Better matching, a chromosome browser
The standard advice when it comes to DNA testing has long been the same.
Test everybody you can, getting the results into as many databases as you can.
The simple reason is that DNA testing — and particularly autosomal DNA testing (the kind done at AncestryDNA, at 23andMe and in the Family Finder test at Family Tree DNA, for example) is the functional equivalent of fishing for cousins who may have family photos, the old family Bible, the family information we need — and using our DNA as bait.1
The problem is … every one of those testing companies is like a different pond to fish in. And we have no way of knowing, until we get that hit, just which pond that critical cousin match is in.
So… we test everybody we can, getting the results into as many databases as we can.
Which, of course, ain’t cheap.
So we prioritize: we test first where the pay-off is likely to be greatest and then add other ponds as we can afford to.
Until now, one pond The Legal Genealogist hasn’t put high on the priority list has been MyHeritageDNA, one of the newest kids on the autosomal testing block. Although it has a lot of long-term promise, particularly because of its international scope and its reach into Europe where so many of our ancestors came from, it also had some issues — the big one being with its matching system. Too many people were being matched to folks who didn’t match their own parents (and you can’t have any autosomal DNA that your parents didn’t have).
But MyHeritage did two things this past week that put it right into the mix with other genealogical DNA testing companies. It greatly improved its matching system — and it added a chromosome browser.
The matching system issue had been widely reported.2 I couldn’t test it myself, since neither of my parents was alive when autosomal testing first became available, but a cousin who compared her own results to her parents found that as many as four of 10 of her matches didn’t match either of her parents. Those were either false positives to her (people who shouldn’t match her and did) or false negatives to one of her parents (people who should match one of them and didn’t).
But in a major upgrade this past week, MyHeritage has addressed the worst of the matching system problems. The announcement from MyHeritage on Thursday promised “more accurate DNA Matches; more plentiful matches (about 10x more); fewer false positives; more specific and more accurate relationship estimates; and indications on lower confidence DNA Matches to help focus research efforts.”3
And folks like my cousin who have parents who’ve tested confirm that the system upgrade is addressing the worst of the matching problems. In my cousin’s case, the mismatch percentage dropped from 40% to around 18% overall — and the new system lets you shunt off low confidence matches that are at a higher risk of being false positives so you can concentrate your research efforts on the high-confidence results. MyHeritage promises that the new system is “so good, that the percentage of child-only matches that are not flagged as low or medium confidence, is now less than 5%.”4
The upgrade to the matching is a big step forward, and one that lets me move MyHeritage, cautiously, into the recommended column.
Pushing that along is the addition in this upgrade of another tool that’s very useful for research: a chromosome browser. This is a tool that lets you see exactly where in your DNA you match each person the testing company says you match.
And here I can test it, because I have my results in enough places that have chromosome browsers and many of my matches do as well. So I can see my chromosome browser results against, say, that fellow-genealogist-cousin of mine at, say, both MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA.
As you can see, the match-up is pretty close. It won’t be exactly the same, since the sampling between the two companies isn’t exactly the same, but there are no reasonably-sized segments being reported at one and not at the other.
It’s a big step forward for MyHeritage and, with its potential for getting more international testers into the DNA pool, a very welcome step forward.
SOURCES
- See generally Judy G. Russell, “Baiting the hook,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 16 Feb 2014(https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 13 Jan 2018). ↩
- See e.g. Leah Larkin, “MyHeritage Matching,” The DNA Geek, posted 21 July 2017 (http://thednageek.com/ : accessed 13 Jan 2018). ↩
- Yael, “Major Updates and Improvements to MyHeritage DNA Matching,” MyHeritage Blog, posted 11 Jan 2018 (https://blog.myheritage.com/ : accessed 13 Jan 2018). ↩
- Ibid. ↩
I’ve already found a few new matches to my mom that she doesn’t have anywhere else. I wish they had pedigree view for trees. I just don’t like family view.
I believe if you both have your tree on MyHeritage you will see a pedigree view.
Pamela Pierce
IF your match on MyHeritage has their DNA attached to their tree, viewing the DNA match will show you the pedigree view for their tree.
Suspect they’ve also got to have more than just themselves in the tree 🙂
Yay!!! So glad to see this. The only thing I’d whine about is that their SNP numbers are wildly different from what I’m seeing elsewhere, on the few I’ve spot-checked. Are you seeing that also?
I’m certainly seeing some differences, yes, and some that are fairly significant. But the cM numbers are generally reasonably close (not exact, but close).
I am pretty stunned. MyHeritage showed a 3rd-5th cousin match with a man in Scotland, and his tree included the last name of my Scottish great great grandmother, as well as the right town she came from. I contacted him and he wrote back! I have plenty of matches in the USA and Canada but this is so exciting!
Excellent! Good luck with your research!
Are DNA tests thru MyHeritage available now? Where can I call/
There’s a hotlink in the paragraph that begins “Until now…” — just click on the word MyHeritageDNA there.
That’s great but I just had our DNA tests done last month so now I have to do it again
If you tested with or submitted raw data to MyHeritageDNA, these changes will be automatic: no additional testing needed.
I find it interesting I did this through 23andMe my niece did it she popped up right at the top of the list and identified her as my niece so I’m not sure if I would get any different results with anybody else but who knows
My Heritage resulted my dad’s, mine and another relative’s DNA….it came back with him and I matching as him being father or son…and given his age it would obviously be father. Now,the other relative’s reaults came back simply “half sister”….the problem is I have always know her to be my aunt but she is only 8 years older than I. Conceivably she,could be a 1/2 sister. Why would MH label one father/son and the other simply “1/2 sister”?
DNA is excellent at saying two people are related. What it can’t do, alone, is tell you how they’re related. The same amount of DNA in common could be shared by a number of differently-related pairs. So you have to do your own homework on that one. A great tool to use is the Shared cM Project (see this post and later ones), the PDF of data and the interactive tool such as the DNAPainter tool.
How much of a difference will these tests be compared to the past ones? I had my DNA tests done thru MyHeritage DNA over a year ago.
It’s only the analysis of the data that’s changing, not the data itself. Your tests remain your tests — it’s how the information from your tests is interpreted that’s changing.
Interesting…
I want to try it but am afraid because some of my other relatives tried it and came back native American and I have been doing geneology and found native in me but other relatives came back different, I have paper work saying I am native American. What do I do?
DNA testing for ethnicity (Native American, European, etc.) is very much a work-in-progress and moving target. I’ve written about this repeatedly so won’t repeat myself. Use the tests to find cousins to work with, not as evidence that you are or aren’t of a specific ethnicity.
So what about ancestry testing I just did mine there do I need to do it here as well
It’s up to you whether you want to fish in all the ponds for all possible cousins or not. AncestryDNA has a very big database so I personally would do it, but it’s your choice.
Do you have the tests for male only.I have 81 yr old uncle last of his generation.which test shall we do?
The male-only DNA test is called YDNA and that test is available only from Family Tree DNA.
Have you found a way to download all the match data at once? So far I can only download the data one individual at a time, but wondered if I was missing something. Thanks.
Not that I’ve found, Karen.
What would you suggest I do. Which DNA test is the best and do you happen to know what the prices are? I’m sorry to keep bothering you with dumb questions. Thank you for your time and consideration.