DNA confirmation using Ancestry

Question

I was just about to get started on confirming with DNA and read the help section.

It states: AncestryDNA does not allow you to see exactly which segments of DNA are shared by your cousins. "DNA Circles" are insufficient. 

then it states: Consider uploading your results to GEDmatch.com to enable chromosome segment comparisons to be made.

It uses the word "consider" which kind of implies a third way to do this, but then doesn't give any other suggestions.

Its an uphill battle just trying to get people to reply on Ancestry and tell me their relevant grandparent's name. Trying to get them to upload to GEDmatch would reduce the pool even further.

When I finally get two different people to reply, we all the share the same common ancestor and the paper trail is strong, it's like gold, but yet I can't use it to confirm DNA here?

I get that there's slightly more scope for a false positive than being able to describe the chromosome and centimorgan match, but how much more scope are we talking? One in a hundred false positives?

As long as it's described how the profile has been "confirmed by DNA" surely the bar can be lowered just a little?

 

Answer 1

The section you quoted applies to DNA triangulation - three distant cousins.  If you and another person are third cousins or closer, you can confirm with DNA, even with Ancestry.com DNA results.  See this section of the page:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:DNA_Confirmation#One-to-One_AncestryDNA_Confirmation

Answer 2

I've downloaded the raw data from ancestry, taken it to genesis.gedmatch.com and created a GED file which can be used for comparisons. Not saying you'll get any better answers, but you will see the SNPs.  You can also then list the GED file here in Wikitree for comparisons.

Comments

You can also upload your dna file from AncestryDNA to FamilyTreeDNA.  You won't be able to do a chromosome comparison there without a paid account, but you can share your tree and view the trees of your matches with a free account.

The more places you share your information the more likely you are to make connections.

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Actually, you could skip the GED file part, if you put your tree here on WikiTree instead. If you just add your GEDmatch kit number to your profile here, a link to your tree from WikiTree will automatically appear on GEDmatch (within 24 hours). In addition, WikiTree automatically alert others on WikiTree to look for a match with you, if you're closely-related enough.

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The link from GEDmatch back to Wikitree seems to have broken since the introduction of Genesis at GEDmatch, just like the links here at Wikitree don't link to Genesis.