I was invited to give a presentation to the Craven County Genealogical Society about how to get more out of your Ancestry DNA, FamilyTreeDNA or any DNA results with some very useful tools, as well as some bonus content about how to find what you seek in the unindexed records at FamilySearch.org. The video and timestamps to different topics that were covered are below.
This was a nearly 2-hour presentation.
Presentation Video Timestamps
- Introduction
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=1 - Testing Options: Which companies are most popular
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=200 - Which tests are available and who can or should take them
- Why ethnicity results can be misleading
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=788 - Introduction to Useful Tools for Autosomal DNA results
- Gedmatch
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=1070 - DNAPainter
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=1591 - How to use DNA Painter’s Chromosome Map tool
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=1792 - How to download data from Ancestry DNA to use on Gedmatch
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=2454 - How to use One to One Autosomal DNA Comparison tool on Gedmatch to get shared segment information for DNA Painter
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=2543 - How Y-DNA can be more useful than Autosomal DNA when it comes to very distant matches
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=3159 - How to use the Shared cM tool at Gedmatch to figure out most likely relationship based on amount of shared DNA
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=3200
- Gedmatch
- Dangers and Advantages of AncestryDNA Thrulines
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=3261 - One way to determine if an AncestryDNA Thruline match is valid
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=3515 - Why do AncestryDNA Thruline matches sometimes disappear as children from suggested or known ancestors?
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=3764 - How you can use a SPECULATIVE graphic to warn others that a connection you’ve made in your Ancestry tree may not be correct
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=4101 - Using color coding on AncestryDNA matches
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=4440 - More about using SPECULATIVE graphic and comments on your Ancestry tree to let people know that someone you put in your tree may not be the right ancestor
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=5020 - BONUS CONTENT: How to find unindexed content on FamilySearch
https://youtu.be/ltho2iCUi5M?t=5439
Helpful Links
- DNAPainter.com
Shared cM tool
Chromosome Map tool
WATO (What are the Odds?) tool - GEDMATCH.com
Free and Subscription tools that offer a variety of options for doing more with your DNA. Also very helpful for putting DNA and GEDCOM in a shared database. AncestryDNA doesn’t let you see shared DNA segment data, but you can download your AncestryDNA kit and upload it to GEDMATCH to work with your matches like you would on FTDNA. - Download SPECULATIVE ANCESTOR graphics here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qqGDLE_kbLiyotKNzdNTvNn3sJ0uws_l?usp=sharing
- Quick Links to Eastern North Carolina county records on FamilySearch
https://www.eastcarolinaroots.com/quick-links-to-familysearch-records-by-county/ - DNAFamilyTrees video about How to use WATO (What are the Odds?) tool at DNAPainter
https://youtu.be/7e5AJ2Ezbes - BlaineBettinger video about How to use DNAPainter’s Chromosome Map tool
https://youtu.be/wyjcJxywTZI
Family History Fanatics has several great videos on using all kinds of DNA tools
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmkKepHoafldMRZ4UNt0Akw
Hello, this was so much help to advance my understanding of genetic genealogy. Do you ever work with the police dept to solve cold cases?
Hello Miranda! No, I’ve never worked with police departments before. I think it’s amazing how DNA has been used to solve cold cases, though!