Special gift from Jonny Perl at Rootstech

RootsTech 2023 is still going strong. I just watched a session put on by the creator of DNA Painter web site, Jonny Perl. It was not about his excellent site, but instead was about 3rd party tools that are supporting genetic genealogy. If you get a chance, do try to watch it. Below is a link to a wonderful page of LINKS to all things genealogy, created and maintained by Jonny Perl. This list runs the gamut from sites to books. I have included this link on the GG Web Links page herein too.

Many thanks to DNA Painter for their services to us all.

dnapainter.com/rt2023

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3rd Party Tools for genealogical genetic testing at DNA Painter

We have previously talked about the free web site called DNA Painter that supports DNA genetic testing with various tools. The most famous tool is called Shared CM Tool.

The site is run in London, England by a guy named Jonny Perl. The site is mostly free, but there is a subscription level which gives you more of many options. For the record, I am a happy subscriber.

There is a free monthly newsletter which is really a useful item which keeps the world updated with news from all around the genetic testing arena. The latest newsletter included an announcement about the new page on the DNA Painter site that contains links to other third-party tools related to DNA analysis for genealogy. This page is a wonderful set of sites that we should all bookmark. And you can leave the updating to DNA Painter!

You can find a link to this new page on the Tool Page at DNA Painter. For now, you can get to it by clicking here:

dnapainter.com/tools/other

Using our tools

MoCoGenSo’s DNA Discussion Group will be meeting Wednesday with an open forum. Join us via Zoom. Feel free to drop in for conversation and stay for lunch.

They say that the pandemic has given lots of folks extra time these days to work on their genealogy. Perhaps, but there is still never enough time.

The wife and I have done our DNA tests at the “big 4” of course, and every so often I make the rounds looking for new matches. Never underestimate that auto-tree at 23andMe.com – it can be full of surprises. Once built, the tree remains static. But you can and should refresh the tree periodically. It is a pain to figure out how to refresh it, but it can be done via the help system.

We discovered a new branch of 4 cousins in my wife’s refreshed tree the other day that contained people we had never heard of before and the branch was placed in an impossible position. After a couple of weeks of sleuthing, we have decided that the stories about her grandfather’s escapades were true! How else can you have a half first cousin show up out of nowhere!

23andMe.com provides lots of information about DNA matches that are really useful in solving puzzles. Birth year, haplogroups, shared matches, triangulation, etc. Add a subscription to Ancestry.com to the mix for source searching and you can solve lots of thorny NPEs. Ancestry.com has tree building and a bigger match base, but 23andMe.com provides so many more DNA tools. You really need to test at both places.

The centimorgans Tool at DNA Painter is invaluable at justifying tree placement. In addition, Genetic Affairs can create an extremely useful cluster analysis from 23andMe data. I ran their Auto Cluster tool on the wife’s 23andme Me data and am still finding new information.

The MoCoGenSo DNA Discussion meetings are a better place to talk about this stuff. I hate typing…. Perhaps I can show-n-tell this case at some future meeting. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to learning about Gail Burk’s methods used at tomorrow’s meeting. See you tomorrow noon on Zoom.

DNA Discussions Wednesday Noon: Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 897 1823 5118
Passcode: 738495

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• Ancestry com
• 23AndMe
• DNA Painter
• Genetic Affairs

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DNA Painter WATO Beta V 2

is a great website that has lots of tools, most are usable with a free account. We have discussed parts of it here before.

Last week at our DNA Discussion group meeting, we had show-n-tells about various parts of DNA Painter by Terry Jackson and myself. I enjoyed Terry’s display of the new WATO Beta package so much that I decided to subscribe to the site so I could use it. A subscription only costs $5 per month, a bit less if you opt for 1 year.

The WATO Beta lets you upload a Gedcom to build your Wato tree! The Beta includes birthdate and gender as part of the logic. And there is an option to generate hypothesis. Watch out though, this option tends to create more hypothesis than are realistic. You can easily delete pointless ones!

Because I am a subscriber now, I can build multiple Wato trees. For the puzzle I am working on, I have created Wato trees for multiple potential ancestors (they are related in that their descendants join somewhere). Hopefully they will all point to the same hypothesis.

You can read the DNA Geek blog post about this Wato Beta update: CLICK HERE.

For other reviews about DNA Painter and Wato, check out these documents recommended by Terry Jackson:

Leah Larkin’s lecture at Rootstech 2020
CLICK HERE.

Andrew Millard’s presentation at Genetic Genealogy Ireland in 2019
CLICK HERE.

Video tutorial by Andy Lee
CLICK HERE.

Jonny Perl’s Legacy Family Tree Webinar June 3, 2020
CLICK HERE.

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” If I had listened to customers, I would have gone out looking for faster horses.” – Henry Ford

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DNA Discussion Group Meets on Wednesday July 1 at Noon via Zoom

is one of the most useful “tools” in the genetic genealogy arena. If you are really interesting in using DNA as a way to help grow your ancestral tree, then you need to learn to use parts of this site. Many/most of it’s tools are free.

There are Trees, Tools, and Chromosome Mapping!

Our DNA Discussion group has decided to concentrate on DNA Painter during the next few sessions. Join us Wednesday, July 1st as Terry Jackson shares some of his experiences at DNA Painter. We will continue into future sessions for as long as it takes….

Remember, this is a DNA discussion group for all levels. Come join the crowd.

The Zoom meeting will start at 12:00 noon sharp. For security reasons, the meeting invitation will be by posted on this site the day before the meeting. If you are already a “follower” here, you will receive the invitation by email. If not, you can return here in the afternoon before the meeting.

If you are not familiar with Zoom, click here.

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”Did you know that you share at least one ancestor with everyone who belongs to the same haplogroup as you?” – 23andMe

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