AncestryDNA Sideview & Me

In April 2022, Ancestry-dot-com introduced DNA SideView technology that reconstructed a person's parental DNA; splitting the 50% of each parent's DNA that a person inherits. This technology is derived by comparing DNA matches from the database.

One evening I tried to figure out which parent was which in this DNA puzzle by comparing the DNA cousins of my parent with 0% from an area to the DNA cousins of my parent who had some type of percentage from the same area. 

I looked at two paternal first cousins and two paternal second-third cousins. 

DW  1st cousin 1x removed

        

There are no maternal first cousins in my DNA Matches; I looked at the four highest 2nd - 3rd matches.

MALI

Parent 1 has 8% DNA from Mali which I inherited while Parent 2 has 0% from Mail. However, looking at the top four DNA matches, both paternal and maternal DNA cousins have DNA from Mali at about the same percentage. Paternal is 4-10% and maternal is 5-12%.

SCOTLAND 

Parent 1 has 0%  DNA from Scotland. Parent 2 has 8% DNA from Scotland that contributed the 8% DNA that I inherited. Looking at those same cousin relationships on my maternal and paternal sides, I see that the closest DNA cousins from my father's side have 0%  DNA from Scotland while the closest on my mother's side have 0-5%  DNA from Scotland. Could it be that Parent 1 with shown Scottish DNA is my father and Parent 2 with the 8% DNA is my mother?

SENEGAL

Parent 1 has 3% DNA from Senegal which I inherited while Parent 2 has 0% from Senegal.  However, looking at the same matches, both paternal and maternal DNA cousins have DNA from Senegal at about the same percentage. Paternal is 4-6% and maternal is 3-4%.

IRELAND

Parent 1 has <1%.  Parent 2 has 3% DNA from Ireland that contributed the 3% DNA I inherited. With those same eight DNA cousin comparisons, I see that the closest DNA cousins from my father's side have 0% DNA from Ireland while the closest on my mother's side have 1-8% Irish DNA. This again, suggests that my father is Parent 1.

So as of now I'm leaning toward Parent 1 as my father and Parent 2 as my mother. Yes, the sampling of DNA cousins I looked at is small and yes, I only get a glimpse of 50% of each parents DNA -- but I am not a science nor math person and it was all head-spinning for me. Overall, it was an interesting parlor game, but as it stands now I don't see how it really matters which parent contributed which of the 50% DNA I inherited. And for me, the paper trail is still more interesting.

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.