In this post, I will show how to upload a GEDCOM file to GEDmatch.
Click here if you’d like to open the GEDmatch website in a new window/tab to make it easier to follow along with these steps.
1) Sign in to GEDmatch.com and scroll about halfway down the page to the Profile section. At the lower left, click the Click here to upload a GEDCOM link.
2) On the Family Tree (GEDcom) Upload Page, enter the name for your GEDCOM file (examples are Dan Stone Family Tree, Dan Stone Ancestors, or Stone-Wright Family Tree). Next, select your kit number in the drop down box. Continuing down the page, if all four of your grandparents originate from the same area, enter that into the box, otherwise skip this box. Then, click the appropriate radio button as to whether you have permission to show the individuals in your tree. Next, click the Browse button to locate your GEDCOM file on your computer. Finally, once you’ve selected your GEDCOM file on your computer, click the green Upload button.
Congratulations, you have successfully uploaded your family tree to GEDmatch. 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.
Now that you’ve successfully downloaded your Ancestry DNA test results file, this file needs to be uploaded to the GEDmatch website (http://www.gedmatch.com). The purpose of this post is to show, in easy to understand steps, how to take the test results file you downloaded to your computer and upload it to the GEDmatch site.
Click here if you’d like to open the GEDmatch website in a new window/tab to make it easier to follow along with these steps.
1) When you go to the GEDmatch site, you will see a page which allows you to log in with your existing account information, or to register for an account. If you have already registered for an account, please sign in, and then jump ahead to step 6 below. Otherwise, click the JOIN FOR FREE button at the top right.
2) On the User Registration page, you need to enter your first and last name, your email address (twice), and password of choice (twice), into the corresponding boxes. The name entered here is what will become your GEDmatch Log-in Profile, and is the name which will be displayed to people you match, or on results pages. For extra privacy, however, you can enter an alias into the Optional Alias box, if you wish. Once you’ve completed entering your information in the boxes, click on the Register button.
3) Upon clicking the Register button, you will be be taken to a screen letting you know that a ‘Registration Confirmation Code’ has been emailed to you. You need to keep your Internet browser running, and on this page, until you receive the email with the code. If you accidentally close this page, you will need to start the registration process over from step 1 above. Once you receive your code, enter it into the box and click on the Confirm button.
4) Upon clicking the Confirm button, you will be taken to a page letting you know your registration is successful. Click on the Login button at the top right.
5) Login using your email address and password. You will be taken to a page with the GEDmatch Terms Of Service. At the bottom of the page is the option to accept the T Of Service, reject the Terms Of Service, or to decide later. Assuming you agree to the Terms Of Service, click Here in the Accept box.
6) Once logged in, on the GEDmatch home page, about halfway down on the right, is the option to Upload Your DNA. Click anywhere in this box.
7) You will be taken to the Upload utility for raw DNA files page. Click on the Browse button which will open up a dialog box allowing you to navigate to where the Ancestry DNA test results zipped archive file is located on your computer. This is the file that you downloaded following the steps shown in my last post. In order to be sure you have selected the correct file, check that it has .zip at the end. In the Name of Donor box, enter the name/username that your DNA test is listed under on Ancestry DNA. It is important to match the Ancestry DNA name/username exactly, including capitalization, initials, periods, etc. for the GEDmatch tools to work properly. If you are not comfortable having your Ancestry name/username displayed with people you match on GEDmatch, or displayed on GEDmatch search results pages, enter what you would like to be displayed in place of your name into the Alias box. Many people use initials, and/or add the phrase “(administered by)” when managing the test results of a relative. For example, my mother’s test displays as S. M. W. (administered by Dan Stone), although this also happens to match how her test is displayed on Ancestry DNA since I manage her test there. Select the sex of the tester.
Continuing down the page, in the Name of Testing Company dropdown box, select Ancestry
Continuing down the page, leave the haplogroup boxes blank, for now, unless you are certain of what these are. Leaving them blank will have no impact on your GEDmatch comparisons. Under the Raw Data To GEDmatch section, select the appropriate option as to whether the file is your DNA, or the DNA of someone who granted you authorization to upload their DNA.
Continuing down the page, under the Privacy Options section, select either Opt In or Opt Out depending on your preference.
Continuing down the page, under the Upload File section, click in the box next to I’m not a robot and then click the Upload button.
After a brief bit of processing, you will be taken to a screen confirming your upload is complete and providing you with your kit number. Keep a record of this kit number, as you will use it to do your comparisons as well as to use the other tools at GEDmatch. Congratulations, you have successfully uploaded your Ancestry DNA test results file to GEDmatch!
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. Thanks for reading.
As explained in my earlier post, Using Genome Mate (Identify triangulated groups and confirm segments), we now have an understanding of the basic principals of triangulating DNA segments, and know how to manually go through our match data and identify triangulated groups. In this post, I will show how to use the GEDmatch Triangulation tool to automatically identify the triangulated segments you share with your 400 closest matches at GEDmatch and then easily import the triangulated segment results from GEDmatch into Genome Mate.
In following the steps that have been previously outlined, we now know how to identify triangulated groups and confirm the segments within a triangulated group. This post will show the steps to add these triangulated segments to our chromosome map.
In following the steps that have been previously outlined, we now have imported a sizable amount of data from GEDmatch into Genome Mate. This post will show how to begin working with this data to identify groups of triangulated segments. The process of identifying triangulated groups can be very time consuming, and like genealogy itself, is something that is never ending. The concepts of identifying triangulated groups are fairly simple to grasp, but there is no shortcut to taking the necessary time to work through and analyze your DNA data. As one leading genetic genealogist, Dr. Blaine Bettinger (http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com), summed it up so accurately, “Finding genetic matches is easy, but finding the common ancestor from whom we inherited a segment [of] DNA is very hard.”
For awhile now, I’ve planned to write a summary of the steps to using GEDmatch and Genome Mate for chromosome mapping. Based on some great feedback and suggestions from Roberta, one of my blog readers, I’m going to go ahead and post this summary now, instead of waiting until I have completed the step by step guides for the entire process. My hope is this will help people to begin making the most efficient use of their DNA data right away, as well as letting people know what topics I will be covering next in the process. As I continue to add the rest of the step by step guides, I will update this post by adding the links to the new guides after I have completed writing them. In addition, I hope to keep evolving this post by incorporating new methods and tools that may become available for working with one’s genealogical DNA data.
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.
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.
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. Continue reading →
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.
Adventures In Genealogy Research: No Stone Unturned/The Wright Stuff 