DNA by the Numbers

My DNA - Ancestry.com (as of April 2017)

• 67% European Jewish
• 11% Western Europe
• 3% Ireland
• 2% Italy/Greece
• 2% Eastern European
• 2% Finland/Russia
• 5% Scandinavia
• 5% Caucasus
• <1 Pacific Islander
• <1 Siberian
• <1 Great Britain

Genetic Communities
• Jews in Central Europe
• Jews in NW Poland, Lithuania, & West Belarus
• Settlers of New York City & Long Island

5 DNA Circles
• Samuel Vanevery (1820-1888) – 2nd great grandfather – 4 members (3 DNA matches + me)
• Abigail Stuart (1825-1866) – 2nd great grandmother – 3 members (2 DNA matches + me)
• Andrew Vanevery (1798-1873) – 3rd great grandfather – 3 members (2 DNA matches + me)
• David Vanevery (1757-1820) – 4th great grandfather – 5 members (3 DNA matches + me + 1 non-match)
• Israel Swayze (1753-1844) – 4th great grandfather – 6 members (1 DNA match + me + 4 non-matches)

Cousin Matches
• 2nd Cousins – 2
• 3rd Cousins – 9
• 4th Cousins or Closer – 1,734

30 Shared Ancestor Hints: 1 second cousin, 1 third cousin, 6 fourth cousins, 22 distant cousins

My wife's DNA - Ancestry.com (as of April 2017)
• 27% Scandinavia
• 21% Great Britain
• 20% Western Europe
• 13% Eastern Europe
• 11% Italy/Greece
• 7% Ireland
• 1% Iberian Peninsula

Genetic Communities: None
DNA Circles: None

Cousin Matches
• Second Cousin: 1
• Third Cousin: 4
• Fourth Cousin or Closer: 304

19 Shared Ancestor Hints: 1 third cousin, 10 fourth cousins, 8 Distant Cousins

Notes

1) I discussed several months ago the possibility of a Van Every Surname Non-Paternity Event. One piece of evidence I used was that I appear to have no genetic cousin matches with a known-shared-ancestor more distant than my 4th great grandfather. I granted that it might be because it gets difficult to research that far back (though research that far back has been published for the Vanevery family.) Another possibility I considered was that the amount of shared DNA that far back becomes smaller and smaller.

Looking at my “Ancestor Circles” – the cousins in my 2nd great grandparent circles, should also be in my 3rd great and 4th great. But they’re not all there. I’m sure this isn’t due to an NPE, but instead, we share less DNA from our 4th great ancestors. We can share DNA from our shared 2nd greats, but still share none from our shared 4th greats.

2) I find the non-DNA matches in my Ancestor Circles interesting, but obviously, it is possible for two people to have different non-matching DNA from a shared ancestor.

3) I’ve also discussed the significant difference in cousin matches for my wife and me. I still think this is due primarily to a higher rate of false-positive cousin matches for Jewish testers. I’m not sure the reason behind this, but I do know Ancestry stated that they changed their algorithm to reduce it. (And they did reduce it significantly) But it is still there.

Still, I notice that my wife has 33% less Shared Ancestor Hints than I do. Those aren’t false positives. It appears she has a smaller percentage of relatives interested in their genealogy. (Or a smaller percentage who have done enough research for the Shared Ancestor Hints to kick in.)

4) As I mentioned when discussing my FamilyTreeDNA results, I am curious about my alleged 1% Iberian and Pacific Islander DNA. It may be a false-positive, but both AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA claim it is there.