Series. Overview · 1. File · 2. Profile · 3. Projects · Choosing · 4. Matches
You need a raw DNA file, the original genotyping file. That is what GEDmatch can compare with other people.
Not a PDF of the results.
Not an ethnicity report.
Not a screenshot from the account.
Not a medical report.
The company where you tested hands this file over separately. While the computer holds only a handsome report, there is still nothing to upload to GEDmatch.
Where to download it
The path inside each account is different, but the file type is the same everywhere: text with genotypes, not a story about percentages.
AncestryDNA. In the account: DNA → Your DNA Results Summary → Settings → Download DNA Data. The link in the email does not live long, so download the file at once. The archive contains text. Upload that to GEDmatch, not the accompanying report. GEDmatch has its own instructions for AncestryDNA.
23andMe. Usually: Settings → 23andMe Data → Download Raw Data. The file is not ready at once. The link arrives by email, sometimes after several hours. Until the letter is there, this is not a GEDmatch upload error: you simply do not have the file yet.
MyHeritage. DNA → Manage DNA kits → the menu of the kit you need → Download raw DNA data. GEDmatch instructions for MyHeritage.
FamilyTreeDNA. Ordinary autosomal genealogy needs Family Finder. A Y-DNA test and a mitochondrial test are different kinds of research. They do not replace an autosomal kit and will not do as an ordinary file for matching. How GEDmatch describes a Family Finder upload.
Living DNA. The raw file is downloaded from the company account and then uploaded to GEDmatch. A separate GEDmatch page.
Genotek, Atlas and other clinical panels are usually rejected by GEDmatch. The chip and the format are different. Converting such a file by hand is not worth it: the comparison comes out as noise and still looks like a real kit.
Never open raw DNA in Excel
Raw DNA is a structured text file. It has columns, rows and a header that the site reads as they are.
Do not open it in Excel, sort it, change columns, delete “extra” rows and save it again in the hope of fixing the format. A spreadsheet spoils the columns. After that the upload fails, often with no clear error, and it looks as if GEDmatch itself is broken.
If the task is to upload DNA, use the original file you downloaded from the company.
One person, one kit
If you have already uploaded your AncestryDNA file, do not upload it again just because the same file also sits on MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA. It is the same person and the same DNA profile.
AncestryDNA
↓
raw DNA
↓
GEDmatch
↓
one kitA second kit of the same person matches itself almost completely. Inside a project that looks like a twin, though there is no second relative.
It is a different matter when different members of the family tested. Each of them then has their own kit, and that is exactly what helps.
your kit
+
father's kit
+
mother's kit
+
a cousin's kitA set like that shows which side of the family a particular match came from. One match “with me” still says nothing about the branch. A match with me and with my father already places the person on the paternal side.
Once there are several DNA kits, keep a separate table. Otherwise in six months the numbers get mixed up and the wrong kit goes into the project.
| Kit | Person | Test | Line | Region | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB1234567 | you | AncestryDNA | father | Minsk region | Belarus |
| CD7654321 | father | MyHeritage | father | Pukhovichi | Belarus |
The numbers in the table are a sample of how they look. They are not live kits.
Whose file you may upload
This is the place where people most often go wrong with the best intentions.
GEDmatch states whose DNA you may upload: your own; a person for whom you are the legal guardian; a person who gave you specific permission; a person you know to be deceased; in some conditions, DNA from an artefact that belonged to a deceased person. The detail is in the privacy policy.
So a relative’s file should not be uploaded simply because “this is my father, I already do his genealogy”. A living person needs permission for GEDmatch itself. A child’s kit is not uploaded “while we are at it”.
Account, number and waiting
Register at gedmatch.com. The basic work is free. The email confirmation code often lands in spam. The address has to be one you actually read: matches and the project administrator see it. A mailbox you open once a year buries an application as reliably as a closed kit.
After the upload the kit is given a Kit Number. Now that is usually two random letters and seven digits, for example AB1234567. Save it. New numbers do not tell you the testing company. On old kits the first letter still meant something: A for Ancestry, M for 23andMe, T for FTDNA, H for MyHeritage. That does not carry over to the new ones. Name the company in the profile anyway: that is how people look for your tree on the original site.
The official instructions say that after an upload full processing of every function can take up to 24 hours. So no matches after a few minutes is not an error. Wait. It makes sense to join a project once the kit is already processed: until then the administrator will not see you in comparisons, and the application is empty.
Do not upload the file again “because there are no matches”. A day is a normal interval. If the upload broke off, delete the broken kit in kit management and upload the original file once more. Two half-finished kits will not glue themselves together.
Next the kit has to be signed so it can be worked with: profile, visibility and the tree.