Why You Should Bring Your DNA Results to GEDmatch

I first heard about GEDmatch in Dr. Michael Lacopo’s “Hoosier Daddy?” Blog.  While reading the blog from the first post on, I came across the January 1, 2015, post called “Centimorgans or Percentages?”  There he writes:

Oh, and when I say you should all get autosomal DNA tested in 2015, that automatically means you have to follow up with an upload of your results to GEDmatch.com. If you are only going to test through one company (cheapskate), you can still compare your results to others on GEDmatch.com who have tested through other platforms, and who have also uploaded their results to this site. It’s free. Free is good.

Do it. Do it now.

I did it.  And I found two very significant matches there, which I will write about.  But really, you are missing out if you have taken a DNA test but haven’t brought your results to this site yet.

GEDmatch.com is pretty easy to use.  You set up a user name and password to use the site.  Once on your site, use their tools to bring over your DNA results from FamilyTreeDNA, Ancestry, or another DNA testing site.  About a day after you upload the DNA results, you can start to use the ‘One-to-many’ matches tool to check for matches in their database.

One great thing about this site is that you get the actual email addresses of your matches, like on FamilyTreeDNA but not on Ancestry.  (My response rate from AncestryDNA matches through their Ancestry messaging service has been absolutely dismal.)  Also, the people on GEDmatch tend to be more “in the know” since, like us, they had to find out about the site after seeking more education about DNA matching.

So bring your DNA results over to GEDmatch.  Do it today.