GEDmatch
Michael Lewis
Daniel C. Lewis
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Joe Murray
Dave Lewis
Some thoughts:
I use GEDmatch some, some for fun and some for serious research.
Some of its better tools are not free, but you can pay a monthly
fee and consolidate your work, if you plan well. But most of the
commercial sites now have similar tools. Some tools can be found
free on the Internet. A better, more intense researcher may
disagree with what I just said. I don't know all that it can do.
The original value of GEDmatch is that it consolidates DNA from
numerous sites. But, as Joe says, the distance between many of us
is too great to still have common autosomal DNA to compare. There
is nothing we can do about that, and it renders the site useless
for cousins too far removed. If we all branch from Edmund, or even
his children, all sites are useless for autosomal DNA with distant
cousins. I don't believe GEDmatch has anything to do with Y-DNA.
A problem with GEDmatch is the news that broke a year or so ago
about it being used for law enforcement purposes and not just
genealogy research. Many people are already nervous about putting
their DNA out on public sites. That revelation just raised the
level of uncertainty for many. I have very socially responsible
friends, who have no concerns about legal issues, who pulled their
DNA from the site once that news broke. There really are not that
many people who use GEDmatch compared with the number of matches
now on the commercial sites.
A person's DNA record belongs to that person. We can download our
results and copy them to another site. To do that can be free, but
with very limited access. With a fee, you can get all or most of
the services. But, again, that doesn't help for distant cousins.
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Dave Lewis
Let me add some more thoughts. Sorry for taking up everyone's time.
Personally, I think the only way to add clarity to how we are
related is through FTDNA's Big Y. However, I think only the
descendants of Edmund's son Thomas would benefit, as the other
sons represented in our group have only one or two individuals
included, and one person doesn't work. And, the only group below
Thomas that would benefit, in my opinion, is the Southern Branch,
as most of the other Thomas descendant lineages within the Thomas
group have been pretty much figured out. And, more testing Big Y
within the southern branch would only serve to satisfy one's
curiosity about the genetic character of the group, as the
lineages represented within the branch have been figured out back
to Samuel.
It may be that autosomal DNA might be able
to bridge the gap between the southern branch and its probable
link to the New Jersey branch of Thomas's descendants. I have 8 or
so quite distant matches, that are clear Lewis matches, who have
trees that link mostly to one or another son of Edward, b. 1712 NJ
(his date of birth does vary). But two or three of the matches do
link to other lineages descending from Edmund. Problem is in some
cases the documentation these matches present, if they have any,
do not match the trees, so for the time being I'm stymied on this.
These are all northern tier lineages (NJ>PA>IL>IA>WI,
or similar). I need to study this, but at the moment (a very long
moment of several months) I've been researching around a match
that could be significant for the advancing the southern branch
back in time. I've done the online record searches (which is
pretty good but not perfect) and delved into genetic
triangulation, which I had not done before. But for one glitch in
the triangulations, I would be ready to present this. As it
stands, I'm 95%-plus certain of the authenticity of the match, but
have some lingering doubts that I'm trying to work through. Wish
me luck.
Dave
Joy Durrett
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