Gedcom - has anyone used it?

Just realised I meant Gedmatch.

(blames old age)

I'd never heard of Gedmatch.
If it's free then why not give it a whirl?

Only just seen this thread. When you find someone on Ancestry with a connection to you (maybe DNA or maybe through their tree) and they won't reply it is very frustrating! I've had it dozens of times. They have either lost interest and dropped out or maybe ill or passed on. Who knows? Still, try contacting them again after a month or so just to see if they have overlooked the first message. Wave a carrot, by suggesting you have family information and photos which you are sure they would find interesting. It sometimes works.

1st or 2nd cousin is a very close connection so keep these people in mind. They are very important. What a shame they haven't replied and don't have a tree. It's possible they just had their DNA done for fun and haven't actually done any research, although I'm not sure what the point is if you're not going to find relatives. Also, you don't mention this, but if you are researching an illegitimate line then these people may not be very happy to hear about you. Tread carefully.

You can definitely add your DNA to various other sites including Gedcom, which may yield success. In addition I would use Ancestry to research the family and build a tree, and this might help identify the airman. There is so much online now especially for the USA. Other sites as well of course, especially FreeBMD.

Just to add, I also had my DNA done with My Heritage and it was completely bonkers. I have carefully researched back into the 1700s on all my families and Ancestry seems to be very accurate.

I watched a tv program when an Ancestry subscriber didn’t get any replies because their messages weren’t passed on as the other person hadn’t kept up their subscription.

I’ve used Living DNA as well as Ancestry. On Living they came up with a 50% match. She eventually wrote back. The contact was 10 years younger than me and she can only be a half sister, fathered by my Dad. She hasn’t been in touch again, unfortunately. I’d really would have liked more contact as I’m an only child.

What I’m trying to say is that some people may not want to give any information or may not know of the relationship.

It is possible to track most likely relatives by just doing your tree and using elimination. I’ve done it once with a contact but it took many hours of finding our common ancestry then looking at individuals.

I can’t comment on using Gedcom for matching but I do use a Gedcom for transmitting information to family contacts.

Sorry Cressida, I wrote Gedcom instead of Gedmatch in my post too!

mokryna

I watched a tv program when an Ancestry subscriber didn’t get any replies because their messages weren’t passed on as the other person hadn’t kept up their subscription.

You can still log in and use Ancestry even when your subscription has expired. You can send and receive messages to DNA contacts and I think you can receive messages sent by a person with a subscription. I'm sure I've done that. You can also add names to your Ancestry tree. What you can't do is search for new information, you have to pay for that.

What may happen is the person stops using that e-mail address and uses a new one. Then they won't get the message sent from you through Ancestry.

Chestnut as you suggested I did try another message to the closest match to my children and she replied this time. Unfortunately she isn't able to help at the moment due to the death of her daughter. She does have a tree so I started a 'mystery' tree based on her and looked at shared matches. There are quite a few which link to her maternal family and I'm pretty sure she's my ex-husbands cousin so they will be linked by her grandparents but so far I've got quite a few matches on the female side I haven't yet found any on the male side but will keep trying new matches.

I use Ancestry and have the same problem, people who are close matches but either have no tree or have left the site or don't answer. It seems to happen a lot with Americans.
If you can find somewhere free give it a try nothing to lose.

Just to say, on your Ancestry DNA there are three tabs, Trees, Ethnicity and Shared Matches. If you click on the person you're investigating and then go to 'Shared Matches' you'll see all the other people who are related to both of you. That can be very useful.

blog.genomelink.io/posts/gedmatch-gedcom

I think this may be the site you are referring too.
I have heard of these sites where you can download your DNA data to their company who then for free analyze it.
I am always concerned about passing on my DNA around and wonder if they would pass it on for other purposes that may be detrimental to myself.
I had my DNA taken some years ago, my daughter bought the kit as a Christmas present as I have been doing FH research for many years. The company who did mine and my brothers and husbands is 23&me. I have contact with a number of 2nd cousins but still haven't found the link yet. They are in the same town I was born in so very close, my problem is I know nothing of my fathers side. He left my mother when she was pregnant with me and my elder brother so didn't have contact with his family.
I've received so many people contacting me for information but I find some people don't want to do the hard work of research.
In 23& me you get a DNA family list with the percentage of DNA that a person has and I don't contact anyone with under 1% because there are hundreds of people.
You still need to find that contact through records so if there is someone who is a 2nd cousin just take their name for starters and work from there through original records. You will need their birth date and another other information, father mother siblings town born all this makes it easier.

I've done it - found links to distant matches on the paternal side so I'm now almost certain I have identified my children's paternal great grandparents. I think maybe I've got as far as I can at the moment.

I've uploaded my daughter's DNA to Gedmatch but haven't learnt anything more from the results. The strongest match is a 3rd cousin who is on Ancestry.

Try MyHeritage. They used to let you upload your DNA for free to their site. You can also join for free. You may get some more matches that way.

I've uploaded my daughters DNA to MyHeritage and while it didn't produce any new matches I did get a message from a 3rd cousin who has is also on Ancestry. He has been extremely helpful and has made contact with someone we think is Polly's father's half brother. He was very interested to find out about our family and has said he has an Ancestry kit which he will send off so we now have to wait and see what that shows.