confused
 

According to ancestry my son's dna results are:-

1st cousin

My half sister with 787cm over 30 segments is a 1st cousin
Her/my niece with 706cm over 18 segments is also a 1st cousin

2nd Cousin

My half sister's son/ my half nephew has 412 cm over 20 segments
- a lot less than his full cousin.
.................................................. ......

Now how significant is it the number of segments?

Most of the results are 1 or 2 segments and 4th cousins

but now I have found a match of 36cm over 6 segments a 4th - 6th cousin? As there's no tree I can't fathom out where she fits in except by seeing which family she shares matches with.

The number of segments doesn't mean much. The number of centimorgans is much more important.

Thanks Kite

However why does my half sister's son only have 412cms whereas my half brother's daughter has 706cm.

Both values have half 1st cousin as a possible if you feed them in on DNA Painter (link below). It's just that by chance he has inherited more of the same DNA as one of them than the other.

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Thanks Kate

This DNA lark really confuses me.

I'm confused too, Julie!

Does this make sense (for a family member):

Predicted relationship: 4th–6th Cousin

Shared DNA: 23 cM across 1 segments
Longest Segment: 30 cM

Yes, it makes sense. The longest segment data is from before their application of the Timber algorithm, and the amount of shared DNA is from after it.

Thanks, Kate. I really need to do a week's course in DNA when I have time!

There was a family history conference / show due to be held earlier this year which was cancelled, and they had various lectures you could opt for, including a few on what to do with your DNA matches. Those were all booked up very quickly (the cancellation must have been disappointing for the people who booked), but I don't know whether they ever did them online for people to watch from home instead. They could be pretty useful.

I have problems when it says something like:

Shared DNA: 30 cM across 1 segments
Longest Segment: 23 cM

I assume that means it includes masses of crumbs, none of them adding up to a segment?