Saturday, August 20, 2016

Uploading my raw DNA data from Ancestry to Family Tree DNA

Another place that i took my raw DNA data from Ancestry.com  to was Family Tree DNA. They will process it for about $40. However, I am a member of a private Facebook group that has several posts on how to get the test for free (DNA tested African Descendants). They also constantly post useful and helpful info. I am thankful for everyone in that group because they have taught me a lot.

Back to our discussion at hand, I uploaded my data because each vendor has it's own slightly different way of processing your data. For instance, Ancestry only processes some of your data- and the parts that they choose may not all be the same as another vendor might look at. So it's good to see what the various vendors come up with.

Of course, some of it you take with a grain of salt. This is because depending upon the populations that your DNA is compared to will depend on what your analysis will say. This will be easier to see and discuss when I do a post about other vendors such as DNA Tribes and Gedmatch in the future.

When your results are processed from Family Tree, you will login and see a dashboard that looks something like this:

You want to select the button that is labeled "myOrigins" in the "Family Finder" section. That will take you to the results of your admixture processed from your raw Ancestry.com DNA.


As you can see, my percentages changed slightly as did the names of the ethnicity categories. You can see the differences between Family Tree and Ancestry better when they are side beside like I have them below. Ancestry.com is much more detailed in its breakdowns and descriptions / locations.

...until next time



Downloading Raw Data from Ancestry.com

One thing that I did to help me discover more potential matches (and hopefully fill in unknown gaps in my family tree) was to upload my raw DNA data from Ancestry.com to gedmatch.com. The reason is because gedmatch will match you to people that took their DNA test at other companies. For example, I can see matches to my DNA that tested with 23andme.com or Family Tree DNA and so on.

To download your raw DNA data from Ancestry.com, here's what you do:

Login to dna.ancestry.com. Select the settings button on the right side of the page (see the red arrow above).
Login to dna.ancestry.com. Select the settings button on the right side of the page (see the red arrow above).


On the right side of the page, select the dark gray button to download your raw data.
On the right side of the page, select the dark gray button to download your raw data.
And that's it. You will receive an email from Ancestry that has a link in it. When you receive the email, save the file and remember where you saved it. This is what you will send or upload to other vendors for processing (should you choose to do so).

...until next time