Could results be coming from only one side?

[glintz98]

Does anyone know if it's possible that my family finder results would only reflect my father's side? Is it possible that none of these come from my mother's side?

[ahernandez]

Nope

No, it's not possible. Family Finder looks at your autosomal dna which is a combo of your mother's side and father's side, unlike the Y and MT tests.

[k.o.gran]

Does anyone know if it's possible that my family finder results would only reflect my father's side? Is it possible that none of these come from my mother's side?

By chance, it's possible that all your family finder results are on your father's side. But the technology of a family finder test will find matches on both sides.

In other words, it's impossible that you would not match your mother if she took the test.

[Ann Turner]

Does anyone know if it's possible that my family finder results would only reflect my father's side? Is it possible that none of these come from my mother's side?

Half of your DNA comes from each parent, so if they were both from the same general background, you would expect roughly equal numbers to show up in your match list. However, if your mother's ancestry is not well represented in the FTDNA database, you might see fewer matches for her.

[rainbow]

It depends on who else has tested.

If none of your mother's relatives (second, third, fourth fifth cousins) have tested, then you wouldn't have any Family Finder matches who are related to you thru your mom's side.

[LSSmith]

Half of your DNA comes from each parent, so if they were both from the same general background, you would expect roughly equal numbers to show up in your match list. However, if your mother's ancestry is not well represented in the FTDNA database, you might see fewer matches for her.

Both me and my mother have tested with FF. We of course match one another however, I do not share any of her FF matches. Therefore I assume that none of my matches are from her side.

[nolnacsj]

Both me and my mother have tested with FF. We of course match one another however, I do not share any of her FF matches. Therefore I assume that none of my matches are from her side.

LSSmith,

Eventually I would guess that you will have some common matches with your mother, but if she is an only child, and her mother and father were also only children, or there were small families going back many generations, or her ethnic ancestry is a less common in the FTDNA database, then you would expect that there is less DNA floating around out there. My husband is 1/2 Norwegian, and has many more matches than I do. His mother was Norwegian and the youngest of 11 children. His paternal side goes back to England and the Mayflower, so some ancestries influence the number of matches also.

I don't believe I have a lot of FF matches from my paternal side which is Italian ancestry. I don't think as many Italians have tested here, and that may be why I only had 33 total FF matches (Affy) after a year. I believe that most of my FF matches represent my maternal side of the family tree which is Irish and Dutch.

I do have a Italian match in Affy, but she has yet to show up on Illumina.

Judy

[Ann Turner]

LSSmith,

Eventually I would guess that you will have some common matches with your mother...

The scenario for LSSmith is a bit different than the one that started this thread. Her mother has been tested, and LSSmith "should" have inherited the DNA segments for roughly 50% of the mother's matches. That's an average number, so we can expect some variation. I forget how many matches her mother has, but I do recall that it would be exceedingly rare for LSSmith to inherit none.

It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the new Illumina chip.

[bkilpatrick]

The scenario for LSSmith is a bit different than the one that started this thread. Her mother has been tested, and LSSmith "should" have inherited the DNA segments for roughly 50% of the mother's matches. That's an average number, so we can expect some variation. I forget how many matches her mother has, but I do recall that it would be exceedingly rare for LSSmith to inherit none.

It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the new Illumina chip.

Interesting. Like the original poster, my FF matches (all "distant") probably come from just one side of my family, my Scottish father's, though I have yet to find the specific connection.

This doesn't surprise me, because so many Americans have distant Scottish and Scots Irish roots. My mother's family, on the other hand, immigrated from a tiny country, Slovenia, not a big population in the US, and not, I suspect, so much into DNA testing.

So I can see the possibility of my mother testing and having no FF matches at all. If she did, I guess they could be so few or distant that they wouldn't even register as matches for me, a generation farther from the shared common ancestor back in Slovenia.

But I'd still know that her matches were "family" for me as well, correct?

We are planning to have her tested, by the way. The main goal is to see her PF results, to see if we can get more of an understanding of that very small (and surprising) Native American percentage I seem to have, according to Dr. McDonald's analysis.

[Ann Turner]

But I'd still know that her matches were "family" for me as well, correct?

Yes, your mother's matches (barring the possibility of false positives) would be your matches as well, regardless of whether you happened to inherit the DNA segment. Blaine Bettinger has a blog post with more details about the difference between a genetic and a genealogical tree:

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2009/11/10/qa-everyone-has-two-family-trees-a-genealogical-tree-and-a-genetic-tree/

[Javelin]

Are you on different versions of the chip (Illumina vs. Affymetrix), or the same?

[bkilpatrick]

Yes, your mother's matches (barring the possibility of false positives) would be your matches as well, regardless of whether you happened to inherit the DNA segment. Blaine Bettinger has a blog post with more details about the difference between a genetic and a genealogical tree:

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com...-genetic-tree/

Thanks! Very informative blog post.

[mkdexter]

Actually the chances depend on which category the matches are in, Immediate, Close or Speculative. A mother will definitely show up as Immediate (or she isn't the mother). Most of the time any "close" match not on the mother's list is more probable to be the opposite lineage but there is no guarantee. Only matching both child and parent guarantees the match being of the same lineage.

But the to question: Yes it is possible for a child to see maternal FF matches and not see them on the mother's FF match list. I use maternal as an example but also true for paternal matches and a father's FF list.

This can happen to the matches' of Family Finder's "speculative" category for a variety of reasons when a match comes from ancestry of isolated population.

For example, compound segments or mixed linage sums shared cM can place the child's tests above the FF thresholds while not the parent's and yet the match is from the very parent that shows no match. In rare cases testing errors can also affect the "distant" matches results.

Of the three FF categories, "Immediate", "Close" and "Speculative", it is best to not assume anything on the "Speculative" category because of a missing match on your parent's list. I have had all three reasons affect my and my mother's FF tests yet I was able to use other means such as analyzing the raw data, paper trails, etc., to confirm they were maternal matches. Of course anytime I see a match to myself and my mother that is confirmation enough to know they are maternal.

Don't trust the lack of a distant match to mean the opposite lineage. If you don't see a match in your mother's list, and its a speculative match on yours that doesn't really mean anything in terms of which lineage it is from. Seeing a match in both tests is the only way to remain conclusive as to which of your parents it came from.

MD.

[LSSmith]

The scenario for LSSmith is a bit different than the one that started this thread. Her mother has been tested, and LSSmith "should" have inherited the DNA segments for roughly 50% of the mother's matches. That's an average number, so we can expect some variation. I forget how many matches her mother has, but I do recall that it would be exceedingly rare for LSSmith to inherit none.

It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the new Illumina chip.

My mother had 25 AFFY matches and only 2 Illumina so far and I am one of them. I had 49 AFFY matches and only 15 Illumina so far. I know we both lost some AFFY matches. Will wait and see what happens in the next few weeks. Can't change your DNA and you can only hope that your relatives took the test.

[LSSmith]

Yes, your mother's matches (barring the possibility of false positives) would be your matches as well, regardless of whether you happened to inherit the DNA segment. Blaine Bettinger has a blog post with more details about the difference between a genetic and a genealogical tree:

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com...-genetic-tree/

Interesting article, thanks for posting. I have a question. I am one of 4 children. My 3 siblings have a lot similarities between one another such as body type, size. It was always sort of a joke, it was them and me. They actually take after my mother's side of the family while I take after my father's side. I was wondering if the lack of FF matches to my mother sort of reinforces what my family and I have known, that I resemble my father much more than my mother. Thus is it possible that I may have inherited more of his DNA than hers or that his is just more dominate than hers?