Family Matching Overview

The Family Matching tool helps you to discover genetic relatives in our system. Your genetic relatives are determined by comparing your DNA against potential matches. The amount of DNA you share is measured, along with the length of those matching DNA segments, to determine your predicted relationship to each person.

Top tip - you must be opted into Family Matching. If you are not opted into matching click HERE for a guide. It can take up to 2 weeks for matches to appear once you have opted in.

What range of relationships do we find? 

We can match DNA to find 1st degree relatives, such as parents, children, and siblings, up to 9th degree relatives (4th cousin and greater). At 9th degree, this may indicate a common ancestor from 5 generations ago, or more (approximately 120 years). If you would like more information on relationship predictions and what they mean, click HERE

How accurate are my matches?

The accuracy of each match, in terms of degree classification, diminishes as the number of generations to the common ancestor increases, or the distance across a family tree. Therefore, a 6th degree may in fact represent a 5th to 7th degree, while a 9th degree match may represent a 7th to 12th degree relative.

This ambiguity is due the biological process of how DNA is inherited via recombination during meiosis (a type of cell division).

This is where work on your paper trail is important. Your family tree research can support your match list and give you a truly detailed picture into your past. 

I still don’t have any matches, why is this?

If you don’t have any matches it could be due to two reasons.

Firstly, to receive matches you need to opt into Family Matching. This is quick and easy, to do this follow this guide.

If you have opted in and you still don’t have any matches, don’t worry... our database is growing all the time with thousands of people opting in all the time. Encourage friends and family to upload their data to Living DNA and opt in to Family Matching.