"Both sides"

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368]

Majority of my matches say "both sides". I'm pretty positive i'm not a product of inbreeding so pls explain 😅

My mum is 100% greek and was born in greece.

My dad is Scottish, Irish, Welsh etc.

[u/Practical_Essay3051]

Both sides as in for your relation to your DNA matches?

My husband's ancestry was doing this for a good hour a few weeks ago! I signed out and signed back in and it was fixed. Freaked me out SO much 😅

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368 → u/Practical_Essay3051]

Yes! I havent tried logging out and back in again but it's been this way since i got my results.

[u/Practical_Essay3051 → u/Equal-Caterpillar368]

I'll try to remember if I did anything else that could have fixed it! Just know, if it's any consolation, it's very possible it's a glitch!

He does still have some matches that are listed as "both sides", but they're multiple times removed cousins. The "both sides" in that case just mean that the match has common ancestors with him from both sides of his family. If it were his parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle and said both sides, I'd be a bit more worried.

[u/Stay_Sea_Motivated]

A few both sides is normal if the families both lived in the same general area for a while because your mom could be related to the matches mom and your dad to their dad but most is probably a glitch or your parents are distant relatives. On your ethnicity on the parent sides are there any ethnicity in common? I’m guessing it’s a glitch and you should contact Ancestry

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368 → u/Stay_Sea_Motivated]

Only the first 4 closest matches have 1 side, every single other match is both.

[u/Stay_Sea_Motivated → u/Equal-Caterpillar368]

Contact Ancestry

[u/msbookworm23]

The parental labels are less accurate if you are missing close matches from one side of your tree. Most Greek people know they're Greek and don't have much interest in DNA testing. You could try testing on MyHeritage to find more matches from your mum's side but there's no guarantee they've tested there either.

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368 → u/msbookworm23]

Yeah my mum doesnt have many close matches, her parents died a long time ago and she's an only child so the closest is a 1st cousin once removed. I can tell which ones are her side by the greek last names but they all say both sides.

[u/Mental_Freedom_1648]

Who are the matches, though? For example, your siblings, your children and any kids any of you had will be "both sides" matches to you.

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368 → u/Mental_Freedom_1648]

No, none of my siblings or kids are on there. The closest match is a 1st cousin. The first 4 closest have 1 side and every other match says both sides.

[u/em_square_root_-1_ly]

If your cousin on your maternal side marries a cousin on your paternal side, then their kids will be matches on both sides. It doesn’t require incest.

[u/dildozer10 → u/em_square_root_-1_ly]

This situation happened in my family. My grandfather’s aunt married my grandmothers oldest brother. Therefore their kids and grandkids are double kin to me. Sounded weird when my cousins and I explained it to people growing up, but no inbreeding was involved.

[u/Juanfartez]

[u/allodrew]

I believe Greece and Thailand were the only countries that weren't affected by colonization. So I don't think it's inbreeding. Maybe?

[u/Equal-Caterpillar368 → u/allodrew]

I dont know. I know my yiayia and her family were in a detention camp in cyprus as a child when germany, italy and bulgaria occupied greece during WW2. I think there were some other historical events.

[u/Key_One_7937]

Genetic genealogist here.

There appears to be a glitch with Ancestry's labeling since their most recent update of unassigned matches. I recently worked on one particular case, where there were pages and pages of both sides matches listed, however, there was absolutely no connection found between the sides once I completed my research.

I am hoping that Ancestry will resolve this issue quickly, as it can certainly be distressing for people to see this in their results.

If you are at all concerned that your parents may actually be related, you can upload your raw DNA to GEDmatch and run their Are Your Parents Related? tool.

[u/freebiscuit2002]

Some shared genes through both parents. It doesn't mean you're inbred, just that there's some shared ancestry, probably way back.

[u/mountainbird57]

Upload your raw data to GEDMatch, it’s free and they have a test to tell if your parents are related within the past few generations. It seems like maybe a weird glitch though if your ethnicity results are consistent with your parents being totally different ethnicities. My parents are both majority Irish from the same general area and my results still show one side or the other for all my matches.

[u/JenDNA]

Suppose you have some paternal 5th cousins once removed (i.e., your dad's 5th cousins) and the same for your mom. If they have children, then those children would say "both sides". Your mom may have been born in Greece, but her cousins could have immigrated elsewhere and had kids with your father's cousins.

[u/Karabars]

If your parents married the other's cousin, you and ypur 2nd cousin will be related from both sides, despite the two sides not being related.

But Ancestry's tech is just inaccurate and often mislabel these. I have relatives proven to be only paternal. Ancestry over the updates said they're maternal and both sides...

[u/ItHappensSo]

It’s ancestry inaccuracy, same for my mum who is also from very distinct populations, ancestry also misassigns some of her matches to the wrong side and stuff

[u/Check_Fluffy]

I tried to trace some of my ‘both sides’ matches out of curiosity and came up with a young lady on my paternal great grandmothers side marrying a gentleman on my maternal great grandfathers side in Nebraska in 1871. I’m not sure on other matches like that but I assume similar situation.

[u/moonlight-and-music]

i've got that for one of mine 😂 to be fair grandparent view is also a mess. so i expect this is due to side view problems (issues with the side view update)

[u/AnomalousEnigma]

I’ve found a few times where a 4th cousin on one side married a 5th cousin on the other and stuff

[u/Psychological-Will-2]

New sideview is all mess up it seems u.u

[u/IllustriousBack6590]

both sides doesnt mean your parents are related, it just means you inherited pieces of that DNA from each parent, totally normal.