I Tested My DNA

Now What?

By Kitty Munson Cooper
Blogging at blog.kittycooper.com

Get familiar with the tools provided by your testing company

Most have a help center or FAQ
Use the ISOGG wiki- https://isogg.org/wiki/
You can always Google any question you have

Your autosomal test data is about 700,000 lines of data in a spreadsheet so best to use tools to analyze it!

Google for the instructions on how to download your DNA results from your company

On my blog http://blog.kittycooper.com/2015/09/please-upload-your-ancestry-raw-data-to-a-site-with-a-chromosome-browser/

This will be a zipped file that you can later upload to other sites

SAVE A COPY OF YOUR RESULTS

To get the health results available in your DNA test results use this site (small fee)

https://www.promethease.com/

Most Americans are a blend of ancestries

Each company has a different way of calculating yours

None are perfect yet, but the general outlines are accurate

used by permission from http://stevemorse.org/genetealogy/dna.htm

Autosomal Inheritance by Steve Morse

DNA Home Page at Ancestry

Ancestry Overview for Tester with Deep American Roots

Clicking on a year gets this display, the numbers show how many ancestors there

How Does Ancestry Composition

Help My Genealogy?

When you get an unexpected result

There were rumors that the grandfather of my jewish friend was a local nobleman

Two Ashkenazi Jewish Friends, one with some Sephardic ancestors

from Cece Moore's blog at http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2015/02/switched-at-birth-unravelling-century_27.html

The ancestry composition at 23andme is under Reports > Ancestry

Only 23andme gives you maternal and paternal haplogroups. See http://www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml

The top of the page gives an overview

The timeline feature attempts to tell you when that ancestor was

If you have a parent tested, it will break out the ethnicity by parent

Chromosome details of 23andme ancestry

Put your mouse on any 23andme ancestry

Ancestry Composition Segment Data can be downloaded from 23and me

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2016/12/ancestry-composition-numbers-by-segment-at-23andme-com/

Upload results to other sites for free to get more analysis:

MyHeritage
Family Tree DNA *
GEDmatch
DNA.land
LivingDNA

*$19 for the full tools

MyHeritage Ancestry Composition, the overview

My Ancestry Composition at MyHeritage

Family Tree DNA initial ancestry compostion page - click on the map

My Origins Map at Family Tree DNA

Only family tree DNA reports on Sephardic Jewish DNA

DNA.land ancestry composition for me and my brother

Ancestry estimate comparisons for my brother

My brother at GEDmatch.com

For details of how to use the GEDmatch ancestry tools see

http://slides.com/kittycooper/gedmatch#/

Newly found "DNA" cousins can help you with your genealogy

They may have family stories and photos you do not have

My 3rd 1R sent me photos of my gg-grandparents

FINDING COUSINS

Do I really have to look through a thousand cousins?

NO!

Start with the low hanging fruit, 3rd cousins and closer

(100cM and larger)

Keep Blaine Bettinger's Chart handy - see

http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm-project/

Enter the cMs and get probable relationships https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Cousin Matches

How much shared DNA in centimorgans (cMs)?
Who else do they match?
How many segments? (More than 2 is best)

Getting New Cousins to Respond to You

Have a family tree online
Upload friendly picture of yourself
Include details of who matches whom (they may have multiple kits)
Offer them information when you write to them

Do not be disheartened by lack of responses, some rarely log in

The top right corner of your Ancestry DNA page has some important icons

Be sure to click on the envelope with the blue number to read your messages
Be sure to connect your DNA test to your tree (click the gear icon, settings, to get to that page)

Use Family Tree Linking to connect your DNA results to your tree

https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics

Matches at ancestry. For some tips try

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2016/08/michelles-ancestrydna-tips/

Ancestry Tree "Green Leaf" Match

Clicking on View Match gets a page that may have a tree

Where is the 23andme Cousin Matching Page?

23andme Cousin Matches

Click through to a Match gets a long page with much information

The match page also

shows your population

break downs side by side

The match page shows a chromosome map of where the matching DNA is BUT no numbers here

At the bottom of the 23and me match everyone who matches both of you is listed and a YES indicates that there is overlapping DNA between these 3 people (automated triangulation)