GEDmatch

[woodsman 336]

GEDmatch, Just downloaded results to the site.  Do people find it useful?  Been on Family Tree DNA for a number of years but not had any real success.

[Dave 7,167]

It is useful for seeing where you match on the chromosomes (similar with MyHetitage). Also useful if you can identify who the participants are on Ancestry. 

[woodsman 336]

I am on Ancestry and the DNA is through Ancestry so hoping might just pick up something from the other major sites. Just wondered if someone else had much success.

[Dave 7,167]

I was talking to somebody earlier about Gedmatch and I could have written more, but...

Gedmatch. I don't use it a lot but it is useful sometimes. It has advantages and disadvantages and I'll put some that spring to mind in the moment. Disadvantages first:

1) you have to put an email address on each kit (it can be the same one) - which is visible to everyone who can see the match. Some people don't like that idea, but I can honestly say that I've never been spammed as a result.

2) while there are a lot of people participating there aren't really enough. You can recognise some who use similar names to the ones that they use on Ancestry, but otherwise you can't be sure who is who unless they make it fairly obvious.

3) this isn't an issue for me but if you have any criminally insane psychopath relatives who are wanted for hideous heinous crimes then they might be tracked down using your results. 🙂

Advantages:

1) using the chromosome browser you can see which chromosomes and in which segments you're matching with another user.

2) once you've found someone you can see all of their matches.

3) if you subscribe (just sub for a month if you want to) you can use the advanced tools like Phasing. Phasing used to be in the free section and I used that to separate matches coming through from my dad and my mum (who hasn't been tested).