Using GEDmatch Part 6 (The Phasing Tool)

The previous article in this series is Using GEDmatch Part 5 (Alternate To Triangulation Tool).

Twice within the past week, I’ve come across situations where the GEDmatch phasing tool would be very likely to help solve someone’s genealogical mystery. It seems some people may not be aware of this extremely useful, yet easy to use, tool. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to write a few words explaining a bit about what the phasing tool does, and what the benefits of using it are, as well as show the very quick and simple steps to using the tool.

Theodore Stone (1842 – 1914)

Today is the 100th anniversary of my second great grandfather’s death. I thought it was fitting to visit his grave today, and write this narrative of him containing the research I’ve compiled to date:

Using Genome Mate Part 3 (Importing GEDmatch Chromosome Browser Data)

The previous article in this series is Using Genome Mate Part 2 (Importing GEDmatch One To One Comparison Data).

Thanks to some great programming work by Becky Walker, the developer of Genome Mate, there is a new option for importing lots of match data at a time into Genome Mate, using Sue Griffith’s method of an alternate to the GEDmatch triangulation tool for locating shared segments with other testers (as also shown step by step in my last blog post). In this blog post, I will walk through the new Genome Mate import process step by step.

Using GEDmatch Part 5 (Alternate To Triangulation Tool)

The previous article in this series is Introduction To Using GEDmatch Part 4 (Alternate Way To Find People Who Match One Or Both Of 2 Kits).

This week, I happened to come across a fantastic blog post by Sue Griffith. In her post, she demonstrates an alternate method to the GEDmatch triangulation tool for finding overlapping segments. I really like her methodology, but the explanation of the steps seemed like it could possibly be a bit overwhelming for some people. With this post, I want to walk through Sue’s method step by step, providing additional information and screenshots, so others can also begin to take advantage of her great way to find segment overlaps.

Adding A GEDCOM File To Genome Mate

The previous article in this series is Downloading A GEDCOM File From An Ancestry Member Tree.

Now that you’ve successfully downloaded the GEDCOM file containing the ancestors of the test taker, this file needs to be imported to Genome Mate so that we can begin to make use of some of the advanced tools in Genome Mate. This post will show how to import a GEDCOM file to Genome Mate in simple, easy to follow, steps.

Downloading A GEDCOM File From An Ancestry Member Tree

The previous article in this series is Introduction To Genome Mate.

Some of the most useful features of Genome Mate require a GEDCOM file of the ancestors of the person who took the DNA test. In preparation for learning to use these features, we need to get a GEDCOM file of the test taker’s ancestors imported into Genome Mate. In this post, I will show how to generate a GEDCOM file from an Ancestry.com Member Tree, since I’ve found many people don’t seem to be aware this feature exists.

Using GEDmatch Part 4 (Alternate Way To Find People Who Match One Or Both Of 2 Kits)

The previous article in this series is Introduction To Using GEDmatch Part 3 (The People Who Match One Or Both Of 2 Kits Tool).

As I mentioned in the previous post in this series, for some unknown reason, there are times when the GEDmatch People who match one or both of 2 kits tool does not properly report the matches between the two kits. In this post, I will show you how to conduct a check for common matches between two kits using a spreadsheet. This allows you to double check the GEDmatch tool, and has the advantage of providing you with the ability to save your results and/or check for common matches among more than two kits.

GEDmatch and GenomeMate Resources

I’ve read that it’s estimated 80% of genealogy is repetition. Repeating the same research someone else has done, repeating our own searches over again, and reviewing the same sources that others have already gone through, for example. I have little doubt this estimate is likely to be quite realistic. I’m certainly guilty of this repetition just as much as anybody. This repetitiveness also exists with genealogy blogs.