DNA – What, When, How, Why – FAQs for beginners – 2025 Edition

You’ve got your DNA test back, and now you have a million questions to ask. Here is a list of some questions and answers that might help to get you started.  Find out about Mickey Mouse, X DNA, Haplogroups, Clusters, DNAPainter and other third party tools, GEDmatch and much more… Q:  Help! I have my […]

Ancestry “Cyber Sale” – Check the site for details ancestry.co.uk/ currently £49 Plus Shipping. Offer ends 29 November 2021 11:59pm Check at Amazon as deals there also and they may exclude shipping – Currently £49, no shipping for Prime members. 23andMe Sales on their Ancestry +Traits test and the Health + Ancestry test 23andMe.com Note […]

This week Ancestry announced that all DNA accounts will now have the update to their new Ethnicity Estimate.   This is an ethnicity only update, there have been no changes in DNA matching (ie your DNA cousin matches).  To get the update, log into your DNA page and open your DNA story  – you will […]

Are you making the best use of the searching, sorting and filtering tools at your DNA testing company? Or are your matches in a big mess? For those using spreadsheets or other third party tools, you may be happy downloading matches and using your own toolsets to sort and filter, but there is a lot […]

This was a presentation I did at the Genetic Genealogy Ireland event in October 2017 Click on the image to scroll through the presentation.  Watch this space as the presentation will be uploaded to You Tube soon. (It may take a few minutes to load … )   Send to Kindle

There is nothing more exciting than getting an email to say “results are in”.  I tested with Living DNA back in early November and it’s been a long wait for results.  On first look I have to say their results were well worth waiting for.  Living DNA is another DNA testing site that genealogists, and […]

Basics of GEDmatch: 1. Run a one-to-many report for your “kit”. Everyone who uploads their raw DNA files to gedmatch gets allocated a kit number (starts with A if it was from Ancestry T if from ftDNA, and M if from 23andMe) 2. When you run the report the system goes off and matches you […]

I’ve recently started a journey of using DNA to further my family tree research.  I have an extensive paper trail family tree from many years of research, but I was really interested in what science could offer in terms of using a DNA test to find cousins and confirm who I thought were my family. […]