By Betty Hagberg. Using DNA in your genealogy can be overwhelming . Where to start?
Start by asking yourself a specific question; look for a problem you are trying to solve.
Who was Grandmother Daisy’s father?
Is John my biological first cousin?
Why is my DNA match with Ruth higher than expected?
I have several DNA matches who also match each other. But where do they fit in my tree?
Let the problem you are trying to solve guide you as to what DNA tools you need to use. Have new DNA matches? Instead of trying to identify each new match, determine which branch of your tree they belong to and concentrate only on those that are in your selected problem area.
Tools that will be valuable in addressing questions.
- Clustering: Group DNA matches into your family lines. At least by grandparent. This will tell you which of your DNA matches are relevant to your question.
- Building Research Trees: If you don’t know where a DNA match fits into your family tree, start with any information you have on that match and build a “research tree” with what you know and can find out about the DNA match. Look at shared matches of your unknown match to help you. It’s easy build a tree on Ancestry. Be sure to make the tree private.
- Creating and then testing hypotheses: A tool at DNA Painter called What are the Odds? (WATO) helps determine which hypothesis is most likely.
- Consider testing or uploading your DNA to multiple sites in to find additional DNA matches and tools to work with.
Where to start? Pick a question.
