Introduction
DNA matching has become an everyday research tool. This article is an overview of what ƒh offers for recording DNA test results and for working out who ought to match whom. Since version 7, ƒh has had a set of DNA tools built in; the queriesQuerying is a very powerful feature that allows you to specify and save criteria for identifying a set of records of a given record type. and pluginsPlugins are small programs that allow new features to be added without upgrading Family Historian itself; some plugins are written by Calico Pie and others are written by users. from the Knowledge Base listed further down predate those and are now mostly useful as supplements.
Recording that a person has tested
The ƒh Extended Fact SetA Fact Set is a defined list of types of Facts - that is types of Events and Attributes. contains a DNA Markers attributeEvents are things that happened to an Individual and Attributes are things that described them. for recording that an Individual has taken a DNA test. Calico Pie’s advice is to put a summary of the test (company, kit number, test type) in the attribute value and the full detail in a note attached to the attribute. The factFacts are one of the key concepts at the heart of Family Historian; they are how you record the things that happened to, or described, each ancestor (Individual). type is hidden by default: in the Fact Types dialog click More >> and tick Show Hidden to find it, then edit it and untick Hidden so it stays visible. If you do not want the DNA data in reports, mark the attribute Private, or wrap the note contents in double square brackets [[ ... ]] so the note is treated as private text. Charting Companion offers some DNA charts that need a DNA Kit Number for each person. These require a Custom AttributeUsers of Family Historian can customize fact definitions, or create their own fact definitions to more closely match they way they want to work. named exactly DNA Kit with its value set to the kit number.
The built-in DNA tools (ƒh7 and ƒh8)
None of these need any DNA data to be recorded. They work from the relationships you have entered and show what you should find if your tree is right; a mismatch with real test results is a pointer to a mistake somewhere in the recorded parentage. They treat every child as a birth child unless the relationship is marked adopted, fostered, step or de facto, so check the parent links first (see How to Record Birth Parents Correctly for DNA Purposes in the ƒh7 help).
Standard queries (Query Window, Standard Queries, Individual)
DNA – Shared Y Chromosome, DNA – Shared Mitochondrial DNA, DNA – Overlapping X Chromosome and DNA – Shared Autosomal DNA (Blood Relatives). Each takes a starting person and lists their relatives with columns for closest relationship, half blood, shared Y-DNA, shared mtDNA, overlapping X-DNA and a Relatedness figure between 0 and 1 giving the expected proportion of shared autosomal DNA.
Standard diagrams
Shared Y Chromosome, Shared Mitochondrial DNA, Overlapping X Chromosome and Shared Autosomal DNA (Blood Relatives), which show the same information as the queries but as charts, with the expected atDNA percentage under each box on the autosomal one.
Diagram tools for use in your own charts
A DNA Flags preset on the Boxes tab of Diagram Options (icons for shared Y, X, mtDNA, half blood and blood relation), a DNA category in the icon selector, and a DNA Relatedness text scheme item that can be added to any text scheme.
Functions for queries, expressions and plugins
DnaBloodRelation, DnaHalfBlood, DnaShareYChrom, DnaShareMtDna, DnaOverlapXChrom and DnaRelatedness. These are what the standard queries and diagrams are built from, so you can use them in your own queries, for example to add a Relatedness column to a query of DNA matches you have recorded. The full description is on the DNA Tools page of the help: FH 7 DNA Tools or FH 8 DNA Tools.
Knowledge Base queries
These were written before the built-in tools existed. They still work, and the generation-number version does something the standard queries do not:
Plugins
The Export Gedcom File plugin has settings for websites offering DNA services such as (ANC) Ancestry Family Tree, (FTD) Family Tree DNA and (MYH) MyHeritage Family Tree.