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In announcing the new DNA tab, Nigel says:

This feature should probably be described as “experimental” at this stage. So feel free to discuss changes and/or improvements on the forum.

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I would welcome such discussion because, as yet, it is not clear to me how I should be using the new feature and I’m keen to learn how others are using DNA testing in their research and planning to use and record the results in kiwitrees using this new feature.
For my part, at the request of a cousin living in the USA, I took a test with 23andMe several years ago, and since then I receive updates every month telling me of more ‘DNA relatives’ who have emerged from recent tests. There are now a total of 1232 such ‘DNA Relatives’ listed for me, the calculated relationship varying from ‘third cousin’ to ‘sixth-to-distant-cousin’. I have tended to ignore, at least for the moment, anything further out than fifth cousin, but for those whose calculated relationship is third to fifth cousin, I have made contact, referred them to my website and asked them to let me know if they identify common ancestors there. This has resulted in a number of extensions to my database to include these individuals and their immediate families.
My intial thinking then is that for these individuals I should record the cMs and segment detail and the individual’s relationship to me and that on my own individual record I should show my cMs and segment detail and the names and relationship of all those on my database for whom I have the DNA test results, indicating my relationship to them. This would mean that my own individual record would be the only one showing multiple entries under the DNA tab, all others would have a single line linking back to my record. Does that make sense or have I misunderstood some of the thinking behind the new feature?

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Ron
Your initial thinking is spot on. That’s what the feature does, although it does more of it than you have imagined 🙂

Give it a try.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Stupid question: How do I enter data under the DNA tab? Have enabled the module and see the and it’s sub-tabs but seem unable to add data ;-(

Ron in France Website: https://clan-davies.kiwitrees.net/ kiwitrees 3.3.11; PHP 8.0.14

Sorry – found it (‘Add DNA Data’ appears small and VERY faint!)

Ron in France Website: https://clan-davies.kiwitrees.net/ kiwitrees 3.3.11; PHP 8.0.14

clandav wrote:

(‘Add DNA Data’ appears small and VERY faint!)

Your site generally has quite a bit of text/font customisation. I’ve just added something there to change it for you.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

I see you’ve added a “note” for that first DNA record. But thats not really required there – as mentioned, the code does a lot of things for you, including the relationship calculation. I generally use the note for any queries or doubts I might have, and for the person’s user_id on the DNA source site.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

The note was to tell me the name as it appears in 23andMe reports – which is not her name has it appears in the database. I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far – relationship calculation – common ancestors etc. Not sure how I should use ‘Segments’ . I had assumed I should show the segment numbers of the segments shared by the two individuals (eg 1,3,6,11,18 or 1-3-6-11-18) but it seems to want only a digit (presumably the number of segments shared rather than the numbers of those segments?)

Ron in France Website: https://clan-davies.kiwitrees.net/ kiwitrees 3.3.11; PHP 8.0.14

clandav wrote:

Not sure how I should use ‘Segments’ . I had assumed I should show the segment numbers of the segments shared by the two individuals (eg 1,3,6,11,18 or 1-3-6-11-18) but it seems to want only a digit (presumably the number of segments shared rather than the numbers of those segments?)

Good question. Just the sort of feedback I need.

You are correct that field it is currently expecting the number of matching segments. Simple reason for it is that’s all AncestryDNA provide me.
How useful are the specific segment numbers to you? I wouldn’t want to add any more columns, as it starts to get too crowded. But perhaps it’s possible to allow either, although sorting by that column then probably wouldn’t be practical, if that matters.
In my experience, using sites like GedMatch the value of segment details are in mapping connections to the right common ancestors or ancestral line. But at the point of entering the data to kiwitrees you are likely to already know that.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

How useful are the specific segment numbers to you?

Not really useful at all! I was simply looking at what 23andMe provided and wondering if/how to enter it. Frankly, I think the number of matching segments is enough to show in kiwitrees. There is one other factotre provided by 23andMe that seems to give a subjective feel for the degree of match – that is the ‘percentage of DNA shared’ which may be worth considering as an additional field. Their summary report shows for any individual, three things – calculated relationship, percentage of DNA shared and number of segments eg ‘Third-to-fourth cousin, 0.72% DNA shared, 2 segments’ The details of cMs and actual segments comes later in the more expanded content.

Ron in France Website: https://clan-davies.kiwitrees.net/ kiwitrees 3.3.11; PHP 8.0.14

clandav wrote:

There is one other factotre provided by 23andMe that seems to give a subjective feel for the degree of match – that is the ‘percentage of DNA shared’ which may be worth considering as an additional field.

Happy to consider it. I first thought it might be something we could calculate rather than manually enter. But a quick bit of research shows it is a) a complex algorithm based on segment lengths and more, and b) there are multiple algorithms different organizations use. So it would have to be manual, and optional for DNA providers (like AncestryDNA) that don’t supply it.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info