Finding DNA Matches at 23andMe

Profile manager: Ellen Smith [send private message]

NOTE: The advice on this page was written in 2015 to help answer member questions about using 23andMe utilities. 23andMe has significantly enhanced its genealogy-related features and documentation since 2015, so the details on this page are no longer current.

OK, you've received your DNA test results from 23andMe. You log in to the website and you see your mtDNA haplogroup and (if you're a male) your yDNA haplogroup. Now what do you need to do to access your autosomal DNA data and use the data to find matches with cousins?

1. On your home page at 23andMe, go to the "Family and Friends" menu and select "DNA Relatives." You will see a display of up to about 1000 other 23andMe and users who share significant autosomal DNA with you. The display includes their mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups, the number of segments they share, and the percentage of their DNA they share. Some people will also display a name and a public profile (visible only to 23andMe members) that includes details like family locations and surnames and possibly a link to a family tree.
2. Click on the "Update Your Profile" button to set up your own public profile, which will help you attract cousins.
3. Send "introductions" or "messages" to other people on your DNA Relatives list to ask them to share genome data with you, so you can see matches. Experienced 23andMe users suggest that you start out with people near the top of the display who have public profiles. The people near the top of the display are your closest DNA relatives and people with public profiles are more likely to be willing to share data.
4. Once you are sharing data with somebody, go to the "My Results" menu and select "Ancestry Tools." Under "Ancestry Tools" select "Family Inheritance: Advanced". That will take you to a page where you can see the DNA segments you share with people who have agreed to share data with you. The page offers two different ways to do that:

   (A) The main feature of the page is a utility that allows you to compare one person's genome data (for example, your own data) with data for up to five others, and see a graphical display of the 23 chromosomes with color-coded indications of where they match. This is the easiest way to see your matches.

   (B) Near the bottom of the page there's a link to "aggregate" your shared DNA segments and download the results. You can view (and manipulate) the downloaded results in a spreadsheet.

5. Use the utility on this page to compare the data for other people who are sharing with you, to see if you have a 3-way match (see Triangulation for Autosomal DNA and Triangulation: Proving a Common Ancestor for more details).

For example, suppose you discover that you and Brian Smith have a match on chromosome 10 at 55,000,000 (55M) to 78,000,000 (78M) and you and Susan Jones have a match on chromosome 10 at 55,000,000 (55M) to 71,000,000 (71M). To find out whether the three of you have a common ancestor, use the utility on this page to see if Brian Smith and Susan Jones match with each other on that same area of chromosome 10. Suppose you find that Brian and Susan match between 36,000,000 (36M) and 71,000,000 (71M); that strongly suggests that the three of you all inherited that bit of DNA from the same ancestor. On the other hand, you might find that Brian and Susan don't have any match; that means that both of Brian and Susan are your DNA cousins, but there's no DNA indication that the three of you have a common ancestor.