I had a neighbor who had a child 2 months after her oldest grandchild was born. My mother had an uncle who had children between 1930-1972. My father had an uncle who also had children between 1930-70. My 3ggrandfather had 22 children by 3 wives, so there were grandchildren older than children. Looking at it from the paternal side is different than the maternal side.
Thanks for this video, Andy. I know that I'm no expert with any of this, by any stretch, but I do have experience with ages painting an incorrect picture in my family and others. While I agree that age can be used to rule out some relationships (like the impossibility of having parents or grandparents in one's same age group), I think when it comes to cousins, and to some degree, aunts/uncles, the ages are not a good indicator of relationship. This is especially true when half relationships are factored in. Essie Mae Washington-Williams is a prime example. She was born in 1925 and Strom's 1st child with his 2nd wife Nancy was born in 1971 (no children with 1st wife). That is approximately a 46 year age difference between these half-siblings. She was old enough to be the grandmother of her half-siblings! I think if some folks go by ages to determine relationships, that particular example would never be sorted out. Obviously, Strom's situation was not typical, but I think that it is more common than many people realize. Many of us have similar situations, with wide age differences, that cause an apparent generational shift, even though they are in the same generation. Maybe 'generational shift' isn't the correct term for it, but you know what I'm referring to...the appearance of being in different generations when they are in the same generation or appearing to be in the same generation when they are in different generations. If everything always followed the 'norm', I wouldn't have any issue with the idea of age being a good indicator in regards to relationships. But, I have yet to come across a family that was 100% absolutely normal. Thanks for a great explanation on how to use this new tool!
Remember, the norms are there as a starting point to be sure. When there are so many possible ways we can be related, we have to start our search somewhere. I think I suggested that or at least I have mentioned that in other videos. Forgive me if I didn't in this one. These tools are predictions and it's up to use to start validating what is or is not accurate. I think the purpose of tools like this is to help people know where to start with all the possibilities. They get decision paralysis. But, with a first suggest in mind, researchers can then work through the validation process to confirm or refute each possible relationship.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Nothing here to forgive you for. :) I agree that it gives people a place to start and I don't have a problem with that idea at all. I get decision paralysis fairly often myself. What I don't agree with is some of the experts presenting it as an absolute that two people who are the same age are in the same generation, or that people with 20+ years between them are in different generations. You folks aren't guilty of stating it as an absolute (you were quite clear on that), but there are other experts who are guilty of this. It can lead someone down a very wrong path, wasting time and money for them in the process. And, they are still no closer to the answer to their mystery on the other side of that lost time and money. That is what I have a problem with. Keep up the great work!
Agreed, I have a situation where my dad has a 1st cousin match that shows correctly as a 1st cousin for him but shows as a 2nd cousin match for me at 71.2% probability. The likelihood of him being a 1st cousin 1x removed for me is 1.8% according to MyHeritage and 10% on sharedCM project. He matches me 238.9cM and my dad 706.8cM. This 1st cousin match of my dad's is only 3 years older than me, his parent is the youngest of my grandparent's generation and my grandmother was the eldest, 11 years older. My grandmother was also a younger mother whereas his grandfather was an older parent. I already knew the relationship as I had him in my Ancestry tree anyway.
@@sheppeyescapee I'm glad that you already knew the relationship to your match. In regards to my biological father, everything was a mystery for me. I grew up with my mother's family, so that side is pretty easy for me. My father has a first cousin 3 years older than me, too. He hasn't DNA tested, so I don't have that data. My grandmother was the 2nd oldest child and this cousin's father was the 3rd (middle)child and only 3 years younger than my grandmother. My father was the middle child of my grandmother and this cousin was the youngest child of his father. I'm the oldest of my father's children (unless there are more "surprises" out there like me!). Thankfully, one of my older DNA matches has been very helpful in regards to figuring out the family. I never would have figured some of this out without him.
Absolutely. I could give many examples of my own, starting with the fact that my oldest first cousin was 40 when our youngest first cousin was born, and my oldest granddaughter is older than her youngest uncle. I know of two families (distant collateral lines) where the oldest children were sixty-something when their fathers fathered children with young wives. I have matches who are second or third cousins to my grandfather, but little older than I am; I recently found two who are my great-grandfather's generation, but near my age. I have matches my generation who are my grandchildren's ages. Age is important in identifying the *people* but it often does not help to determine the relationship.
I'm the youngest child of my generation (span from 1945-1966). My mother was also the youngest of her generation (1895-1924). All of my 1c1r relatives are older than I am and all of them are grandparents, two are great grandparents. As for this new tool, it's just another version of so many others that give multiple options for potential relationships, I dare say that it would come up with yet more ludicrous multi generation options for two matches I have who are full sisters to each other, not one site accurately predicts them as being in the same generation even though I've created WATO and research trees with them clearly defined as siblings to each other.
This tool has its benefits and its limitations. It's important for genetic genealogists to be aware of them. My wife wasn't initially sure that this tool was earth shattering. It's not. But it's a nice addition to MyHeritage's suite of tools.
I actually do not like the "Parent's 1st cousin" or "2nd cousin's child" description and think MH should go back to saying 1st cousin, 1x removed and 2nd cousin, 1x removed. The reason being is that it is providing incorrect information and a false interpretation of my matches. I connected with a 4th cousin, 1x removed some time last year and was able to figure out how we connect and who our MRCA is. She's in her mid-30s and I'm 51. MH says she's a 3rd cousin's daughter or 4th cousin's daughter or 4th cousin. She's actually my mother's 4th cousin. Since our MRCA is 4x Great Grandparents, the birth window expands considerably from a 20 year window, because we are looking at five or six generations to meet an MRCA. If MyHeritage said probable relationships: 3c1r, 4c1r, or 4c, it would be correct with the 4c1r in it's relationships. But it says 4th cousin's child, not parent's 4th cousin for the 4c1r description. If my genealogy skills weren't at the level they are at, I would be utterly confused and might not determine how I was related to this person. Therefore, they should go back to the proper description of cousin relationships, IMHO.
WHY DON'T YOU ENABLE CLOSED CAPTION???????? IT IS SO HELPFUL WHEN AUDIO IS BAD OR CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, I AM FINDING NO CC ON ANY OF YOUR VIDEOS
I have many relatives who have tested their DNA on MH. Most of the relationships suggested are wrong. This tool has labelled my youngest sister the mother of our middle sister, who is 3 years older. I have 2 first cousins, once removed, who are twins. The age difference between us is 55 years. I match 1 twin quite high and the other low. MH has predicted the relationship with both wrongly and differently. I think beta testing with a control group might have been a good idea, before general rollout.
While beta testing is valuable, it's often when a product goes lives that the complexity of families is best observed as a multiplicity of individuals try out the product. I would definitely recommend that you take screenshots and send feedback to MyHeritage of what isn't working so they can get the data necessary to improve the tool with time.
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Yeah, same for me, but I also come from a slightly endogamous group of people so I suspect that throws it off. It very often suggests a closer relationship than what is real.
Question - I use my late aunt’s DNA and some of her matches are descended too. If all of them were alive today, they would be in their 90s. But down the road, she and her matches will be super old. How does that affect these tools if I use the age they would be if still alive?
That is the age you *should* use. What matters is the difference in ages, which will be correctly reflected only by using the age each person would be if still alive.
My father was 52 years old, and my mother was 42 years old when I was born. Dad was born in 1910, grandfather, about 1874. Would this be a problem for me in figuring out who my great-grandfather is when using this tool?
Somewhat. You'll likely not always have valid first recommendations for relationships based on age. However, it's likely one of the other recommendations.
Well i tested five known distant relationships with ages and it gave the wrong MRCA. It placed the cousins in spaces with like 40% probabilty but the real relationship was the 1% probability. So for me the tool was a failure.
I have the same issue, two siblings match to me but no site will estimate their relationship to me with them in the same generation. Most put a two generation gap between them. There is also a daughter to one of them so in some cases the sites suggest a span of 3 and sometimes 4 generations for them.
@@glenjones6980 On Ancestry, I have a match to 3 full siblings and Ancestry suggested 3 different relationships for them. They are 3C to me, but the shared DNA is: 97 cM, 48 cM, and 9 cM!
@@suzannemcclendon I tried WATO using each sister individually and then together. The results vary from 20 possible scenarios based on the older sister, over 40 based on the younger and more than 70 when both are entered. The cM/Seg thing from last week puts them as most likely to be two different generations with the percentages for the most and least likely being almost exactly reversed.
Was it a failure entirely? As I pointed out in throughout this video, there are situations where the primary recommendation would be off. (Namely my father's youngest sister and myself are of an age and cM shared to be more likely half-siblings than aunt/nephew). However, in the category of relationships for the amount of cMs we share, the aunt/nephew was a possibility. Therefore, while the 'most likely' recommendation was off, the additional possibilities had an option that fit well. Mind you, if you have tree collapse or endogamy, this tool will not work well. There is that limitation to be sure. However, since you're a regular of this channel, I would hope that you know that to be the case with any genetic tool. So, will this tool perfectly predict the right relationship, no. Will it get close? In many cases, yes.
@@glenjones6980 This DNA business is certainly an adventure, isn't it? Sometimes it gives us a real head-scratcher, like with my 9 cM 3rd cousin. I think that while some of these tools don't seem to be accurate, at least in some cases, the one thing they all excel at is giving us the drive to dig deeper and research even more. We can learn a great deal in pursuit of the answers.
My mother's family is from SE KY thus I have quite a few situations where cousins married cousins. Is there a means by which this type of situation can be considered when utilizing this?
Is My Heritage, ever going update, their ethnicities? I've been on there since 2019, and they never did. 23andMe and Ancestry updated, many times. They need to update, their Scandinavian, to tell, whether your, Norwegian, Danish or Swedish, and Iberian peninsula, and others. Now, Living DNA, is newer than, My Heritage, and they can tel you, if you have, West Iberia or East Iberia. I have a 9.7% East Iberia, on Living DNA. On My Heritage, My mother, it just say, Iberian, for her.
It's possible. Ethnicity updates require either larger reference populations or tree building in connection with genetic results. So, when MyHeritage has enough of either one or both of those they'll release an update.
A maternal uncle is the baby of the family...we both looked up his sibling that died in infancy. Age has played into the search as family search has determined grandma was too old to have this child which then eliminated my uncle. She married at thirty years old and had seven children. Why would they say that?
Remember, the hints / possible problems icons on FamilySearch are based on averages and trends. There will always be outliers. However, FamilySearch will prompt you to consider that children born outside the typical age range for a woman to have offspring is something to pause, consider, and then document further. That's my best guess based on what you shared.
This all sounds nice with a normal family. I know I have a step-grandmother on my mother's side. How does one fit this in? How do I find this person or this person's offspring or siblings?
Twins aren't born always born the same day, not even the same year. Example 1, from just this year, we have Annie and Effie Scott A bit rare, cool story though
I had a neighbor who had a child 2 months after her oldest grandchild was born. My mother had an uncle who had children between 1930-1972. My father had an uncle who also had children between 1930-70. My 3ggrandfather had 22 children by 3 wives, so there were grandchildren older than children. Looking at it from the paternal side is different than the maternal side.
Thanks for this video, Andy.
I know that I'm no expert with any of this, by any stretch, but I do have experience with ages painting an incorrect picture in my family and others. While I agree that age can be used to rule out some relationships (like the impossibility of having parents or grandparents in one's same age group), I think when it comes to cousins, and to some degree, aunts/uncles, the ages are not a good indicator of relationship. This is especially true when half relationships are factored in.
Essie Mae Washington-Williams is a prime example. She was born in 1925 and Strom's 1st child with his 2nd wife Nancy was born in 1971 (no children with 1st wife). That is approximately a 46 year age difference between these half-siblings. She was old enough to be the grandmother of her half-siblings! I think if some folks go by ages to determine relationships, that particular example would never be sorted out. Obviously, Strom's situation was not typical, but I think that it is more common than many people realize. Many of us have similar situations, with wide age differences, that cause an apparent generational shift, even though they are in the same generation. Maybe 'generational shift' isn't the correct term for it, but you know what I'm referring to...the appearance of being in different generations when they are in the same generation or appearing to be in the same generation when they are in different generations.
If everything always followed the 'norm', I wouldn't have any issue with the idea of age being a good indicator in regards to relationships. But, I have yet to come across a family that was 100% absolutely normal.
Thanks for a great explanation on how to use this new tool!
Remember, the norms are there as a starting point to be sure. When there are so many possible ways we can be related, we have to start our search somewhere. I think I suggested that or at least I have mentioned that in other videos. Forgive me if I didn't in this one.
These tools are predictions and it's up to use to start validating what is or is not accurate. I think the purpose of tools like this is to help people know where to start with all the possibilities. They get decision paralysis. But, with a first suggest in mind, researchers can then work through the validation process to confirm or refute each possible relationship.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Nothing here to forgive you for. :)
I agree that it gives people a place to start and I don't have a problem with that idea at all. I get decision paralysis fairly often myself. What I don't agree with is some of the experts presenting it as an absolute that two people who are the same age are in the same generation, or that people with 20+ years between them are in different generations. You folks aren't guilty of stating it as an absolute (you were quite clear on that), but there are other experts who are guilty of this. It can lead someone down a very wrong path, wasting time and money for them in the process. And, they are still no closer to the answer to their mystery on the other side of that lost time and money. That is what I have a problem with.
Keep up the great work!
Agreed, I have a situation where my dad has a 1st cousin match that shows correctly as a 1st cousin for him but shows as a 2nd cousin match for me at 71.2% probability. The likelihood of him being a 1st cousin 1x removed for me is 1.8% according to MyHeritage and 10% on sharedCM project. He matches me 238.9cM and my dad 706.8cM. This 1st cousin match of my dad's is only 3 years older than me, his parent is the youngest of my grandparent's generation and my grandmother was the eldest, 11 years older. My grandmother was also a younger mother whereas his grandfather was an older parent. I already knew the relationship as I had him in my Ancestry tree anyway.
@@sheppeyescapee I'm glad that you already knew the relationship to your match. In regards to my biological father, everything was a mystery for me. I grew up with my mother's family, so that side is pretty easy for me.
My father has a first cousin 3 years older than me, too. He hasn't DNA tested, so I don't have that data. My grandmother was the 2nd oldest child and this cousin's father was the 3rd (middle)child and only 3 years younger than my grandmother. My father was the middle child of my grandmother and this cousin was the youngest child of his father. I'm the oldest of my father's children (unless there are more "surprises" out there like me!). Thankfully, one of my older DNA matches has been very helpful in regards to figuring out the family. I never would have figured some of this out without him.
Absolutely. I could give many examples of my own, starting with the fact that my oldest first cousin was 40 when our youngest first cousin was born, and my oldest granddaughter is older than her youngest uncle. I know of two families (distant collateral lines) where the oldest children were sixty-something when their fathers fathered children with young wives. I have matches who are second or third cousins to my grandfather, but little older than I am; I recently found two who are my great-grandfather's generation, but near my age. I have matches my generation who are my grandchildren's ages. Age is important in identifying the *people* but it often does not help to determine the relationship.
I'm the youngest child of my generation (span from 1945-1966). My mother was also the youngest of her generation (1895-1924). All of my 1c1r relatives are older than I am and all of them are grandparents, two are great grandparents.
As for this new tool, it's just another version of so many others that give multiple options for potential relationships, I dare say that it would come up with yet more ludicrous multi generation options for two matches I have who are full sisters to each other, not one site accurately predicts them as being in the same generation even though I've created WATO and research trees with them clearly defined as siblings to each other.
This tool has its benefits and its limitations. It's important for genetic genealogists to be aware of them. My wife wasn't initially sure that this tool was earth shattering. It's not. But it's a nice addition to MyHeritage's suite of tools.
Oh, excellent. I'd seen the update but hadn't looked into it too much, it's neat to find out they built in a way to weigh the probabilities by age!
I actually do not like the "Parent's 1st cousin" or "2nd cousin's child" description and think MH should go back to saying 1st cousin, 1x removed and 2nd cousin, 1x removed. The reason being is that it is providing incorrect information and a false interpretation of my matches.
I connected with a 4th cousin, 1x removed some time last year and was able to figure out how we connect and who our MRCA is. She's in her mid-30s and I'm 51. MH says she's a 3rd cousin's daughter or 4th cousin's daughter or 4th cousin. She's actually my mother's 4th cousin. Since our MRCA is 4x Great Grandparents, the birth window expands considerably from a 20 year window, because we are looking at five or six generations to meet an MRCA. If MyHeritage said probable relationships: 3c1r, 4c1r, or 4c, it would be correct with the 4c1r in it's relationships. But it says 4th cousin's child, not parent's 4th cousin for the 4c1r description. If my genealogy skills weren't at the level they are at, I would be utterly confused and might not determine how I was related to this person.
Therefore, they should go back to the proper description of cousin relationships, IMHO.
Thanks for taking time to explain your experience with me.
Great explanation of the newest MyHeritage DNA Tool! Thank you Andy!
Glad you enjoyed it!
WHY DON'T YOU ENABLE CLOSED CAPTION???????? IT IS SO HELPFUL WHEN AUDIO IS BAD OR CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, I AM FINDING NO CC ON ANY OF YOUR VIDEOS
A great explaination of how the age makes a difference of connection.
Thanks.
my 2x great grandfather married twice and half sibling are 50 years apart
That complicates things to be sure.
I have many relatives who have tested their DNA on MH. Most of the relationships suggested are wrong. This tool has labelled my youngest sister the mother of our middle sister, who is 3 years older. I have 2 first cousins, once removed, who are twins. The age difference between us is 55 years. I match 1 twin quite high and the other low. MH has predicted the relationship with both wrongly and differently.
I think beta testing with a control group might have been a good idea, before general rollout.
While beta testing is valuable, it's often when a product goes lives that the complexity of families is best observed as a multiplicity of individuals try out the product. I would definitely recommend that you take screenshots and send feedback to MyHeritage of what isn't working so they can get the data necessary to improve the tool with time.
Yeah, same for me, but I also come from a slightly endogamous group of people so I suspect that throws it off. It very often suggests a closer relationship than what is real.
Ged Match has good tools also for this type of research
Yes, they do. We should praise the companies that release new tools.
Question - I use my late aunt’s DNA and some of her matches are descended too. If all of them were alive today, they would be in their 90s. But down the road, she and her matches will be super old. How does that affect these tools if I use the age they would be if still alive?
That is the age you *should* use. What matters is the difference in ages, which will be correctly reflected only by using the age each person would be if still alive.
............ i made a mindmap about this my ancestor, her ancestor, can't even find after days of digs we have both very complete tree !
My father was 52 years old, and my mother was 42 years old when I was born. Dad was born in 1910, grandfather, about 1874. Would this be a problem for me in figuring out who my great-grandfather is when using this tool?
Somewhat. You'll likely not always have valid first recommendations for relationships based on age. However, it's likely one of the other recommendations.
Well i tested five known distant relationships with ages and it gave the wrong MRCA. It placed the cousins in spaces with like 40% probabilty but the real relationship was the 1% probability. So for me the tool was a failure.
I have the same issue, two siblings match to me but no site will estimate their relationship to me with them in the same generation. Most put a two generation gap between them. There is also a daughter to one of them so in some cases the sites suggest a span of 3 and sometimes 4 generations for them.
@@glenjones6980 On Ancestry, I have a match to 3 full siblings and Ancestry suggested 3 different relationships for them. They are 3C to me, but the shared DNA is: 97 cM, 48 cM, and 9 cM!
@@suzannemcclendon I tried WATO using each sister individually and then together. The results vary from 20 possible scenarios based on the older sister, over 40 based on the younger and more than 70 when both are entered.
The cM/Seg thing from last week puts them as most likely to be two different generations with the percentages for the most and least likely being almost exactly reversed.
Was it a failure entirely? As I pointed out in throughout this video, there are situations where the primary recommendation would be off. (Namely my father's youngest sister and myself are of an age and cM shared to be more likely half-siblings than aunt/nephew). However, in the category of relationships for the amount of cMs we share, the aunt/nephew was a possibility. Therefore, while the 'most likely' recommendation was off, the additional possibilities had an option that fit well.
Mind you, if you have tree collapse or endogamy, this tool will not work well. There is that limitation to be sure. However, since you're a regular of this channel, I would hope that you know that to be the case with any genetic tool.
So, will this tool perfectly predict the right relationship, no. Will it get close? In many cases, yes.
@@glenjones6980 This DNA business is certainly an adventure, isn't it? Sometimes it gives us a real head-scratcher, like with my 9 cM 3rd cousin.
I think that while some of these tools don't seem to be accurate, at least in some cases, the one thing they all excel at is giving us the drive to dig deeper and research even more. We can learn a great deal in pursuit of the answers.
My mother's family is from SE KY thus I have quite a few situations where cousins married cousins. Is there a means by which this type of situation can be considered when utilizing this?
Is My Heritage, ever going update, their ethnicities? I've been on there since 2019, and they never did. 23andMe and Ancestry updated, many times. They need to update, their Scandinavian, to tell, whether your, Norwegian, Danish or Swedish, and Iberian peninsula, and others. Now, Living DNA, is newer than, My Heritage, and they can tel you, if you have, West Iberia or East Iberia. I have a 9.7% East Iberia, on Living DNA. On My Heritage, My mother, it just say, Iberian, for her.
It's possible. Ethnicity updates require either larger reference populations or tree building in connection with genetic results. So, when MyHeritage has enough of either one or both of those they'll release an update.
A maternal uncle is the baby of the family...we both looked up his sibling that died in infancy. Age has played into the search as family search has determined grandma was too old to have this child which then eliminated my uncle. She married at thirty years old and had seven children. Why would they say that?
Remember, the hints / possible problems icons on FamilySearch are based on averages and trends. There will always be outliers. However, FamilySearch will prompt you to consider that children born outside the typical age range for a woman to have offspring is something to pause, consider, and then document further. That's my best guess based on what you shared.
This all sounds nice with a normal family. I know I have a step-grandmother on my mother's side. How does one fit this in? How do I find this person or this person's offspring or siblings?
If you're not biologically related to the step-grandmother and their off-spring, this genetic genealogy tool will not assist you.
Yes I noticed this tool last month. Amazing
It's helpful. I usually take a little time to after new things are released before discussing them.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics there is even examples of a family tree and the percentages of possible relationships
Many peoples' sisters could in fact be their real mothers. Often that was the way a pregnancy outside marriage was hidden in families.
That is true. The amount shared cMs would point that possibility out.
You also have men who have a family and then for what ever reason, marry someone half their age and have another family.
Yes. That complicates things
Sergeant family from Kankakee Illinois
Sweet
thanks to my heritage I found my Jewish relatives
That is great! I love to hear success stories. :)
Awesome
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics it's like a magic thing, but it's just science
Twins aren't born always born the same day, not even the same year.
Example 1, from just this year, we have Annie and Effie Scott
A bit rare, cool story though
Those are exceptions rather than norms but you are correct.
Don't really like this,it's too random