This process does NOT remove your DNA from Ancestry.com. This allows you to download your raw DNA and then upload it to GEDmatch so you can actually see how you match people (Which chromosome you match on, which is something sorely lacking on Ancestry.com, but every other testing company has). You know you match people on Ancestry.com but no idea where the match is genetically. You are flying blind. You can't group people based on which chromosome (and which part of the chromosome) the match is on. When you can group people, then you have a powerful tool for narrowing and sometimes pinpointing your research. If you aren't on GEDmatch you are missing out.
They take DNA test results from all 3 major testers (Ancestry, FTDNA, and 23andme) so not only will you see how you match your Ancestry matches, you will get a bigger pool of matches from other testing services. You never know what exciting new cousin match you might find.
When you are done with this process, your DNA results will be in 2 places. 1. Ancestry, just like it always was before. 2 GEDmatch.
Often people take the DNA test for Ancestry/ethnicity reasons. But one of the best (better in my opinion) uses is finding cousins, so you can verify your work and find new paths when you are at a dead end.
1.Ancestry Landing Page; Go to DNA-->Your DNA Results Summary
2. DNA Home Page: Click the settings button/icon.
3. DNA Settings Page: Click the 'get started' button under the Download your raw DNA data.
4. The start of download/verification process: Enter your Ancestry password and click Confirm button.
5. Ancestry email confirmation page: They've sent you an email to the email account you use for Ancestry.com. Go to your email to look for it.
6. The email will come from Ancestry DNA and will have a subject line as follows:
7. Open the email and click the Confirm Data Download Button. This will take you back to the Ancestry site.
Note: The first few times I clicked on the confirm data button is said 404 page not found. Apparently it took a few minutes to catch up, and then I was able to see the download page.
8. Up pops the next page: Click the Download DNA Raw Data button.
It should pop up (depending on which browser you use) giving you a choice of where to save it and what file name to save it as. Just keep the file name the same and take note of the file and location you saved it to on your PC. You are going to need to know what it is named and where it is so you can upload it to GEDmatch later.
By default (on Windows) if you don't know where to find it, check your downloads folder. That is where it usually ends up.
Note that it is a Zip (compressed file). No need to open the file or extract it. Leave it just as is.
First you have to know that they are going to ask for your email address and share it with other matches. I don't think I've had one person contact me via this email address, though I've contacted a few myself, with hit and miss results. If you are really concerned about privacy, go to yahoo.com or gmail.com and make a new email address you use only for GEDmatch. Note also that even though they ask for your name, it will only display your alias to other users if you set up an alias.
1.First make an account
2. Registration Page:
- Enter First and Last Name
- Add an Alias Name for privacy
- Enter an email address
- Create a password
3. They'll send a confirmation to your email address. Read the email. You may have to click on a link in the email to confirm your registration.
4. Once that is done and you are registered you can log in and proceed with uploading the file you downloaded from Ancestry. Click the Ancestry.com link under File uploads.
5. They have detailed instructions that are a little out of date but still useful if you get lost.
- Fill in your name
- Fill in an alias
- (You don't have to fill out the Mitochondrial field or the Males only field for the Y DNA)
- And click Yes to the, 'Please acknowledge that you authorize this data....'. Otherwise it kinda defeats the purpose
5. Continued...At the bottom choose 'Browse' first and find the file you downloaded from Ancestry.com. This is the zipped DNA file you downloaded from ancestry. You have to find it where you saved it and click on it.
Once found and clicked on, the little window that lets you find the file should close. Then click the upload button.
6. It's IMPORTANT that you wait for all chromosomes to load, it will tell you when it's finished, and write down your kit number. Stay on the page until it is done.
Once you have loaded your data, you will be able to use some features of the site within 20 minutes. Some of the tools comparing you to everyone in the data pool can take up to a couple weeks to become available, such as the one-to-many matches.
Below are some of the other cool tools that GEDmatch has: Note for a monthly donation you can get access to the advanced Tier 1 tools (shown at the bottom of this pic). The whole site runs on donations. But it is free for all the regular stuff.
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