Friday, May 5, 2017

Best AncestryDNA "To Do" List Before Gedmatch Triangulations


Spend time making notes in the note boxes of your matches. Click on their username to find the place to add notes. Include name of common ancestor or grandparents. Include the amount of dna you share by clicking on the little i above the note box and copy and paste the info into the note. Include your identified relationship and see how it compares to estimate charts. Send them a message and introduce yourself. This is family!
Add note icon to left, click on "I" for shared DNA

Make notes of discrepancies. Over average, under average?
Thank you Blaine T. Bettinger for making this chart of averages and ranges
Get a dialogue going with your cousin, aunt, uncle, grandma.
Send off a message and ask them if they have a Gedmatch #. When they send you their kit #, add it to the note box and to a list you make on a word doc or spreadsheet with their username, common ancestor (CA) and Gedmatch #, and your relationship. These people are part of your own flesh and blood. Part of them is in your every cell.

Using your Gedmatch number and theirs do a one-to-one compare on Gedmatch. Copy and paste comparison in a sticky note.
Send a reply message and tell them you want to send them an email so you can send them the info. When they send you their email add it to your data collection then copy and paste the information from the sticky note and send it to them. By following these steps you set up more personal communication for information exchanges.

If they respond they don't have Gedmatch# and ask what Gedmatch is, tell them it's a free site where they can make more matches from other companies. Suggest they watch Gedmatch Basics on Youtube to learn how to upload. Tell them you would like to see exactly how you match. When they write you back with their Gedmatch # ask for their email so you can send them the results of the comparison. Add their email and kit 3 to your spreadsheet.
The point is to build a relationship and information exchange. These are your cousins, add some personal information to your communications. Become friends. Ask if the are on Facebook.
(My 1c1x, half my age, found a friend who appears to be related to one of my surname lines all because of Brad Pitt. --A future post.-- We haven't proven it yet via DNA, but my cousin's friend is now a FB friend.)
Create lists in your email of choice. Make cousin lists sorted by common ancestor surnames. Let them know when you find a new cousin. Not all will match by DNA. You have a genetic tree and a paper trail tree; all are family.

Next, spend some time checking the shared matches of everyone you have made notes for. Check the notes you have made for those in the shared match list to see if everyone connects to the same CA or couple. This will give you an to opportunity to write those without trees and let them know who it appears MIGHT be a common ancestor or set of grandparents. Again, ask them to upload to Gedmatch to see if you can confirm. Ask for an invite to see their tree if it's private. Run their kit # against yours and a known cousin match. See if you all match on the same chromosome. You might not. They may share DNA in a different spot. Tell them the results. Make a note in your spreadsheet or list on your Word document.

Look at shared surnames and see if they have the name you have identified for your shared match. Maybe they have the surname, but the person is a sibling of your match. Maybe they have a grandparent listed you haven't discovered. They might take you further up your tree. See it you can figure it out; if you can, send them a message. If you can’t, ask them for their Gedmatch #. Repeat scenarios above as needed.

 Once you start doing triangulations you can check your collected kit # 's and emails against your segment and triangulation sheets.
Genealogy is meeting new cousins and collaborating. It's about helping each other, because--- when you help them--- karma happens.

10 comments:

  1. How are you going to get more leaves by adding cousins to your tree? Do you mean hints or shared ancestor hints?

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    1. I mean the wiggly leaf hints that indicate a shared ancestor. I am going to do a blog about using a net instead of a fishing pole. You weave a net by getting the siblings of all your grandparents listed as well as their spouses. Adding your cousins and their line down is part of that process many fail to do. It has something to the algorithm Ancestry uses (I think.)or blunder.

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  2. You have TO CONTACT THEM FIRST, to figure out what branch they belong.
    Then ANCESTRY will alert you to the matches and send you an email about 'hints' etc.
    You have to link up with your matches, if they give you permission to post their information/ancestor names to your file.
    Or make a NEW file, call it DNA matches - your surname or your furthest ancestor name for the file name.

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    1. Yes,you are right on, ckewriter, always establish communications. They might even give you additional sources and info on what they have built.

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  3. I have a format for AncestryDNA Notes. Here's examples of what goes on each line:
    1. 5C1R: UNDERWOOD/CANNADAY
    2. Gm A123456 [05F25] 12.3cM
    3. 10.1cM/1Seg
    4. SM 4 [1 is 4C on UNDERWOOD]
    5. m5/6/17; reply5/6/17=Gm#
    6. Added to my data.

    Gm = GEDMatch; SM = Shared Matches [05F25] = Triangulated Group ID

    All of this info is visible by hovering on the little page icon next to a Matches name - particularly valuable when looking at a list of Shared Matches. It also keeps track of your messages to/from the Match

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    1. Jim Bartlett, Let me get this right. 1. Is the relationship as shown with leaf hint. #2 Do you write them to get Gedmatch # or do a username search on Gedmatch? And the note is what you show about them from Gedmatch including TG information 4.Does that SM mean 4 people are shared matches on Ancestry and one of them is a 4th cousin on an Underwood line? 5. Indicates dates you sent and received messages. Do you add the info to your database as you go, or only after you find them in a TG? Do you actually number the notes in your note box so you know you have covered everything? Or is this just an example of the different things you enter? (I do cx thing as soon as we connect, but might add something like grandpa Clair's sister Ann's grandson. (To get it in my head right.)And when there is no tree and they are new I might write "5SM all in Prichard/Alford line." Then I send them a message and tell them what SM shows and it MIGHT be where the connection is.

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  4. wow..all this time and I didn't know how to find the amount of shared DNA. Now if they would let us know which chromosomes. Too many people won't upload to GEDMatch.

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  5. I don't exactly beg them to upload. I tell them how much I would like to take a closer look at EXACTLY where we match to see if they match with other cousins. I also explain they can find more cousins on Gedmatch who tested at different sites. And add, "Youtube Gedmatch Basics tells you how you can upload to this free site which was designed by genealogists for genealogists." I often close with "Please let me know as soon as you get your Gedmatch number so I can compare. Looking forward to hearing back from you." I always add my Ged# and my private email.

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