My mom recently talked to someone on 23andme who was trying to figure out how we were related to them. We had only one strip of DNA that was shared. We had a chunk of relatives in common – three cousin’s through my mom’s paternal side.
I told my mom – “well they are related on your dad’s side, let’s look at the strip and see.” I came back quickly with “the DNA strip she shares with us is the same shared with this other person on 23andme, the most common recent ancestor I found for him is George Look and his wife Elizabeth Holbrook – 8 generations back, she should be part of that line too.
DNA painting is very much a new tool derived from the very new part of genetic genealogy. So far I haven’t met a fellow genealogist who has used it – I hope that changes. It is one of the best tools I have found.
When you get your DNA results you are met with thousands of relatives who shared some part of your DNA. There are guesses on their relationship – 23andMe will assign a predictive relationship based on amount of DNA, ancestry.com will actually find Most Common Recent Ancestor (MRCA) if you have a family tree uploaded. But often you don’t have much to go on, so you don’t have any clue what do with it – do I want to form a friendship online with my 4th too distant cousin?
DNA painting allows you to figure how you are related by mapping the DNA, And then allows you to start filling in blanks. For example there was one assumption made about an ancestor that she might have been adopted by her parents. DNA painting let me prove that she was not adopted; she shared DNA with other’s in her mother’s family, so was most likely her biological child.
Maiden Name Unknown 