African DNA Matches

African DNA matches (autosomal) provide one of the most reliable avenues to Trace African Roots. Even more so when combined with well-interpreted admixture analysis. Fortunately an ever increasing number of Africans, or better yet African migrants and their children, are taking DNA tests. All of them potential DNA cousins for Afro-descendants to get in touch with and establish meaningful contact. Representing unique opportunities to learn more about your specific African lineage! Still many people are having trouble to find their African DNA matches while others remain stuck by only focusing on a few ones. Missing out on a great occasion to utilize their complete overview of highly informative African DNA matches!

I am therefore pleased to offer a service whereby I will scan and filter all of your matches on Ancestry.com in order to find your African DNA cousins! Because I am using an automated process in principle I should be able to zoom into all of your “100% African” DNA matches. Including those profiles without African names or family tree! Which from my experience is actually the case for a majority of native Africans on Ancestry.com. Furthermore I will analyze the most likely background of your African DNA matches. I will send you a full overview of all your matches, incl. clickable links to their profiles, within a Excel file. The African matches will be listed in a separate tab.

Sample Report (Excel file) 

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Example of an Excel file containing all African DNA matches I managed to find for someone. Because this person also tested both of her parents I was able to establish if these matches were IBD: Identical By Descent. In other words shared matches with either mother or father. Very useful for placing certain types of African lineage within your family tree. For privacy reasons I have cut out the names of the DNA matches, which normally appear in column B.

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In addition to this basic overview in Excel I can also create a more elaborate PDF report. This will again include a full overview of your African DNA matches, incl. clickable links to their profiles. As well as plausible backgrounds indicated. Due to format it might be more convenient viewing than the Excel file. Furthermore it will include a map showing the most likely locations of your African matches.

In the main part of this PDF report I will also provide a thorough analysis of your regional admixture results. Correlating your African DNA matches with your ethnicity estimates on AncestryDNA. Whenever possible I can compare your regional results with my various survey findings over the years. Relevant to your specific nationality or Afro-Diasporan background. This also includes any 23andme results you might have. Knowing your relative position might give you extra insight. Plus I will provide links for suggested further reading. Naturally all done on a best effort basis.

Sample Report (PDF file) 

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These are a few pages (out of 9) of an African DNA Matches Report (PDF file) I have sent out to someone, along with an Excel file. Just in order to give a sample of what to expect. For privacy reasons I have left out the complete name details in the screenshots.  Obviously the number of African matches will vary for each person tested. No guarantees given.***

This service therefore has two versions: basic (Excel file) or elaborate (PDF file + Excel file).

• Basic: Excel file containing all your DNA matches on Ancestry, sortable on shared DNA (cM), profile name and ethnicity. With African DNA matches (plausible background indicated) being mentioned in a separate tab, incl. clickable links to their profiles on Ancestry. Most convenient viewing on either Desktop PC or laptop.

• Elaborate: Analysis of your African DNA matches & regional admixture (PDF file), incl. clickable links to the profiles of your African matches, plausible background of these African matches; map showing the location of these matches; my personal interpretation of how your African breakdown on AncestryDNA correlates with your African DNA matches, incl. relevant context and links for further study. Should be conveniently viewable also on your mobile phone. The basic Excel file will be sent to you as well.

Afterwards, on request, I can also provide assistance with follow-up research.

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Interested? 

This will be a paid service in order to compensate for my time spent in producing your African DNA Matches Report. As well as sharing my experience which I have built up in the last ten years or so. Customizing my knowledge for your personal benefit. I will however be making use of a scanning & filtering method which you can still access for free and try out for yourself as well:

• How to find those elusive African DNA matches on Ancestry (May 2017)

In order to receive your personal African DNA Matches Report please send me a message in the comment box below. After receipt I will send you further instructions. Please clearly indicate if you are interested in the:

• Basic option: Excel file ($30)
• Basic+ option: PDF file with overview of African DNA matches + map, but without additional analysis ($40)
• Elaborate option: PDF + Excel files ($80)

I will only handle requests which have been paid in advance by way of Paypal! Multiple orders will receive a discount. Whenever you have tested one or both of your parents it is highly recommended to scan their matches as well.

On request I can also scan for non-African DNA matches (Asian, European-American, Native American, Jewish etc.) and provide a separate overview for them. As this might be helpful in learning more about any specific non-African family line you are curious about. For example it might be useful for tracking down slave-owning families whose descendants might have useful information about your enslaved ancestors.

UPDATE: 01-09-2020

Due to the recent deletion of smaller matches (6cM – 8cM) on Ancestry the expected number of African matches I will be able to find is smaller than it used to be. However based on my experiences sofar I do think I should be able to find at least several African matches for most people. Otherwise disclaimer 3 will apply.  Because of the increased threshold (>8cM) these remaining African matches will be more reliable either way. For more details see also:

• Why even small African matches matter!

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Disclaimers 

1). For the time being this service will be limited to people who have tested with  Ancestry.com only.  In the future I might expand this service however and also take into account other DNA testing companies as well as apply more advanced genetic genealogical tools.

2). I will analyse and single out any potentially African DNA matches on a best effort basis. It will be a snapshot of your DNA matches at the time when I will perform the scanning. It might be possible that you might yet have more African matches. My African DNA Matches Report will not pretend to be a final overview of your African DNA matches. And it should therefore also not be seen as such. Obviously it does also NOT claim in any way to reflect your entire multi-layered African lineage!

3). No guarantees given about the number of African matches. Also no refund options. Unless I am not able to find any African matches at all. In this case you may choose either for a refund. Or alternatively I will rescan your matches on a quarterly basis (during 1 year) until I do find African matches.

4). I will mention a speculative background for your African matches. But this will mostly be an educated guess on my part. I will be going by birth locations, plausible ethnic regional combinations, surnames and other relevant profile details. In case I find actual confirmation in the profile details of the match I will indicate this. In other cases you will have to find out for yourself (by contacting the matches and/or checking their profiles) what their true background is.

5). Any needed follow-up research is your own responsibility. Ordering the African DNA Matches Report entitles you to receive an analysis of your African DNA matches on Ancestry (PDF file) as well as an Excel file containing all your DNA matches on Ancestry. Any additional consulting on my part is not included. Upon request I can however offer further assistance.

6).  Admixture analysis can be very valuable, given proper interpretation. However the labeling of ancestral regions used in DNA testing should never be taken too literally! Rather consider these regions to be indicative proxies. Also taking into consideration surrounding countries, ancient migrations and inter-ethnic unions. (see this link for more discussion)

7).  Not all your African matches will be “identical by descent” (IBD). Especially the smaller-sized matches might often be false positives or “identical by state” (IBS) (see this useful chart).

8).  Ancestry’s customer database is not perfectly representative of all your possible African lineage. Certain African nationalities will be over-represented or rather under-represented due to their relative migration presence in the US, Canada, Europe or other places where the AncestryDNA test was purchased. (see this graph for biggest groups in USA in 2015).

9).  Each individual African DNA match will usually only be informative of one single family line out of potentially hundreds others! Such a finding might be very valuable in itself but can never give you a total overview of your complete ancestry as given in proxy by Ancestry’s ethnicity estimates. (see this article for more discussion)

10).  There might be a higher likelihood of your African DNA matches reflecting mutual ancestors from the early 1800’s and late 1700’s. While there might be a built-in bias (due to the matching threshold) against African ancestry which is to be traced back to the early 1700’s, 1600’s or even 1500’s.

11). Your mutual ancestor may not per se have been of the same ethnic background as your match. The occurrence of inter-ethnic mixing within African societies and also among your own African ancestors is often underestimated.

12).  My attempts to correlate your African matches with your admixture results are again not intended to be seen as conclusive or set in stone! They will mostly reflect my own reasoning. Although I do provide relevant background information. Any future new findings/insights might obviously alter my statements.

Nonetheless I firmly believe that correlating (regional) admixture analysis with DNA matches can be rewarding and reinforcing in many cases. Both aspects of genetic genealogy obviously have their own shortcomings. But admixture results can reveal insightful ancestral connections even when DNA matches are not (yet) available and vice versa. Regional admixture may also enable the identification of a plausible background of ones DNA matches. Your admixture results can be helpful as well to gauge how your DNA matches relate with actual ancestral proportions. While DNA matches may serve to corroborate distinctive ethnic/regional lineage detected by your admixture results. As always it pays to use scrutiny and discretion in stead of jumping to conclusions or putting all your eggs in just one basket!

Recommended reading

• How to find those elusive African DNA matches on Ancestry (May 2017)
• African DNA Cousins reported for people across the Diaspora (May 2017)
• DNA matches reported by 23andme for 75 Africans (May 2018)
• DNA matches reported for 50 Cape Verdeans on AncestryDNA (December 2018)
• The Mozambique connection on Ancestry & MyHeritage (December 2019)
• African DNA matches reported for 30 Jamaicans on Ancestry (February, 2020)
• Four ways to find your African matches on 23andme! (February, 2022)