Sunday, September 24, 2017

Useful Links for Learning to Use the Results of Your DNA Tests

I wanted to post these in a specific Facebook group in answer to a question, but my links always come out "funny" on Facebook, so I'll just post a reference in Facebook to this blog entry.

So many people are new to DNA testing or are doing a new type of test and are confused.  There are four main testing companies:  Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage and 23andMe.  Which companyyou use depends on what you want to learn from DNA testing.  For instance, if you want to trace your father's surname, you need to have him (or a brother or another male in the same line with, supposedly, the same surname) take a Y-DNA test and the only company offering that type of test is Family Tree DNA. All the other companies AND Family Tree DNA offer autosomal testing.  Some of the following links will explain the differences in the testing types.  Some of the following links, blogs, pages, FaceBook Groups and YouTube recommendations should help you LEARN about the WHAT, WHY and HOW of DNA testing.  There is another site that should definitely not be overlooked by anyone doing DNA testing.  That's GEDMATCH.COM.  It is a free site, to which anyone who has had their DNA tested at any of the four companies listed previously should upload their raw DNA data.  The analysis tools are fantastic in helping you understand your matches and the site makes it easy for you to contact the administrator of those matches.  I also want to put in a plug to anyone doing DNA testing.  PLEASE upload a GEDCOM file to accompany your posted DNA.  If I match with someone and it's a mediocre match and they don't have a tree accompanying their data, they get skipped by me.  If you're doing the DNA testing ONLY because you saw the guy in the commercial wearing a kilt instead of whatever he wore before his DNA test, and your DNA matches someone looking for a first cousin or second cousin to determine their birth parents, you may face a pretty high learning curve to be able to do some real family research and create some sort of tree to make your data useful and helpful to yourself or someone else.  There ARE times when the heritage only data can rule out things or help you confirm things, but in general it works a whole lot better with real information you dig out of census records, birth records, death records, property records, wills and other real records than just a heritage percentage or someone else's undocumented tree.

A Few of the Best DNA Blogs:
1.  https://dna-explained.com/ - DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy - Blog by Roberta Estes
2.  https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/ - The Genetic Genealogist - Blog by Blaine Bettinger
3.  http://blog.kittycooper.com/ -  KittyCooper's Blog - Blog by Kitty Cooper

A Few of the Best DNA Resource Pages:
1.  https://isogg.org/ - International Society of Genetic Genealogy***  Read this group of pages to learn the basics.  Each of the testing companies also have pages to teach you the basics of DNA testing.
2.  http://www.cyndislist.com/dna/ - Cyndis list of DNA resources
3.  https://socialmediagenealogy.com/genealogy-on-facebook-list/- A list of ALL Groups on Facebook - See the DNA category

Very Useful DNA Facebook Groups [there are MANY more - see the link just before this title]:
1.  GEDmatch.com User Group
2.  Autosomal DNA-Gedmatch-FTDNA-23andME-Ancestry-MyHeritage
3.  GEDmatch Lazarus Tool
4.  DNA Detectives
5.  Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques
6.  Kentucky DNA and Genealogy [this is one to which I subscribe.  Check the list of DNA groups, above, to see if there's one for the states of your interest.]

Useful charts and methods to help in determining relationships from DNA:
1.  https://dna-explained.com/2017/09/21/shared-cm-project-2017-update-combined-chart/
2.  https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/08/26/august-2017-update-to-the-shared-cm-project/
3.  http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2017/03/19/guest-post-the-mcguire-method-simplified-visual-dna-comparisons/ - The McGuire Method
4.  http://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2008/12/21/unlocking-the-genealogical-secrets-of-the-x-chromosome/ - X-Chromosome inheritance charts
5.  https://isogg.org/wiki/Paths_of_DNA_inheritance - Y and Mitochondrial (mtDNA) inheritance
6.  http://www.borninneworleans.com/how-to/what-is-a-mirror-tree/ - Mirror Trees
7.  https://dna-explained.com/2017/07/29/concepts-mirror-trees/ - More on Mirror Trees

YouTube has MANY videos on Getting Started with DNA Research
Example: If you on YouTube for:  DNA Bettinger, you'll see several interviews and classes by Blaine Bettinger.


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