Shared Matches

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If you use DNA to investigate your family tree, you know how valuable shared matches are. I think perhaps if we knew that we "shared a match" a to historical document such as a will, probate court case, pension file, or a piece of land, siblings living with only one parent and many other pieces of information we use to create a story of a life, think of how much richer our collaboration with fellow researchers would be! In some ways, Ancestry hints can be used this way, if someone has uploaded a photo, story, transcription, etc. Contacting these researcher relatives can be fruitful! I sometimes contact those who connect my relatives to historical documents or do other work on a profile where I'm working. Again, these researchers are often relatives.

Learning the "Boncella Method" this past weekend, in advance of our Genetic Genealogy group meeting, I was pleased to see a new way to look at shared DNA matches. Lately all the talk from genealogy companies are about their new tools, mostly about using so-called ethnicity estimates, but we know that while the ads are about that aspect of DNA testing, the real magic is in your shared matches. Why is it "magic?" Because a group of people who match both you and another person, are all linked to our common ancestors. In fact, some of these relatives may also match your shared ancestor - and shared relatives -- with DNA that was not passed down to you. So the more of these matches you identify and place into your tree, the more "coverage" you will have of your shared ancestor. We just have to remember to look at the shared matches for each of our matches - over and over again. There are always new shared matches! And it is always worthwhile to contact those who are researching. 

Note: while Ancestry calls them Shared Matches, 23andMe calls them Relatives in Common, MyHeritage Shared DNA Matches, FamilyTreeDNA In Common With and Gedmatch People Who Match Both, or 1 of 2 Kits. Of course, each works slightly differently. 



Ancestry

AncestryDNA Shared Matches

 

23andMe

23andMe Relatives in Common (scroll to bottom)



MyHeritage

MyHeritage Shared DNA Matches









FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA In Common With (after you check the match)



Gedmatch

Gedmatch People who match both, or 1 of 2 kits


And this is about more than DNA! Your relative may know about aspects of your ancestor's life you know nothing about. They may know where the family Bible is, or know where other relatives are buried, have photos and stories unfamiliar to you. They may still live in a community where your ancestors lived, and know or know of some of the FAN club of your ancestor, or even share part of some of those FAN club families. Research Like A Pro has a short video with more reasons to contact matches: If I know how a DNA match is related, do I still need to contact them? - https://youtu.be/9py1f524dOU.

I hope that as we continue to learn about new, useful tools, we don't forget about the basics of all research - continuing to gather context along with facts. In my opinion, reading is one way to get context, but even more valuable can be conversation with those who know the people and places, whether online or ideally, as part of travel to the ancestral places. 

We all yearn to visit the libraries, archives and museums which hold the documents and artifacts we want to study, but travel and conversation can be valuable in a different way. While we experience histories, novels and even music of a place, the stories people tell of another time which is in its own way, a foreign land. And hopefully, they will prepare us for the actual place when we are lucky enough to travel in the now.


Valorie Zimmerman







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