Gedmatch - not sure what use it is!

[sugarfizzle]

It's main benefit to me has been in comparing kit numbers on a one to one basis, when others do match at ancestry, should match with me somewhere or might match with somewhere.

One to many pretty useless, especially when you consider how few matches they actually provide.

Regards Margaret

[jillruss]

I think maybe I'm going to have to eat my words!

I sent off just 3 emails yesterday and this morning I have a very nice reply (gosh! someone actually replied!) from a lady in New Zealand and, from what she says, its looking as if we have common ancestors in Aberdeen. I won't count my chickens yet though!

Perhaps I might go further down the list and send a few more emails after all!!

Jill

[Mart 'n' Al]

Just to add that most of the gedmatch listings are also on Ancestry and no close matches or decent trees.  Also, the trees that are attached are very poor.

Martin - are you sure that these people are interested in their family history as it doesn't look like it to me.

Gadget, I just think that so many people seem to have trouble with their uploads, that onlu the more committed researchers would use GEDmatch.

Martin

[medpat]

I had a lady on Ancestry contact me, on her tree was the same family as I had, on paper we shared 4th gt grandparents. Her gt grandmother never married but had children with a man she lived with.

She had her DNA on Ancestry, I haven't but told her I was on GEDmatch with 2 others who have linked on GEDmatch for this family.

She's now having to take out the family, her gt grandfather isn't who the family said fathered gt grandmother's children.

None of us on the one to one had any links even down to 1cM. 

On GEDmatch I have proved my paper trail for both paternal and maternal lines so I am happy with being on there as it's produced 8 known hits from other DNA companies to my own. I have several outstanding that I'm trying to find the family links.

I have had more respond to me than haven't.

[Mart 'n' Al]

I've had my data on GEDmatch for 3 or 4 months, and as I've been too busy doing my research and other activities I haven't tried contacting anybody, but I am a bit disappointed that nobody has tried to contact ME. 

Martin

[squawki11]

Please don't be too ready to dismiss Gedmatch; it takes time to get to grips with all that it offers and does require some patience and slight ability to manipulate spreadsheets. I've just spent 10$ on Tier1 utilities and consider it to have been excellent value if only for its Triangulation Beta utility. This will give you a series of Triangulation Groups, associated Gedcoms (if there are any) and the email addresses of the TG members. Copying the lot into Excel and adding columns to indicate if there is a Gedcom match, date of email, date of response, is relatively straightforward despite it being many years since I last used Excel.

It's a good start to attempting to discover those "cousins" and won't necessarily produce quick results. TG members may have other things to do and unfortunately although many upload to Gedmatch they don't always provide a Gedcom.

Travel hopefully and persevere - I've had a few successes and found most TG members have responded positively.

[strayer]

I have taken a DNA test on Ancestry sometime ago and now someone has suggested that I should download my results to Gedmatch.

If I was to do this could people still see my results on Ancestry? Or, want I think is would be more likely, I would been transferring them totally to Gedmatch?

I am afraid I am more of a "pen & paper" person!


Dave

[Mart 'n' Al]

Strayer, by downloading your data from Ancestry, and then uploading it to GEDMatch, you then have the opportunity to compare your data with people who have done the same after being tested by other GEDMatch-compatible companies.

Martin

[Ruskie]

Dave,

Your Ancestry results will remain exactly as they are on Ancestry and you and anyone else can continue to access them as you do now.

You upload your raw data to Gedmatch so it is "copied" (for want of a better explanation) and you can then compare it with results of other people who have also uploaded their data from various other companies.

For example I tested with FTDNA, and uploaded my data to Gedmatch and also to My Heritage. Now I can look at my original results and matches on FTDNA, and also on My Heritage (where I have picked up some different matches), and also on Gedmatch (which I don't use very often as I find it a bit too confusing, though many find it useful).