Category: DNA

Do you know how to find the length of shared DNA with an AncestryDNA match in centimorgans (cMs)?  If not, you are not alone.  This is one of the most critical measures of a DNA relationship, yet Ancestry hides it away so that a user probably has to stumble across it.  Why?!  This week three of… Continue reading AncestryDNA, How to Find Your Shared DNA in Centimorgans →

Some great DNA webinars are coming up on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars site.  They are free to view live and about a week afterward, then after than you can register on their site (about $10 a month for a membership) to see them.  There are lots of great topics coming up, but three on the… Continue reading Upcoming DNA Webinars →

Today I ordered a DNA test kit through FamilyTreeDNA, my eighth kit through them to date (seven autosomal and one Y-DNA).  I will be sending the test to my husband's grandmother.  Between this and AncestryDNA, after this kit is processed my children will have six of their great-grandparents tested, one grandfather, two great-aunts, plus a… Continue reading FamilyTreeDNA Sale Through December 31st →

I have used both AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA.  I have worked with FamilyTreeDNA for much longer, so I may be biased toward using their interface.  Both have their pros and cons. Ancestry - Pros: more testers in the database, automatic tree hints and tree circles help find common ancestors based on your Ancestry tree (this can save… Continue reading Comparison of AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA →

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… Continue reading Why You Should Bring Your DNA Results to GEDmatch →

For the first post in this thread, please see this link. When my father's DNA test results were ready I looked through the matches, but got really discouraged.  I couldn't find any connections to our known tree, and a quarter of his tree was unknown.  I came back from time to time to check for… Continue reading My DNA Search, Working to Identify a Relationship with a Match →

For the first post in this thread, please see this link. Family Tree DNA introduced the Family Finder DNA test, an autosomal DNA test that could help find a relative on any side of the family tree, in 2010.  This was really exciting.  Before this, there was a Y-DNA test, where the tester had to be a male,… Continue reading My DNA Search, First Steps →

This week I received an email from FamilyTreeDNA saying they had finished processing one of our family's DNA tests.  I logged in and checked out the results: the list of relatives and the origins map.  The origins map can be exciting, but sometimes a little confusing.  How do I explain to my family what those… Continue reading DNA Testing, What Do My Origin Percentages Mean? →

I have been referring to this chart a lot lately, so I thought I would link to it here.  On the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (IOSGG) Wiki site there is a page on Autosomal DNA Statistics.  Blaine Bettinger has been collecting data from related individuals who have taken Autosomal DNA tests (like AncestryDNA,  FamilyTreeDNA FamilyFinder,… Continue reading DNA Statistics, Average and Range of Shared DNA for Various Relationships →

When I was fifteen years old I broke my family tree.  It started innocently enough.  Like any good family history researcher I requested the death certificate of my great-grandfather.  Since I didn't know his exact death date, I searched for a date range.  Then it finally arrived.  I had that super excited feeling I get when genealogy-related… Continue reading How I Broke My Family Tree, and How I Am Using DNA to Repair It →