⚠️ If you got an email yesterday it was in error — I was testing importing segment data from GEDmatch into one of the tools here and it took every one as a match and emailed you. I apologize for this. — Jason

DNA tools and how to use them

Plain-English guides to every tool on RomanyDNA — from uploading your first raw DNA file to reconstructing an ancestor you never tested.

Start here Upload your DNA free

The tools are grouped below by how far along you are. Every guide explains what a tool does, when to reach for it, how to use it, and how to read the result — including the honest caveats.

New to Roma DNA? Read this first: endogamy. Many Roma and Romani families married within the community for generations, so both of your parents can descend from the same ancestors. That makes you share more DNA, in more segments, with relatives who are actually distant — so cM-based relationship estimates read too close. Every guide below flags where this matters. Start with the matching guide →

Beginner — your first kit

🚀 Getting started with your raw DNA

What a raw DNA file is, how to download one from your testing company, how to upload it, kit numbers, and your privacy options.

Read the guide

🔍 Finding and understanding matches

One-to-Many, One-to-One, centimorgans (cM), segments, Relationship Probability and Are Your Parents Related?.

Read the guide

Intermediate — group and sort your matches

🧩 Analysis tools

Clustering, AutoKinship, Y-DNA, mtDNA, X-DNA, Admixture/Ethnicity and Kit Diagnostics — how to divide matches into family lines.

Read the guide

🌳 Family tree & WATO

The shared tree, DNA badges and ThruLines, Compare DNA to tree, and WATO for working out where an unknown match fits.

Read the guide

Advanced — reconstruct, phase and compare

🧬 Kits, phasing & reconstruction

Tag Groups, Multiple Kit Analysis, Superkits, parent phasing, Visual Phasing, reconstructing an untested parent, and Lazarus.

Read the guide

🌍 Global25 ancestry tools

Oracle, PCA, similarity maps, ancient ancestry, the Romani route match, Genetic Passport and the coordinate simulators.

Read the guide

A suggested order

New to genetic genealogy? Work through them like this:

  1. Upload your kit — Getting started.
  2. Run One-to-Many and open the closest matches with One-to-One.
  3. Check Are Your Parents Related?, then group matches with Clustering.
  4. Build the family tree and attach confirmed matches.
  5. When a match does not fit, use WATO; when an ancestor is untested, reconstruct them.