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

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

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

https://www.promethease.com/

By Chakazul, via Wikimedia Commons [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

You can get also determine your Y haplogroup from Prometheuse -http://www.geneticgenealogist.net/2017/08/updated-method-to-get-ydna-haplogroup.html

R1b aka R-M296 from
https://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_R1b_Y-DNA.shtml

By User:Maulucioni via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Mitochondrial Haplogroup Map:
note the distinct Native American groups

Autosomal DNA tests show the DNA from all your recent ancestors (back to gg(g)-grandparents then it trails off)

Each company has a different way of calculating yours

None are perfect yet, but the general outlines are accurate

Most Americans are a blend of ancestries

My version of the J. Paul Hawthorne colorful ancestry chart, see http://www.geneaspy.com/2016/03/a-little-thing-that-went-viral.html

My known recent ancestry is 50% Norwegian, 25% Bavarian and 25% German Jewish

MyHeritage has a clever feature which shows the ethnic make up of modern day countries

Click on Ethnicities Map under DNA then select a continent and a country

German Ethnicities

MyHeritage Ancestry Composition, the overview

My DNA Home Page at Ancestry

The recent update at Ancestry actually breaks down ethnicity by country

Kitty's current ethnicity at Ancestry

Ancestry Overview for Tester with one New Mexican Parent

Ancestry Overview for Tester with Deep American Roots

How Does Ancestry Composition

Help My Genealogy?

When you get an unexpected result

If there is something unexpected that cannot be explained by the current levels of inaccuracy

A jewish friend of mine had been told that her grandfather was a Hungarian nobleman

The second one has some Sephardic ancestors

Two Ashkenazi Jewish Friends

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

23andme Ancestry Overview Page - click on All Reports

The ancestry composition at 23andme is under Reports > Ancestry

Only 23andme and LivingDNA report your haplogroups.

There is much European haplogroup information at eupedia, see http://www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml

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 to see just that ethnicity

You can change the confidence level, I use 70%

Ancestry Composition Segment Data can be downloaded from 23and me

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

Family Tree DNA initial ancestry composition page - click on the map for more

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

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

Best to have a tree back to your g-g-grandparents (all 16) or your 3rd greats but the shared DNA is less beyond 3rd cousins

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

Do I really have to look through thousands of matches?

NO!

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

(90cM and larger)

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

Also the app for tablets and phones does not show the messages icon

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/

CINDY has an Ancestry Tree "Green Leaf" Match

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4

Clicking on View Match for an "Unlinked Tree" gets a page that may have their tree

If you are very unlucky the tree might look like this one! Or it might not even be the right tree.

Sometimes you can figure out where they fit in from the shared matches

medBetterDNA is an extension which shows your notes on the match page among other features

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

See this article for how to get your Ancestry match t respond

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2017/11/how-to-get-your-ancestry-match-to-respond/

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

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

On the right side of the page is space where you can send a message to your DNA match

The match page shows a chromosome map of where the matching DNA is BUT there are 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)