The value of Gedmatch

The community of people who are doing autosomal testing is growing. The three largest company's, Familytree DNA, 23andme and Ancestry each has their benefits and disadvantages. Testers at ancestry are able to transfer their data to familytree DNA for free with limited results, and for a small fee they can unlock all the matches there. If however you test with 23andme you are stuck with results from that company. If you test with ancestry you are severely limited by the lack of an ability to compare segments. Which means they will tell you if your match has the same tree, but you have no way to triangulate the matches.

Gedmatch, a free service that accepts donations (and I highly encourage everyone who uses it to donate) allows users of all three companies to compare their DNA results. Why is this valuable? Because the ability to triangulate and identify matches is absolutely a benefit to anyone who is utilizing DNA to unlock the secrets to their mysteries in their genealogy.

So how large of a match can you find? Here are the top matches for my kit.

Details	Total cM	largest cM	Gen		Details	Total cM	largest cM	Match Relationship	Family Connection
A	3549	214.5	1		X	185.6	110.3	Mom
A	3552	209.3	1		X	194.6	119.4	Dad
A	1039.7	70.2	1.9		X	0	0	First cousin	Mom
A	214.1	77.6	3		X	0	0	Half first cousin 1R	Hager
A	233.5	45.6	3		X	83.7	37.8	1 cousin 2 R	Adams/Trahern
A	220.3	35.6	3		X	0	0	Double 3rd cousin	Barnes/Franklin
A	84.9	35	3.7		X	0	0	3rd cousin 1R	Barnes/Franklin
A	61	45.2	3.9		X	0	0	Half 1 cousin 2R	Pyburn/Hardy
A	64.8	36.9	3.9		X	0	0	3rd cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	63.2	24.3	3.9		X	0	0	2nd cousin 2R	Hardy/Nelson
A	52.9	35.9	4		X	0	0	Unidentified
A	59.9	26.3	4		X	0	0	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	59.9	26.3	4		X	0	0	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	57.6	18.3	4		X	0	0	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	47.5	28.3	4.1		X	0	0	Unidentified
A	49.1	27.5	4.1		X	0	0	Unidentified
A	46.8	24.6	4.1		X	0	0	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	47.1	24.3	4.1		X	13	7.6	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt

Here is a look at my father's top matches.

Details	Total cM	largest cM	Gen	Details	Total cM	largest cM	Name	Family
A	3552	209.3	1	X	194.6	119.4	Daughter
A	370	36.3	2.6	X	0	0	Double 2nd cousin 1R	Barnes/Franklin
A	209.6	51.7	3	X	0	0	Half first cousin 1R	Pyburn/Hardy
A	143.5	34.7	3.3	X	0	0	3rd cousin	Barnes/Franklin
A	106.8	24	3.5	X	0	0	2nd cousin 1R	Hardy/Nelson
A	81.9	39	3.7	X	0	0	3rd cousin 1R	Beck
A	80.5	39	3.7	X	0	0	3rd cousin	Brunson/Platt
A	76.1	25.8	3.8	X	0	0	Half 2nd cousin 1R	McCurdy
A	76.7	25.8	3.8	X	0	0	4th cousin	Brunson/Platt
A	76.7	25.8	3.8	X	0	0	4th cousin	Brunson/Platt
A	72.6	23.6	3.8	X	0	0	4th cousin	Brunson/Platt
A	71.7	23.2	3.8	X	0	0	4th cousin 1R	Brunson/Platt
A	64.7	36.3	3.9	X	0	0	4th cousin	Brunson/Platt
A	53	37.5	4	X	0	0	4th cousin	Pyburn
A	52.8	35.3	4	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	56.6	28.8	4	X	0	0	3rd cousin	McCurdy

And here is a look at my mother's top matches.

Details	Total cM	largest cM	Gen	Details	Total cM	largest cM	Name	Family
A	3549	214.5	1	X	185.6	110.3	Daughter
A	1929.5	104.7	1.4	X	0	0	Nephew
A	580.4	106.1	2.3	X	87.6	76.3	1st cousin 1R	Adams/Trahern
A	590.6	74.1	2.3	X	0	0	Half 1st cousin	Hager
A	97.3	58.1	3.6	X	0	0	3rd cousin	Hager/Barnett
A	55.8	55.8	4	X	0	0	Unidentified	Wallen/Blevins
A	52.5	52.5	4	X	0	0	6th cousin	Wallen/Blevins*
A	50.7	38.4	4.1	X	0	0	6th cousin	Wallen/Blevins
A	42.9	42.9	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified	Wallens/Blevins
A	42.9	42.9	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified	Wallens/Blevins
A	42.5	42.5	4.2	X	0	0	4th cousin	Rogers/Rodgers
A	42.3	42.3	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	41.3	41.3	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	43.2	37.2	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	43.1	24.6	4.2	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	38.6	38.6	4.3	X	0	0	Unidentified
A	37.5	37.5	4.3	X	0	0	4th cousin	Rogers/Shue?

*Mom has an unusual match on the 11^th chromosome. The segment, 74 cM long is matching over 20 descendants of Elisha Wallen and Mary Blevins in addition to descendants of Doswell Rogers on over half of the same segment. Those with the family but unidentified are among the matches also matching this same segment. The length of the segment is too long to be noise or a false positive. 

As you can see, my parents have several larger matches. My cousin on the other hand doesn't. 

Details	Total cM	largest cM	Gen	Details	Total cM	largest cM	Match Relationship	Family Connected
A	1929.5	104.7	1.4	X	0	0	Aunt
A	1039.7	70.2	1.9	X	0	0	1st cousin
A	415.4	101.6	2.6	X	0	0	1st cousin 1R	Adams/Trahern
A	230.3	56.2	3	X	0	0	Half 1st cousin 1R	Hager
A	35.5	35.5	4.3	X	0	0	3rd Cousin	La porte
A	38.9	13.5	4.3	X	0	0	3rd cousin 1R	Hager/Barnett
A	33.8	33.8	4.4	X	0	0	3rd Cousin	La Porte

  Yep, those are his top matches. notice that the first four are kits I tested. The other kits I tested show the same mixed results. However, through the ability to match segments, I have been able to confirm by DNA a large portion of my mother's paternal relatives, and about 75 percent of my father's tree.

If the tools are so great, why don't more people use them, or to put it plainer, why don't we get more communication from those that do? A large portion of the people I contact on Ancestry for my tests there, either don't know about gedmatch or tested mostly for the purpose of identifying their genetic composition. On 23andme, well, most of those folks seem to have done it for the health reports. And on Family tree dna, well to be honest, I get no more responses from there than I do from Ancestry or 23andme. Probably 25 percent of the people I contact respond. On gedmatch, because they have had to take the time to put the data on there, I get responses from well over 50 percent, not quite a hundred percent, but much closer than on the other three companies.

For those of us who are actively trying to triangulate matches, it is so frustrating that someone matches and doesn't even respond. It's their right, but that doesn't mean I can't get frustrated if they don't answer. That's why I love Gedmatch, and why I highly encourage everyone to use it if they want to be able to get the most out of their autosomal DNA results.

Using Genome mate pro (free, and easy for me, but several have trouble figuring it out), I have been able to identify parts of the DNA for all my kits in the last 20 months, here is a visual representation of my success for both my parents.