Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster D

This post is my fourth in a series about Genetic Affairs’ auto-cluster tool and using it to analyze my paternal matches at AncestryDNA. It’s been about six weeks since my last post, so here’s a refresher:

I discovered my parental grandparents were closely related when running GEDMatch’s “Are Your Parents Related Tool?” on my father’s DNA kit in 2017. The results showed my father shared 120.7 cM of DNA with himself. Doing the math, my grandparents were likely first cousins, once removed (1C1R). I ran the Genetic Affairs auto-cluster tool on my father’s test at a range of 50 – 250 cM and previously identified four “super clusters”:


Paternal “Super Clusters” as interpreted from results of Genetic Affairs Auto-Cluster Tool, run date of 3 Jan 2019

My earlier posts examined Super Cluster A, Super Cluster B, and Super Cluster C and identified a MRCA — Most Recent Common Ancestor — for each. Today we’ll look at the final grouping, Super Cluster D.

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Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster C

This post is my third in a series about Genetic Affairs’ auto-cluster tool and using it to analyze my paternal matches at AncestryDNA. As you might recall, my father’s parents were likely first cousins, once removed (1C1R), meaning he has a high degree of pedigree collapse. I ran the auto-cluster tool on my father’s test at a range of 50 – 250 cM and previously identified four “super clusters”:

Paternal “Super Clusters” as interpreted from results of Genetic Affairs Auto-Cluster Tool, run date of 3 Jan 2019

My earlier posts examined Super Cluster A and Super Cluster B and identified a MRCA — Most Recent Common Ancestor — for each. Today we’ll look at Super Cluster C.

Continue reading Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster C

Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster B

This post is my second about Genetic Affairs’ auto-cluster tool and using it to analyze my paternal matches at AncestryDNA. (You can read part 1 here.) As you might recall, my father’s parents were likely first cousins, once removed (1C1R), meaning he has a high degree of pedigree collapse.

I previously identified four “super clusters” when running the auto-cluster tool on my father’s test at a range of 50 – 250 cM.

Paternal “Super Clusters” as interpreted from results of Genetic Affairs Auto-Cluster Tool, run date of 3 Jan 2019

My first post examined Super Cluster A, which I determined to be Johnston/McCauley descendants. Today we will examine the next super cluster.

Continue reading Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster B

Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster A

I’ve been playing with a few of the newest DNA clustering tools this winter, hoping they could give insight to my paternal family. My father’s family has a high-degree of pedigree collapse, and his parents were likely first cousins, once removed (1C1R). Other branches of his family tree also intermarried often, resulting in DNA results that are challenging to interpret.

I ran Genetic Affairs’ auto-cluster tool on my father’s AncestryDNA test with range set to 50 – 250 cM. The tool returned 206 matches, ordered below by cluster. I have also identified “super clusters” and labeled these areas A-D:

Paternal “Super Clusters” as interpreted from results of Genetic Affairs Auto-Cluster Tool, run date of 3 Jan 2019

Genetic genealogist Dana Leeds has a series of blog posts about analyzing super clusters, so I’m taking a cue from her and breaking my analysis into these smaller, more manageable chunks. Today, let’s look at Paternal Super Cluster A.

Continue reading Analyzing DNA Auto-Clusters with Pedigree Collapse: Paternal Super Cluster A