Hubby has huge number of matches compared to me?

[mixedkid]

The Colonial Effect

Rookie question. I got FF done about three years ago. During that time I've accumulated about 44 pages of matches.
Husband's FF results came in today and he has 135 pages of matches! Is this just because more people with his ethnic background test? He is 100% European, whereas I am not.

Thanks.

What you have described I call the "colonial effect." My mother is a descendant of both New Englanders and colonial descendants from the southern U.S. She gets a huge number of matches that fall under these two North American categories. I usually can tell, with a few hints, where new matches fall between the two groups. The same situation occurs with my father, a French-Canadian descendant, and his categories of matches include French-Canadians, a subset of Acadians (related to his great-grandfather) and smaller clusters of Cajuns and Haitians and even some French Huguenot descendants.

Then again, my father gets a huge number of Norwegian matches (two of his great-grandparents immigrated from Norway). Likewise, my mother gets a huge number of Finnish and Swedish matches (one of her grandmothers immigrated from an area of Sweden that had been settled by ethnic Finns).

[Germanica]

I am 100% European - mostly Irish with some Scottish and some English. I have 83 pages of matches. This thread is really interesting to me. Historically many Scottish went to America through Ireland in the C17th I believe - giving them plenty of time to have a lot of descendants. So far I haven't managed to identify the names except for Kennedy and Campbell. Ftdna and GEDmatch have made it possible for me to track two lines back to Scotland through Ulster.

Yes, after the English, the Scots-Irish had the highest number of immigrants to the US during colonial times.

[Nicola]

Hubby has huge number of matches compared to me? Reply to Thread

I am 100% European - mostly Irish with some Scottish and some English. I have 83 pages of matches. This thread is really interesting to me. Historically many Scottish went to America through Ireland in the C17th I believe - giving them plenty of time to have a lot of descendants. So far I haven't managed to identify the names except for Kennedy and Campbell. Ftdna and GEDmatch have made it possible for me to track two lines back to Scotland through Ulster.

[Germanica]

Actually European people usually have far less.

My wife was born in the US as were both parents. But all 4 grandparents were born in Europe.

So my wife has 12 pages only. All pretty low on the cM totals as well.

That has more to do with the fact that her ancestors immigrated so recently. While FTDNA does ship internationally, most testers are American and thus, the more recent an ancestor arrived in the US, the fewer descendants in America they will have. I don't think that has anything to do with European vs non-European.

Ethnicity probably factors into it as well. She is almost entirely ethnically German. I wonder if she was Irish or Scottish or English if she would have more pages.

I don't see why when there's been far more German immigrants to America than Irish, Scottish, or English.

On the other hand, I am very colonial and have 90 pages and my mother, also very colonial has 110.

And that just proves my point that it has more to do with when your ancestors came to America rather then from where.

[hudsonh]

The disparity in numbers of pages of matches is interesting. My husband, brother and I are all in the British Isles with no known non British Isles Ancestry. My husband has just over fifty pages of matches whilst my brother and I have over a hundred each. My husband is from England, my brother and I from Wales. The difference is almost totally accounted for by American matches for my brother and I which can be traced back to a few prolific Quaker families who emigrated from mid and north Wales in the seventeenth century. I can spot them a mile off now - Jones who married Cantrell and Morgan who married Boone.

[mabrams]

Actually European people usually have far less.

My wife was born in the US as were both parents. But all 4 grandparents were born in Europe.

So my wife has 12 pages only. All pretty low on the cM totals as well.

Ethnicity probably factors into it as well. She is almost entirely ethnically German. I wonder if she was Irish or Scottish or English if she would have more pages.

On the other hand, I am very colonial and have 90 pages and my mother, also very colonial has 110.

[Germanica]

Rookie question. I got FF done about three years ago. During that time I've accumulated about 44 pages of matches.
Husband's FF results came in today and he has 135 pages of matches! Is this just because more people with his ethnic background test? He is 100% European, whereas I am not.

Thanks.

It means more people who share matching DNA segments with him have tested, I don't know that it necessarily has to do with ethnicity as lots of people with 100% European background have fewer matches too. Sometimes, it's just luck of the draw. Personally, I have 37 pages of matches - so fewer than you. While my results are not 100% European on FTDNA, I've established that my Middle Eastern results are a component of my Italian DNA, which has no bearing on recent ancestry and thus, other testers. All my immigrant ancestors were European. And my results with other companies are all 99+% European. I haven't been thrilled FTDNA's ethnic breakdown but it's important to keep in mind the ethnicity percentages are just an estimate - they will often vary by company and should be taken with a grain of salt anyway so it's difficult to say that having fewer matches has anything to do with that.

[Frederator]

Rookie question. I got FF done about three years ago. During that time I've accumulated about 44 pages of matches.
Husband's FF results came in today and he has 135 pages of matches! Is this just because more people with his ethnic background test? He is 100% European, whereas I am not.

Thanks.

Yes.

What are you, though? I'm 100% Euro American and I don't have 44 pages.

[idiganthro]

Rookie question. I got FF done about three years ago. During that time I've accumulated about 44 pages of matches.
Husband's FF results came in today and he has 135 pages of matches! Is this just because more people with his ethnic background test? He is 100% European, whereas I am not.

Thanks.