Which tools to use?

[glashfordjr]

I am the administrator for two familytree Y-DNA tests and four familytree family finder tests.

My primary interest in genealogy is in tracing my ancestors and relatives from the 1700's forward. I am not as interested in knowing where my ancestors lived 2000 years ago.

I have a lot to learn to learn about DNA testing. I have noticed that there are additional tools such as Gedmatch and Ysearch. I am sure there are many other tools. What tools are available and what do the tools do. I see tons of info, but if someone could give me a brief description, I would appreciate it.

I have downloaded my files to Gedmatch and it says that they are still being processed, but I can do 1 to 1 matches but not 1 to many matches. When I pull up the 1 to 1 screen it asks me for kits numbers. I have my four kit numbers, but I want to see who else matches me. Is Gedmatch only for people you already know about or can it be used to locate new people.

Thanks for any help.

Gary

[Haggis]

Learning the tools

Gary,

Many aren't much more advanced than you but you are just a bit too anxious - the way to learn most of this is simply to look for the help on the websites.

Gedmatch is not exactly a "tool" itself - its a terrific volunteer group who have put together a resource for the rest of us to use while also advancing their own interests which, I believe, is related to assisting adoptees in their searches for family (if I've misstated that, I hope no one holds it against me.) Gedmatch has tools available on the site - notably the one-to-one and one-to-many matching tools but others as well. But you might be jumping in a bit too fast - why don't you look at the left side of the website and work your way through some of their material and forum threads to see if it helps you.

That said, the one-to-one is available immediately after uploading your data. You have a kit number which, if your data is from FTDNA, is usually your FTDNA kit number preceded by the letter "F" ("A" for ancestry data and "M" for 23andme). If you know the number of another kit that has been loaded, you can compare immediately. If not, you just have to wait until the data processing is complete. Then use the one-to-many to provide you with matches and their kit numbers. You'll be able to use the "select" box in the resulting table to pick a few likely suspects and run additional comparisons against their data, etc., etc.

Good luck - Gedmatch is a great resource.

[Jim Barrett]

Gary,

GEDmatch is a great tool. It does take a while for them to complete their processing of your data.

Yshearch has MANY problems and FTDNA is not making any effort to correct them.