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I don't believe mine is correct. I'm searching for the identity of my biological mother. I have a heritage report issued by the state that provides details about my birth family, including the number and ages of my birth mother's siblings. She was 1 of 6.
Several linked names populated on the 23&Me map. I've traced 2 of those up to the GGgrandparent level, then worked back down to determine the connecting marriage between the two surnames. According to the map, those "connectors" are my grandparents. There is a solid line down from their level to the spot where my birth mother's position appears.
However, that would make her 1 of only 2 siblings, not 6. Her birth age and HS graduation date do not correlate with what I have confirmed on my birth father's side. One of the two siblings on this level is childless; the other has 6 children whose ages and other details match with my heritage report.
Bottom line -- I don't think this map is correct. It's one level off. I think the "connectors" are my great grandparents, their daughter is my grandmother, and one of her daughters is my birth mother.
Has anyone else seen or heard of inaccuracies like this?
I had to go in and move 2/3 of the people around. They stuck a few people in that I have no clue where they belong so I made a "ghost" great uncle and stuck them there until I figure it out. I have some multiple cousins that is confusing.
I don't believe mine is correct. I'm searching for the identity of my biological mother. I have a heritage report issued by the state that provides details about my birth family, including the number and ages of my birth mother's siblings. She was 1 of 6.
Several linked names populated on the 23&Me map. I've traced 2 of those up to the GGgrandparent level, then worked back down to determine the connecting marriage between the two surnames. According to the map, those "connectors" are my grandparents. There is a solid line down from their level to the spot where my birth mother's position appears.
However, that would make her 1 of only 2 siblings, not 6. Her birth age and HS graduation date do not correlate with what I have confirmed on my birth father's side. One of the two siblings on this level is childless; the other has 6 children whose ages and other details match with my heritage report.
Bottom line -- I don't think this map is correct. It's one level off. I think the "connectors" are my great grandparents, their daughter is my grandmother, and one of her daughters is my birth mother.
Has anyone else seen or heard of inaccuracies like this?
The short answer is no, the DNA match "family tree" they give you is not accurate. They sure do try though. Not only is it not accurate, it does not follow a family tree layout with man on the left with female on the right.
I'll tell you about my actual tree that I built using the matches because I happen to know the lines already. It starts with my mother on the left, my father on the right. No matches shown on his side.
My mothers mother is on the right, her parents, my grandmother is on the left. From there, female sibling one is on the left, with sibling one's son on the left.
It's similar for my grandfathers line. Great grandfather on left, great grandmother on right. Son 1 on left, he had 2 daughters, they are both on the left with their husbands on the right.
You have to figure out that it's the DNA line that will be listed on the left, or that's what it looks like to me after doing a quick look just now, but it is not true in all cases. My brother is on the right with his wife on the left.
As to what you said about your birth mother " There is a solid line down from their level to the spot where my birth mother's position appears." and "However, that would make her 1 of only 2 siblings, not 6." I don't understand it. You're the one entering the connecting relatives. You would have to enter all of her siblings for it to know they exist.
Honestly, I wouldn't go crazy with this "tree" because I found out the other day that we can only add about 250 people to it.
You may be better off joining Ancestry to do your tree there, then using tree tags, tag them as a 23 & me DNA match. Have you done DNA at ancestry? If not you should because that will probably be where you find all of the matches. Their database is way larger then 23 and me plus it's a genealogy site with trees. You can also link your matches to their spot in the family tree. You can color code matches pink for maternal and blue for paternal. Ancestry is $59 right now. You can't beat that.
Save your RAW DNA from 23 and me to upload to my heritage for free. If you have a built tree on ancestry, download it to upload there. You can pay $29 for advanced tools. See the post here that has directions for everything
23 and me is a health testing site, not a genealogy site like ancestry and my heritage. A lot of adoptees buy tests there for that health information. If you want relatives and possible family trees, it's ancestry first and my heritage.
FTDNA is also free to upload but they allow law enforcement to upload crime scene DNA to solve cases. They auto opt people in. You have to log in, go to settings, sharing then opt out. You can also try GEDmatch but may not learn any more there. They also opt in to LE matching but you can opt out at the bottom of the upload page. It's the last checked box you'll see. Both FTDNA and GEDmatch are archaic, they're both trying to update their sites. GEDmatch is a free public DNA database where just about everyone can upload, even sites like CGI genetics. It may be worth it to see. I personally rarely go to either due to not great matches. My best matches are ancestry and my heritage. My heritage is world wide so if you have immigrants, that is the best database to upload to.
My great grandmother was adopted and no information exists on her biological parents. I think adoption used to be more common than it is now because it was used to obscure unwed pregnancies. Also it wasn't unusual for both father and mother to die at a young age and their kids randomly distributed between relatives and orphanages. Again, frequently no records. While she was adopted, my great grandmother could have been a relative of her adopted parents, but I have no way of knowing that. It only takes an event or two like this for a genetic tree to vastly differ from a paper one.
I have a family tree that is pretty rock solid going back about 400 years based on written records, but my genetic family tree looks vastly different because of so many adoptions. Another thing that throws the gene tree off is identical twins. I have a lot of twins in my family tree as well and there is no way to know if they were identical or fraternal.
The third monkey wrench is inbreeding. It used to be a lot more common than it is today. Oddly my dog's DNA test includes details about inbreeding but none of my human DNA tests do.
I guess the moral of the story is that one shouldn't expect a genetic family tree to line up with a paper one.
I used Ancestry to map everything out, that's why I knew the 23&Me visualization was inaccurate.
Then you have to build the 23 and me tree around your ancestry tree, entering what you have. With your grandparents, enter your mother under them with your fathers info, then enter you or move you there.
As someone else said, you may have to move some of the DNA matches they give you to another part of your tree in order for it to be correct. You'd have to build out their tree in order to do that.
There is a 23 and me tree thread here. I detailed how I built it. Check out the thread, read the replies too because I ended up having an issue, one of the tips helped me fix it. The tree is a royal pain to build if you don't know the tips.
Let me know if it does help you. I'm going to add the link to the family tree and DNA directions sticky at the top. Been wanting to rewrite it but the companies all keep rapidly changing.
Bottom line -- I don't think this map is correct. It's one level off. I think the "connectors" are my great grandparents, their daughter is my grandmother, and one of her daughters is my birth mother.
Has anyone else seen or heard of inaccuracies like this?
I was adopted and figured out who my birth mother was through DNA and tree-building before 23andMe ever came out with their family tree (which is very recent). So don't take their "family tree" literally, go with the information you have and trust your own instincts. What they provided could very well be one level off. I never had information about my birth mother's siblings so what you have (that she was 1 of 6) is a huge plus, and that you found a group of siblings to fit that description through tree-building off of your DNA matches is probably not a coincidence.
Ideally you want to be able to build a tree for yourself with a sibling from that group as your mother, out to at least 3rd great grandparents, and then have DNA matches to three or more branches of that maternal tree. You can do this in Ancestry, and if you connect the tree to your DNA results it will show leaf hints to your mother's ancestors that connect to ancestors in the trees of your DNA matches.
And then -- it should be obvious -- but with adoption searches, when you're considering candidates for your birth parent, you want to be sure that the candidate was the right age to be your parent, and was in the right place at the right time when you were conceived. It's not always possible to know all three, but usually there are clues, and when all three things line up it is usually not a coincidence. There are very few people who meet all those criteria when looking at relatives of your DNA matches.
I was adopted and figured out who my birth mother was through DNA and tree-building before 23andMe ever came out with their family tree (which is very recent). So don't take their "family tree" literally, go with the information you have and trust your own instincts. What they provided could very well be one level off. I never had information about my birth mother's siblings so what you have (that she was 1 of 6) is a huge plus, and that you found a group of siblings to fit that description through tree-building off of your DNA matches is probably not a coincidence.
Ideally you want to be able to build a tree for yourself with a sibling from that group as your mother, out to at least 3rd great grandparents, and then have DNA matches to three or more branches of that maternal tree. You can do this in Ancestry, and if you connect the tree to your DNA results it will show leaf hints to your mother's ancestors that connect to ancestors in the trees of your DNA matches.
The OP should consider buying an ancestry test too, it's on sale right now for $59. They have a lot of neat tree and DNA tools that would be a huge plus. I love linking my matches to their profile in my tree.
Thanks for your post too because I wasn't sure what the OP was talking about with the line not adding up with matches, other then they have to add the people themselves. You as an adoptee understand what they're saying.
I agree the OP is very lucky to have all that personal info. Hopefully their mother told the truth on the app. We both know how they can be.
I agree the OP is very lucky to have all that personal info. Hopefully their mother told the truth on the app. We both know how they can be.
Yes, often they make things up but some do provide accurate information. To be one of six children isn't something someone would make up. I worked with an adoptee from Louisiana who had similar information, the ages of the birth mother, her only sibling, and parents. Although I was working on a DNA match of his who was descended from Russian immigrants in New York, I found one branch of that family that ended up in Louisiana and a nuclear family that fit the ages of the adoption info exactly.
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