I feel like Alice
tumbling down the rabbit hole. I’m
trying to get a handle on using DNA to find
more cousins.
First hurdle is
understanding the terminology. What
defines a segment? What’s a Centimorgan; and why are all Centimorgans not the
same “length”? SNPs? Phasing?
The good news is that every testing company has basic information about DNA
and its use in Genealogy. They’re very
helpful. The user forums on these sites can be even more helpful.
And there are other great online resources for learning
Angie Bush administers a Google+ community called DNA
Genetic Genealogiy Interest Community.
In August, 2015 she’ll resume doing videos and Google+ Hangouts.
23andme tested my DNA a
couple of years ago when they still delivered health information gleaned from
their testing. At that time, it was the health info that prompted me to test.
What’s both interesting and frustrating is that the three
testing companies all use different algorithms to analyze the raw data, find
matches in their database, and also show you the probable ethnic origins in
your DNA . (According to 23andme, I’m 3%
Neanderthal.) You may find that a person
who is high on the list of matches on one site doesn’t show up as a match on
another site even though their DNA raw data
is on both.
Then there’s GEDmatch which allows you to upload raw data
from any of the three testing companies. You can also upload a gedcom file that
will be associated with your data.
Familytreedna.com also permits you to upload your raw data from Ancestry
and 23and me.
I’m on a steep learning curve trying to reconcile the
analyses from three sites.
My head is spinning! I still have more questions than
answers.
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