LivingDNA have extended match lists

[Craclyn]

Good luck Liz. I hope your matches line up the way you expect them to. It is a shame they do not run the matching process more frequently. I am waiting for 6 new uploads to feed into the matching at the moment so I can start to get my matches more easily grouped in the shared matching.

[Janethepain]

Ah - now I have names!

Like some above says, they are mostly low level matches and  the 'usual suspects' - those who (like me!) have uploaded to multi platforms, and you cant find how they match you on any of them!!!

But, maybe there will be some that might help.......

[Craclyn]

A lot of them are on other platforms, but not all. Some of those I have been in contact with over the past couple of days have only tested on LivingDNA. One of them, who was complaining about not having enough matches, surprised me a little with her reaction when I suggested she could remedy that by uploading to the other sites. She said she had chosen LivingDNA specifically because of the way they adhered to GDPR and would not put her results anywhere else.

[midlandslass]

I have asked LivingDNA to delete all the accounts I uploaded.
They are already on MyHeritage, Gedmatch, Ancestry and MyFTDNA and I couldn't see any value to having them there.

[Janethepain]

The biggest problem is that being comparatively low level matches , only one match over 50cM, and the next one below that is under 37 cM, they are unlikely to be 1-3 rd degree cousins, unlikely to have surnames that you necessarily recognise, and you are therefor unable to link them to any given branch of your family tree.

You may be lucky to find somebody you know from another platform among your matches, and due to success  on the other platform, be able to link your joint matches with them on Living to that same branch, but otherwise, unless you message people in some wholesale manner looking for clues from them, how do you make use of the Living infirmation??  I know that such wholesale messaging is frowned upon, and anyway the whole point is to have the pleasure of working it out for 'yourself' (with lots of site help sometimes), and then letting your close 'cousins' know, then basking in the 'glow'!  This is one of the pleasures of this hobby!  After 10 years of searching for the wearabouts/?death of a 3xGGmother, it was a great pleasure to find her under a really mangled surname on the 1851 census, and then I knew exactly who I wanted to let know first, a 4th cousin who lived close to me, who of course I did not know before, but who had been searching much longer than me!! We had an email chuckle together that evening!

It would really help if a tree was allowed, like on other sites to help you categorise your matches into family groups!  That would be wonderful. Not many of us, i imagine can afford to pay for multiple subscriptions to theses various platforms.  I use Ancestry for the obvious reasons, and while not ideal (no chromasome browser among them), I don't see that changing any time soon - though a free access long weekend on 'Find my Past' last year did tempt me. 

So ancestry is it for me, the other platforms are sometimes useful, but absolutely suplementary in nature, as I don't have contracts with them, so I am lucky to see the matches, I even have trees on them (except Living), but I don't/can't use their paid services. It is true that occasionally you do come up with a gem on them of course!

Well thats my thoughts on Living:-

Much better than before, but without a tree, or even just somewhere  to log family names of interest, it will definitely be fifth among not equals!

Jane x

[Craclyn]

I have asked LivingDNA to delete all the accounts I uploaded.
They are already on MyHeritage, Gedmatch, Ancestry and MyFTDNA and I couldn't see any value to having them there.

If you do that you miss out on the opportunity to connect with any match that may only have tested at LivingDNA.

[midlandslass]

I have asked LivingDNA to delete all the accounts I uploaded.
They are already on MyHeritage, Gedmatch, Ancestry and MyFTDNA and I couldn't see any value to having them there.

If you do that you miss out on the opportunity to connect with any match that may only have tested at LivingDNA.

Of course I understand that.

[Liz_in_Sussex]

An update: well nothing has happened! 

I uploaded my DNA on Wednesday 13th and comments on here suggested that LivingDNA had done an update of matches on the Monday night - so I was excitedly looking forward to what I might find today (2 weeks later - they still say they update ever 2 weeks).

A "good" outcome would be that they are behind because of the Bank Holiday - but do computers take holidays? So, I have contacted them again to let them know that now neither I nor my Dad have any matches which is odd because we should at least match each other and asked if they could  check what is going on.

I was so disappointed!

Liz

[Craclyn]

I am also still waiting. I uploaded several kits on 11th May and am not seeing any matches for them yet.