Have you been looking for the Shared Matches Tool on GEDMatch?
Well, it's got a funny name but it's also got more
features than any of the other Shared Matches Tools. Howdy,
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thanks to people like you. Shared matches tools are very
useful in starting to identify groups of people that share
common ancestors and so it's important to be able to see
which matches you share with other matches. Now, in Ged
Match, that Shared Match Tool has a little bit of a different
name. So, let's go over to GEDMatch and see where we can find
it. As I scroll down on GEDMatch, I get to the free tool
section and in that, there is a tool that is called people who
match both of one or two kits. This is the tool that we want
to be using in order to find our shared matches. Now, when
we click on that tool, it is going to bring us to the page
where we put in the parameters. Most shared matches tools,
you're just going to actually click on that match and it'll
show you the shared matches that you have in common with
that but GEDMatch allows you to do some things a little bit
differently. First off, there are two kit numbers and that's
where you're going to put in the kit numbers for the people
that you want to see the shared matches for. Then, there are
some thresholds. So, the first one is the centimorgan
threshold that you want to use to qualify as a match. Now,
this default is set at 10 centimorgans. In other words,
it's not going to look for any matches that don't share at
least 10 centimorgans. The second threshold is the total
matching segments. And this is how much total set of morgans.
Not just a segment but total centimorgans a match needs to
have in order for it to be considered a match on this
list. Now by default it's set at that 10 centimorgans. It has
to be at least as equal to or greater than the segment
threshold hole. Finally, the last is this differences in
generations. Now, differences in generations is between you
and one of these matches and a match and this match. It might
be that you are very closely related to this shared match
whereas the match you're comparing them to is very
distantly related to this match. In most cases, I haven't
found this very useful. There are some certain cases with
where this may be important to changes but for the vast
majority of people just leaving at the default of 99 to start
with is going to be just fine so let me put in myself and my
mother so that we can see what the shared matches tool looks
like so what we have now is we have our list of shared matches
and one of the first things that you will notice here that
is different in the new version of GEDMatch they've divided
this list up into three different tabs and that's what
these are at the top you can click on each one of those to
be able to go between them so you have the shared match list
that's this first tab right here and that's what we're
looking at in this section is this is the people that match
both you and the other match that you put in so it is
literally a shared match list similar to what you find on
Ancestry on Family Tree DNA on MyHeritage and on twenty-three
and me as far as the matches that two people share in
common. In this list, we have the identifying information as
far as their kit number, what the name or the alias they're
going by, and then how much they share with each one of
these two people. So, if we just go down a little bit here
and let's take this person right here for instance. So,
they share 43 centimorgans with me and The largest segment they
share is 29. 7 centimorgans. Now, with my mom, they only
share 12. 8 centimorgans. It looks like it is just one
segment of that 12. 8 centimorgan. So, I can start to
use this to see how different people may relate. Now, a lot
of these you can see, I'm sharing more than my mom and in
this case, what it means is, is that I probably match this
person really through my dad's line and my mom and my dad some
common ancestry several generations back that some of
this DNA happens to be the same or this person that I'm sharing
with through their mom and their dad happen to match both
sides of my family as well so there's a couple of
possibilities there but when we look at some of these others
for instance this one right here that shares 48
centimorgans with me and 49 centimorgans with my mom in
that case, this is probably a ancestor that is definitely
through my mom's line because I shared just slightly less than
what she shares. There's a little bit of that DNA that's
been cut off as my mom passed that DNA onto me. So, this is a
good starting point to see which matches might be from
certain sides of your family. You can use this with first
cousins or second cousins to help isolate which matches are
from a certain grandparent or great grandparent but this is
what is most commonly known as a shared match list. Now, if we
go over here to the second tab. This is where it is more
powerful because what these other two tabs are for is
really a negative of the shared match. In other words, it's
looking at a list of people that only match one of those
two kits. So, this first one happens to be mine and as I
scroll down here, I can see that yeah, this list is
different than what it is from the other list and since I was
using myself and my mother, in this case, most all of these
matches are going to be through my father. So, this is a great
tool that if you have one of your parents already tested,
you can use that parent and this tool to find out which
matches are part of your other parent. For those who are
adopted or don't know who one of their are, this may be very
useful in getting a group of matches together and trying to
figure out common ancestors from those matches. Now, you
noticed here that it doesn't have the information about the
other match. It just has for me because they don't match the
other person and so, this table is a little bit more compact
than what the other one was, there's not as many columns for
it. Now, by the same token, this last tab here is going to
be those people who match my mom but don't match me. Now, I
got half of my DNA from my mom which means I didn't get all of
my mom's DNA. So, there is some DNA that my mom has that I
don't have and that's what's represented really by these
matches. These people share DNA with my mom but they don't
share DNA with me because I didn't receive that DNA from my
mom. They're still related to me because they're related to
my mom but I wouldn't have found them without my mom's DNA
and I wouldn't know that they are part of this in some cases
if you're looking at a tool on GEDMatch for the evil twin
this is kind of like showing the matches for the evil twin
on my mom's side now the Shared Match tool or the people who
match both kits or one of two kits can be used with any two
kits so it doesn't have to be a close relation at all you can
find somebody that you match just 20 or 30 centimorgans with
and you want to see who else matches them as well and be
able to do that comparison but the goal of this tool is really
to start to create groups of matches that are related
through some common ancestor with the matching both kits
you're going to look at well what's the common ancestor of
both of those people and that's what that matches group is part
of with the matching only one of those kits like I showed you
we can use a parent and a child and find a group of matches
that really belong to that other parent even though we
don't have that parent's DNA. So, go ahead and try out the
people who match both kits or one of two kits and see how you
can help to group together some of your matches into people
that you can start researching a common ancestor for. Now, if
you have any other questions about shared matching and what
you can use tool for, put it in the comments below and I'll try
to answer it for you. Now, if you want to learn more about a
tool on GEDmatch, then why don't you watch this video up
above but if you're interested in something else about DNA,
then try this video down below. Our Let me go back. You like
this video?