Adopted Family Linked to DNA – Bad Practice
My mom has a bunch of 3rd cousin DNA matches that we have been unable to find a common ancestor. A “DNA expert” suggested that I create a mirror tree of a DNA match’s family tree and link my mom’s DNA results to their tree – as them. This all goes real smooth until I try to make a mirror tree of a DNA match that has their adopted family linked to their DNA profile.
After a bit of time, I would get a tree hint, letting me know there are other ancestry members with the same ancestors in their tree. Check this post for info on how to make and link up a mirror tree to discover shared ancestors.
So that’s what I’ve been working on.. which is really not that much work since their tree is public but it’s time-consuming. I’ve been working on this one 3rd cousin’s tree and I have not been getting any hints. So, I went back as far as I can but still nothing. I contacted this DNA match and he informs me his mom’s side is biological but her dad’s side is not.
Adopted Family Tree Linked to DNA Profile
Should not be done. Confuses other AncestryDNA members
Why would you hook up your DNA results to non-blood family? There really isn’t any reason that I can think of at all. Needless to say, I got nowhere with that tactic for that tree. I spent a lot of time down this rabbit hole.
If you want to include your adopted family in your tree, you can. Change the relationship to adopted and do not make them the primary parents. Right now, I just keep my trees separate. I have one tree that has my dad’s family and my mom’s adopted family. I still have her parents listed as adopted since that tree is public.
A conversation was started and I mentioned GEDmatch to him, he added his DNA to GEDmatch and he and my mom came up pretty closely related. According to www.isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics, my mom and this DNA match would be something like 1st cousins twice removed to 2nd cousins once removed.
I”ll be following up with this DNA match and will try to see if he has any more info on his biological father. I’m assuming that’s how she and my mom are related since I didn’t get any shared ancestor hints on her mom’s side.
I got the FamilyTreeDNA results back and I’m a little disappointed. Not many “close” matches and only a handful have family trees connected. Once I exhaust all of my mom’s closer DNA matches on Ancestry, I’ll try to contact more people on FamilyTreeDNA. Maybe they have family trees somewhere else.