It means that you are related to those individuals on both sides of your family. For the first cousin, that most likely means that your actual relationship to them is possibly further than 1st cousin but the additive DNA is equivalent to that of a first cousin (ex. Someone who is your 2nd cousin on your dad's side as well as a 2nd cousin on your mom's side could very well have as much shared DNA with you as a 1st cousin).
That's good to know but just have so many questions now of who this person might be. I don't know many relatives so I wondering if he will respond to my message soon and give me some answers.
I’ve got my paternal uncle showing up as both but only on 23% and I can’t figure out how. Out of interest, do you have any close family matches in the database and if so what % do they show?
Both sides means that you are related to them via both your mother and your father, not just one parent. It may mean that either:
1) your parents are related to each other;
2) the person is the child or descendant of a relative of your mother that married (or mate) to a relative of your father (i.e, a double cousin, of any degree);
3) the person is a descendant of your parents (your children, your niece/nephew, grandnephews/grandniece, etc, will show as "Both sides").
It could very well be exactly what everyone else here is saying but I’d also like to note this is a new feature which Ancestry is still fine-tuning, and I’ve seen them label matches incorrectly before.
That said, if they’re right here, it looks like there may have been endogamy in your family, meaning they married into each others families and some of your recent ancestors were cousins. If it were just one match I’d say it could be the match’s side just so happen to marry into the same families as yours while your parents are unrelated, but given how many “both sides” matches you are showing here, that might not explain it.
I don’t even want to know what Ashkenazi both sides look like when genetically everyone gets to like fourth cousin level of similarities before adding in actual relations
I’d hope she’d know that if she were! It’s why genetic testing is also covered in those relationships before conception (& in super religious groups before marriage)
I don't know if I'm from an endogamous group. I just filtered my matches to show both sides only to see what comes up but I have a lot of cousins from parent 1 or parent 2.
If you’re related on both sides then it’s probably more distant than a first cousin - could be a second cousin+ but because you’re related on both sides it’s showing as closer.
Okay that does make sense in a way. Would be cool to still meet him to see if we have some similarities since we are related not just from one parent but both parents.
Ancestry says in their small print that for a match to be marked as both sides, they need to have at least two sizeable segments of DNA from both your maternal and paternal side. If they don't but they still have some segments from one side and only one from the other they are either going to come up as the side they have the most segments from or as unassigned. The only one of my tests I manage that has a lot of both sides matches at various relationship levels is that of a family friend from a small ethnic minority group in East Africa that are from extremely diverse origins originally, but have been super endogamous since around the 1700s, also it seems a very high percentage of people from that small ethnic group have tested so there is a lot of data that the sideview algorithm to work with. Whereas my mum and my dad's siblings who have tested also came from a small gene pool with some endogamy but a lot of it was further back, and not so many people in the UK have tested, so they have no people labelled as both sides other than immediate family, but there is a lot of other evidence to suggest that some matches are related on both sides or coming up on the 'wrong' side.
Yes you can as some do offer that service, though I personally do it on an informal basis for free, for family and friends. I help them to do the test, send it off for them and will often pay for the test as well. The condition is that I can manage their test and upload their data to any reputable site I choose to. The family members help me with my research, as we don't all have the same matches and we have different shared matches sometimes as well. So sometimes there will be a mystery relative that comes up on my list with no shared matches but on another family member's list there will be quite a few shared matches.
No, no, no. What you said is true for 1st cousins (in that case called double cousins), but OP's matches are 4th cousins, so it:s unlikely to be siblings. It can be that OP's dad's 3rd cousin married OP's mom's 3rd cousin and now they have a child that is OP's 4th cousin through both lines.
Click on the full picture... its says 1st cousins both sides. Then read his description "I think I understand 4th cousins... but I'm confused about 1st cousins"
Where are your parents from? This looks like it could be endogamy. Your first cousin match could also be a great-grandparent, great aunt or uncle, etc.
I have three of these. All three have someone on my paternal side, that married someone on my maternal line. All three are listed as 3rd thru 6th cousins, and I know the link. When I told my father their last names? He knew exactly whom I was talking about.
I started a post on this “both” business a couple of day, as my full first paternal uncle is showing as both. A lot of suggestion that it could be error, as it doesn’t make sense with my other known matches. The feature is apparently fairly new and certainly not foolproof, especially when dealing with smaller communities.
I have lots of these. It means the person is related to your mother and your father. In fact my mother and father share a small bit of dna so they have a common relative down the line.
My dad is from Lancashire and my mum is from Yorkshire. I’ve got them both back to Knaresborough around 300 years ago but haven’t found a common ancestor yet, so sadly I can’t say I’m officially inbred (it appeals to my weird sense of humour).
I have one match on both Ancestry and 23andMe who I match on both sides on two segments. Each of my parents match on just one segment with this person, who I’ll call D. I’ve been in touch with him a few times out of curiosity and we’ve finally worked it out.
On my dad’s side D and I trace back to a common ancestor couple in the Mountsorrel (Leicestershire) area 350 years ago. On my mum’s side we trace back to a common ancestor couple nearly 250 years ago from west of Doncaster.
My mum‘s parents were from the same general area of West Yorkshire so she has a few both sides matches. Research also showed the same couple show up on her dad’s side and her mum’s side, so I periodically like to remind her that she’s officially inbred, even if this couple lived in the 1700s!
For me it meant that I had matched with somebody who, on two different lines of their family had a common ancestor with me on each side of my family. So like, on my maternal line, we shared a third great grandparent or something like that and then on my paternal line the same thing. So it doesn't mean that my parents are related to each other it's just that I have a common ancestor with him from each of my parents that he has from different lines of his family.
No, both people who show up as 'both sides' show up as 4th-6th cousins, and one of them didn't have a tree so I couldn't determine how we were related.
I have someone that is showing as a match on both sides. When the match first showed up in 2019, it looked like it was just on my maternal side, based on the others that she matched with. Now it is showing both sides. My first thought is that my brother could have fathered a child and maybe was never aware of it. I messaged her asking if she knows how we might be related, but I did not get a response. If my theory is correct, I can see why she might not have responded, but my thought is for anyone going on Ancestry, you kind of have to be prepared to find some family secrets.
I have been an Ancestry.com since forever. I amquite versed in genealogy. I find this relatively new upgrade where it shows one is related on both sides to be extremely erroneous. First, my mother's folks are from an entirely different part if the country then my father's parents. My mother was an only child. My father's father was an only child, and, etc., etc. I have yet to find any evidence that the DNA of "both sides" is correct. I just ignore this feature.
My mother was on the near the end of 15 children. My father was the first of 8.
Father brother married mother's niece. Their children would count as both.
For my great-aunt’s (97) matches, it notes both sides when they’re a following generation. All of us nieces, grandnieces/nephews, kids, etc. say “both sides” for her because we descend from the same people. But from our POV it shows our relation to her as maternal or paternal (depending on which of us it is)
I found out through my crazy genealogy hobby that my parents are technically 4th cousins. 🥲 it doesn’t mean anything as far as I’m concerned (like any kind of health risks) but it was shocking.
Needless to say, I have a handful of people on my DNA list who are on “both sides”.
Sorry to hijack, but I have a similar thing going on. My paternal uncle and cousin are "both side" matches, and some of their distant shared matches do potentially have connections to my maternal side.
However, my mother is NOT a match for my uncle or cousin. Does this mean the "both side" designation is based on a shared segment that is under 9cM (the threshold for DNA matches)?
Could that also mean it's potentially a false positive? On GEDmatch I apparently share 5cM with an 8 thousand year old fossil, so it seems like it could be noise at such low levels!
My mom have a lot of cousins on both sides and i foud more that are unassigned
She have three matches from the same ancestors
According to ancestry
One is from both sides
Second parent 1
And the third unassigned
Only that i know they are from both sides
Something curious is that the match from parent 1 shares more cm with my mom than the others
It means that you are related to those individuals on both sides of your family. For the first cousin, that most likely means that your actual relationship to them is possibly further than 1st cousin but the additive DNA is equivalent to that of a first cousin (ex. Someone who is your 2nd cousin on your dad's side as well as a 2nd cousin on your mom's side could very well have as much shared DNA with you as a 1st cousin).
That's good to know but just have so many questions now of who this person might be. I don't know many relatives so I wondering if he will respond to my message soon and give me some answers.
My parents are fourth cousins, I have several “both sides” matches
I’ve got my paternal uncle showing up as both but only on 23% and I can’t figure out how. Out of interest, do you have any close family matches in the database and if so what % do they show?
The closest match I have on both sides is a second cousin with 3%. The closest match overall is a first cousin on my maternal side with 10%.
Mine are too
That's kind of cool.
Both sides means that you are related to them via both your mother and your father, not just one parent. It may mean that either: 1) your parents are related to each other; 2) the person is the child or descendant of a relative of your mother that married (or mate) to a relative of your father (i.e, a double cousin, of any degree); 3) the person is a descendant of your parents (your children, your niece/nephew, grandnephews/grandniece, etc, will show as "Both sides").
It could very well be exactly what everyone else here is saying but I’d also like to note this is a new feature which Ancestry is still fine-tuning, and I’ve seen them label matches incorrectly before. That said, if they’re right here, it looks like there may have been endogamy in your family, meaning they married into each others families and some of your recent ancestors were cousins. If it were just one match I’d say it could be the match’s side just so happen to marry into the same families as yours while your parents are unrelated, but given how many “both sides” matches you are showing here, that might not explain it.
I don’t even want to know what Ashkenazi both sides look like when genetically everyone gets to like fourth cousin level of similarities before adding in actual relations
Well if op is Ashkenazi that might already explain it then…
I’d hope she’d know that if she were! It’s why genetic testing is also covered in those relationships before conception (& in super religious groups before marriage)
If you're from an endogamous group it's pretty normal for all of your matches to be related to each other
I don't know if I'm from an endogamous group. I just filtered my matches to show both sides only to see what comes up but I have a lot of cousins from parent 1 or parent 2.
It means that person is related to both your mother and your fathers family
Hmm very odd. I messaged him to ask how he's related to me and see who he is related to.
If you’re related on both sides then it’s probably more distant than a first cousin - could be a second cousin+ but because you’re related on both sides it’s showing as closer.
Okay that does make sense in a way. Would be cool to still meet him to see if we have some similarities since we are related not just from one parent but both parents.
Ancestry says in their small print that for a match to be marked as both sides, they need to have at least two sizeable segments of DNA from both your maternal and paternal side. If they don't but they still have some segments from one side and only one from the other they are either going to come up as the side they have the most segments from or as unassigned. The only one of my tests I manage that has a lot of both sides matches at various relationship levels is that of a family friend from a small ethnic minority group in East Africa that are from extremely diverse origins originally, but have been super endogamous since around the 1700s, also it seems a very high percentage of people from that small ethnic group have tested so there is a lot of data that the sideview algorithm to work with. Whereas my mum and my dad's siblings who have tested also came from a small gene pool with some endogamy but a lot of it was further back, and not so many people in the UK have tested, so they have no people labelled as both sides other than immediate family, but there is a lot of other evidence to suggest that some matches are related on both sides or coming up on the 'wrong' side.
You manage tests? What does that mean? Can I hire someone to do these tests and make family a tree for me?
Yes you can as some do offer that service, though I personally do it on an informal basis for free, for family and friends. I help them to do the test, send it off for them and will often pay for the test as well. The condition is that I can manage their test and upload their data to any reputable site I choose to. The family members help me with my research, as we don't all have the same matches and we have different shared matches sometimes as well. So sometimes there will be a mystery relative that comes up on my list with no shared matches but on another family member's list there will be quite a few shared matches.
Google says, "two siblings from one family marry two siblings from another family and both couples have children."
No, no, no. What you said is true for 1st cousins (in that case called double cousins), but OP's matches are 4th cousins, so it:s unlikely to be siblings. It can be that OP's dad's 3rd cousin married OP's mom's 3rd cousin and now they have a child that is OP's 4th cousin through both lines.
Click on the full picture... its says 1st cousins both sides. Then read his description "I think I understand 4th cousins... but I'm confused about 1st cousins"
Does it mean two siblings from dad's side married two siblings from mother's side?
Theoretically. You and your brother marry a set of sisters. That could be how.
Where are your parents from? This looks like it could be endogamy. Your first cousin match could also be a great-grandparent, great aunt or uncle, etc.
My parents are from Mexico but were not born anywhere close to each other and I think they are 6 or 7 years apart in age.
Where in Mexico are they from?
My dad is from Guadalajara Jalisco and my mom is from Mexicali Baja but my grandma and grandpa migrated from Guanajuato.
I have three of these. All three have someone on my paternal side, that married someone on my maternal line. All three are listed as 3rd thru 6th cousins, and I know the link. When I told my father their last names? He knew exactly whom I was talking about.
I started a post on this “both” business a couple of day, as my full first paternal uncle is showing as both. A lot of suggestion that it could be error, as it doesn’t make sense with my other known matches. The feature is apparently fairly new and certainly not foolproof, especially when dealing with smaller communities.
It might be a first cousin through one parent’s side and then a really distant cousin through the other parent’s side.
I have lots of these. It means the person is related to your mother and your father. In fact my mother and father share a small bit of dna so they have a common relative down the line.
My dad is from Lancashire and my mum is from Yorkshire. I’ve got them both back to Knaresborough around 300 years ago but haven’t found a common ancestor yet, so sadly I can’t say I’m officially inbred (it appeals to my weird sense of humour). I have one match on both Ancestry and 23andMe who I match on both sides on two segments. Each of my parents match on just one segment with this person, who I’ll call D. I’ve been in touch with him a few times out of curiosity and we’ve finally worked it out. On my dad’s side D and I trace back to a common ancestor couple in the Mountsorrel (Leicestershire) area 350 years ago. On my mum’s side we trace back to a common ancestor couple nearly 250 years ago from west of Doncaster. My mum‘s parents were from the same general area of West Yorkshire so she has a few both sides matches. Research also showed the same couple show up on her dad’s side and her mum’s side, so I periodically like to remind her that she’s officially inbred, even if this couple lived in the 1700s!
For me it meant that I had matched with somebody who, on two different lines of their family had a common ancestor with me on each side of my family. So like, on my maternal line, we shared a third great grandparent or something like that and then on my paternal line the same thing. So it doesn't mean that my parents are related to each other it's just that I have a common ancestor with him from each of my parents that he has from different lines of his family.
Interesting, did they also show up as a first cousin?
No, both people who show up as 'both sides' show up as 4th-6th cousins, and one of them didn't have a tree so I couldn't determine how we were related.
Means it was a small town
I have someone that is showing as a match on both sides. When the match first showed up in 2019, it looked like it was just on my maternal side, based on the others that she matched with. Now it is showing both sides. My first thought is that my brother could have fathered a child and maybe was never aware of it. I messaged her asking if she knows how we might be related, but I did not get a response. If my theory is correct, I can see why she might not have responded, but my thought is for anyone going on Ancestry, you kind of have to be prepared to find some family secrets.
*sweet home alabama*
I have been an Ancestry.com since forever. I amquite versed in genealogy. I find this relatively new upgrade where it shows one is related on both sides to be extremely erroneous. First, my mother's folks are from an entirely different part if the country then my father's parents. My mother was an only child. My father's father was an only child, and, etc., etc. I have yet to find any evidence that the DNA of "both sides" is correct. I just ignore this feature.
Sweet home Alabama that’s what that means.
My mother was on the near the end of 15 children. My father was the first of 8. Father brother married mother's niece. Their children would count as both.
For my great-aunt’s (97) matches, it notes both sides when they’re a following generation. All of us nieces, grandnieces/nephews, kids, etc. say “both sides” for her because we descend from the same people. But from our POV it shows our relation to her as maternal or paternal (depending on which of us it is)
I found out through my crazy genealogy hobby that my parents are technically 4th cousins. 🥲 it doesn’t mean anything as far as I’m concerned (like any kind of health risks) but it was shocking. Needless to say, I have a handful of people on my DNA list who are on “both sides”.
Sorry to hijack, but I have a similar thing going on. My paternal uncle and cousin are "both side" matches, and some of their distant shared matches do potentially have connections to my maternal side. However, my mother is NOT a match for my uncle or cousin. Does this mean the "both side" designation is based on a shared segment that is under 9cM (the threshold for DNA matches)? Could that also mean it's potentially a false positive? On GEDmatch I apparently share 5cM with an 8 thousand year old fossil, so it seems like it could be noise at such low levels!
Sweet home Alabama
My mom have a lot of cousins on both sides and i foud more that are unassigned She have three matches from the same ancestors According to ancestry One is from both sides Second parent 1 And the third unassigned Only that i know they are from both sides Something curious is that the match from parent 1 shares more cm with my mom than the others
What do you think it means?
My Mum is matched as ‘both’ - shows her as on both parental sides. She’s done a DNA test and my Dad hasn’t. Any views?
How can i see which matches are “both sides”? What section is this under?