DNA Plus Trees Equals Cousin Bait

MyHeritage profile is temporarily empty, soon to be filled!

This week's #52Ancestors prompt is DNA. For years, my main genealogy site has been Ancestry, in part because of the size of its DNA base and because my multiple, ever-growing family trees are all housed there. Thousands of ancestors, counting his and her trees, some with thousands of hints to be examined.

My DNA and hubby's DNA also appear on Gedmatch, because of the tools available for analysis and because we can fish for matches among all people using that site, regardless of where they originally tested.

I created a basic tree for him and for me on Gedmatch, and also listed major surnames so people browsing matches can quickly see how we might match, as cousin bait.

New Site for DNA Cousin Bait

Now I admit, I'm often frustrated by how many Ancestry DNA matches have no family tree, or only a few names, or a private tree only.

So now that I just subscribed to MyHeritage, to more intensively research my husband's British, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, I'm transferring my DNA and hubby's DNA there too.

With the new site, I need to complete my profile (sadly empty, as shown above) and plant my family trees as cousin bait. I began with a photo and basics...

More Hints Too

Since I sync my Ancestry trees with my RootsMagic 7 software, I will be able to upload an updated Gedcom tree for myself and my hubby onto MyHeritage with little effort. Thanks to the RootsMagic Users group on Facebook, I learned how to export a Gedcom with living people marked as private.

Now I can take advantage of both Ancestry and MyHeritage hints through RootsMagic, as shown here.

Make it easy for DNA matches to see the family tree(s), and we just might get better answers to our notes or possibly hear from matches who take the initiative to reach out to us! Cousin bait.

Wishful Wednesday: More DNA Adventures Ahead

My mom, about 1939

Yesterday I checked for new DNA matches on Ancestry, and happily, a new match appeared. One I wished for and waited for. Finally!

My cousin L's DNA results confirm the paper trail and photo evidence linking us. He's my 2d cousin, 1x removed. His parents were at my parents' wedding (the photo shows them sitting at a table with other cousins from the Farkas family).

Just as important, he is also a close match with other relatives who I know are from my mother's side of the family.

Next step: Ask cousin L to upload the results to Gedmatch.com so I can analyze in more detail and look for additional matches. By the time I speak at the International Jewish Genealogy Conference later in the month, I should have a number of kit numbers to compare with other attendees.

More DNA adventures are ahead as I dig deeper into cM values and chromosome details.