Remembering
Ancestors
By Paul VanRaden
©2025, updated October 2026
Topics:
Displaying ancestors in a pedigree
Ancestry
origins from pedigree
Ancestry
regions from DNA
Finding
DNA matches for relatives
Predicting
traits
Data
sources
Relationships,
inbreeding, and heterosis
Holstein
bull and cow pedigrees
Conclusions
References
Displaying ancestors in a pedigree
Most pedigree displays become very wide with many generations
and then leave much empty space at the left for the recent generations.
Instead, the display can list standard data fields such as birth date in one
long column together. After those fields, each generation can indent only a few
spaces more than the last, greatly reducing the width and giving a vertical
pedigree with one ancestor per row that can be easily emailed or printed on
standard paper. At USDA we wrote programs using those ideas to display ancestor
information from a database onto a screen beginning in 1993 and I used that
strategy again for my own pedigree below. Ideally this style could be
programmed to provide those same fields for any pedigree by pulling data from a
database or an export file, but I had to type this one by hand:
Ancestry origins from pedigree
People have wanted to know where their ancestors lived, how
long they lived, and stories about them for thousands of years since Biblical
times. Often, historians recorded only the all-male path from father to
grandfather to great grandfather, etc., or from father to son to grandson, etc.
because family names, property, and power were often inherited that way, such
as with kings. Many people even worship a father and a son but not a mother or
a daughter. But in this last century, females may own property, hold power,
have equal rights such as to vote, and deserve their history (herstory) told
also. Hallelujah!
My nieces Hillary King and Andrea Sabaka found or stored
about 230 of my ancestors in a commercial database (ancestry.com) and added
many pictures and stories about their lives. Our American family had forgotten
much of this history, but our German cousins wrote a 100-page book about our
VanRaden ancestors and their families. Then I transferred the key fields into
the pedigree document above and used that to trace where our family’s DNA is
from. My sister Judy Winship thought of giving each generation a different
color to help see the connections. Humans will never get pedigrees as deep and
accurate as cattle because farmers gave cattle a 100-year head start and
because cattle generations take only 2-5 instead of 20-40 years.
Pedigree depth averages about 7 generations for me and my
sibs, 8 generations for our kids, and 9 for their kids. For 3 of my 4
grandparents, all 14 paths trace back to my 2nd or 3rd
great grandparents who immigrated to northwest IL from Germany around 1850. My
father’s ancestors were all from northwest Germany close to Netherlands and my
maternal grandmother’s were from southwest Germany near Stuttgart and one from
Frankfurt. Of my maternal grandfather’s ancestors, 94% trace to northeast U.S.
states (CT, MA, NH, RI) and only 6% go back to my 7th to 9th
great grandparent immigrants from England. In the 1700s, most New England
colonists were from England and my ancestors’ last names sound British, so my
pedigree is 75% German, 2% British, and 23% probably British.
Niece Hillary in October 2026 found 1 pedigree line tracing
back 47 generations and 1,000 more years via royal families in Europe. I
remembered an episode of Finding Your Roots that traced ancestry back to
Charlemagne (for Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Michael Palin) and now that ancestral
line is easier to find. Hillary’s report on our royal ancestors in Europe and the
longest lines are now listed at the end of the VanRaden pedigree above, but
those extra ancestors were not included in the calculations above. Hillary also
found notable American ancestors and many distant cousins shown on the last
slides for my maternal grandparents Clarence and Alta
Ellis.
My initial genomic origins in 2025 were 63% western Europe (45%
northwest Germany, 11% Netherlands, 7% southern Germany), 34% southeast England
or northwest Europe, 2% north Wales or northwest England, and 1% Czechia to the
east of Germany. My 11% from Netherlands made sense since my paternal ancestors
lived just across the border and spoke the Low German (Plattdeutsch)
language common across northern Germany and northeast Netherlands.
My updated genomic origins in 2026 were from 14 instead of 6 regions
because Ancestry.com added 156
smaller, more specific regions. For example, my 34% from “southeast England
or northwest Europe” is now assigned to 3 regions of England, 2 regions of
Germany, 4% from Switzerland, 3% from Belgium, 2% from France, and 1% from
northwest Italy. My 1% from Czechia is now 2% from the Western Carpathian Basin
which is an odd way to describe Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Netherlands
dropped from 11% to 4% and northwest Germany rose from 45% to 54%, both more
closely matching our pedigree. I am no longer 100% European because according
to their math 3% of my DNA stopped in Quebec on its way to Illinois. Native
Canadian is in separate categories, so I counted my 3% “Canadian DNA” as from
France.
Daughter Angel and son-in-law Cesar both got initial and
updated DNA results that now include 24 and 25 ancestral regions. Angel’s
initial report had 62% DNA from Europe and 38% from Africa which are 63% and
37% after the update. Initially she had <1% native American from Yucatan
Peninsula but they no longer report percentages <1%. Angel’s DNA from Africa
was mostly from Nigeria, Senegal, and Cameroon. Her percentages from each
region in Europe are about half of mine as expected plus 2% from western
England and 1% from Scotland / Ireland that I did not have. Those must have
been from her mom Cheryl’s ancestors, estimated to be 76% from Africa and 23%
from Europe by combining results for Angel and me and counting my Quebec DNA as
French.
Cesar’s DNA had a wider mix of initial regions that totaled
39% from Europe, 49% from Africa, and 12% native American. His updated origin
percentages now include 21% from Canary Islands instead of 2% previously, but
those may be cousins rather than ancestors (like my Quebec DNA). I assumed his
Canary Island DNA is 16% from Europe and 5% from Africa to get his updated
totals of 41% Europe, 49% Africa, and 10% native America. By combining twice of
Cesar’s percentages minus his mom Jessica’s percentages, we also estimated that
his dad had 26% DNA from Europe, 66% from Africa, and 7% native American.
Cesar’s DNA from Europe was 22% from Spain and 2% from
Portugal plus 1% from France. Initial estimates listed a few percent each from
Germany, Greece, and Azores that are now gone and make more sense. His DNA from
Africa was initially 35% western plus 9% central and 5% north African. New
regions are 11% from Benin, 6% Mali or Ivory Coast, 5% Senegal, 4% N Africa,
and 7 other regions with 4% or less. His native American DNA includes 6% from
Puerto Rico (Boriken) and 4% from Dominican Republic (Quisqueya) which both
make sense given his known ancestors from there. Much further back, native
American DNA came from Asia > 10,000 years ago and all other DNA traces back
to Africa >50,000 years ago.
Ancestry.com reported that many Hispanics now have more DNA
labelled as from Canaries instead of Spain, but I asked CoPilot to summarize
the literature and it said: “The first permanent European settlers in the
Caribbean were Spanish, Portuguese, French, and later the British and Dutch,
arriving in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. These settlers came from
Iberia and other European ports, not from the Canary Islands. While the
Canaries were a stepping stone for European sailors heading to the Americas,
they were not the origin of the Caribbean’s settlers."
The DNA reference population for Canary Islands is likely to
include distant cousins from the same families of sailors from port cities in
Spain and Portugal. The DNA in Puerto Rico and Dominican Rep may match DNA in
Canaries because many sailors from those same port cities got off boats there also,
whereas the general reference populations for Spain and Portugal include much
DNA from people farther inland, not just the sailor families. Previously Cesar
had 2% DNA from Azores but that disappeared this time. Even Columbus stopped in
Azores on his way back from discovering America, but his DNA was not from
Azores. Likewise, French immigrants who arrived in Quebec or in New York City
might share more DNA with each other than with the general population of France
but could be cousins and not ancestors of each other.
My DNA is now 64% German and Dutch, 21% British, and 15% from
a little farther south and west instead of 75% German and 25% probably British
from our pedigree which lists the former hometown of each immigrant ancestor.
That seems more precise than a DNA test unless that immigrant had some earlier
ancestors from far away or the reported pedigree is not completely accurate.
But the DNA test more precisely estimated origins for the 23% of my pedigree
that ended in New England and did not trace back to immigrants.
Ancestry also graphs geographic regions of inheritance
separately by chromosome. Those make more sense in October 2026 than when first
introduced in March 2026. Previously, my whole chromosomes were always from 1
region or another and no crossovers occurred. My Mom’s ancestors were about
half from England and half from Germany and then mixed for several generations
in America and my Dad’s ancestors and chromosomes were German as expected, but
his chromosomes 1, 11, 12, and 21 were shown as fully Dutch after 4 generations
of chromosomes mixing and recombining during meiosis. Previously Ancestry.com’s
chat bot replied that many regions are so similar that their Chromosome
Painter prefers keeping 1 color instead of switching back and forth many times
per chromosome. That is now fixed but a new issue is that with many more
regions I cannot quite tell which color is which.
At USDA we color-coded chromosomes in slide 8 of this 2010
presentation to correctly show actual chromosome recombination across 3
generations of genotyped ancestors for the first bull (named O-Style) that had both
parents and all 4 grandparents genotyped. Few humans yet have genotyped
grandparents, but some calves now have 8 generations fully genotyped.
Finding DNA matches for relatives
DNA testing companies can find close relatives also tested by
that same company, and 25% of my DNA matches my niece Hillary’s DNA, as
expected. My highest other matches were 5-7% with 2 sons of my paternal
grandmother’s sisters and with 1 granddaughter of my maternal grandfather’s brother.
She is my second cousin, but Ancestry suggested her as a 1st cousin
once removed or half first cousin. Some relatives share more or fewer DNA
segments than average, like not always getting 11 heads and 11 tails when
flipping a coin 22 times. Each parent has 2 sets of chromosomes, and at each
location you get their DNA from their mother or their father, but not both.
Ancestry correctly guessed which relatives were on my Dad’s side or my Mom’s side
because my great grandparents each had many descendants to help sort the DNA
into individual chromosomes, a mathematical process called phasing.
Ancestor discovery for cows is much more accurate because we
have DNA from 10 generations of ancestor bulls and very complete and accurate pedigrees
for all bulls across the whole world. Future generations of humans will have
more of their ancestors’ DNA already analyzed. That will simplify the process
of connecting relatives because each next generation can just confirm their
direct relationship to their ancestors’ DNA instead of indirect relationships
to cousins’ DNA. Many dairy farmers across the world now trust our programs to
create pedigrees for their cows and calves using the DNA matching system that
my coworkers and I developed at USDA. Parent matching is very easy, and already
> 2 million unknown grandparents
and great grandparents were discovered by DNA and automatically added to
the global cow pedigree file. My previous job at USDA also included estimating
genomic origins for millions of cows. For cows or for dogs, scientists use DNA
to check breeds
of origin instead of places of origin.
Ancestry.com also predicted many traits as yes/no or high/low
and a few traits had high/average/low. For predictions of my traits, 28 seemed
correct but 19 seemed wrong. That may not be very accurate if one of the two
categories is much more frequent than the other. For example, if 15%
of people have freckles you could get 85% correct predictions by always
guessing no freckles with no data. Some Ancestry traits use markers known from
literature to have large effects but most traits use survey replies from their DNA
customers. Strangely, they did not predict height, which is highly heritable
and was the first trait that human geneticists studied in detail in 2010.
That study used almost the same genomic methods we developed at USDA and used
for predicting cow stature since 2008.
Predictions for 50 cattle traits each come with percent
reliability estimating how accurate they are expressed as a squared
correlation. The trait predictions are expressed using 2 or 3 decimal digits
instead of binary yes/no. Genetic effects can be estimated very precisely even
if the observed traits are predicted less well due to low heritability. Farmers
use the predicted traits to directly manage the current generation or to select
the next generation, and most cattle traits have known economic values.
Thus, farmers can easily profit from cattle DNA predictions available since
2008 and pedigree predictions since 1926. Human DNA tests are mostly for
entertainment. Trait predictions began much earlier at 23andMe, off and on since 2007
due to changes in regulations, than at Ancestry.com since 2018.
The technology to read DNA is almost
the same across many different species. For humans, several different companies
collect DNA samples and store pedigree data. Ancestry.com has sold over
28 million DNA tests as of 2025 and 23andMe sold 14 million DNA tests
as of 2024. The largest cattle DNA database begun by USDA and managed by the
Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding has over 11 million DNA tests as of
2025.
For humans, competing companies likely do not yet share
pedigree data. Even within Ancestry.com, their German database had pedigrees
for several older ancestors that were not in the American database. For dairy
cattle since 1995, Interbull in Sweden receives full pedigrees from about 25
countries for all commercially available dairy bulls. Interbull then sends to
each country a complete file of combined and edited pedigrees from all the world’s
bulls for several different breeds. Dairy cattle breeders want to see the full
global pedigrees because most Holstein bulls have foreign
fathers or grandfathers. Cattle are not forced to stay within country
borders. Cows are one big, happy family across the whole world. Hallelujah!
Knowing names and locations of ancestors is not as interesting
as learning stories or seeing pictures from their lives. For example, our
German cousins documented the lives of our VanRaden ancestors that we American
descendants had forgotten:
Relationships, inbreeding, and heterosis
Inbreeding coefficients are very important in livestock
breeding because progeny may be less healthy if parents are too related. Most humans
are much less inbred than most livestock. I did not get either DNA or pedigree
estimates of inbreeding from Ancestry, but my pedigree inbreeding may be 0
because I did not notice the same names among my maternal and paternal
ancestors. We could imagine finding 5 or 10 more generations of ancestry and
then my inbreeding coefficient might be a tiny bit above 0 but nothing to worry
about.
The pedigree methods
that quantify how inbred or how related any 2 individuals are to each other
were published in 1922 by geneticist Sewall Wright from the same USDA research
center where I worked. His parents were cousins which likely got him interested
in the topic. His example in paper was a cow pedigree, but his methods are now
used for all species. Then in 2008 I published DNA-based methods to estimate
how inbred and how related cows are to each other. Those methods are now used
for DNA predictions of traits for countless other species, but the DNA
relationships from most companies now use haplotypes instead of genotypes after
statistically separating the 2 sets of chromosomes into maternal vs. paternal
DNA.
People in the Americas might be a little less inbred than
people within Europe, Asia, or Africa whose ancestors all lived in the same nation
or small region of it. DNA can quantify those differences. For example, my DNA
may be a little more diverse than my father’s because 100% of his DNA came from
northwest Germany whereas I have 75% German and 25% British ancestors. My
mother may have lower DNA inbreeding than both of us because her father had
British DNA and her mother German DNA with even less chance of any common
ancestors. My daughter has no inbreeding and some positive heterosis with a
mixture of European and African DNA. Latin
Americans often have mixes of native American, European, and African DNA.
The term heterosis describes effects that cannot be traced by pedigrees when
the 2 parents have DNA from different populations that were separate for many
generations. Inbreeding
and heterosis are similar topics.
Holstein bull and
cow pedigrees
A 2026 article in Holstein International
(October, pages 10-11) featured my pedigree project from 1988. As a graduate
student I had summed by hand the percentages of DNA (50%, 25%, 12.5%, etc.)
that famous ancestor bulls contributed to the current generation of bulls. Then
while a postdoc at U WI funded by Holstein USA, we automated the methods and
began publishing the ranked
list of most influential Holstein bulls still being updated in 2026. Breed
association staff Lynn Pancake and Tom Lawlor did the original programming, but
recently generation intervals shortened, numbers of generations and paths
greatly expanded, and Sam Comstock rewrote the program.
The purpose is to help farmers avoid harmful effects of
inbreeding such as this hidden mutation that 8% of Holstein cows had inherited
from the 2nd most famous bull Chief. It caused $400 million of abortion losses
but Chief's good DNA for milk gave his descendants $30 billion more profit than
DNA from an average bull. Genomic reports now list how much DNA animals do
share along with the predicted sharing from ancestors. Farmers around the world
now preserve genetic variation, avoid defects in pure breeds, and choose mating
pairs using tools we developed.
Genealogy was a hobby for millions of people
but was a big business for livestock breeders for more than a hundred years
after breeds were defined and trait data collection began. Large databases
allowed farmers and breeding companies to predict and to select for traits they
wanted livestock to have. Knowing about your pedigree and your DNA is still
mostly a hobby and a curiosity for humans but is beginning to be useful for
separating genetic from environmental causes in medical treatment.
Future generations may find services offered by genealogy companies more useful
or even get better DNA
than we got. Our genes have big effects on many of our traits, and better
understanding our DNA could improve everybody’s lives in the future.
References
Sewall
Wright, 1922. Coefficients of
inbreeding and relationship.
Discovering
ancestors and connecting relatives in large genomic databases - ScienceDirect
Fast
two-stage phasing of large-scale sequence data: The American Journal of Human
Genetics
Genomic
predictions for crossbred dairy cattle - Journal of Dairy Science
Efficient methods to compute
genomic predictions - PubMed
Invited
Review: Reliability of genomic predictions for North American Holstein bulls -
ScienceDirect
How
Common Are Freckles? Global Statistics
Common SNPs explain a large
proportion of the heritability for human height | Nature Genetics
Timeline for 23andMe
DNA testing
Countries
Where AncestryDNA® is Available
Deep
Dive: AncestryDNA 2026 Regions Update
Ancestry
Launches a New Take on Genetic Traits
How
We Develop Traits - Ancestry DNA
TraitsPredictionWhitePaper_042024
Return to Genes for the Next
Generation