Hungarian Genealogy & DNA: An Introduction To Autosomal DNA & DNA Painter

Many members of our Facebook Group (Hungarian Genealogy - Magyar Roots) have either asked or shown interest in better understanding and utilizing their DNA test results. This article will discuss using Ancestry DNA and MyHeritage DNA test results.

Ancestry DNA

Look for "DNA settings"

1. Ancestry ultimately does not provide the segment data for you and your DNA matches, which is necessary to continue forward, so you'll need to obtain that data elsewhere. Download your DNA data file from Ancestry DNA (it should be towards the bottom of the DNA settings page).

Look for "Download DNA data"

2. Once you have downloaded your DNA data file from AncestryDNA, go to GEDmatch.com and create a free account. Then upload your RAW DNA from Ancestry to GEDmatch and allow it to integrate into their system (usually takes ~24 hours or so).

You can upload DNA from 23andMe, Ancestry,
FTDNA, and many others.

GEDmatch also provides step-by-step instructions, though their examples are outdated:

https://app.gedmatch.com/gedwiki/index.php?title=Ancestry.Com_DNA_Upload

You do not need a subscription to use their basic tools, though further down the road you may find some of their subscription-based tools rather useful. The subscription to GEDmatch is currently $10/month and I personally use it ~3-4 times a year; only when I'm trying to figure out something very specific.

3. After that ~24 hour integration period, you'll be able to use either of the two "One-To-Many" tools under the "Free Tools" menu. This will show you all your DNA matches who've also uploaded their DNA to GEDmatch. You may quickly recognize names you've seen on Ancestry, which is beneficial and what you want. Look for DNA matches you already know and copy their KIT number.

Look for the KIT of your identified DNA match

4. Under the "Free Tools" menu go to "One-To-One Autosomal." For Kit Number 1 choose your kit (it should be a drop-down menu), and for Kit Number 2 input/paste your DNA match's KIT number from the previous step. Click "Compare" and the results should show bar graphs and tables for each of the 22 chromosomes.

An example of the "Autosomal One-to-one Comparison" results page.

5. Go to DNAPainter.com and create a free account, then create a new "Chromosome Maps" for your DNA kit. Once that is set up, you'll find a dark-blue "PAINT A NEW MATCH" bottom at the top-right of the page.

Look for "PAINT A NEW MATCH"

6. There you will then copy and paste the table data from step 4. Click "PREVIEW THESE SEGMENTS" and it should show where on each chromosome you and your DNA match share DNA.

Simply copy and paste the entire table, or specific rows of table data,
from GEDmatch; it will sometimes look like gibberish - trust the process!

7. Then you can save that match under whichever settings and colors you'd like. DNA Painter provides a lot of options, so you can be very thorough with organizing everyone into specific family groups and such. Over time, your Chromosome Map on DNA Painter will gradually fill in and this will ultimately help those trying to research brickwall ancestors.

An example of the Chromosome Map that I've
created for my mother's DNA matches.

MyHeritage DNA

The process for MyHeritage DNA is vastly different from Ancestry, while also being significantly easier. MyHeritage already provides the necessary segment data for you and your DNA match, which immediately eliminates your need to download your DNA data (like at Ancestry) and upload it to GEDmatch. As much as I always recommend GEDmatch, it could be entirely eliminated from the process by using MyHeritage DNA.

Towards the bottom of any MyHeritage DNA match's page, unless they have opted-out for privacy reasons, you will see the "Chromosome Browser – Shared DNA Segments." This is essentially the same data that GEDmatch provides. At the top-right corner of this data, you'll see an "Advanced options" drop-down menu which allows you to "Download shared DNA info."

Look for "Download shared DNA info" under the "Advanced options" menu.

The file you download will be a spreadsheet with the same segment data we were obtaining from GEDmatch for Ancestry DNA. With this data you can now follow steps #5-7 for the Ancestry DNA route described above.