Scroll down for links to other posts in this series.
In Part 1 of this Genome Mate Pro (GMP) tutorial, we downloaded and installed GMP. Today, we’re going to set up a “profile”. A profile is the set of identifying information a single individual who has atDNA data in one or more databases. At a minimum, you will most likely set up a profile for yourself. If you manage DNA kits for other family members, you may want to set up a profile for each of them.
It’s important to get the profile right, because this is how GMP associates the DNA segment data with the correct person. If a profile field is off by even one character, the import won’t work properly. To keep things simple, we’re going to start off by setting up just the GEDmatch portion of a profile. We’ll come back to the other sources of data (Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage) later.
(In the GMP User Guide (V2018-05-28), the instructions for setting up a profile begin on page 21.)
Set Up Your Profile
These instructions assume that you will be creating a profile for yourself. Adjust accordingly when you create profiles for other people.
- Open GMP and click on the PROFILES tab at the top left. (As a convention in this series, tabs and buttons will be named in ALL CAPS.)
- The screen will be divided into four panels: “Profile List” (on left), “Edit Profile” (center top), “Add Match Keys Associated with this Profile” (center bottom), and “Profile Import List” (on right).
- Click the NEW PROFILE button at the bottom of the “Profile List” panel.
- In the “Add Profile” panel, enter your name and then a short nickname (maximum of 5 characters) in the respective fields. You can also enter comments, if desired. The short name will be used in certain places within GMP when there is not enough room to display the full name.
- Click the SAVE PROFILE button. You should now see your profile name listed in the “Profile List” in the left-hand panel.
- If you do not have data at GEDmatch, you are done with this part of the tutorial. If you do have data at GEDmatch, go on to the next step.
- In the bottom center panel, use the “Source” pull-down to select “GedMatch”, then enter your GEDmatch kit number in the blank field. The kit number should be exactly as it is listed under “Your DNA Resources” at GEDmatch.
- Click the SAVE KEY button. The center bottom panel will now contain the word “GedMatch” in the Source column and your kit number in the Match Key Value column. A “match key” in GMP is a unique identifier for a person’s data. Each profile person and DNA match will have a different match key for each database they are in.
- If you have more than one GEDmatch number for yourself, repeat steps 7 and 8 as necessary.
- If you manage DNA results for more than one family member, you can set up a profile for each of them by repeating steps 3–9 for each one.
That’s it for Part 2! In Part 3, we will learn about “templates” and how to turn them on and off.
This post has been updated to add more screenshots.
Getting Started with Genome Mate Pro Series
- Part 1 — Install the Program
- Part 2 — Set Up a Profile for a GEDmatch User
- Part 3 — Activate GEDmatch Import Templates
- Part 4 — App Settings
- Part 5 — First GEDmatch Imports
- Part 6 — The Chromosome Browser
- Part 7 — More GEDmatch Imports
- Part 8 — The Relative Detail Tab
- Part 9 — Import a Gedcom
- Part 10 — Import GEDmatch Triangulations
- Part 11 — Install the DNAGedcom Client
- Part 12 — Use the DNAGedcom Client to Import FTDNA Data
- Part 13 — Merge Duplicates (coming soon!)
- Part 14 — The Relative List Tab (coming soon!)
- Part 15 — A Few Tips (coming soon!)
- Part 16 — Use the DNAGedcom Client to Import 23andMe Data (coming soon!)
- Part 17 — Import Ancestry Composition from 23andMe (coming soon!)
- Part 18 —Use the DNAGedcom Client to Import AncestryDNA Data (coming soon!)
- Part 19 — The Segment Map Tab (coming soon!)
- Part 20 — Create Custom Templates for MyHeritage (and Others) (coming soon!)
- Part 21 — Customize Genome Mate Pro (coming soon!)
- Part 22 — Update Your GMP Version
Thanks for this series. I’ve seen the previous post and this one, but I’m wondering if you have an introductory one also please? I have just started using DNA Painter, and I’m wondering if GenomeMate does a similar job, and whether there’s any reason to use both, and whether you think GenomeMate is better than DNA Painter. Do you have a brief comment on that please, or a link to where you’ve discussed those issues? I’ve used search but not found any. Thanks.
Part 1 was the first post in the series; there was no introductory post prior to that one. GMP and DNA Painter both do chromosome painting. I suppose the way I’d compare them is that GMP is more powerful, but DNA Painter is a lot more fun. If you’re enjoying DNA Painter, continue to work there, and if you want a program that will make painting more efficient and also let you incorporate lots of other information about your matches, give GMP a try. GMP has a huge up-front investment in time, though, so if you’re happy with DNA Painter, there’s no rush.
Thanks so much. I’ll keep reading this series and see if I want the extra features.
Did you send an email with more homework for your Jamboree workshop? I was the one without a computer at your workshop. (I found out the day before and 1 program hadn’t let me in yet.) Please send if there was more. I have the list of what we were supposed to do listed on Jamboree website. Thanks so much.
Follow along with this series. It will cover everything from scratch. You should be up and running with GMP soon!
Who should I set up profiles for? (except myself, of course).
I set up a profile for each person I’ve tested.
Does it work to import data from a GEDmatch Genesis kit number? I have my uncle’s there from LivingDNA.
It’s possible to import data from just about anywhere the presents the info in a table format, but you would need to create separate templates for the Genesis imports. We’ll talk about creating templates later in the course.
G’Day, not sure if I am jumping ahead but I loaded my 12 profiles and then later had a wee read of the manual and a thought came to me that needs some clarification……………should I set up several databases now (before I go any further), as in one for my husband’s side of the family and then split my family into a paternal database and a maternal database or does this sort itself out later on???
Cheers
Trudy
I prefer to have all my profiles in one database. You can separate them into different databases later if you like, but you can’t merge different databases, so starting out this way gives you the most options.
G’Day
Just wondering before I set up profiles for everyone am I best to decide if I want these profiles in specific databases first……. for example
My Paternal Side
My Maternal Side
Husband’s Side (unsure about the Maternal and Paternal here yet)
and if I do this what happens with the people in more than one database, for instance, me, siblings, children etc or can they only be in one database due to the unique number that is assigned to them on loading a profile for them?
Cheers 🙂
You can load the same person into multiple databases, but any actions that you take (merging, making notes, etc.) in one database will not carry over to the other. I prefer to keep all of my profiles (my own family, my husband’s, and my clients) in one database. It’s relatively easy to delete a profile (for example, when I stop working with a client) or to pull them out into a separate database.
I’m not sure who I should be setting up profiles for. I have a probably second cousin who I’d love to know more about (i.e. analyze his DNA to figure out our common ancestor). I don’t manage his DNA at all but he is on Ancestry and on MyHeritage. Should I set up a profile for him? That is, do I set up a profile for anyone I’m interested in analyzing?
You can set up profiles for people for whom you have access to the DNA matches. In the case of your 2nd cousin, you don’t have access to that information, so you shouldn’t set up a profile for him.
Meaning I don’t have access to his Ancestry DNA matches? I know his GEDmatch kit number.
In that case, you can set up a profile for him using his GEDmatch number.
Thanks!
Hello,
Thanks so much for this series. I didn’t see Lazarus kits mentioned anywhere. Lazarus is a paying option in GEDmatch to recreate the DNA signal of a deceased person by combining kits of his/her relatives. I added my Dad’s Lazarus kit, which I assembled about 2 years ago from kits from myself, & 3 siblings, as well as 2 1/2 cousins on either side of my Dad’s family & 1 full cousin. As you test more relatives of the Lazarus person, you recreate more DNA signal, so I will hopefully be adding more kits from his relatives to recreate more of his DNA & updating his Lazarus to be more complete. Can you delete out one Lazarus kit & replace it with a more complete one at a later point?
The second question is that I set up profiles for my Dad & my Brother but both have the same name– I gave them different nicknames, however. But it appears the Lazarus for my Dad is showing up on the list of my Brother’s kits. I tried re-naming my brothers profile with a 2 after his name but that didn’t help. How do I deal with this? Can I delete both out & set up profiles with Sr. & Jr. & then add their kits in again?
Thanks very much!
Is your question about GEDmatch or about Genome Mate Pro?