DNA testing results can vary wildly. For example, though everyone is guaranteed information (ie. haplogroups, migration maps, ethnic percentages), matches can vary wildly from person to person.
It's not always easy to not have any matches. A good indicator of why you have no matches is your haplogroup. Even if you have zero matches, you are still provided with a haplogroup and are able to track your deep ancestral origins and general migratory patterns. If your haplogroup is rare among our database, or older in origin, you may have fewer, if not zero, matches. However, those people with rare haplogroups are our lifeblood. They help open up doors to new ancestral information we either don't have enough data on yet, or are still researching. After 3+ years working here, only last week did I pull up an individual's account that had mtDNA haplogroup F. The more people with a certain ancestry, the more information about that ancestry we can acquire to provide potentially everyone with more information. Additionally, the more people that test, the higher likelihood that you will discover new, or at least one, match. This is a group effort, and like a lot of academic discoveries, it requires a whole lot of data. Results are constantly changing. Even information on, for example, the migratory pattern associated with your assigned haplogroup or subclade might not be the same in 5 years as it is now.
As long as technology continues to improve and genetic genealogical companies acquire more data, we continue to strive for that point where everyone knows everyone in the world to whom they're related and have precise information on all of their ancestry. However, this is a very gradual process.
Until that day, if you have no matches, I may have to say that last thing you want to hear: keep waiting. It may not be tomorrow, but it may be tomorrow! Who knows? Your long-lost rain-hissing lights on-sleeping sister may be swabbing this minute.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
You Can Find Cousins but They Don't Have to Like You
DNA testing is a wondrous thing. It has helped absolve suspected murderers. It has helped solve crimes that were seemingly unsolvable. It has connected people with family members they didn't know existed. It has provided me with a very confusing job title that has caused me to tell everyone at family gatherings that I'm unemployed and I then have to listen to everyone else's experiences with the stock market and litigation and alligator wrestling and whatever other normal jobs people have.
I unofficially heard once that, regarding genetic genealogy, about 2/3 of all matches you email will not write you back. That sounds bad, until you realize that:
1. Your match does not know how to use a computer.
2. Your match's email address is no longer valid.
3. Your match is going through some stuff and will get back with you once their stupid parents will get off their back about their curfew (only applicable to matches under 14).
4. Your match never checks their personal email inbox and is too lazy to write anyone back (only applicable if your match is me).
5. Your match has passed away.
6. Your match didn't receive your email because it went into their Spam inbox.
7. Your match did receive your email but didn't write back because they didn't want to.
I want to focus on number 7. Sometimes people don't write back. Sometimes your son doesn't call you back. It may be human nature. Unfortunately, in any field, a lack human communication can be a factor in limiting progress. Maybe Native Americans could have told Mr. Columbus that he wasn't in India. Maybe your son can call and prevent your oncoming panic attack because you don't know where he is and it's 2 hours past his curfew.
I like to think of the above stat as reading that 1/3 of matches will write you back. We can't do anything about Curmudgeons. Curmudgeons be curmudgeons. While inconvenient, they are still necessary in not only building the overall database, but also still providing information to you. If they included an ancestral surname or tree, you can still view this. If you share matches in common with them, this may also be helpful. On top of this, they are contributing to the vast knowledge of human genetics in general. You can't have all of your matches respond. That would be like everyone at your family's dinner table talking at the same time, and I'm still listening to like three relatives talk about their jobs.
I unofficially heard once that, regarding genetic genealogy, about 2/3 of all matches you email will not write you back. That sounds bad, until you realize that:
1. Your match does not know how to use a computer.
2. Your match's email address is no longer valid.
3. Your match is going through some stuff and will get back with you once their stupid parents will get off their back about their curfew (only applicable to matches under 14).
4. Your match never checks their personal email inbox and is too lazy to write anyone back (only applicable if your match is me).
5. Your match has passed away.
6. Your match didn't receive your email because it went into their Spam inbox.
7. Your match did receive your email but didn't write back because they didn't want to.
I want to focus on number 7. Sometimes people don't write back. Sometimes your son doesn't call you back. It may be human nature. Unfortunately, in any field, a lack human communication can be a factor in limiting progress. Maybe Native Americans could have told Mr. Columbus that he wasn't in India. Maybe your son can call and prevent your oncoming panic attack because you don't know where he is and it's 2 hours past his curfew.
I like to think of the above stat as reading that 1/3 of matches will write you back. We can't do anything about Curmudgeons. Curmudgeons be curmudgeons. While inconvenient, they are still necessary in not only building the overall database, but also still providing information to you. If they included an ancestral surname or tree, you can still view this. If you share matches in common with them, this may also be helpful. On top of this, they are contributing to the vast knowledge of human genetics in general. You can't have all of your matches respond. That would be like everyone at your family's dinner table talking at the same time, and I'm still listening to like three relatives talk about their jobs.
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