Full Genomic Match

[Melanie C.]

Finally got a Full Genomic Sequence Match (1). Emailed this match over two weeks ago but no relpy. Before I get my hopes up too much for this result to finally tear down a "brick wall" that's been standing for years can anyone tell me what this match really means? How close will our common maternal ancestor be? Tired of having high resolution matches that pan out to be nothing!

[cacio]

We've had some discussions in this forum about this. In scientific papers, usually one assumes something like a coding region mutation every 3-5,000 years. So a match need not be anything particularly close, it could be a couple of thousand years on average. Some think it is something closer, perhaps in the order of 700 years on average. Either way, a FGS match is usually in the hundreds of years. Of course, it could also be more recent.

It depends also on whether that's a rare haplogroup or a common one like H, and where the matches are, eg if they are in the same town etc.

cacio

[rainbow]

Hi Melanie C.,

I hope your FGS match responds eventually. When he/she does, the two of you can compare your family trees, if you both have them. The match could be from a recent common ancestor or from thousands of years ago.

I also had my FGS done and have no FGS matches yet. My mtDNA is H1c.

[irshgypsy]

FGS match

I have one, and while the region is right-adjacent counties in Ireland, we have not been able to discover a common relative. One of my Irish surnames is fairly common:Ward, the other is not so common: Halfpenny. His is Duffy and apparently that is very common.

I wish the "difference from CRS" showed, maybe that would help find matches for us poor females. I'm not sure I quite understand why males can list 67 markers and even some additional snps and we only have a choice of HVR1 or 2 and FGS, surely there is something in between?

MJ

[gtc]

I'm not sure I quite understand why males can list 67 markers and even some additional snps and we only have a choice of HVR1 or 2 and FGS, surely there is something in between?

The 67 STR markers and large number of SNPs currently used for male genetic genealogy are found in the so-called "junk DNA" regions of the Y chromosome which is the male-determining chromosome. "Junk" as in non-coding, that is those strings of DNA that do not encode for protein sequences.

It really is still very early days for this stuff, and we are fiddling at the margins, so to speak. I think the future for both female and male genetic genealogy, as well as numerous medical mysteries, is affordable sequencing of the complete genome, that is all 23 chromosomes.

Although affordable sequencing may emerge within the next decade, the subsequent analysis of so much individual data, and ways and means of interpreting it for genealogical purposes will be a sizeable challenge in itself.