8 DNA Painter - Desiree Colson

DNA painter is stored on-line (not downloaded onto your computer).

It is designed to use with GedMatch results.

You'll need to create a login for yourself (don't worry, it's FREE) at dnapainter.com.

This is what my DNA painter currently looks like. 

(I've turned off my mum, dad and brother to make it easier to see.)        

NOTE: 

The DNA painter does not actually copy your own DNA data, but rather it takes note of the match information that you hold with another person.

Any match you have with a person, falls within a particular chromosome (or more than one), and a particular part of the chromosome/s.

The painter simply takes the match info and puts it on the chart for you to see.

First, let’s get the data from GedMatch by clicking on “A” for our intended person.

 

And then Submit when we reach the required screen.

We need to copy this data onto the clipboard so we can put it into DNA Painter.

Drag your mouse over the match data…

 

Right-click the highlighted selection and click Copy.

  

Now go back to DNA Painter.

Click on PAINT A NEW MATCH.

This will bring up a box as per below, in the white area Paste your info (do not worry about formatting).

Now click on OVERLAY THESE SEGMENTS.

This will show where these matches fall on your DNA.

You will see the below box.

Scroll down to see the segments.

In my sample instance; there were 3 lines matching on GedMatch. So this means there should be 3 places on my DNA Painter showing the matches.

Below is a view of the lower part of my DNA page… (I can only show 2 segments as the page is too large to be seen in any detail).

You should go ahead and save this to your DNA Painter Profile.

Work your way through the form that comes up next.

Use all of the information that you have available from the GedMatch info as your reference… the person’s GedMatch number, name and email address.

In this case, I know that this person is related to my mother’s side of the family (John Buchanan, who is my gt-gt-grandfather), so I’ve ticked the red box.

In the next box for DNA match name, I’ve put “Kay Oakley”.

In box for Ancestor’s name, I’ve put “John Buchanan – Kay Oakley”.

I’ve selected maternal from the dropdown box (as I know it’s my mother’s side).

I’ve selected a bright yellow colour for the match.

In the bottom notes for this group I’ve put “Kay Oakley, M771396, kayrock100@hotmail.com”.

And Save.

This is a wee bit of the DNA Painter with Kay’s details showing (in yellow).

To help when navigating your painter, you can turn colours on and off to get a closer look at things.

To do this, there is a wee ‘eye’ comes up beside each person – click on it to turn on or off.

I often turn off my parents and brother, as the match info for them blocks everything else out.

Now what I’m going to show you next is super helpful in linking an ‘unknown’ DNA match.

This has helped me ascertain that Tony Summers is actually linked to my Buchanan line.

Prior to putting his data onto DNA Painter, I had no idea how he was connected to me.

The red info is Tony Summers.

The yellow is Kay Oakley.

See how the red is tucked underneath the yellow.

It’s a match!

From using this theory as a starting point, I’ve now been able to establish that Tony Summers is indeed related to my Buchanan family!!

This saved more time that I could imagine.

This is just a brief overview of DNA Painter.

Combine DNA Painter with GedMatch and hopefully you’ll be on the way to solving some of those DNA mysteries.