Lesson 3: See What You Got
About 10 minutes · What you'll have at the end: comfort navigating your match list locally, and you'll know exactly where your data lives on disk.
Your first gather put your closest matches into your own database. Now let's look at them — without logging in to any website.
Open the Matches tool
Click Autosomal in the top menu, then Matches. This is your match list, running entirely from your local database: every match from your gather, with names, shared cM, and the details the service provided. The full reference is on the Matches page.
Try these to get a feel for it:
- Sort by shared cM (largest first). Your top handful of matches are close family — the anchors you'll use to interpret everything else.
- Filter the list — by name, by cM range — to zero in on a subset. Try filtering to 90–400 cM: that band is roughly your second-to-fourth-cousin territory, where most genealogical discoveries happen.
- Scan for names you recognize. Known cousins in the list are gold: in Lesson 6 you'll use them to label whole clusters at once.
Know where your data lives
Go to Home and click Open Folder. That's your database folder from Lesson 1 — and inside it are your SQLite database, CSV exports, and log files. Two things worth knowing:
- This folder is the thing to back up. Copy it to a backup drive or cloud folder and your entire DNA research is safe. See Database for what each file is.
- Everything is exportable. Your matches aren't locked in an app — they're in standard formats you can open in a spreadsheet or hand to any genealogy tool.
Also glance at the DB badge in the top-right corner: green means your database is healthy. Any other color, see Troubleshooting.
✅ Do this now
- Open Autosomal → Matches and sort by shared cM
- Filter to the 90–400 cM range and note any names you recognize
- Click Open Folder on the Home page and back up your database folder
A list of matches is good. Knowing how they connect to each other is where the real power is — that's Lesson 4.