I am currently working on a Challenging Genealogical Question. It is about living people, so I will not share any details. But, I am making progress!
Last weekend, I attended the South Carolina Genealogical Society Summer Workshop in Columbia, South Carolina. It was an awesome experience and I learned a great deal about DNA and how to use DNA along with some new tools to predict possible genetically related family members.
One of the tools is DNA Painter and allows a researcher to paint the common chromosomes where two DNA matched persons are related in some way. As one paints numerous DNA matches, there can be overlap on certain chromosomes which indicate a common ancestor or ancestral couple. The key is that the persons who have had their DNA sequenced need to share that raw data with other companies who allow chromosome matching, like GEDMatch and/or FamilyTreeDNA. Many persons have had their DNA "done" at Ancestry.com, like I have. But, Ancestry does not offer the donor to actually see the information at the chromosome level. So, I uploaded my DNA raw data to GEDMatch and FamilyTreemaker. And it has opened up some new and exciting possibilities.
Another tool I learned about is an additional part of DNA Painter called What Are The Odds. This tool actually provides the researcher the estimated odds of a particular relationship being true or not. And that's exciting, too!
So, both of these tools are pretty time consuming to use, doing things like looking up DNA matches, locating or creating family trees for the matches, entering the information into the tools and then getting and evaluating the results. But, so far, I believe it is helping me find more clues and creating some pretty believable hypotheses to break down some significant brick walls.
Wish me luck and if you would like more information about these tools, let me know!
'Til Next Time!
#52Ancestors
Last weekend, I attended the South Carolina Genealogical Society Summer Workshop in Columbia, South Carolina. It was an awesome experience and I learned a great deal about DNA and how to use DNA along with some new tools to predict possible genetically related family members.
One of the tools is DNA Painter and allows a researcher to paint the common chromosomes where two DNA matched persons are related in some way. As one paints numerous DNA matches, there can be overlap on certain chromosomes which indicate a common ancestor or ancestral couple. The key is that the persons who have had their DNA sequenced need to share that raw data with other companies who allow chromosome matching, like GEDMatch and/or FamilyTreeDNA. Many persons have had their DNA "done" at Ancestry.com, like I have. But, Ancestry does not offer the donor to actually see the information at the chromosome level. So, I uploaded my DNA raw data to GEDMatch and FamilyTreemaker. And it has opened up some new and exciting possibilities.
Another tool I learned about is an additional part of DNA Painter called What Are The Odds. This tool actually provides the researcher the estimated odds of a particular relationship being true or not. And that's exciting, too!
So, both of these tools are pretty time consuming to use, doing things like looking up DNA matches, locating or creating family trees for the matches, entering the information into the tools and then getting and evaluating the results. But, so far, I believe it is helping me find more clues and creating some pretty believable hypotheses to break down some significant brick walls.
Wish me luck and if you would like more information about these tools, let me know!
'Til Next Time!
#52Ancestors
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