Yes you can hire me to help with your DNA analysis or genealogy. I prefer to do personal coaching via Google hangouts or Skype. The idea is to teach you how to use the available tools to reach your goals. However solving unknown parentage cases is something I truly love doing, so those are cases I will take and discount my rates for.
My specialty is genetic genealogy, that is using DNA to figure out relationships and break brick walls. I also can help with genealogy, Norwegian research and some German Jewish. I have an associate who is skilled at Lebanese and Italian research. For everything else, I highly recommend Legacy Tree Genealogists, yes I am an affiliate but I know many of them personally and they are great!
I have spent the last 20 years doing family history and genealogy and 7 years doing DNA in addition to my day job of running a small business for web site development (which I am now mainly retired from).
Contact me with my contact form here or via kittymcooper at gmail.
Payment for DNA and Genealogy Services:
26 Comments
I went through NG and that was Ancestory .com who seemed to mail it back ? My questions are many. I want to know the medical weaknesses in my line. I am ill. Chronically ill. No life insurance will cover me . Anyway, I heard rumor that the USA was cut off from that part of the DNA study and Britain got it , no problem. I will transfer here , because A.com .. did not seem to do a thourough job , except partially on my moms side.
Shawn –
If you did an autosomal DNA test at any of the main companies, you can upload your raw data to Promethease.com and discover what health information lurks in that subset of your DNA which was tested.
23andme does still test health related DNA but cannot report on it until the FDA clears them. However you can again load the raw data from 23andme to Promethease.com.
So if it is health data you want then do the 23andme test
Since I replied here, Ancestry.com
has added many health SNPs (upload to Promethease.com to see the medical information) and 23andme has been cleared to show the health information in the USA.
I downloaded my ancestry raw data to gedmatch. But when I go to the gedmatch menu.”genealogy” 1 to all , it ask me for gedcom I’d…..not my kit ID on Gedmatch. Where do I get that ID. It says it was an ID I got when I downloaded my file to gedmatch
Cathy –
I have many posts about GEDmatch here see
http://blog.kittycooper.com/tag/gedmatch/
Uploading your DNA raw data lets you use the DNA features there like the one to many DNA kit comparison BUT …
You need to upload a GEDcom to GEDmatch to use the GEDcom tools like the one to many GEDcom compare. If you go to your tree at ancestry or your FTM program you can export your tree as a GEDcom. Google that if you do not know how.
Kitty
Hi Kitty
I have recently signed up to 23andme and found I have a DNA relative. It says 18.4 % shared DNA with 27 segments. 23andme have categorised this person as my grandfather – which is impossible given that we are of a similar age. I have made initial contact with the person but I can’t find any chart that explains this level of shared DNA. Seems just under for a half sibling (minimum seems to be 19.42) and too much for a first cousin. I haven’t requested to share genomes yet because I wanted to understand it a bit more before I open a can of worms here! Any advice would be gratefully received.
Bex, you have likely found either a half sibling or a nephew. Those numbers are always a bit fuzzy … It is almost impossible to tell these relationships apart without testing more relatives. See http://blog.kittycooper.com/2016/08/how-to-tell-the-relationship-from-the-shared-dna/
Hi Kitty,
I stumbled upon your blog while looking into ancestry-oriented genetic testing options as a gift for my 80 year-old parents. They’re not avid genealogists so they probably won’t be interested in constructing a full family tree, but they love science and natural history so I think they’ll still find the information fascinating. However, given the level of technicality, and the fact that their computer skills are somewhat limited, it looks like they’ll need a professional to interpret and explain the results. Can you tell me if anyone offers a consultation package that’s geared toward this type of audience. My ideal would be someone who could spend 1-3 hours walking them through the information and digging deeper into aspects that interest them, or showing them how to do that themselves. I checked your link above, but the packages don’t seem appropriate for this.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I would be perfectly happy to offer you such a package for them. I usually teach people via google hangout but you may want someone local who can go to their house. I will email you
Possible to triangulate using a brother, a 6th cousin 2xremoved to verify another person to be ian 8th cousin? Trying to determine common ancestor from 1720 era. Finding common segments on Chr 15 for us around 4-5 cM range only though and a few hundred SNP only. GEDMatch has lowest threshold of 7-8 if I recall. Too high to be of use I think. Suggestions?
My suggestion is to test more of your closer relatives. Yes that is too small to be confident of any significance
Hi Kitty
Thanks so much for all your amazing work and sharing! My mother never knew her father and never gave up searching. Ancestry shows 900cM “out of the blue” match as my closest relative. It looks from his dates as if his father may have been my Mother’s father. It seems as if from the geek dna charts, given his age, he’d be a half-uncle. I’ve heard segments can further pin down avuncular relationships and distinguish them from cousin relationships. The match is 31 segments. What do you think?
Is your mother tested? Yes that very likely a half uncle. If you are tested at ancestry, then both upload to GEDmatch or Family Tree DNA to look at segment sizes.
If you are both tested elsewhere, then you can look at segment sizes and whether there is any shared X (there should not be any significant X if he shares a Dad with your Mom since his X is from his mother)
see
https://blog.kittycooper.com/2017/09/the-25-relationship-a-first-look-at-the-data/
but that would apply to your mother’s match with him
Hi Kitty. Mum died five years ago and she hasn’t been tested. The test is through Ancestry.
Hi Kitty,
I was adopted 75 years ago and recently done a Dna on A.com and shocked to find i had a possible living relative and who my father (died) may be.
I have done an Ancestry Dna and a possible relative has done a 23andme.
We have uploaded our files to Gedmatch Genesis and have kit numbers.
Would it be possible for you to look at a one to one compare and give us your professional opinion. Looking at the Chart looks very promising but a 3rd opinion would be helpfull. I can supply Kit numbers in an separate email. Please let me know if this can be done…thank you, rich
Richard –
So sorry I missed this comment. I hope you have this all figured out now. But yes you can send me your kit numbers via my contact form if you still want that third opinion
Kitty
I did a FTDNA and found 100 cm with Barry Lewis. He claimed he was related to me by the Stoler family and I am related to Jonathan Stoler but now Lewis says we do not connect, but we have 100 Cm with 13 cm as the largest. Is it a false positive.
Peter Toemmes said you help people connect. Pete Toemmes has helped me trace my lineage and found 170 people for me. But this Lewis says we cannot connect as he does not know my names of Kulchinsky, Marcus, Sonnenblich and Leitner but names change and what about illegitimate children that do not match but it only means we have a common ancestor that Lewis does not believe.
Marilyn –
People get worried when they see that there might be secrets in their tree so be gentle. Perhaps suggest that your tree is wrong not his. Does the ethnicity match what is expected? 100 cM can be more distant than it appears, although is is most likely a 3rd cousin or 2nd cousin once removed.
Kitty
My brick wall is the identity of my maternal grandfather’s father. I have tested at FTDNA, 23andme and Ancestry.com and transferred data to GEDmatch/Genesis. I have DNA of my mother, two sons, children of my two siblings who are deceased, a maternal first cousin, maternal cousin 1R, maternal cousin 2 R, second cousins on my maternal grandmothers side. I have painted 78% of my DNA on dnapainter. One of the issues is that my maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother are 3rd cousins and the old endogenous issue comes up. My parents are not related (according to GEDMatch) but from adjacent counties of western NC. Sometimes a match is related to all 4 grandparents. Any suggestions most welcome
Perhaps upload to MyHeritage as well. Test as many cousins as you can descended from the mystery great grandfather. Build his wife’s tree as far nback as you can.
Use clustering on your mother’s results
Perhaps even use the new Rule Based Clustering from genetic affairs (a future blog post) with her and a few of those cousins
The idea is that if you can collect all the matches from those great grandparents and then eliminate the ones from the great grandmother’s side you may get somewhere.
Do you have a male line descendant of the mystery man who can test his Y?
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try to be more systematic about applying them. I am trying to get a male direct descendant of my grandfather to test. Two adult possibilities and no luck yet. The mom of a teenage male descendant wanted him to test but I declined my offer to pay for it citing underage/not able to give consent, etc. Perhaps when he is 18 or over we will discuss it again.
I would think testing the Y of the teen would not be intrusive nor expose him to anything to worry about.
Wait til his is 18 for the autosomal though so he has had a chance to evaluate that himself. Personally I think it is not much different than a fingerprint, you leave DNA whereever you go. But not everyone agrees with me on that. In this day and age of online privacy concerns you are wise to wait before testing him autosomally.
Back to my mystery great grandfather. I have two candidates and I’m wondering if I should do a rule-out with them first. The strongest one is a rumor in multiple members of both families. And he was an outsider, a local doctor. He died before my mother was born but his children used to invite my mother’s family over for dinner occasionally. This always seemed unusual since they were from different social-economic classes in a very small southern town. I even interviewed the grandson of the doctor, also a doctor, to see if they ever heard the rumor in their family and he and his wife (a local person) said everyone in town knew my grandfather’s brother (my grandfather died young) was Dr. H.’s son. A second candidate would be the man my great grandmother married after three children were born. Is this a case you would be willing to take on as paid consultant. Please contact me by email if appropriate at this point. Thanks. Virginia.
OK will try to respond via email but not until Monday
Look forward to hearing from you about consulting. I’ll be away next week so the following week is ok. Thanks.
I would recommend that you get that grandson to do an autosomal DNA test