This past weekend I learned that I have a genetic cousin that lives quite close to me – she is also here in Nashville! 23andMe predicts that we are approximately 4th cousins. Crazy thing is, she also turns out to be a genetic cousin of Kalonji’s also.
Since she does not match my mother, I know that she is related to me on my paternal side of the family. We have a DNA segment that we share on Chromosome 6 that includes about 3014 SNPs and has a length of 16cM. The dark blue is her match to me and the lighter blue is her match to my sister.
With Kalonji, she shares a DNA segment on Chromosome 7 that includes about 1500 SNPs and has a length of 12cM.
Because she is related to both of us, this means then that somewhere along the way one of my ancestors hooked up with one of Kalonji’s ancestors and she is a descendant of one of their children. How fascinating.
However, even better was the fact that we were able to meet today during a quick work break. She was on campus so I ran over to the hospital to meet her.
There is so much to explore on our family tress; this is only the beginning. I would love to one day figure out her connection to both Kalonji and I. In looking over her tree, I do see one surname of potential interest for my family tree, but nothing yet for Kalonji’s. Small world isn’t it?
Meeting a 23andMe Cousin!
Wow! How exciting to meet her. Even more so that she is connected to both you and your husband. You have to keep us posted once you sort it all out!
Thanks for sharing!
It was cool. I will try to keep updates going; my blog has been overrun w/ genetic genealogy postings anyway. 🙂
This is so cool! How did you find out she was related to your husband as well? I had something like this happen as well with my test. One of my matches asked if I was connected to one of her matches. We were not a match to each other; however, we found a solid connection in our trees. We are connected via my 8th great-grandfather, John Steed of Brunswick Co., VA (b. 1710). The funny part is that even though I found a paper connection to this non-match, I have yet to find one to my actual match!
Hi Ginger,
I found out she was related to Kalonji b/c she sent him an invitation to share request in 23andMe yesterday. I manage his account, so when I saw her name I was too tickled! That’s awesome that you were able to find a paper connection as far back as to your 8th grandparent. I guess you just didn’t inherit the same segments of DNA from your shared ancestors. 🙂 Are you going to blog about it? I am constantly on the lookout for success story blog posts these days.
That’s great that you have a match that lives close to you and that you were able to meet her! Its also amazing that she is related to both of you.
thx Milnes. We enjoyed it, even if it was brief. 🙂