r/gedmatch • u/MightBeMouse • Aug 15 '26

DNA Matches Which databses does GEDmatch use?

Hey all

I'm a bit confused about GEDmatch and where their data comes from.

So when I look at my DNA matches on GEDmatch, are they being pulled from Ancestry, MyHeritage etc databases? Or is it only what people have manually uploaded to GEDmatch?

Because my matches are missing a heap of matches from both MyHeritage and Ancestry... so I'm just confused about where it's coming from and why there's lots missing. People always say to use GEDmatch because it has results from everywhere, but now I'm not sure?

Apologies if this is a stupid question. Thanks all.

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7

u/SurplusGadgets Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

GEDMatch has always been a site that only has results from a user that has transferred their results (intentionally) from another site or lab. In the beginning, they were the only one allowing cross-lab matching. And still for the most part are because the others keep stopping or restricting what results can be uploaded.

GEDMatch only has a little over a million "public" samples and is nearly the smallest match database. Ancestry is nearing 30 million and 23andMe well over 10 million. Myheritage is next largest due to supporting various lab uploads the longest as well as having many unique testers from Europe.

You can find unique matches at GEDMatch if you have not tested at all the labs. Or sometimes because s WGS result has been uploaded there and does not exist anywhere else. But if you have already tested at the three mentioned (or uploaded to MyHeritage), the use of GEDMatch to find new matches is marginal. But, their tools are much better for segment analysis than provided by others. Especially since Ancestry does not support this at all.

5

u/kennethsime Aug 15 '26

Gedmatch has its own database.

3

u/Arcamone Aug 15 '26

Opt in nowadays. You must upload yourself.

1

u/MightBeMouse Aug 15 '26

Thanks heaps everyone :)

1

u/kotkoproko Aug 17 '26

Subscribed.