Getting A Little Help From My Family’s DNA Kits

On Sunday I took a few minutes to catch up on the blog written by Living DNA.  Their blog dated; August 30th consisted of some product updates which I found interesting.

The blog spoke about a couple of things; for instance, how they handle and intend to handle DNA kits and about their Family Network.

They have a plan for people like me who work with several family member’s DNA kits. That being that one person often is interested in DNA in the family and they would like to have one account that can look at all the results. The process is called an  ‘assisted activation’. Although they made it sound like it’s easier, I find it very similar to AncestryDNA’s current version of dealing with DNA kits. A living person has to have an email which you would invite to join. That person would then sets up an account and then they give you access to the DNA. One of the challenges that many of us come across when dealing with an elderly person is that they may not have an email. (I’m still working through the process regarding my father’s raw data results).

But what I did find out is that you can upload a kit for a deceased person.  Ok, now I’m interested..  Especially when I know that soon they are going to have Family Networks.

Family Network (Beta Testing)

So what is Family Network? Well if you read the blog they say;

Instead of focusing purely on helping people find unknown relatives, we wanted to answer the question that so many people have: “I’ve got these DNA matches, but how am I related to them?”. Our new tools are intended to do much of this work for you and answer the question of how you’re related with clear, simple, and specific relationship predictions. It will take time and feedback to work on this Family Networks tool in Beta with everyone. We greatly appreciate your willingness to join us on the exciting ground floor of this new tool. 

In the end, we can determine our relationship to one person, but it can be greatly enhanced when we view this single connection as part of a network with others. We call these groups ‘Family Networks’.

They also spoke about this at RootsTech 2018 at the opening session.  They are doing some innovative things (check out the stamp story) and you can find out more about Family Networks on the video at minute 5:40.

They have asked their current customer base to opt in and they are asking people who have other known relatives tested at either LivingDNA or other companies to let their system predict the relationship.

So that got me started uploading my families DNA. Each of them has given me permission to use their DNA. But first I started with my mom’s DNA.  I have to say it’s a little tough finding the instructions on how you upload your raw data so I’m hoping my instructions will help you.

1. For the raw data, I found that you could only upload through their partnerships at either FindMyPast or  One Family Project. I chose the FindMyPast route.  When I arrived at FindMyPast I went to the DNA tab. I scrolled down, down, down until I saw; “Already done any ancestry DNA test?” where there was a button that shows a lock and says “Upload your DNA data”.
2. After clicking that there are instructions and a button to “upload file”. Start with that. It says you have to sign in first and other things but you really can do it after you click the “upload file” button.  There you will see that you can login or create an account.  Then just press next.. there you’ll see the graphic below.  
3. In my case, I was doing it for my mom (a deceased person)
4. the next window for me was to enter my mom’s name, date of birth, where she was born and when she’d died and upload her raw data file. If you are unsure about how to get your raw data file from your original testing company you can follow the instructions given by Living DNA.
5. Now my mom’s file is linked with my file.

While creating this workflow I tried it for another adult (my dad).  This was a bit more challenging. In this case, the other adult must have an email address.. which my dad does. So I invited him to provide his DNA but once we had him agree it took me to the next screen where it asked me to set up an account. But that was the whole idea. I didn’t want to set up an account. But even when I did try to set up an account for my dad I ran into a problem. I’ve requested further information from LivingDNA’s helpdesk and am awaiting their reply. Maybe I’m just not clear about whether this part of the program has started or not.

But I will be interested as to the Family Network because the graphic they showed on the blog of a predicted relationship would be interesting if it was even a bit reliable.  It states in the blog that everyone that participates in the Beta can invite others to upload their DNA results and that the processing time is quicker (four weeks).

I’m hoping that this new development happens soon.