I’m a big fan of tracking not only what genealogical sources have been used, but also of tracking your research process, methods, and logic. Knowing what you have used is only part of the battle. That’s true with DNAPainter as well–particularly for those matches you’ve painted. DNAPainter is a visual representation of the chromosomes you have assigned to having come from certain ancestors. There’s a little more you need to do. The more known matches you paint, the more complete your picture is and the more enabled you are to use that painting to help with additional problems and analysis.
But for those matches you paint:
- Record your logic of how you knew a match was a match
- Keep a log/spreadsheet of painted matches—particularly any abbreviations you may use, what site they are on, usernames, etc.
Otherwise you’ll be re-determining and re-painting these matches again.
And that’s a waste of time.
Learn more about my webinar on problem-solving with DNAPainter and GedMatch.
