52 Ancestors Week 49: New Horizons

From Amy Johnson Crow: This week's theme is "New Horizons." Growth often means pushing into unknown territory. Did any of your ancestors push to see new horizons (literally or figuratively)? How about you? Have you pushed your research by stretching into "new-to-you" resources or techniques?

Why do I get "Love Boat" vibes with this week's header?

   Genealogists push into unknown territory every day by going through pages and pages of documents or even by using the newest tools at their disposal. Recently, Ancestry.com went one step beyond by introducing a new way to see if DNA matches fall on either of your parents' side of the tree using a tool they call "SideView". I've been a user on the site since 2006 and I've seen some new and exciting features pop up from time to time like Thrulines did a few years ago. I don't think anything has ever really prepared me for the intuitiveness and accuracy of this new feature.

 

I like to think of that green on my dad's side 
as basil. Lots of basil.

    To access "SideView", all you need to do is go to your DNA story on Ancestry and scroll down to where it says "Ethnicity inheritance". Since I have already labeled the paternal and maternal side, you will likely see parent 1 and parent 2 on your chart. From there you can click on "View Breakdown" and see what they've found. But, wait! You might want to know how this is all accomplished, right?  How do they split it into maternal and paternal sides?! Do tiny little elves determine which part of your DNA likes pasta and which part likes baguettes? It's a little more complicated than that!

    The site's DNA experts explain everything like this. Ancestry calls itself the biggest database on the planet and that's no hyperbole. Millions upon millions of people have tested on Ancestry and have created the largest database of DNA matches on the planet. The bigger the database, the more matches you will find. Those same matches share one or more segments of DNA with you and at least one of your parents. Ancestry uses the DNA matches to split your DNA into halves that came from each of your parents. It also helps that we get half of DNA from mom and half from dad.

 Firstly, they find segments of DNA that connect to one parent and then separate out the DNA you received from each of them by piecing together segments that overlap. After that, they calculate the ethnicity estimates of both halves and show the percentages passed down by each parent. It should be noted that this is not an ethnicity estimate for your parents. Trust me. My great-aunt Nicolina was born in Italy and has a sea of green for her split with some minor exceptions involving other Mediterranean countries. Gotta love those Romans. However, if  each of your parents test, you may gain a sneak peek into what your grandparents' results would look like. For now, though. Let's look at my results!

    Hey. This isn't that bad. It was incredibly easy for me to decide which side was paternal and what was maternal by looking at my chart. Clearly that sea of pesto sauce is my dad's side. He is, as a genealogist on Geni said, "all Italian all the time". There's no questioning it here. There's that split with north and southern Italy and I ignore it. I tend to just add those together because....Romans. Does anyone honestly think they stayed in one place on their own land?! NOPE!

    The rest is clearly my mother's side which is French, English, German and a little bit of Scottish for flavoring. The latter can be attributed to my second great-grandmother, Georgianna Ross and her family. However...uhh....they tend to be more French-Canadian than Scottish. Spoilers! Check out her tree while you're at it. I love how it confuses people.

    Any Scottish DNA I have is incredibly ancient as her Scottish ancestor was a man named Alexander Ross who lived in the 1700s and was in Québec by 1774. It helps to know a little bit of history before tackling something like this! The Scottish and English side is possibly from the Felker side as well since my great-grandfather Austin's family is profoundly English/German with lines stretching back to colonial Massachusetts.

    When you scroll down, this chart will show you a detailed comparison between you and your parental units. Evidentially all that sweet, sweet basil got passed down to me without a hitch. Yes, I know it's not really an even fifty/fifty split. I don't think anyone has that degree of perfection. If you think you do, I invite you to take a DNA test. I hear there's a sale going on right now! Just expect surprises!

    There are no real surprises for me here as it's stuff I already knew. However, if you were adopted or are not able to test your parents like I did, this would be very helpful for you because you may be able to figure things out via DNA and of course the paper trail.

Of course, DNA matches will help you out as well. How does Ancestry split my matches? Let's take a look!

    This is encouraging. What we see here are the common names and communities with all the various DNA matches I have. If I were to click the paternal side link, I'd see all of my second cousins on the Carrabs side, the Tedesco cousins and more because they all link with my father and I. 

    The same thing happens on my maternal side. The last names that show up refer to the common last names in your closest match's tree. It's accuracy is up for debate. However, in my case it's pretty spot on. It's up to you to dig in and see if there's any truth to it. God help you if both sides of your family tree have "Smith" and "Jones".

    However, there may be a bit of a problem. Some people may be unassigned to maternal or paternal matches!

Don't worry. I'll find a home for you guys. 
Just give me a minute....

    You can't fault Ancestry for leaving some people unassigned. There are a LOT of people on your match list and so they can't fit everyone in. From time to time they will update and add your family in. However, there is something you could do to speed up the process.  You could just go to your DNA match and decide for yourself if they are paternal or maternal using some good old fashioned detective work! Once you've figured it out, you can select if they are maternal or paternal and the site will recognize the match. Will they put them in the correct column? That, I don't know.

    What I can tell you is that "SideView" is pretty cool. It's a handy tool in our genealogical arsenal. Using it, you may be able to confirm who belongs to who. If you are adopted, the tool can help you figure out your family tree. However, there are some complications even if you know both sides of the tree. What if both sides are very, very Italian like my father or my great-aunt?

That is a lot of pesto....

    There'd still be a parental split. You might even see "Both sides" in that case. So, the best thing to do there is to go with traditional genealogy and see what you can find that way. Then you can go in and label things manually. 

 Sideview is a fun tool to have and I've been fortunate in that things have been relatively simple for me to figure out. Others might not be so lucky. But, it's okay. The "SideView" helps you sort out all the clutter and helps you determine what's going on with your DNA. It's pretty handy to have and I kind of like it. 

    

    Genealogy is constantly evolving and I'm glad I've been here for the highs and lows. Is this a high or a low? That's up to you to decide. I think it's a handy tool that relies on a few things: Other peoples' trees and of course your own work. Ancestry seems to like pushing the envelope when it comes to new and exciting features. Who knows what's next on the horizon? Should be a fun ride! 

See ya next time!