Nuts From the Family Tree: DNA Monday: Mom's full results are back! Let's go find DNA relatives!

I tested with 23andMe.com back in January, then Mom tested with them in July. A couple of weeks ago we got her results back and as with mine the health results came first and the ancestry/genealogy results came back later. In January, my health results came on a Sunday and by Tuesday, as I remember, I had all of my results. There was about a week lag time before the ancestry results for Mom came back and that's slightly longer. So let's take a look at Mom's ancestry results, shall we?

Her health results are stellar and just about anyone might want to trade her for them! No inherited conditions to watch out for. The health traits are things she already knew about because she's 95 and in real good shape, and you can read an earlier post about that here.

We're both in the haplogroup H3, which could be expected of mother and daughter. And, oh yeah, 23andMe picked up our relationship right away! No doubt, I'm her kid:) You can read about haplogroup H3 here in a previous post on this blog. Funny, it's one of the most popular posts and is getting more frequent visits, I guess, as more people do DNA testing.

Now here's the thing, Mom's DNA relative matches are a little different than mine, which is to be expected as she shares only 49.9% of her autosomal DNA with me. The rest I got from Dad. So, if we had Dad's DNA to test, and sadly he passed in 2006, then I('d know more and have the other half of "me". But for now, I need a list: a list of Mom's matches and a list of my matches and a table showing where those matches are the same.

Now I want to state right here that I'm no expert on this and learning as I make my way slowly through the forest that is DNA. There's so much I don't know... and I took Ce Ce Moore's wonderful introduction to DNA for genealogy seminar this past spring. My ignorance is not her fault;)

But I'm looking at the two lists of Mom's DNA matches on 23andMe and my matches on 23andMe and wondering why. Are my matches that don't match her because of Dad's DNA? And should I look to those people (if they will answer my inquiry messages and have a nice big tree online) for a match to Dad's surnames? Maybe.

And Mom's matches that don't match me, what about them? Is that indicative of the DNA given her that wasn't passed on down to me? Maybe.

Frankly, I still have a kid's sense of wonderment about this DNA stuff. I love to marvel at the thought of my mitochondrial DNA handed down from women who were mother to my mothers, all the way back in deep time, deeper than I can even think about.

When I look at our family photos I think about that long line of mitochondrial DNA. There's a concept I just learned about called "daughtering out". (Wish I could remember whose blog post that was so I could give credit and a hug.) It means that there are no more women in a line to hand down the mitochondrial DNA. When I look at our line of female mitochondrial DNA and our present family ties I see that our best chance for passing it on is my niece, Molly. Anyone know a nice young man about 30 or slightly less, loves science, smart and funny, and attractive?