Working with Genome Mate

Now that I have setup my kits data into Genome Mate it is now time to see if we can get any conclusions from this.

So I went to my profile in Genome Mate, and looked at the first matches on chromosome 1.

My first 2 matches are my father and daughter, so I "Hide" those ones (obviously they will match me in every segment, no useful data to be discovered there!).

My next two matches are my two maternal half sisters Sandra and Tiffany.  I set them as ICW my maternal Grandfather (MGF).

The next two matches are my maternal grandfather and his sister.  I set them to MGF as well.  

The next match is Rebecca.  I match her at FTDNA.  I can tell this because of the color of her name in the Genome Mate table.  She does not also match my maternal grandfather or my paternal grandmother.  I really should transfer my father's 23andMe data to FTDNA to make things easier, and to get more matches.  Now in theory it could be either thru my paternal grandfather or maternal grandmother. Since I do match my maternal grandfather in this segment, that rules out the maternal grandmother, leaving me to conclude the match to Rebecca is thru my paternal grandfather, Allan Gordon Monette.  I set her to PGF (Paternal Grandfather) and I entered her surnames into Genome Mate, and I sent her an email.  Genome Mate didn't find any common surnames.

Next match is Ethan.  I match him at 23andMe.  Ethan also matches my maternal half-siblings Sandra and Tiffany.  He also matches my maternal grandfather and his sister.   I messaged him on 23andMe and marked him as Maternal Grandfather (MGF), and I copied his surnames into the Surnames box in Genome Mate. Harris is a suggested surname in common, but this doesn't work as thats  not a MGF surname.

I marked him as MGF on my sisters Sandra and Tiffany as well. I've decided to only make Profiles on Genome Mate when I have some other matching segment data, and since Ethan appears in my CoA, I made him a profile. I then had to reload the 529andYou data to get the matches showing. I also uploaded Ethan's CoA

I merged my FTDNA with my 23andMe profiles on Genome Mate.

Next match is Ruby.  Ruby and Ethan do overlap, but don't match each other.  I suspect they do match each other but under 5 cM.  I suspect this because Ruby also matches my maternal half-sisters Tiffany and Sandra and our maternal grandfather and his sister.   I can see from FI:A that Ruby actually has 3 segments with my grandfather.  Ruby has previously told me the surnames of her parents, and this was enough information for me to start building a tree for her. The fact there are 3 small segments has led 23andMe to conclude she is likely a 3rd to 5th cousin, with a prediction of 4th cousin. 

Time for some genealogy research! I find Ruby on Geni and Geni reports that she is my " mother's husband's second cousin 6 times removed's wife's fifth great granddaughter's ex-husband's aunt's husband's niece."  

Mmhmm... Ok....well....I'm going to guess that is not the connection I'm looking for! I add some more surnames as I research quickly, and Genome Mate suggests Johnston as a common surname.  That doesn't work since its not a MGF surname. At this time I am unable to find the common ancestor, if I had to guess, I would guess its someone back in Ireland, perhaps an ancestor of Andrew Doyle...

I made a Genome Mate Profile for Ruby and added Ruby's CoA.  Then redid the 529andYou file import. I actually used the Turbo Compare a few times on the ToDo List on 529andYou on my grandfather to see if there were any other matches that weren't in Genome Mate yet, since 23andMe hasn't sent the Aggregation files yet.

The next 4 matches are from FTDNA.  Denise, Jason, Aina and Nadine. I already know how they are related. I know the MRCA is Elijah Edgar Spearman.  I mark all 4 as PGF, and add the Confirmed Paternal Ancestor.  At the top of the Genome Mate screen I can now see a little colored spot in the Paternal Confirmed Matches bar, and a different colored spot in the Maternal Confirmed Matches bar.  I'd like to point out that I have been backing up like a freak.  

I'm having a bit of trouble, because I can't seem to indicate how I am related to my grandfather in a way that Genome Mate accepts.  I can't put my mother as MRCA....or is that what I must do? Also, usually there are two (husband and wife) people who are the MRCAs.  OH! I see now.  I feel foolish.  I am supposed to set the MRCA Paternal and Maternal.  Ie. for my grandfather on the Paternal side, I list his father, and on the Maternal side I list his mother.  This makes so much sense.

I merged the FTDNA profile for my grandfather with the existing one.  

For reasons that are not clear to me, I can see the two different segments in the bar up top but not in the Segments Map.  OH! I see now the issue here too.  I needed to uncheck the "Hide Segments shorter than 5".  The segment is 6 cM so it must mean 5 something else, likely million base pairs.  Now everything is displaying lovely as can be on the Segment map.  Beautiful, truly beautiful.  Genome Mate is my new best friend.

I made Genome Mate profiles for Denise, Jason, Aina and Nadine.

Next up is a known cousin Samuel, who I have tested at 23andMe.  He is my maternal grandmothers nephew.  I list him as MGM.

Then comes David, from 23andMe. He matches Samuel, and so he gets MGM as well.....

Next up is Debra.....She is from FTDNA.  She doesn't match my maternal grandfather, and she doesn't match my paternal grandmother.  If I transfer my fathers 23andMe data to FTDNA I will be able to tell if she is on my maternal grandmother's side or my paternal grandfather's side.  I entered her surnames, and Genome Mate suggests Lee and Smith as common surnames, but these are surnames of my maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother.

I am now continuing "rinsing and repeating" the above steps for each match.