descent). To really get an idea of what can be gained by seeing the kit at GEDmatch, I also added a SEGMENT MATCH column.  There are several other columns in the circle listing(Admin, Group and Connection Strength) and I chose to keep them with the exception of the image files.  I added formatting to make the spreadsheet more visually informative.  In the rows where the circle member was a DNA match to me (XXX) I shaded those rows a pale green. I began populating the GEDmatch # Column by adding the #s of the matches which I knew had uploaded to GEDmatch. While viewing the matches in List Mode, click on Relationship to determine that members line of descent and note it in the LINE column.  I chose to include the child and the grandchild in that column.  For the Segment Match column I viewed the profile for the matches(those with XXX), clicked on the i while viewing to find the guesstimated amount of shared DNA  After I had gotten the spreadsheet populated and formatted to my liking, I sorted by those who had XXX in the match column adding the word ASK in the GEDmatch # column for those who matched me but who had not yet uploaded to that site.

Below is a screenshot of a copy of my spreadsheet(I edited out/modified usernames)

It's a pretty good representation of the randomness of DNA inheritance even though we really have no way of knowing 100% for sure if this ancestor is responsible for the segment match

Looking at the spreadsheet now lets me know the answers to my earlier questions and will let me make the most of my time when contacting my matches and recommending that they upload to GEDmatch..

Recommended reading to learn about AncestryDNA's Circles

Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gem's article

Genealogy Junkie's AncestryDNA starter page

Also Roberta Estes' DNA Explained has many articles about AncestryDNA circles.

Nice DNA surprises...2nd cousin 1 removed uploads to GEDmatch

What a difference it makes to have a closer known cousin upload to GEDmatch.  I had asked one of my maternal cousins(a 2nd cousin once removed) if he would consider uploading and sent him a link to a how-to.  We both had our tests done at Ancestry.com.  Since I am not a subscriber outside of having my test done there I really don't get much use from the circles because you can't see who is in those circles with you.  I had actually been so caught up in things around here that I had not looked at my research for the last several days which is unusual for me.  Now that this cousin, has uploaded I am able to compare a known to unknowns.  So my plans for the day are to compare segments that he and I have in common to others who match along those segments.  We share DNA on 7 different chromosomes with two segments on one of those chromosomes.  Our largest segment match is 69.5cM and our total shared over all is 198.9 cM, which falls within the high range  of 2C1R using this chart.  Gedmatch estimated us to be 3.1 generations away from the MRCA.  The Most Recent Common Ancestors are my Gr Grandparents, David Enoch Luna & Nancy Pitman Luna.  They are his GG Grandparents.

Path to the  MRCA
Me----->Mom ----->Mom's Dad --------->MRCA Luna & Pitman
Him---->His Dad--> His Dad's Mom --->Her Mom--->MRCA Luna & Pitman