Saga & Timelines
This section used to be called "Timelines," but MyTrueAncestry has added two new buttons which allow members to create video clips tailored to their DNA matches. As of Memorial Day, 2022, this section now has five buttons:
- Your DNA Saga
- DNA Saga Premium
- Ancestral Timeline
- Timeline Fingerprint
- Full Detailed Timeline
I would need to upgrade my membership to create a DNA Saga Premium, but my membership level (6) is sufficient to create a "free" DNA Saga. It only takes about two or three minutes to create a video clip, but, unfortunately, the "camera" pans across the information so quickly it's hard to read any of it except the names of the ages it refers to, such as the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Similarly, the Ancestral Timeline is hard to read. It's an image of a horizontal timeline with a lot of information which is hard to read, because the text is too cluttered together. The Full Detailed Timeline is basically the same information in the form of a vertical, legible list.
My favorite subsection is, however, the Timeline Fingerprint.
After selecting my DNA kit, when I select Timeline Fingerprint, MyTrueAncestry loads a rectangular chart with colored circles and a gray grid on it. The circles represent how much DNA mine has in common with that of ancient, human remains.
Numbers on the left side rise, in increments of 10, from 0 in the lower, left corner, to 60 in the upper, left corner; this indicates Genetic Distance. Most of my matches are closer than 10; all but one are closer than 30. Trumpington Meadows Bronze Age TRM101 appears by itself near 60.
Numbers along the bottom of the chart rise, in increments of 2,000, from 0 in the lower, left corner to 10,000 in the lower, right corner; this indicates how many years ago the ancient person lived. My oldest match is Cheddar Man, who lived about 9,000 years ago.
The colors of the circles serve, perhaps, to identify ethnicity; I'm not sure. The diameters of the circles correspond to the S.N.P.s my D.N.A. shares with that of the ancient, human remains represented by the colored circles - the more the matching S.N.P.'s, the larger the circle. Many of of the matches are represented by miniscule dots. The largest circle represents Scotland Late Bronze Age I2861, from almost 3,000 years ago. We have 379 S.N.P.s in common, and are a Genetic Distance of between 5 and 6. To put this in perspective, I have living cousins who share less S.N.P.s, and are at greater Genetic Distances.
At first, the colored dots appear to be in meaningless clusters. However, there are sliders above and to the right of the chart, both of which can be adjusted from both ends. This allows the user to zoom in on a small group of dots, or even on one dot!
Then, mousing over a dot causes a window to pop up with information about the ancient remains plotted at that location on the chart, such as age, Genetic Distance, and shared S.N.P.s.
Next, I'll discuss P.C.A. Plots.
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*To get to Results, login to MyTrueAncestry. See a page with their logo (see above) near the upper,
left corner, and a row of six tabs across the top:
- Results
Civilizations
- Populations
- Royalty
- DNA Testing
- FAQ
To get to "Analysis Summary"...
- Analysis Summary
- Maps
- Regional Archaeogenetics
- Haplogroup Analytics
- DNA Spotlight
- Timelines
- PCA Plots
- Genetic Social Groups
- Additional Features
Blog post by William Mortensen Vaughan
