Thanks for joining in this week.
Thought I would take a break in the actual story and share some definitions and links for you. You may be down the road of discovery, just beginning or wanting to get started. My first delve into my genealogy was through Ancestry.com. There were a few surprises, but nothing showed definitively that my brother and I were half siblings. My niece had identified something odd between the two of us in that I was not showing up as an aunt but rather a cousin removed.
We really ignored it and went on with life. Yet, a few years later my brother encouraged me to utilize 23andMe and I did. There is nothing like opening up your results and your family tree with a resounding “half-brother”, “half-sister” staring you in the face. The landscape of emotions are impossible to describe. I would never have done anything differently than how it happened. I’m proud of my brother for encouraging me and for his reaction.
“You are my sister and always will be-This changes Nothing!” Thank God for the kindest words he could have spoken to me in that Moment of Truth!
I am sharing the link to the Top 10 DNA Testing sites as of August 2022.
https://www.top10.com/dna-testing/comparison
For those of you that need support before, during and after your Discovery I highly recommend reaching out to
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NPEFriends
And if you are looking for a podcast to start with (there are several more that I will refer to later) But try this one on for size
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cutoff-genes-podcast/
Couple of definitions that I found helpful:
- NPE-Non-paternity Event. This was the term used at one time but has been changed to Non-Parent Expected. Why? Several reasons are involved. 1.) It is not always a father that is being learned about in the searches. More and more NPEs are finding that the mother they grew up thinking was there mother is not, 2.) Adopted children are seeing discrepancies in the birthparents that they had expected and 3.) Children of sperm donors are now in the mix that can lead to confusion.
- I am posting this link that I think will be helpful in understanding what cM numbers mean. I was clueless when this was first presented to me:
- This blog article is very helpfulttps://whoareyoumadeof.com/blog/what-does-cm-shared-mean-in-dna-results/
- cM: an abbreviation for the word “centimorgan”
- centimorgan: the genetic distance between two points on a chromosome
The word centimorgan is usually used to describe the length of a DNA segment. A genetic length, not physical length, however. Understanding the meaning of shared cMs or shared DNA can help you learn more about how you are related to your DNA matches. Generally speaking, the more cMs someone shares with us, the closer our genealogical relationship.
Thanks for stopping by and I will see you next week. As always share the link, blog and any other information that is published here. The only request is that you help grow our community by connecting us with others.