I Tested My DNA

How can it help my research?

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/

Upload results to other sites for free to get more analysis
and find more cousins:

* $19 for the full tools
**Only free until December 1,2018

How can DNA testing help your genealogy?

New found 3rd and 4th cousins may help you break through a brick wall

My great grandmother Maren Wold from Drammen was my brick wall

One day I got an email from Mike who said I think my g-g-grandfather was the brother of your great grandmother Maren

My new 3rd 1R sent me photos of Maren's parents

FINDING COUSINS

I had been searching the records in the wrong county! She was born in Skoger, Vestfold not Drammen, Buskerud

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

They may have family stories and photos you do not have

FINDING COUSINS

ruins of WOLD home, Skoger 2015

Do you have a good tree online?

Tree view at WIKITree.com - no login needed, so you can send a link to a DNA match who may not be able to see ancestry trees

How deep is your tree at ancestry?

Default tree view at Ancestry - try the pedigree view

Best to have a tree back to at least your 16 g-g-grandparents (further is better but much DNA drops off further back)

A tip from Michelle Trostler is to print the pedigree out and use gold stars to show lines with DNA matches - http://blog.kittycooper.com/2016/08/michelles-ancestrydna-tips/
Very few Germans have tested which explains my lack of maternal stars

Other approaches are a DNA image on the photo or to use the suffix field to show the ancestors you share with DNA matches

An icon in the suffix field will not affect matching

I use quick edit to cut and paste my icon from one profile to another

Click for my Dad at ancestry

Do I really have to look through a thousand cousins?

NO!

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

(90cM 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

https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics

Not every cousin further out than 2nds will be a match

Matches at ancestry. For some tips try

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

The number of centimorgans can be found by clicking on the "i" in a circle next to the confidence level on the match page

CINDY has an Ancestry Tree "Green Leaf" Match

Hints gets you matches who have trees with matching ancestors

New shows you the matches you have not yet looked at

Starred gets you matches that you have clicked the star on

Search lets you find matches by surnames in their tree

Regions gets matches from that area or ethnicity

To see the newest matches click Date

Assignment 1: Pick a first cousin or a parent or a half sibling

Star every match you share through "high" 4th cousins

Click the shared matches button to see the matches you share

PLAY TIME

Using the regional search for Germany, belgium, etc, I found a cousin with a familiar name in her tree

The surname Bomeisler was familiar so I looked Carl up in my tree and found him! Then I remembered he was my Thannhauser grandfather's cousin who met their boat when they immigrated

Moral of this story: Build your ancestors' trees down in time for better matching

The top right corner of your Ancestry DNA home 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)

Get your family memnbers and cousins to share their DNA results with you

At the bottom of the Test Settings page there is the DNA Result Access box

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2014/08/angie-bush-reports-on-a-new-dna-ancestry-com-icw-feature/

When you see Unlinked Tree, click on View Match to get to the match page where you can select a tree

clicking on the tree name in the drop down will put that tree pedigree on this page

Clicking the username on a match takes you to their profile page

CLUSTERING

Clustering is the technique where we sort our close matches into groups to help identify new or more distant matches

My cousin JM has 11 second cousin matches

Second cousins will share great grandparents

Leeds Spreadsheet of her 1st and 2nd cousins

Color coded by great grandparent line,
pale green on left = tree match

Likely Relationships for 208 cMs

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Leeds Spreadsheet of her 1st and 2nd cousins

Color coded by great grandparent line,
pale green on left = tree match

Leola shares 443 cMs

Putting Leola on Sveen side with ?? for relationship

Note that Avery is actually a first cousin twice removed in the latest

Chrome add-on for match labeling - https://tinyurl.com/MatchLabeling

I used 4 of the same colors on the Leeds sheet as I have with this extension and then added those colored circles to the known cousins

https://devoresoftware.blogspot.com/2018/01/medbetterdna-custom-note-filters.html

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2018/01/an-awesome-ancestry-add-on/

Another useful chrome addon is MEDbetterDNA

CAMERON

Let's figure out ...

PLAY TIME

Make your own Leeds Chart either on paper or use mine
http://blog.kittycooper.com/?ddownload=6338

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 (which family line, that you have pictures, documents ...)

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

Where is the 23andme Cousin Matching Page?

23andme

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)