Wanted to give a heads up to anyone who has taken the Family Finder (atDNA) test at
FTDNA.
In the past, you could only view 5 matches at a time through FTDNA's Chromosome
Browser and thus
download only 5 at a time. In the past, the only way to obtain all at once was by
registering at
http://www.dnagedcom.com/
Within sometime this past week, you can still only view 5 at a time, BUT, there is now an
option via
the Chromosome Browser to "Download All Matches to Excel (CSV Format)" :-)
This is a great tool. Knowing which matches you have in common with another is important,
but
knowing what segments of DNA are shared or overlap suggests a common ancestor if they are
also
common matches.
I've used the tool via dnagedcom to combine the kits I administer (my close kin).
Before I combine
the info for each, I delete anything less than 4 centimorgans (cM) and most below that is
just fuzz
and not anything significant. Others, I've read delete anything upwards to 10 cM. In
any case, you
do need to delete and or hide the smaller fragments as they confuse the database when you
are
looking for significant overlaps and/or shared DNA with others.
We could be on the way of making some discoveries :-)
BTW, anyone who is a member of my Carrico Family Project at FTDNA, I've uploaded new
Databases of
matches in common. These have for the most part begun from scratch as FTDNA seems to have
finally
completed their upgrade from Build 36 to Build 37, some lost matches, many gained matches,
cM's
shared changed, thus distance changed. Some members who didn't match each other
before, now match.
Spent the past 2 1/2 weeks on this, too many thoughts as I was going through to comment at
this
time.
Happy hunting and keep us posted
Linda Boorom