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DNA analysis is more complicated when there are multiple relationships with your DNA matches and those relationships are close enough to impact the amount of shared DNA with those individuals. I’m not talking about multiple shared connections that aren’t known until the pedigree has been extended ten generations. These are double connections within five and six generations where there are no more recent shared ancestors, but because families married within the “community” double relationships are the norm.<\/p>\n
That happens in my maternal families quite a bit. It’s common for me to have a relative on my maternal side who is a second and a third cousin, a third cousin two ways, or a second, third, and fourth cousin. Those relationships are close enough that there can be significant shared DNA. And because of the multiple connections, determining which portions of DNA should be assigned to a specific ancestor of mine can be somewhat difficult.<\/p>\n
It’s suggested when using DNAPainter to assign groups to either an ancestral couple or a specific ancestor. That’s a good suggestion. But for my analysis and my own painting, I’ve had to tweak that just a little bit. Instead of using just ancestors as groups in DNA Painter, I’ve also assigned some individuals to other couples–ones who are related to me more than once.\u00a0 My method has been to assign individuals to either the most common ancestral couple or the “double connection” from whom they descend.<\/p>\n
It makes for more groups than I really would like to have. But if I don’t, the analysis is made even more difficult and I would be moving people between groups on a constant basis.<\/p>\n
I do need to clean up my naming system and be more consistent in how I name these groups. The name of the group needs to be short enough to be displayed on all the various DNAPainter screens and detailed enough that it reminds me of who the matches actually are. That I’m still working on.<\/p>\n