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DNA Info and Matching Segments Help

DNA Segments Viewer and Tagging Tool

Once the match segments for known relatives are tagged/colored, you can start looking at where those overlap with segments from matches that are not placed in your family tree. Generally these matching, overlapping segments will also be a match to the known relative, or they do not, which means that they are from "the other side" of your family tree (or in some less frequent cases, it may be the "other spouse's" side when you and the match share multiple ancestors).

For example, let's say you and your cousin Jennifer have a segment that you both share, tagged as PPP from your common ancestor on your paternal/paternal/paternal side, and another unknown segment overlaps that one from Cleland. If Cleland isn't related to Jennifer, then his match to you is from your maternal side (it can only be one of the other). You could loosely tag Cleland's segment with M (for Maternal) until more research is done.

So how do you figure out if Cleland is related to Jennifer? Is he a blue/green match, or a Maternal red/pink/yellow one? You already know he's related to you, but how (maternal or paternal in common with Jennifer)? The 23andMe Advanced DNA Comparison tool allows you to "triangulate" DNA relatives to see if you have a common ancestor(s). If you already know that Sally matches you at a specific location, and Bob also matches you at that location, you just have to find out if Bob also matches Sally at the same place on the chromosome(s).

Find the tool by going to 23andMe and choosing Family & Friends, then Advanced DNA Comparison from the menu. The tool will default to using you as the "Compare" subject, but in the example above, we need to change it to . Click the "X" to remove yourself and then search for one of the other two in the connections/relatives box. Then search and add the other person and yourself as people to compare "With" (and others if there are more people and overlapping segments), and then click the Compare button to see the result.

So from the result in the picture, we now know that Cleland is triangulated with Jennifer and Dwight, and we can assign his segment "Line" as PPP as well.





To assign a "Line" to a segment, visit the DNA Segment Comparison page and query all or some of your results to show the match/segment you want to change. Keep in mind that not all segments from a match person must automatically come from the same family line - you both may have multiple common ancestors. If the segment is unassigned it will have a "U" in the Line column - click on the "U" to open the edit box and type in the Line code you want to assign, e.g. "P" for paternal, etc. and then click on the segment bar to the right to update the information. The example image is filtered on a narrow group of results for simplicity.


 

So what? What's the point of tagging segments and finding these connections? Well, remember that Cleland is a DNA relative. And if you don't already know his ancestral line and where they connect to your family tree, then it's time to find out! Reach out to him and see if one of his ancestors was a sibling to one of yours that you didn't know about, and add this information to your tree.

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