Great DNA utility website
It occasionally surprises The Legal Genealogist to realize that not everyone is ready, willing and able to test with every DNA company on the planet, or at least in the United States. Just because doing a full round of tests with Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, AncestryDNA and others will set you back somewhere in the neighborhood of a grand or more is no reason not to let loose your inner DNA geek, is it?
Oh. Yeah. Right.
There is that little problem of the mortgage and the kids’ school clothes and that doctor bill and…
Sigh… Don’t you just hate it when real life interferes with what you want to do?
So to fill in some of the gaps, at least for autosomal DNA tests, let me introduce you to a wonderful website: GEDmatch.com, with tools for genetic genealogy research that carry a whopping big price tag of exactly zero. That’s not a typo. The site is free, though donations are gratefully accepted and anybody who uses the site really should kick in — it isn’t cheap to provide the kind of computing power Gedmatch provides.
The brainchild of Curtis Rogers and John Olson (a distant DNA cousin of mine), Gedmatch offers a range of utilities that make it a little easier to extract every bit of potentially useful information out of your autosomal test results. Autosomal DNA testing, remember, is the kind that works across gender lines so you don’t have to find a direct male line from father to son to son (YDNA or Y-DNA1) or a direct female line from mother to daughter to daughter (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA2). It particularly helps you identify cousins with whom you can share research.3
To use the site to full advantage, you need to download your raw autosomal DNA test results and match lists from your testing company and then upload them to Gedmatch. Both Family Tree DNA and 23andMe make raw data available — AncestryDNA does not — and directions for downloading are on the Gedmatch site. Gedmatch works with the raw results from deCODEme as well. And you can upload a GEDCOM with your family tree to see if you can identify common lines, using technology to help with traditional paper-trail genealogy too.
Although you do have to provide your email address and the exact name you used with your testing company, you don’t have to use your name publicly. You can be John’s Mom, or CountryCuzzin, if you prefer. You don’t have to make any of your information public if you’d rather not, although the utility of the website is limited if you don’t.
Once you’ve uploaded all the files — and there’s more than one to upload — you’re ready to start playing with the utilities.
First, you can compare your results with the results of all other Gedmatch users who’ve made their results public — no matter what company they’ve tested with:
The results can be sorted by the total amount of DNA you have in common with others, measured in units called centimorgans or cM,4 by the longest segment you share, by the number of generations you’re likely distant from your matches and more. Email addresses of your matches may be listed, but can’t be copied-and-pasted to protect them from harvesting by spammers.
You can choose to see information about selected matches in a chromosome browser. Here’s what my results look like against my two uncles and my aunt on Chromosome 1:
And there are several matrix displays available that will display your selected matches not only as they match you but as they match each other, including a very useful option for displaying estimated distance to the most recent common ancestor.
There’s a genetic distance calculator, a relationship calculator, the ability to triangulate on match results to see how you and your match relate to others, a tool for checking to see if your parents are related to each other, and more.
One of my favorite tools is a quick and easy tool labeled “People who match one person, but not the other …and people who match the same 2 people.” I use it to see others that I have in common with a match, and it quickly produces a chart showing information as to how each of us compares to each common match. The chart does have email addresses, deleted here in this example showing matches I share with an uncle.
There’s more than enough here to satisfy your inner DNA geek. You can phase data — if you and one or both of your parents have tested, this utility will help identify what portions of your DNA came from which parent.
And there are six different options for displaying admixture (ethnicity or deep ancestry) data — and each of the six has options galore. Here’s my admixture under just one of those options:
If that’s not enough, you can even get your very own personal chromosome painting:
For anybody interested in learning more about DNA, or even just playing around with results, this is one cool set of utilities. Kudos to Gedmatch, a DNA geek’s dream site!
SOURCES
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Y chromosome DNA test,” rev. 23 Jul 2011. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Mitochondrial DNA,” rev. 30 Jul 2010. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Autosomal DNA,” rev. 8 Feb 2012. ↩
- ISOGG Wiki (http://www.isogg.org/wiki), “Centimorgan,” rev. 24 Jul 2010. ↩
My results are in, my results are in! (Ancestry DNA, this morning, sent in a week after you!)
Highest matches in 4th – 6th cousin range (wasn’t expecting more, but one can hope!) … and AT LAST a few German names among the mix!
Besides matches, another hope for doing test was more meaningful breakdown than FamilyTreeDNA currently has.
For my paternal German / Lutheran + maternal Austrian / Jewish heritage,
Family Finder: 85% Tuscan, 15% Basque, Finnish, French, Orcadian, Russian, Spanish
Ancestry DNA: 43% Central European, 38% European Jewish, 17% British Isles, 2% unknown
As you reported last week, much better! Don’t get me wrong, the rest of Family Finder was been terrific! – reporting matches to Brook Schreier Ganz, and Bennett Greenspan’s wife.
Congrats on getting your results — wouldn’t have minded if you’d matched ME, but no such luck, darn it!
That’ve been way-cool! … but would’ve been interesting why didn’t also match up at FamilyTreeDNA
Dashed out of door yesterday, late to an all-day outing (having totally lost track of time with arrival of results), so just getting around to thanking you for THIS post… I’ve tried a couple of matching sites, thought this was one of them, but never found this level of info! So thanks for spur to review what I did and figure out how I missed!
Dang, forgot to first hit reply so linked to your message; sorry
It’s sure a great site with tools nobody else has! Glad you’re finding it helpful.
Judy,
Thank you so much for highlighting GedMatch. This sounds right up my alley. One of my greatest frustrations with FamilyTreeDNA has been all those potential matches with nothing to show for it. We’ve made no confirmed connection on either of the two kits I manage. This is not a fault of FamilyTreeDNA but I think the more sites you can share your raw data on the better chances of finally making a genetic cousin connection ‘real’ through a genealogical connection. Can’t wait to try it out.
I understand the frustration, Rory — it’s a tough road to hoe to trace those matches and often it just can’t be done. So any and all tools we can find — good additions to the mix.
Love Gedmatch! Did you click on the oracle?
I did… but I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure exactly what it was trying to tell me… Wanna teach me?
Single Population are population groups your DNA matches with most likely toward the top. Mixed population groups takes the two groups from the admixture with the largest percentages, for example Western European and Mediterranean from your Dodecad chart above. The primary population (Western European) includes population groups your DNA matches with most likely toward the top. The secondary group (Mediterranean) lists population groups your DNA matches with most likely toward the top.
That’s how it was explained to me anyway and with reading the differences between the admixtures seem to be accurate.
Very helpful, thanks!!
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I need to know if I have native American heritage but I can’t afford to pay the costs. Can you help me please?
Without either a documented paper trail or a DNA test, Melvin, nobody can tell you if you have native American heritage. You’re going to have to pay the piper one way or the other to know for sure.
How will we be able our AncestryDNA autosomal test information?
Soon, GedMatch will allow you to upload your data there to compare to others who’ve uploaded their data from any of the testing companies. And after May 1, you can do the same at Family Tree DNA for a fee — and that’s where you’ll get your best results for your data since there are great tools available there.
Can’t get on the site – just get a blank screen with Error at the top. Please explain what I’m doing wrong.
I’m not sure, Erin. The site comes right up for me, using Google Chrome and Firefox.