Three Rabbit Holes today

My annual subscription to MyHeritage runs out today so I am madly going through the DNA matches for the accounts I manage there before my access expires. I will probably resubscribe some time in the future when there is a decent offer but I cannot justify the AU $349‎  fee to extend my subscription now.

I am able to use the MyHeritage  subs at a local library or a genealogy society to search the MyHeritage record sets from home so I can't see the value investing in a premium subscription.

My Rabbit Holes of choice today are those MyHeritage Matches, DNAPainter to paint them and the Airtable database I use to track them.

Ancestry DNA testers please download your data

I spent a few hours yesterday painting (or plotting) my Chromosome Matches with Jonny Perl's fabulous DNAPainter but the results were disappointing. I was able to paint in the data for 32 of my confirmed cousins from three sites: Family Tree DNA, Gedmatch and MyHeritage. I don't have any confirmed matches on Living DNA or 23andMe accounts.

As long as one is methodical the process of painting one's matches is quite easy. I have a very pretty diagram that maps from those 32 cousins only 24% of my DNA with 122 segments painted.

My chromosome map so far.

The good news is that I've had more success with my daughter's DNA, I have mapped 39% of hers. My poor husband's map is sadly very empty.

My problem is that the majority of my confirmed matches, 137 to be exact, are in the Ancestry database and one cannot use DNA Painter to compare with one's matches that are only in the Ancestry Database. Currently one can only get the info to paint matches directly from Family Tree DNA, Gedmatch and MyHeritage but the good news is that one can get one's data from Ancestry and upload them to another site than paint away. There's plenty of help on the Ancestry support site to enable you for downoading and on the other sites for uploading.

 Only a handful of those 137 Ancestry matches have downloaded their data and added it to the another database but more than 100 of my confirmed matches only have their data in Ancestry. Imagine what a pretty and nearly complete picture I could paint if these 100 people uploaded to another database where I can compare ourchromosomes .

I implore anyone who only has their data in Ancestry to upload it to Gedmatch (or one of the other sites mentioned) where one can compare one's data with the matches in that database. Uploading to Gedmatch is free, the only cost is your time.

Please give it a go and if you need assistance call on one of your genimate who will guide you through the process..... and there endeth the rant.

I'm no artist but I can paint

One of my favourite DNA tools is DNA Painter which allows me to create pretty diagrams as I map my chromosomes.

I came away from the second day of SAG's Lost in DNA weekend with more ideas on how to use this nifty application. But that was not all, my notebook from Sunday's sessions is full of DNA gunnas (things I plan to do).

The day was opened by Heather Garnsey, the Society's Executive Officer. In opening the day Heather shared "Sophie's Story" which Heather said demonstrated that "Family History research was a lot easier before DNA".  Heather also did a marvellous job as MC on this second day. At the other end of the day Melissa Hulbert, SAG Vice-President, thanked all involved in the event and closed proceedings.

Some of the topics on this second day were more advanced than those given on Saturday and I noted down a few things to follow up and a few tasks to undertake:

• I resolved to store the downloaded DNA downloads I have permission to control in a  organised manner and in a secure place.
• I will explore "Family Projects" on FTDNA
• I will subscribe to and explore Tier 1 utilities in Gedmatch this week
• I have a sub with DNA Gedcom but haven't looked at Jworks - something else to explore
• I learnt about Inferred Segments and painting them into DNAPainter 
• I had already tried the Leeds method that was mentioned (It's not for me) but many hadn't heard of it
• I now understand what Timber is - and it's not woody
• Years ago before autosomal testing wasn't widely available I did a MTDNA test with FTDNA and after autosomal became available and I tested put the MTDNA results aside. After hearing Kerry Farmer's talk I am revisiting my MTDNA matches 
• Veronica Williams showed how she used Genome Mate Pro with Evernote. One day I will bite the bullet and spend time with Genome Mate Pro. Perhaps SAG will offer a one day GMP Handson course for dummies like me.
• It was interesting to see how Danielle Lautrec used Excel. She keeps more detail in her spreadsheets than I do, I use Google Drive ot keep track of my matches and have similar fields to Danielle but I don't store all chromosome data in my spreadsheets.
• A highlight for me was meeting up with genimates and geneaheroes like DNA superstar Louise Coakley. Unfortunately I was so busy that I only took a few happy snaps.

Louise Coakley and GeniAus

Smiling faces

Genimates

My brain was severely overworked during the two days of Lost in DNA. I hope that SAG run more sessions on DNA topics in the future.