DNA Painter - Worthwhile?

[avm228]

Yes you can upload your Ancestry raw date to MyHeritage, FTDna, Gedmatch and on each of those sites you can message matches.  Sometimes usernames are the same across sites so you can tell that it’s the same person you have matched with elsewhere.

However, it is not safe to infer that it’s the same person simply on the basis that you share the same overlap distance.  My clustering analysis on DNAPainter has shown me that I can share exactly the same segment with more than one person, and very similarly-sized parallel overlaps with a whole cluster. (Where it is precisely the same overlap, the matches do then generally turn out to be very closely related to each other - parent/child or siblings).

[avm228]

See for example this (anonymised) extract from DNAPainter of my paternal matches on Chromosome 8.  They are not all exactly the same size/location, but there’s not a lot in it between many of them.  Fortunately the pink-coded one is a traced link so she gives me something to go on in tracing the others.

[hurworth]

I'm finding it very worthwhile.

I manage a few kits, plus a few relatives have uploaded to Gedmatch, so although I don't manage theirs I can see which matching segments they all have to each other.

There's a bit of intermarriage in the family which adds to the fun and frustration - I had to decide how to paint matches descended from one couple.  The bride was a double-first cousin to the grandfather of three people whose kits I manage.  She married her mother's first cousin, and had numerous descendants that light up the chromosome browser very prettily.  In the end all I can do is paint those segments as being from the grandfather (which they are), which is still useful. 

Then there's the issue of the two brothers who married two half-sisters.  I have access to the kits of two of the siblings from one marriage and their not-quite-a-double cousin.  The maternal grandfather of the two half-sisters is hard to find any records for, and his mother-in-law's family aren't much better.  It has occurred to me that on any fully matching segments the maternal side must be from these grandparents and I'm slowly making progress.  There are loads of paternal matches, which helps to determine whether matches are from that side or not. 

[Cavanaghs]

Thank you for your responses! Hurworth, I'm now happy not to have too many (known!) intermarried couples in my ancestry ; )

So, I took the plunge, uploaded DNA from ancestry to GEDMatch and used that data in DNAPainter. I've entered almost 500 matches so quite a time commitment and haven't got a great deal out of it. I suspect the problem is the shortage of close matches. Highest of 288 cM, then 85cm, 50cM, 10 of about 35cM and quickly down to a profusion of matches around the 20cM or less. Is this typical? Or am I unlucky? I've entered all matches down to 14cM and only have 8% of the chromosomes covered.

Of those 10 or so matches I did recognise, most are sitting alone on the chromosome. Other areas have mostly huge towers of large numbers of matches sharing a very short segment.

My conclusion is it would be best to ask contacts I know from ancestry to add their data to GEDMatch or pay for cousins to test. Neither of which sit well with me.

And of course play the long game and hope new and ideally closer matches turn up in GEDMatch. Which is fair enough, and the work is done, but not very productive right now.

My other concern was unfounded. GEDMatch has a name and email address in their database so I can contact a match if necessary. And names sometimes coincide with my ancestry DNA match list, which makes it easier.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone else thinking of DNAPainting! It is very interesting in itself but it isn't paying back on my investment immediately!

[melba_schmelba]

So, I took the plunge, uploaded DNA from ancestry to GEDMatch and used that data in DNAPainter. I've entered almost 500 matches so quite a time commitment and haven't got a great deal out of it. I suspect the problem is the shortage of close matches. Highest of 288 cM, then 85cm, 50cM, 10 of about 35cM and quickly down to a profusion of matches around the 20cM or less. Is this typical? Or am I unlucky? I've entered all matches down to 14cM and only have 8% of the chromosomes covered.

It's normal for anyone who is not American, basically.

[Craclyn]

Highest of 288 cM, then 85cm, 50cM, 10 of about 35cM and quickly down to a profusion of matches around the 20cM or less. Is this typical? Or am I unlucky?

Fairly typical unless you do target testing of closer relatives to assist in your analysis. You may find that you get more out of your testing by working the trees of your matches than just relying on analysing segments in DNA Painter.

[Liviani]

So, I took the plunge, uploaded DNA from ancestry to GEDMatch and used that data in DNAPainter. I've entered almost 500 matches so quite a time commitment and haven't got a great deal out of it. I suspect the problem is the shortage of close matches. Highest of 288 cM, then 85cm, 50cM, 10 of about 35cM and quickly down to a profusion of matches around the 20cM or less. Is this typical? Or am I unlucky? I've entered all matches down to 14cM and only have 8% of the chromosomes covered.

I have similar to yourself. I am non-American and almost all of my researched ancestors are from Scotland

[Cavanaghs]

I see.. well, at least I'm now more motivated to learn a bit more about DNA and genealogy, which isn't a bad thing.  Hopefully ancestry's normal Christmas advertising campaign will bear me some fruit in January-February if not before.

For now, I'm going back to my good old fashioned research!

[squawki11]

Might be worthwhile trying out Jonathan Brecher's "Shared Clustering" free tool with your Ancestry matches. It can be very revealing of how your matches match you and each other and shows them pictorially in an excel format. Windows only and you can set your cMs from 6 to 4000 or anywhere in between. Documentation on line and info re endogamy. Facebook group for queries, too.