Monday, July 17, 2017

1 Simple Thing You Can Do Could Help Hundreds of Adoptees



Most of us have seen the joyful, tear-jerking stories of reunited biological families. Many of them are advertisements from various DNA testing companies. You could be the one person who makes a big difference.

And you can help without having your own DNA tested and do it in one evening. Please go to the FREE online WikiTree site and build a tree. It doesn’t have to be very big. Enter yourself, your parents, and your grandparents. It would be wonderful if you can enter profiles of your great-grandparents too. And absolutely fabulous if you can go back one more generation to your 2nd great-grandparents.  (All living relatives’ names and information automatically remain private.)

Be sure to enter when and where they lived and died (if you know, if not, give estimates). If you have challenges, after you enter the information you do have, there will be a research link on the lower right of each profile page for each relative you have entered. Click on it and you can find more information about your family.

I do need to warn you, you may bump into a cousin you never knew you had, especially if you go much beyond your 2nd great grandparents.

Two Simple Things to do IF YOU HAVE HAD YOUR DNA TESTED

First, please add at least your first three generations to WikiTree. More if you have it. (I have discovered genealogy blessings always bless you back--often very quickly!) If you have a brick wall, try posting about it in the G2G forum, to find, click under the help bar upper right. The volunteers at WikiTree are awesome when it comes to helping you solve mysteries.

Second, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE upload your raw data from your testing company to the FREE genealogy tools site GEDmatch. It is easy and takes only minutes to do. You will be amazed at the family you will find. The tools there have helped me make matches every time I use them. Below you will find a link to GEDmatch Basics. Instructions for uploading start at the 7 minute mark.

Get Started on WikiTree, click here.

Learn how to upload to Gedmatch click here.


I want to thank Nadine Daszkiewicz for encouraging me to write this post and everyone else at the DNA Detectives Facebook page for sharing their stories with me. May this post bless you all.









2 comments:

  1. Rootsweb.com probably had a larger database and is still free to seearch.

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  2. Lorraine, I love Rootsweb and use it everyday when studying WikiTree profiles. It is a wonderful resource. I blundered by not going into detail regarding how they all work together.

    When a person uses WikiTree and is on Gedmatch, the programs are interactive. If your ancestor is a child of the person on the Wiki profile you link to the profile. It's like you adding a blue descendants head on Rootsweb and the tree grows your branch instantly.

    You can go directly to WikiTree from your Gedmatch one-to-many page and back.

    WikiTree also has a tool when you are on the tree page you can click and compare yourself to your match. Once you link a profile it will compare trees, look for your match and instantly tell you your relationship. Your line now shows up in the descendants list view which helps adoptees follow lines and compare their DNA to each branch.

    If you have your Gedmatch number on you personal profile page, your Gedmatch number will populate that profile showing you have verified the common ancestor via DNA. Another person searching Gedmatch can then perform a one-to-one with the other people listed with their Gedmatch numbers on the profile page. If you match another person on the Gedmatch list, it is like marking a Mirror tree.

    Thank you for bringing up Rootsweb. It can be a key element in building on WikiTree and linking everyone. By checking Research buttons you can add more resources. One of the ones I often add is a direct link to profile I work on is a Rootsweb page and attribute the person who has their tree on Rootsweb.

    Thanks!

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