DNA results received, now what?

Question

A bit too much for me I'm afraid. Nothing much seems to have come out of it that I can understand or use. Maybe someone else can use it?

Answer 1

I use mine to look for cousins and confirm common ancestors.

Of course, its not much help, if your matches don't provide a tree to compare against.

Answer 2

If you indicate the place you tested and what links or tabs you tried to view on the site before getting overwhelmed, that would help us guide you.

There are two or maybe three main parts to your results -- it depends on what test you took:

1. Health (probably you paid extra and know you got this)

2. Ethnicity

3. Matching you with cousins

Serious genealogists mostly use only 3, and very rarely look at 1 or 2.

To do 3, you need to go to your results and find the part of the site that says "DNA matches" or "DNA relatives" or the like. If you find that part of the site, it will show you a list of all of the other people who tested who share DNA with you. Roughly, the more DNA you share, the more likely you are to be close relatives. The units of measurement for amount of DNA you share are centiMorgans, abbreviated cM. So you wanted to go to your match list, find the people who share the most total centiMorgans with you, and do whatever you can to see or figure out their trees. (You have to have tree information too -- only DNA won't help you genealogically, unless you tested at 23andme in which case you should say so...) If you see a common ancestor in a tree, then congrats! Pour yourself a celebratory drink and send your match a message.