A few months ago Ancestry attempted to split people’s matches by parent. This helps people to figure out how their matches are related to them by splitting up your matches based on your DNA, and not family trees. They utilize their SideView™ technology, where they group your matches according to the parent they’re related to.
So they split your matches by parent 1 and parent 2, or if you already labeled them, paternal vs. maternal. But for Polynesians and other endogamous populations, we can also have a lot of matches falling under “Both sides.”
Initially, I only had 29 matches falling under “Both sides.” My mother ended up with 2,231 matches for Both sides.
It is understandable why my mother would have a lot given that both of her parents were Kanaka Maoli. But in my case, since my father was Filipino I should not have any under Both sides, unless they really are related to me on Both sides. I do have a few like that, but they never got DNA tested.
After analyzing all 29 matches, I did see that all of them were the same background as I am. Filipino, but specifically having ties to Bisaya, the region where my father’s parents were from, and also Kanaka Maoli. So they could be some distant match on my Filipino side, but we also witness somewhat of endogamous matching going on because not all of these matches will have ties specific to my grandparents’ hometown or island, and just so happen we match DNA because of our shared DNA Kanaka Maoli segments.
Recently, they had an update. So now we have more matches that have been assigned including more matches for Both sides but not as much as I thought I would get. While my mother’s and a couple of thousands up to 6,000 matches on Both sides, as they do have both parents who are Kanaka Maoli, again with my own it should not be the case.
This time while going through the additional 20 new matches categorized under Both sides, I noticed that not all of them had any Filipino and a few of them were not Polynesian at all.
After carefully looking through these matches and their shared matches, I realize that the matches were either 100% Filipino or 100% Polynesian, or admixed Polynesian without any Filipino. The amount of shared DNA segments that these matches have with each other is significant enough to put them into the Both sides category.
I saw 100% Filipino matches who were connecting via my paternal side would share DNA segments with matches from my maternal side due to the fact that the matches on my maternal side are also Filipino as well as Kanaka Maoli. And the same for those on my maternal side where they do not have any Filipino ancestry but could share DNA segments with matches on my paternal side and who happen to be part Kanaka Maoli like myself. But I’ve seen 100% New Zealand Maori falling under Both sides.
So while I understand endogamous populations like Ashkenazi Jewish people can have thousands and thousands of matches under Both sides, just as I am seeing with other Polynesians, I did not expect this phenomenon to happen to me simply because my parents were of different populations. First I realized it was because these matches under Both sides had the same exact background as me. But now with this latest update, it is not the case, but has a lot to do with the fact that Hawaiʻi consists of islands who received other island populations (Japan, Philippines, Portuguese, Puerto Rico), and those people mixed into the current population at that time.
I have not looked at other accounts that I manage, like cousins who are of Portuguese and Kanaka Maoli ancestry. Majority of those Portuguese immigrants were from Portuguese islands. I am sure that is happening with these populations or admixed people as well.
Curious what future updates might yield, given that I see 100% Filipino and admixed Polynesians (not limited to Kanaka Maoli) can easily fall under Both sides for me.
Polynesian DNA 