My DNA says no, but the find your connection says yes?

+5 votes
229 views
I have had my DNA test done, and find it does not represent me in France, but when I do 'check your connections' it does say I am related to France...sooo, Who am I?
WikiTree profile: Trogstad-3
in The Tree House by Living Trogstad G2G6 Mach 1 (15.3k points)
retagged by Maggie N.
If it's the one from Wikitree that's kinda of just for fun I think.  Like if my sister married a giraffe it would say I'm two degrees from the giraffe.  The giraffe would surely say the DNA doesn't support that!  :D
Don't dissuade me from a new found reality!
Oh Vincent!

2 Answers

+6 votes
 
Best answer

If I have misunderstood your question, please excuse my attempt!  I *think* you are saying that your MyHeritage ethnicity results did not show a percentage from France, but you believe you have French ancestry?

I took a look at your ancestry and couldn't find anyone that was obviously French within about 5 to 6 generations.  (Of course, I could have missed someone.)  But if your French connection is past that, then their DNA has had 5 to 6 chances to miss being passed down to you, and that means it is not surprising not to see a French percentage.  Each testing company identifies DNA bits and pieces that appear to them to be solely associated with specific regions, and unless every generation passes those bits down to you, the company won't be able to detect them.  That means this is another case where "absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence".  You may well have French ancestry, but you didn't get the right bits passed down to prove it.

One thing you can try is GEDmatch (see Help:GEDMatch and Connecting DNA Test Results to WikiTree Profiles), upload your DNA there, and try their Eurogenes analyzers, may or may not find something French related.

Currently, in my opinion, AncestryDNA has moved into first place for the quality of their ethnicity info.  If you're interested, it might be worth your while to retest there.  All of the companies are working on improvements, so make sure that periodically you recheck your results at MyHeritage, you never know - you may find a surprise!

Another thing you can try is to get your siblings tested.  Because we only get part of our parent's DNA, it's possible that your siblings got what you didn't.  If it's found in any sibling, then it's yours too - same ancestry!

Of course, don't forget that no DNA test can redefine you, you are who you are, you are who you choose to be, and no DNA test result can change that.

by Rob Jacobson G2G6 Pilot (137k points)
selected by Robin Lee
+5 votes
Is Find Your Connection on MyHeritageDNA or somewhere else?
by Peter Roberts G2G6 Pilot (704k points)
On Wikitree, the bottom of the profile page.
Find your connection includes connections via marriage.

You are going to have to identify the profile that you want to show a connection to?

The one you call "France"

Also that connection thing is a fun thing that follows the "6 degrees of seperation" idea only we call it degrees of connection and can include both biological relationships and marriages.

Therefore, it is not at all uncommon for the connection to say you are connected and yet the genealogical relationship says you are not related. Very common indeed.

When you are looking at a connection chart, the colour changes from green to yellow (and back to green) every time a MARRIAGE ocurrs to indicate a new family.

If the relationship shows ALL green then you have both a connection AND A genealogical relationship.

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