Tip 05: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (SCREENSHOT!)

Anytime you have an important match ANYWHERE on any site, do an immediate download. And take screenshots of their matches. For reasons which escape me, there are a number of people with decent matches on 23andme who appear in a download that I did two months ago and are no longer there. I have had people disappear from every site. For this reason, save old downloads in an OLD subdirectory. Some years back, we had a mother appear unexpectedly on Ancestry. The adoptee got all excited and asked us what to say. Before we could tell her, the match disappeared. So do NOT wait. Screenshot and save everything you can find for a parent, sibling, first cousin etc. Also save the lists of icw matches. For 23andme, go to the list of relatives, look at the bottom of the page, click on Request DNA Relatives Download. Also click on the name, scroll down to Relatives in Common, and screenshot it. . For MyHeritage, go to your list of matches, look at the top of the list where you see the hamburger. Click on the middle dot and download the list and the chromosome browser. Also screenshot the comparison where it tells you how others are related to this person. For FTDNA, on the main page, see Chromosome Browser in the row after Family Finder Matches, click on this and see top right, Download all segments. Also do a quick screen shot of the match and icw matches. For Gedmatch, save the autosomal comparison result. I suggest you click on the number of the match, you will get a list of who the person is related to. Highlight the text and hit Control C. Then paste the text into a spreadsheet. Depending on the version you are using, you may need to right click and paste special as non formatted text. Also use the tool named people who match one or both of two kits. Do the same to copy and save it. For ancestry, you can do a Cluster download. There is nothing fast except a series of screen shots. I do recommend this also. Do it immediately. We have seen people come on, see a close match, get scared and delete their kit a few hours later.
Take no chances. This is just too important.
–June Byrne