Autosomal DNA

I just had a question asked by a member of the Hawkins DNA group who does not carry Hawkins as his surname.  That means that his yDNA test would not give him information on his Hawkins line.  So the test that he took was the autosomal test which FTDNA calls Family Finder.

The Hawkins DNA website that Phil Hawkins maintains does not even try to cover those of us who have done autosomal DNA testing.  The Family Finder is just too hard to organize in a way that makes sense.  Each of us who have done the Family Finder have hundreds of matches who can be as close as parent/child or as far as very distant cousin.  One can not tell without a great deal of looking which line the match might be on as it can be on either one's mother's or one's father's side.  Thus the surname is not simple to figure.

However, I told this man that I would try to add a post today that would have links to some places to read about autosomal testing and interpreting the results.

If you are a total beginner or want a refresher, here is a link to a video that explains very simply what autosomes actually are:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/chromosomes/typesauto/

I think that a good place to start is the following link:

http://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA

This site could keep us all busy for months!

Here is another link that is a bit more advanced:

http://www.geni.com/blog/dna-testing-for-genealogy-getting-started-part-three-376261.html

Here is the link to the FTDNA site where they explain what you can expect to find from autosomal testing:

https://www.familytreedna.com/family-finder-compare.aspx

And then a link to the learning center at FTDNA that explains the three kinds of tests that they offer:

https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/

Then next are two links to blog posts on this site that I have written in the past:

http://hawkinsdna.blogspot.com/2013/05/autosomal-dnafamily-finder-test.html

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2014/07/autosomal-dna-matches-for-me.html

I next tried to add the Ancestry DNA site's information.  They are having a special New Year's price for $79 and I impulsively bought it.  I am interested in seeing what tools they have with their results.  Now I can't seem to get to their help .....I just keep getting the confirmation for my kit....try googling ancestry DNA  for yourself to see what information they have for you.

I am not sure that this blog post is that helpful.....I just looked and here is a list of videos for those of us who prefer video to reading:

autosomal DNA

And last but not least, is gedmatch.  This is a volunteer site to which one uploads one's autosomal DNA results from any of the companies in order to have available matches from all of the companies....not just the company that one chooses to use for the test.

Here is the legal Genealogist's blog (Judy Russell is GREAT!)  about Gedmatch:

http://legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/08/12/gedmatch-a-dna-geeks-dream-site/

Here is a link to help understand this site:

http://www.dnaadoption.com/uploads/DNAadoption/DNAadoption_files/UsingGedmatch.pdf

I have heard Diahan Southward in person and she is excellent.  Here are links for her upcoming Free seminars:

http://familytreewebinars.com/presenter_details.php?presenter_id=85

And here is a link to some videos that are already available:

http://familytreewebinars.com/archived_webinars.php?type=category&category_id=249

I think that I almost forgot Jim Bartlett:

http://blog.kittycooper.com/2014/01/organizing-your-autosomal-dna-information-with-a-spreadsheet/

OK....I need to get started on interpretation of some of the matches that I have available for the six FF participants (including myself) that I have paid for over the past few years.  Good luck to all of you!  I hope to find that one or more of you are matches to one of my children's lines.


Renate Sanders has commented on this post with excellent additions to the information that I posted above.  Please click on the word comments just below to continue to read more information about DNA and interpreting autosomal DNA testing from Renate!  There is also a comment made by Betsy Harwood....be sure to click on the comments below to see more information!