Issue with number of DNA matches

[NEJM84]

I am wondering if there is possibly an issue with my DNA kit (transfer from Ancestry) as I seem to have a very low amount of DNA matches. I recently noticed that my account only has 472 matches but I am sure I previously had much, much more than that! My mum's DNA has also been transferred under a separate account and she has over 4000 DNA matches - 204 of which are in common with me (this is the same under both accounts).

Does this sound normal?

Like I said, I am sure I previously had a lot more matches. It seems odd. I would expect that if my mum has over 4000 DNA matches, we should have more than 204 common matches given that we share over 3500 cM.

[KATM]

Do you see any distant matches (4th or 5th and more distant) among your 472 matches? If not (you only see up to say, 3rd-4th cousin), you can adjust what level of matching you prefer in your account's Account Settings. To get to Account Settings, hover over your name in the top right of your Home/Dashboard page. Select "Privacy and Sharing" from the Account Settings page menu, and select "All Levels" for Family Finder (if it was set to a different level).

[Talpabrae]

It depends on when your test was originally processed by Ancestry.

Ancestry's Version 1 chip used up until May 2016 was more compatible with the FTDNA chip, so an upload of those results gives the full list of matches.

Ancestry's Version 2 chip used from June 2016 was less compatible and FTDNA have chosen not to show the lower confidence matches for those uploads. As a result you will only see about 10% of your possible matches.

[KATM]

Talpabrae, I had forgotten about that. But I wonder if that is still true, since FTDNA has changed their chip to a GSA chip. Perhaps the new chip might be more compatible with Ancestry's v.2 chip, although if not, your explanation certainly could fit NEJM84's situation.

[jimbirk]

I am wondering if there is possibly an issue with my DNA kit (transfer from Ancestry) as I seem to have a very low amount of DNA matches. I recently noticed that my account only has 472 matches but I am sure I previously had much, much more than that! My mum's DNA has also been transferred under a separate account and she has over 4000 DNA matches - 204 of which are in common with me (this is the same under both accounts).

Does this sound normal?

Like I said, I am sure I previously had a lot more matches. It seems odd. I would expect that if my mum has over 4000 DNA matches, we should have more than 204 common matches given that we share over 3500 cM.

Doesn't sound normal to me. When did you do the Ancestry transfer?

You are going to have to open a ticket with customer service to investigate your Ancestry transfer.

[prairielad]

Talpabrae, I had forgotten about that. But I wonder if that is still true, since FTDNA has changed their chip to a GSA chip. Perhaps the new chip might be more compatible with Ancestry's v.2 chip, although if not, your explanation certainly could fit NEJM84's situation.

With FTDNA GSA chip, Ancestry is now less compatible with FTDNA.
Ancestry V2 has an overlap of around 200,000 with new chip, it was around a 450,000 overlap on old chip.

Ancestry transfers will only get partial match lists.
If and when Ancestry switches to new GSA chip, I imagine Ancestry transfers (that test on Ancestry GSA chip when they switch) will start receiving full match lists, but the remote matches will be limited to those that tested on FTDNA GSA chip.

23andme V4 will also only receive partial matchlist, while 23andmev5 should receive full match lists containing remote cousins who tested on the new FTDNA GSA chip.

https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_SNP_comparison_chart

[prairielad]

I suspect that even with people who have tested directly at FTDNA, they will have remote matching effected depending on which chip version tested on.

I would say anyone tested on FTDNA V1 will not receive remote matches who have tested on FTDNA V2 (GSA chip), and those tested on FTDNA V2 will not receive any matches in the remote category who have tested on the FTDNA V1 chip.

One of the downfalls of the new testing chips

[loobster]

I know I read that in order to keep everything working when they switched chips, FTDNA had to start using imputing - and is applying it to Ancestry transfers as well - so now you get a fairly decent set of matches if you transfer your Ancestry DNA to FTDNA. (if you transferred when it was not, you would have to delete that and transfer again - or clog up the system with yet another Kit for the exact same person)

Hopefully someone else can perhaps find a link to that info. But having read that, finally got two folks to transfer results, and it seems true.

Of the two I refer to above who transferred within the past two months from Ancestry having tested rather recently at Ancestry - one matches another kit I manage at 4th-Remote, the other at 5th-Remote - so yes, something has changed, and speculative matches are now in.

[loobster]

https://dna-explained.com/2019/04/09...your-strategy/ -- See #1 and #2

[prairielad]

loobster
Originally FTDNA did say they will not use imputation, but times have changed so you maybe correct that they have been forced to.

I am in the process of testing my Father with Ancestry (V2) and 23andme (V5), so once they are complete I plan to transfer them to FTDNA just to compare matchlists with his original FTDNA test from 2011.

[loobster]

You are correct, they did say that. Actually, re-thinking - I think it may have been more a guess/ a suggestion by someone else in another Forum post - that they are using imputation - but they definitely majorly changed the way they are calculating, since they are now getting comparable or very close to comparable results with their new chip, and I cannot think of anything else they could be doing to now get such comparisons between results from their chips with their chips being so different, and similarly now between FTDNA results and Ancestry results, both old and recent.

[NEJM84]

Both my test and my mum's test are v 2.0. My results are from Aug 2017, mum's Dec 2018. I paid to unlock my FTDNA kit in March 2019 and I am certain I had way more matches at the start.
I see matches that are 3rd-5th cousins and my setting is matching at all levels.