How To Download Your Ancestry DNA Test Results (Updated For 2024)

The previous article in this series is Chromosome Mapping And GEDmatch: An Overview Of What They Are And What The Benefits Are.

After they learn of the benefits of using the GEDmatch website, I am frequently told by my Ancestry DNA matches that they would like to use the GEDmatch tools, but are unsure how to get their Ancestry DNA test results to the GEDmatch site and how to interpret the data the site provides. The purpose of this post is to show, in easy to understand steps, how to get your Ancestry DNA test results downloaded to your computer so they can then be uploaded to the GEDmatch site. My next blog post will show how to take this downloaded file and get it properly uploaded to the GEDmatch site. Then, I will begin a series of posts showing how to start using the GEDmatch site and tools.

Prior to writing this post, I’ve been referring people to Roberta Estes’ blog post on how to download your Ancestry DNA test results. My purpose in creating my own post is not to take away from Roberta’s post, but to complement it with additional information, such as the corresponding step of uploading the file you’ve downloaded to the GEDmatch site. Roberta has done an excellent job of outlining the download steps, although Ancestry has subsequently made changes to some of the screens shown, which is another reason I wanted to offer an updated version of the steps involved. Roberta’s blog is one that I highly recommend you take a look at as you continue to learn more about using DNA testing in your genealogy research.

Click here if you’d like to open the Ancestry.com website in a new window/tab to make it easier to follow along with these steps.

1) The first step to downloading your Ancestry DNA test results is to sign in to the Ancestry.com website. After signing in to your Ancestry.com account, go to the DNA dropdown menu at the top of the page and click on Your Results Summary.

2) On the next page page, click on the Settings box at the top right.

3) On the next page, scroll to the bottom and click on Download DNA data.

4) On the next page, click in the box next to “I understand that after I download my DNA Data…” and then click Continue.

5) Verify your account either by receiving a code via email or by entering your Ancestry password. Ancestry will then email you instructions for how to download your DNA data file. This email may take up to 24 hours to show up in your inbox, although it usually only takes a few minutes.

6) Once you receive the email, click the Download DNA Data button.

7) Ancestry.com will open in your browser and give you a Download DNA Data button. When you click on this button, you should have the option to determine where on your computer you want to save the downloaded file. I would suggest saving it on your desktop to make it easy to find.

The downloaded file will be in a zipped (compressed) archive format, which ends with the .zip extension. While you can unzip the zipped archive file, and then open the file in a word processor or text editor if you would like to see what it looks like, you need to keep a copy of the zipped archive as this is the file format the GEDmatch site uses.

Note to Macintosh users: When downloading a zipped archive folder on the Macintosh, the resulting file is usually automatically unzipped, placing the unzipped file in your downloads folder and the zipped archive file in the Trash. In these cases, you need to retrieve the zipped archive file from the Trash and move it to a different folder (the Download folder or Documents folder are good choices) in order to upload the file to the GEDmatch website.

Congratulations, you have successfully downloaded your Ancestry DNA test results file! If you experience any problems while following these steps, or notice that a screen has changed from what I’ve shown in the screenshots, please let me know by commenting on this thread or sending me an email. Next, we’ll upload our file to GEDmatch so we can begin making DNA comparisons. Thanks for reading.

The next article in this series is How To Upload Your Ancestry DNA Test Results To GEDmatch (Updated For 2024).