DNA Testing: What To Do With the Results

Chromosome Painting: Silk panel studio installation by Geraldine Ondrizek 

at the University of Washington, 2012

I ordered and received my Ancestry.com DNA test, spit into the tube, followed the directions to seal it up, mailed it back and have received the results. I was so excited to finally be able to view my DNA matches--in Safari, not in Chrome, as I discovered. For some reason using Chrome as a browser on a Mac for Ancestry DNA results results in a lot of blank screens.

Now what? At first I thought I wasn't seeing any great surprises, but that is because I didn't really understand what I was seeing. For me, DNA might just stand for Don't kNow Anything. I needed some basic genealogical genetics education.

First thing: I watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just search there for "DNA for genealogists" and you'll find plenty to learn about. Ancestry.com has lots of information on its own YouTube channel, with an introduction here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3QBrbSKihw.

Next: I joined several groups on Facebook:

Genetic Genealogy Tips and Techniques 

DNA Newbie

GEDmatch.com User Group

Because I'm so new to this, I often have no idea what they are talking about, but every once in awhile there is a glimmer of understanding and a good hint that I can apply, even at this early stage.

I plan to go through the Beginner's Guide at the Family Tree DNA Learning Center; and How to Interpret Your Ancestry DNA Test Results at The Genealogy Guide.

I just saw this list of useful DNA tools this morning from Tim Janzen on Facebook. It's part of the syllabus for his upcoming 2018 RootsTech presentation on autosomal DNA tools. I am putting it here on this blog so that I can work my way through the list.

1. GEDmatch.com 

2. DNAGEDCOM 

3. ADSA program by Don Worth at http://www.dnagedcom.com/adsa/index.php and other tools at DNAGEDCOM such as Gworks. 

4. Andreas West is developing a website at https://www.dnagenealogy.tools 

5. Louis Kessler’s program Double Match Triangulator at http://www.doublematchtriangulator.com 

6. David Pike’s website at www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/FF23utils 

7. Genomemate Pro 

8. The DNA Genealogy Experiment at https://dnagen.net. 

9. DNA.land 

10. Felix Chandrakumar’s tools www.y-str.org/tools. 

11. Jeff Snavely’s AncestryDNA tool called AncestryDNA Helper. 

Chromosome mapping:

          12. Jonny Perl’s chromosome mapping tool at https://dnapainter.com

13. Kitty Cooper’s chromosome mapping tool at http://kittymunson.com/dna/ChromosomeMapper

Visual phasing: 

14. Steven Fox’s visual phasing tool downloadable as an Excel file from https://www.facebook.com/grou…/visualphasing/345860632514023.

I only knew about GEDmatch, the first item on the list. Here is a description from Your DNA Guide:

Gedmatch can be a great place to collaborate with others who have been tested at other companies and gain access to more genetic tools to try to figure out how you are related to others. 

It is a FREE (yes, FREE!) service provided by very intelligent and motivated genetic genealogists. Anyone with genetic genealogy test results from 23andMe, FTDNA.com (the Family Finder test), and Ancestry.com [can compare results]. 

One last thing: You can read an interview with Tim Janzen (who wrote the above list) here: https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/news/tim-janzen-genetic-genealogy-interview/

I have so much to learn!