Not enough matches

[NJB]

I already posted about this in the Autosomal section of this forum, but I'd just like to say that I found it really disappointing to only get 26 Family Finder matches so far. The results came out on the 7th of September, and I was hoping for a better result. At least some close relatives would be nice.

Any idea if this improves if my parents take the test?

Regards

NJ

[georgian1950]

Have you uploaded your kit to GEDmatch.com ? I you have or will, I and I am sure others would be glad to take a look at it.

[mabrams]

26 is pretty slim. Low numbers often happen when the tester is from an undertested population. Is that possible for you? Although 26 is still pretty low.

FTDNA doesnt have a lot of control over the closeness of your matches. It just depends on whether any of your 3rd cousins or closer have tested.

~~~~
I saw your other post and that you are very much British and Irish.

Something is wrong with your test IMHO. I have British-Germanic (65-35) and I have over 6000 matches. That's rather typical.

[KATM]

NJB, We don't have to worry that you have not toggled the "Opt in to Matching" to "On" in your preferences, since you are at least showing some matches now, although far too few.
I don't know if this will help, but there may be a setting you can change:

• Log in and go to your Account Settings, then the Privacy & Sharing choice (Account Settings is found by hovering over your name at the top right of your home page).
• On the Privacy & Sharing page, scroll down to Matching Preferences, and for Family Finder Match Levels, make sure it is set to "All Levels."
• Your Matching Preferences are shown in a table below the section for Y-DNA match levels, titled "Matching Preferences Summary." If All Levels has been chosen for Family Finder, you will see four checkmarks, one each for Remote, Distant, Close, and Immediate.

If your Matching Preferences for Family Finder was not already set to All Levels, let us know if changing to that level helps to add more matches.

[NJB]

[/LIST]If your Matching Preferences for Family Finder was not already set to All Levels, let us know if changing to that level helps to add more matches.

I've checked on the settings, which all seem to be fine. I've raised a support ticket, so hopefully they'll sort it out.

[loobster]

Re: "Any idea if this improves if my parents take the test?" - each of your parents has approximately twice as much DNA for their line as you have for it, so they might have more matchss.
And if both test, it should definitely add two more matches for you. But that's all.

[NJB]

UPDATE: I still have 35 matches.

My dad is now on FTDNA and has 4484 matches. Bit of a discrepancy!

Still no clarification on this from Family Tree DNA. I raised a support ticket a few weeks ago but not update on my ticket regarding this.

[NJB]

Re: "Any idea if this improves if my parents take the test?" - each of your parents has approximately twice as much DNA for their line as you have for it, so they might have more matchss.
And if both test, it should definitely add two more matches for you. But that's all.

The only problem is the discrepancy is huge. My dad has over 4,000 matches, my mother over 6,000, and I have 35. Also, I can currently see both of my parents in my matches, but they can't see me yet. I tested in September and they got their results yesterday. :-/

[Jim Barrett]

Looking at your match list, how many cM do you share with each of your parents?

[NJB]

Looking at your match list, how many cM do you share with each of your parents?

3567 cM each

Still no response from FamilyTreeDNA to my latest support request on this. I currently have 40 matches, including my parents. Clearly a technical problem on their side that they need to fix since my parents have so many matches and I have hardly any. I have uploaded the same data to MyHeritage and get thousands and thousands of matches.

[indy1]

Seems like Gripes and Grumbles is the most popular post on FTDNA. I Did the Big Y and got 5 matches (Same Surname), I'll take that as positive! No other "Y" matches under any other format....disappointing! Now, I decided to to the standard autosomal DNA and received "0" matches. I have hundreds on Ancestry and 23 and Me ... but none with Family Tree. They market their "larger database" , but I feel they have really let me down!

[jimbirk]

For autosomal DNA 35 matches makes no sense.

Download your and your parents raw DNA from FTDNA and do free uploads to MyHeritage.

https://www.myheritage.com/dna/upload