welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 224 have you tried sending
introductory emails to your DNA matches on DNA testing sites and gotten a poor
response rate well you're not alone it's all too common in the DNA world today I'll
share with you some excellent tips on how to get more of your matches to respond to you
if you have delved into the interesting world of DNA testing for genealogy you have probably seen
pages of DNA matches these are people who share segments of your own DNA and who therefore likely
share one or more ancestors with you as well these ancestors may be recent or so far back it will
take both you and your match a bit of research or a lot of it to figure out who the common ancestor
was of course you can only research together if your matches will communicate with you that
is one of the most frustrating aspects of DNA testing websites it's truly hit or miss with
getting matches to talk to you if you send out 50 introductory emails you may get 1/3 to 1/2
of them responding to you if you're lucky some do not write back because they are not interested in
meeting matches they have gotten their DNA tested for different reasons other than meeting unknown
relatives others simply do not understand enough about how DNA matching works to feel like they
have anything useful to say to you the good news is you can increase your chances of getting DNA
match responses here are the tips you need to open up that much desired communication first of all
know your contact settings on the DNA service you used there are four major commercial DNA testing
companies used by genealogists 23andme ancestry Family Tree DNA and my heritage of these only
Family Tree DNA gives you access to the email addresses of your DNA matches allowing you to
contact them directly outside of the platform the other DNA testing companies keep that information
private forcing you to contact your matches through the company's messaging feature the
company will then send an email to the match you contacted letting them know they have a
message the match must then login to the site to get the message for some people that's too much
of a bother to do especially if they aren't really interested in genealogy make sure your own contact
settings are adjusted to allow email notification if you receive a new match a message from a man
and anything else you want to know about if your match has turned off their own email notification
setting on the site or change their email so they didn't get the notification in the first place you
will have to rely on them logging into the site to find your message part of contacting your
matches is patience because you may wait a while before someone remembers they have a DNA account
and logs into the site after receiving their initial results I've waited a year or more for
some matches to log in see my message and write back to me patience is key in the DNA contact
game even with these issues you can still assume at least a majority percentage of the messages you
send out to DNA matches will arrive in their email inbox in some form you want these messages to be
powerful and interesting as well as encouraging make the contact want to get in touch with you
and feel safe in doing so this is where knowing how to craft an excellent introductory message
comes into play you want to make a good first impression and only get one chance to do so so
be sure to get the name right this may seem like an easy thing but it isn't always this is because
some people manage DNA accounts for more than one person you need to use the username of the person
you are addressing in the title of your email for example the username of the DNA match or
the recipient might not know which account your message pertains to somewhere near the top of
the body of the email be sure to mention your own user name on the DNA site we usually want
to open with our own name and we definitely want our match to know our name but if your user name
on the DNA site is different than your actual name you need to mention it in the email or your
match won't know who you are in their list of DNA matches if they can't find you on their list they
might think you're trying to scam them and not write back to you your subject line should be
something that gets the matches attention if they are skimming through their emails make your stand
out as something they want to read things like hello cousin we are cousins or we are family are
all good open that encourage people to read the email if they don't follow up after a few weeks or
months if you're really patient try sending them a follow-up email with a subject line like just
checking to make sure you're out there or please just write back to me these are unusual headers
and are much more likely to get a DNA matches attention and get them to read the message then
a generic hello or regarding Smith family when you get to the actual body of the email keep the first
message brief remember this person doesn't know you don't bore them give them a reason to write
back to you the best thing to do is simply state the facts let them know what relationship the DNA
company estimates you to have state the family you're searching for the area in which you are
searching for them and ask your match if they have any family by that last name in that area also
make them feel easier with you by letting them know you would like your response even if they
know nothing about this family or DNA just like a real date asking questions about the match and
keeping the focus on them and not you makes you more interesting and them more likely to respond
to you remember many people who test on these sites do so not as genealogists but as people
with a general interest in family history they do not know much if anything about DNA so avoid
talking about how much DNA you share and on what chromosomes you share it this could put them off
talking to you because they do not want to feel uninformed in the conversation use these tips
and you should get a far better response rate from your DNA matches and remember even the best email
sometimes won't elicit responses that's just the name of the game you also have to be patient you
never know how long it will take someone to notice you've contacted them keep your introductory
message short simple and with an interesting subject line and you will have a greater chance
of getting those genealogical answers you seek from your DNA matches on any DNA website
if you're looking for your ancestors in old newspapers you might not be getting
the most out of every search you want to make sure you find every mention of
your ancestor so next time I'll give you a couple of tips to help you ensure you do
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