Estacaille Genealogy One Name Study

Adopted Seeking DNA Matches

adoption DNA testing

Earlier this year I uploaded my DNA data (free limited plan) to LivingDNA – I was curious to see what kind of matches they had as I have a fair number of UK ancestors, and LivingDNA appears to have a number of UK users.  It’s a small database, especially when compared to Ancestry or MyHeritage, but we’ll see how it grows.

This week I was contacted by one of my DNA matches, 41 cM, who was born in Georgia, USA, and seeking her biological parents.  I checked our shared matches in the LivingDNA database and only found 2. No idea which of my branches she may be on, and my GEDCOM does not show any cousins that have resided in Georgia.

That brings me to my advice that I gave her, and others that are adopted and searching.  Test with the bigger DNA companies.  If you test with a smaller one like LivingDNA, you need to spread your data across the net in order to triangulate who you may be descended from.

A prime example is my newly discovered cousin Jodi on my Judas-Eckart branch.  While I don’t know exactly which cousin is biologically her father – nothing has been confirmed at this point – thanks to the cousin matches we’ve shared in 23andMe, MyHeritage and Ancestry, I know who her paternal grandparents, great-grandparents, etc are.

Jodi and I initially connected on 23andMe where we had a small handful of shared matches, but only rough theory on who her father was.  (Jodi & I matched at 5.88, cousin Brenda & I matched at 2.16).

I convinced Jodi to upload her DNA data to MyHeritage for free – that showed another set of shared matches but still not enough clarity of ancestry.  (Here Jodi & I matched at 418.8 cM, closest cousin Trevor & I matched at 99.5 cM).

I asked Jodi to take an Ancestry test as my strongest Judas-Eckart matches are in that database (cousin Bonnie @ 266 CM and cousin Cathy at 121 cM). And that’s where we hit pay dirt with Jodi’s strongest match being Cathy at 1,339 cM.

What better example can I make for showing why an adoptee testing DNA needs to cover the larger databases to increase the odds of finding a great match?

Some final references I’ve found around the net regarding DNA database sizes. Source: https://www.dataminingdna.com/who-has-the-largest-dna-database/

  • Ancestry estimated at 20+ million
  • 23andMe estimated at 12+ million
  • MyHeritage estimated at 5+ million
  • FamilyTreeDNA estimated at 1.7+ million
  • GEDMatch estimated at 1.2+ million
  • LivingDNA – data not disclosed

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